Late last year, Bret Hart bashed Seth Rollins for his high knee that broke John Cena’s nose.
Bret’s comments:
Shawn was always really safe. He was always a really safe worker, but I don’t know about Seth Rollins. That knee in the face that he gave to John Cena was unprofessional, at best. It’s really strange that a guy like Rollins, who I have a lot of respect for, would be that reckless with that knee in the face. If someone kneed me in the face like that, I would have met him in the back dressing room with a baseball bat. There’s just no excuse for it.
You can’t hurt somebody like that under any circumstances. It’s totally reckless. It can’t happen. The other thing is, when you’re the champion, you have a responsibility to not get hurt. You have to be spot on. I love that Rollins kept going on and finished the match, and that shows a lot of courage. Nobody can hurt you and you can’t hurt yourself. It’s not allowed. I was champion, off and on, for quite a few years, and I never missed one title match from an injury. I got hurt lots of times, but the reality is you’ve got so much pinned on you and so much tied onto you, the company and your peers can’t afford for you to get hurt. When you do get injured, it throws a wrench into everything. I do feel bad–Seth Rollins is a young guy and he’s obviously very talented, and I hope he comes back from his surgery and learns from all these things. I hope they give him another chance and his opportunity has not been squandered from an injury, regardless of whose fault it was.
Seth Rollins appeared on Chris Jericho’s podcast and fired back, albeit without the venomous bite of modern-day Hitman:
When talking to Jericho about his recent rehab and recovery, Rollins said everyone in the wrestling world was supportive and positive except for one – Bret. Rollins said he has all the respect in the world for Bret but the comments hurt his feelings. Rollins realized Bret comes from an era where they worked through a lot of injuries but said the comments “sucked” and for him to make the comments in Sports Illustrated was rough. Rollins said he feels really bad about the injury to Cena, calling it very complex and that Cena will likely need additional surgeries down the line.
Jericho agreed that Rollins is a safe performer and added that Rollins shouldn’t take Bret’s comments too seriously. Jericho said, “Bret was put out of wrestling by a superkick from Goldberg. That’d be like saying, ‘Hey Bret you shouldn’t have gotten that concussion.'”
