"How could you not love the guy?" - AEW star opens up about meeting Bret Hart in his teens

Bret Hart calls himself "The best there is, the best there was and the best there ever will be." He pioneered wrestling for many Canadian fans and had lengthy runs in WWE and then WCW before his retirement was forced while in TNA.

Hart inspired many young men and women into pursuing wrestling. Quite a number of wrestlers have cited Bret Hart as their inspiration and still emulate him today. One such wrestler is Canadian-born AEW star Kyle O'Reilly.

During an interview with Renée Paquette, O'Reilly detailed how he met Bret as a teenager.

"I grew up loving Mr Bret Hart,'' O'Reilly said. ''How could you not love the guy? Do you remember when Bret was on that Canadian-wide tour of Aladdin, where he played The Genie on the show? I went to see the show once. I was like ‘just say hi to him’ after the show. ‘Hi Mr Hart, I just want to let you know I really love those matches you had with Davey Boy.’ And he just looks off into the distance. ‘Yeah, that was the best.’ [laughs]. Living the gimmick, brother!" (24:00)

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Bret Hart, The Undertaker and Hulk Hogan are all on Kyle O'Reilly's wrestling ''Mt. Rushmore"

During the same interview with Paquette, O'Reilly named WWE legends Hulk Hogan and The Undertaker alongside Hart as his wrestling Mt. Rushmore.

"I loved Hulk Hogan,'' said O'Reilly. ''My first memory associated with wrestling was this video store and there was a poster of Hogan tearing his shirt off. He was a huge influence," O'Reilly said. "The Undertaker’s up there of course, he was one of those characters who just really made me believe as a kid." (25:35)

O'Reilly would hope that years from now up-and-coming wrestlers will also place him on their "Mt Rushmore."

What are your thoughts on Kyle O'Reilly's comments? Who is on your Mt. Rushmore? Sound off in the comments below!

Please credit The Sessions and give a H/T to Sportskeeda Wrestling for the transcription if you use quotes from this article.