Bret Hart Speaks About Bad News Brown’s WWE Hall Of Fame Induction; Discusses Their Complicated Past & Criticizes Brown’s In-Ring Psychology

Hart speaks at length about Brown.

As part of WrestleMania 42 week, the annual WWE Hall of Fame ceremony is taking place. Among the names scheduled to be inducted through the Legacy wing is Bad News Brown, real name Allen Coage. In addition to the success he found as a wrestler, he was a two-time Pan American Games Gold Medalist.

Brown’s forthcoming induction was delved into by Bret Hart while Hart was being interviewed by Dominic DeAngelo of Studio 1 Sports.

Hart said he and Brown were not the closest of friends, but Brown was one of Stu Hart’s guys. Bret then spoke extensively about his experiences in the ring with Brown and expressed that he thought the soon-to-be Hall of Famer did not pick up in-ring psychology outside of Japan. Hart was very critical of Brown’s in-ring ability.

He stated that he put a word in for Brown that helped him get to the WWF/E, but Hart told Vince McMahon that he did not want to work with Brown. Hart stated that he cannot think of one Bad News Brown match to recommend to anyone.

“No, I didn’t know he got inducted. 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 my closest friend, but I always had a respect for him. He was a pretty intense guy. He was not a stupid man. He was a pretty well-educated, disciplined guy and was really, you know, I think an honorable guy. He was the kind of guy I would say never told a lie in his life, you know, that kind of thing. He always spoke his truth… I will say that Bad News learned how to wrestle in Japan, which is not the best place to learn how to wrestle — I mean, it is in a lot of ways the best place to wrestle, if you really learn how to wrestle. But they don’t really understand psychology as well. Not psychology that I knew. It’s more of a struggle in Japan. It’s a harder way to make a living, because it’s based on realism… I would say Bad News was a meat chopper… Guys that just go in there and chop meat and beat the hell out of whoever they’re wrestling and then get their hand raised. That’s how he thought he drew money. He never had any psychology… Bad News, maybe, in wrestling, gave the worst comeback. He didn’t give me anything. He was very limited. You couldn’t hit him in the head. He was very touchy about what you did to him, and he was not the kind of guy you could mess with. He was a very tough man. Arguably one of the toughest men ever that put on a pair of boots in pro wrestling. He was a legitimate badass, tough guy that was more than capable of fighting anybody… He was a good monster. He wanted to be a monster heel, or at least that’s what I saw. He was a really vicious heel to work with that could do a lot of damage. So he was all those things and we could build all those things… He couldn’t give an inch to anybody he worked with. His idea of a great match was to take 99 percent of it and you know, I tried really hard. I gave him as good a matches as he could. I felt that every time I went in the ring with Bad News, if I was a seven when I went in, I came out of it a four, or three… I remember when I was wrestling him around that same time, he’d wrestle Dynamite (Kid), and Dynamite would hit him with chairs, and sticks and all kinds of sh*t… Bad News would sell for Dynamite all around the ring or sell all the way back to the dressing room and it was like, ‘If he did that for me, we’d do a better match. He doesn’t do that for me,’ and he never, ever did. So I don’t know what his problem would have been with me. But I never had great success with Bad News’ psychology, and when he came to WWF, I got him hired — or was the guy that called him and gave a good report to Vince (McMahon) that he could be really good for him and it got him hired. He appreciated that. But I didn’t wanna wrestle him. I think I told Vince, I said, ‘But whatever you do, don’t put him with me,’ and lo and behold, after a couple of weeks he’d been there, they came out and said they’re gonna put him with me. 

I never had any issues with Bad News but I knew that when he came to the WWF, that, you know, I wanted to help him get over and just help do whatever I could to help him, watch him and get him going with the other wrestlers. But, the truth is he didn’t have very good matches with anybody. You could tell me maybe better than the next guy but I mean, I can’t think of one match of Bad News that I would recommend anyone to watch… Every match was the same, every match was choppy, every match was less than great. But he worked hard. I think if Bad News could have learned at a different place, maybe he would have been maybe a little bit better for me to deal with.”

Hart was asked why he thinks the Canadian Wrestling Hall of Famer was misunderstood, and here’s how Hart responded:

“Well, I think a lot of people saw him as a bit of a racist. He was very touchy about his Blackness. You have to know Bad News (Brown). He was an educated, intelligent guy that was a 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… He was always honest, almost to a fault. He would tell you the truth. He’d tell you what was on his mind. He never minced words. He wasn’t afraid to speak his mind. On a lot of levels, if we weren’t in the same business together, I would be a big fan of Bad News.”

Brown made his way through the WWF, New Japan Pro-Wrestling, and Stampede Wrestling, among other promotions. He passed away in 2007 at the age of 63.

Bad News Brown is going to be inducted into the Hall of Fame with Sid Eudy, Dennis Rodman, Demolition (Barry Darsow/Smash & Bill Eadie/Ax), A.J. Styles, and Stephanie McMahon.

If the quotes in this article are used, please credit Studio 1 Sports with an H/T to Fightful for the transcriptions.