Bret Hart has recalled a frightening moment in the ring that left him fearing he had come close to being paralysed.

Speaking to Inside the Ropes, Hart looked back on a 1989 match that saw him and Jim Neidhart face The Twin Towers. During the bout, One Man Gang, competing as Akeem, called for a sunset flip before dropping his weight onto Hart’s chest.

Hart said he had recently watched the match again and remembered exactly how the move unfolded.

“One Man Gang threw me in the ropes. Funny, I just watched this at home a few days ago, but he threw me in the ropes and told me to sunset flip him. And so, I sunset flipped him, and he did one of those where he almost fell down, like almost falling, and then he just kicked his both legs out and sat on my chest. And not a good move.”

According to Hart, the impact sent a numb feeling through his entire body. He estimated his opponent weighed around 600 pounds and recalled lying on the canvas wondering how close he had come to a life-changing injury.

“I think I came maybe like a hair close to paralyzing myself, and it’s like a 600-pound guy sits on your chest from about that high and just drops. I had this numb feeling over my whole body like I was paralyzed. I was lying in the ring going, I think that’s about as close as you can get to being paralyzed. Like, he almost broke... he almost paralyzed me.”

Despite that alarming experience, Hart still had positive memories of the match. He recalled it being The Hart Foundation’s only meeting with that version of The Twin Towers and praised working with his opponent.

“But that was just one match… but it was a great match. And we loved working with him.”

Hart’s account offers a glimpse of the risks behind his celebrated career, with a match he enjoyed also containing a moment that stayed with him decades later.