Bret Hart has discussed the allegations made against Vince McMahon.
On January 25, Janel Grant filed a lawsuit against Vince McMahon which alleged cases of abuse and sexual exploitation. Then, under a day later, the 78-year-old officially stepped down from his role at the TKO Group under advice from Ari Emanuel and Mark Shapiro.
Now, via Slate, Bret Hart has had his say on the allegations made against his former employer, saying that he doesn’t care about Vince McMahon’s current feelings or what happens to him from here.
“I’m going to speak my truth, I’m not worried about Vince’s feelings. He’s never cared about mine. I don’t have any problem with everybody kicking his head around the parking lot,”
-Bret Hart
Regarding the details involved in the lawsuit, particularly when it was said that McMahon coerced Grant into a three-way sexual encounter in which he defecated on her head while she was being assaulted by another man, Hart said the allegations were ‘too sick and disgusting’ to imagine.
“When you get that vision in your head, you go, ‘That’s messed up,’ It’s too sick and disgusting to really imagine.”
-Bret Hart
The lawsuit was large and featured many pieces of evidence against McMahon, including screenshots of phone messages sent by Vince to Janel Grant. Regarding this, Hart agreed that the texts which became public knowledge on January 25 ‘sound like Vince’.
Talking about the extent of the problem, Bret suggested that this may not be the only incident of predatory behaviour, and that it may be ‘everywhere’ in WWE.
“I don’t think this is the only incident of this kind of predatory behavior, I think you’ll find that it’s everywhere in [WWE].”
-Bret Hart
Bret then compared the situation to other abhorrent acts committed in the past which are sometimes used as the subject of dark humour, making the point that Vince McMahon will forever be connected to disgusting behaviour, particularly as the case gets bigger and bigger.
“It’s like Jeffrey Dahmer, Harvey Weinstein, or Jeffrey Epstein: Vince will be a joke. He’ll be used for humor, and you’ll shake your head at the shock value of some joke about, ‘What did Vince McMahon do?’ He’ll always be associated with this story, especially as it gets bigger and bigger and bigger.”
-Bret Hart
The Canadian then talked about how he now feels entirely embarrassed by how highly he used to think of his former employer.
“I always had a respect for him, Now it’s tainted. I’m embarrassed that I thought so highly of him.”
-Bret Hart
The lawsuit filed by Janel Grant is the most recent case when it comes to allegations against McMahon, but the situation is something that has been developing for some time. It was also alleged that Vince sexual assaulted former WWF referee Rita Chatterton in 1986, something which Hart went on to admit that he initially didn’t believe.
“I just didn’t believe it, I figured Vince had too much at stake to ever do something like that.”
-Bret Hart
To expand on this, Hart revealed that he ran into Rita Chatterton a few months ago, taking the opportunity to profusely apologise for not believing the initial news, reassuring her that he knows he was wrong.
“I apologized from the bottom of my heart, and I said, ‘I believe that what happened to you, happened to you. And I apologize. I was wrong.’”
-Bret Hart
To close, the Canadian, who had previously had issues with Vince himself, confirmed that any respect he may have had for McMahon is now completely gone.
“I think, despite all of the issues I ever had with Vince, I know, deep down, I always respected him; but now, knowing what kind of a weirdo he became, I have absolutely zero respect for him, I do not think I could ever shake his hand if he extended it. Too creepy.”
-Bret Hart
The extent of the lawsuit made by Janel Grant against Vince McMahon can be read here, however we must stress that this comes with a trigger warning, as the file contains details which are likely to distress readers.
As always, we’ll aim to provide any further updates on the reaction to the lawsuit made against Vince McMahon as we hear more.
