Dominic DeAngelo of Studio1Sports.com sent along the following:
Bret Hart has a complicated history with Bad News Brown, and it wasn’t all that friendly. However, the Excellence of Execution knows that the WWE Hall of Fame is better with his late rival in it.
It was announced last week that the late legend will be a part of the 2026 WWE Hall Of Fame, alongside Stephanie McMahon, The Demolition, Sid Vicious and Dennis Rodman.
Hart’s history with Bad News goes all the way back to Japan where Brown, already in his mid-40s, had a fearless reputation.
Brown (going by “Bad News Allen” at the time), notoriously stood up to Andre The Giant after the big man made some off-color remarks. Bret then suggested Allen work under his dad Stu Hart in Calgary for Stampede Wrestling. It was there where Bad News truly earned that moniker.
During an infamous angle with Archie “The Stomper” Gouldie, Brown put Stampede Wrestling in dire straits with what he did to Stomper and his kayfabe son causing Ed Whalen, the Stampede figurehead and play-by-play man, to leave the promotion. Not only that, but Stu lost his wrestling license in Calgary. Bret noted in his book that Stampede never truly recovered after that.
Fast-forward to WWF. Bret was just on the verge of breaking out as a singles star when Vince McMahon asked him about bringing Bad News in. Although Hart didn’t want to work with Allen directly, he did give Bad News a phone call and got him to WWE. Sure enough, Bret found himself working with Brown anyways.
Brown was eventually let go by McMahon and allegedly put his hands on Vince after being promised a run with the WWF Title in a main event feud with Hulk Hogan. While Bret can’t confirm the story, he has no reason to not believe what Allen had to say. Considering such transgressions, Brown seemed blackballed from any chance at getting a HOF nod. However, with Vince gone, the Stampede legend is legacy bound.
“You know I didn’t know he got inducted,” Hart said when finding out about Bad News Brown being named a WWE Hall Of Fame 2026 class inductee. “That’s news to me. I’m always happy for him. To me, he’ll always be a Stampede wrestler, one of my dad’s guys. Bad News was not maybe one of my closest friends, but I always had respect for him, and he was a pretty intense guy. He was not a stupid man. He was a pretty well-educated, disciplined guy. And it was really, you know, I think an honorable guy. He was kind of guy, I would say, never told a lie in his life, you know, that kind of thing.”
Hart noted that Bad News never truly learned proper North American ring psychology by starting in Japan and it hindered his matches. He’d always eat opponents alive in the ring, especially guys like Bret and his brother Owen (for reasons unknown to Bret, Bad News did sell for The Dynamite Kid).
As abrasive of a “meat chopper” as Bad News could be, Bret knows that his colleague was greatly misunderstood.
“He was educated, intelligent guy that was serious, dedicated, disciplined athlete. He was just a different kind of guy that grew up with a different take on wrestling and things like that.
“I found Bad News, he was always honest. Honest to a fault. He was telling the truth between what was on his mind. He didn’t mince words. He wasn’t afraid to speak his mind. I, on a lot of levels, if we weren’t in the same business together, I would be a big fan of Bad News.”
Fans of Bret Hart can purchase his audio book, “Hitman: My Real Life in the Cartoon World of Wrestling” at Audible.com.
