1. WCW Believed The WWF Would Go Out Of Business In 1998
As aforementioned, WCW snatched Bret Hart gleefully from the WWF. Having earlier taken names such as Hulk Hogan, Kevin Nash, Scott Hall and Lex Luger away, Bret was viewed as one of the final pieces of the puzzle by Eric Bischoff. In Bischoff's mind, there was no way Vince McMahon could recover from losing all these major stars, and the guy started telling people internally that the WWF was done. McMahon's company didn't have a successful 1997. WrestleMania had been a flop, and even the Royal Rumble was heavily papered by free tickets to fill out the monstrous Alamo Dome. 'Stone Cold' Steve Austin and The Rock had emerged as stars towards the end of the year, but there were major financial problems facing the WWF as they headed into 1998. In the mind of Eric Bischoff, this meant it was only a matter of time before McMahon went out of business. Names such as Bret Hart and Kevin Nash have previously stated in interviews that Bischoff was 100% certain WCW's only competition was the nWo. That shows the mindset prevalent in the company at the time. How wrong they would be, the WWF roared back in 1998 and the nWo started to look more than a little tired.
