Bret Hart Shares Memories of Road Warrior Animal, Talks Animal’s Passing

Bret Hart discussed his memories of Road Warrior Animal, his experiences with the Road Warriors and more on the latest episode of Conversations With the Hitman. You can check out some highlights below (per Wrestling Inc):

On his memories of Road Warrior Animal: “[Animal] was a great guy. I think he was really appreciated by everybody that knew him. I don’t know of anybody that ever had a bad thing about him. He was always a total pro. He was just an all around good guy, and it’s just a shame.”

On Animal’s passing: “I’m glad in the sense that he left on his own terms. Like, it was just his time. In wrestling, there’s so many wrestlers that have died from overdoses, drug problems, and suicides. It’s never good to hear about someone like Joe passing away. At least it was just his time was up, I guess.”

On his last time seeing Animal: “I saw him last year in Anchorage, Alaska and we had such a good talk. I’m so glad that I went to Anchorage and actually saw him. He was one of the only other wrestlers that I knew there, and we talked at length about how many wrestlers are gone, how many had died, and that we were the last of a dying breed, or our generation was pretty much cleaned out in a lot of ways. And I remember talking to him – he seemed like a guy who was in great health who had nothing but a long, healthy life in front of him. Joe was always a careful guy. He was not a guy that was a heavy drinker or a party guy. He was a guy who was always in pretty good shape, and took good care of himself, and was a good family man. He was a good man in all ways, and talking to him, I never would have believed that. It shocked me when I heard the news. Like, he was so happy with his life.”

On Hawk: “[Animal] did tell me, he goes, ‘People don’t realize that Hawk was the loose cannon on the team and screwed up all the time’ and got them fired all the time, but it was never anything Joe did. And that’s so true, and nobody ever thinks much of Animal, that he had so much at stake all the time, from a mortgage on his house and things like that, and Hawk goes nuts and blows all his money on drugs and coke, and parties, and misses towns. Joe was such a straight guy, and he was always a good brother to Hawk.”

On facing Animal and Hawk in WWE: “The Road Warriors, or Legion Of Doom, were one of the greatest – and in some ways you could say the greatest – tag team of all time. I don’t know of anybody that was bigger than them. It always kind of bothered me that we did in fact have one match with The Road Warriors, or The Legion Of Doom, and it was an iconic situation because I knew I was splitting off from Jim [Neidhart] and I was going singles and it was going to be the end of The Hart Foundation. We weren’t going to exist anymore in a few months. And The Road Warriors, actually, I’ll call them Legion Of Doom because that’s what they were in the WWE. We had one match, and I remember they came in and said, ‘okay, you’re working one match for Coliseum Video just for a piece of history, just to lock it in. It’s a special match for you guys to go out and have one, just to say you had one.’ And we were all so excited. I was really excited about the match, and so was Jim, and so was Joe, and Hawk was excited. And I’ll never understand – Hawk was always just one of those self-destructive guys. Before we went out to the ring, he took a bunch of Placidyls, or pills, and he was totally just a trainwreck. And it’s a testimony to Joe, me, and Jim ‘The Anvil’ that we had that match. And if you watch it, it’s still actually a pretty good match. It’s still the same match that we planned out, except one guy is half asleep all the way through the match!”

On his reaction to the match: “I was so disappointed because it meant so much for us to have a match with them. And I know that Joe and Hawk both really loved me and Jim. They really wanted to have a great match with us. I just will never know why Hawk did what he did. He really ruined something that was for us. It’s still a pretty good match on TV though if you watch it, especially if you know that one guy is completely out of it on about 10 Placidyls.”

On being able to work with them again: “The funny thing about Hawk and going back to that story is that when I came back and we had the show here in Calgary [Canada], the big In Your House pay-per-view with the Stampede Showdown or whatever it was, where The Hart Foundation took on [Goldust], ‘Stone Cold’ [Steve Austin], The Road Warriors, and Ken Shamrock – that’s the five guys that we took on. And I can remember Hawk was so excited, he goes, ‘this is going to be the match to make up for the one I screwed up a long time ago.’ He was so excited about that match, and it was kind of like a chance to go in there and redeem himself. He did, and they all worked really hard. It was a fun experience, that whole Stampede pay-per-view.”