A recent episode of The Ariel Helwani Show featured WWE Hall of Famer Bret “The Hitman” Hart as the guest. One of the topics discussed included Hart’s thoughts about if he still watches wrestling and his issues with today’s wrestlers being more “actors pretending to be wrestlers” and claiming this is the case with AEW.
“I try to. I try to watch the pay-per-views. I find, in a lot of wrestlers, and I won’t name anybody, but I find the wrestlers are more actors pretending to be wrestlers today than actual wrestlers. I miss the ruggedness of the characters. Guys like Curt Hennig, myself, Dynamite Kid. That whole era of wrestlers that broke into the business in the late ’70s and early ’80s. We were from the Harley Race, Terry Funk generation, trying to copy them or mimic them. That’s why I think the ’90s was the best era of wrestling. When I watch some of that old ’90s wrestling, it was really good stuff. I find that today’s wrestling is a little bit more about promos and your character on TV and not so much your work rate. I like guys that throwback a little bit more to the work rate. Roman Reigns is a guy that tries really hard to earn the respect of my generation and be more realistic and more credible and believable, not so much an actor. I find that, especially AEW, I find they are mostly actors trying to pretend to be wrestlers and they gotta get on with real wrestling and quit acting so much.”
Transcript h/t: Fightful.com

Elayna Black on Her TNA Debut at TNA’s AMC Debut Show and When She First Knew Of The Plans For It, How She Was Feeling After Her TNA Knockouts Wold Title Match at TNA Lockdown 2026, & Her Praise of Gabby Forza
The New Level on Their WWE Releases and “Phones Were Ringing Pretty Quick” With Others Beyond Wrestling, Swerve Strickland Being A Good Fit For Their Trios Team, & Creed Reveals AEW Flew His Family Out For AEW Debut at All In 2026
Roxanne Perez on If She Will One Day Outgrow “The Prodigy” Nickname In Wrestling, Her Really Loving Her Current WWE Entrance Theme Song and Feels It Fits Her Aesthetic So Much More Now, & Spending Long Stretches Of Time and Setting New Records In Women’s Royal Rumble Matches




