10 Wrestlers Who Nearly Defected During The Monday Night Wars
2. Bret Hart (1996)
Next to the Outsiders, Bret Hart was probably WCWs biggest defection from WWF during the Monday Night Wars. Sure there were other big stars who jumped, but Hart was the leader of the biggest heel faction in the promotion and the WWF champ who was screwed out of his title on his way out the door. And WCW almost had him a full year earlier. Hart was on the cusp of signing a three-year, $8.4 million deal with WCW in late 1996, but instead opted to sign a 20-year deal to stay with WWF, a deal that Vince McMahon clearly could not honor. It would end up leading to Harts departure a year later via the Montreal Screwjob, at which point WWF turned the corner and began rising from the ashes. But if Hart had signed with WCW in 1996? Who would have faced Stone Cold Steve Austin in the star-making submission match at WrestleMania XIII? Who would Vince have screwed at Survivor Series? Without Hart in WWF in 1997, its unclear if Austin has that career-defining moment that led to people chanting his name. Without Hart, there certainly wouldnt have been a Montreal Screwjob, which was a catalyst for WWFs rise.
Scott is a former journalist and longtime wrestling fan who was smart enough to abandon WCW during the Monday Night Wars the same time as the Radicalz. He fondly remembers watching WrestleMania III, IV, V and VI and Saturday Night's Main Event, came back to wrestling during the Attitude Era, and has been a consumer of sports entertainment since then. He's written for WhatCulture for more than a decade, establishing the Ups and Downs articles for WWE Raw and WWE PPVs/PLEs and composing pieces on a variety of topics.
