WWE was on the verge of starting a new era, with or without Bret Hart. However, Bret didn't quite fit the mold of where WWE was heading. As a wrestling traditionalist, Bret disagreed with the gratuitous direction the company was going in. With Bret becoming more uneasy to work with as time went on, there's no telling how difficult if could have become if he continued to stay around during The Attitude Era. In order to launch this new era with reality based storylines that hadn't been seen before, they needed something "real" to happen. This was the perfect scenario to bring more reality to the table.