10 Wrestlers That Lost Titles Due To Serious Contract Disputes

4. Bret Hart (WWF Championship)

Bret Hart leaving the WWF is maybe the most analysed and scrutinized departure of any talent in the company’s history. Him leaving in the Montreal Screwjob changed the landscape of professional wrestling forever, with it helping birth the Mr. McMahon character and the Attitude Era.

It stemmed from Bret signing an unprecedented lucrative 20-year deal with the WWF in 1996, but only a year later Vince McMahon wasn’t able to honour it, with the WWF suffering financially. Not willing to renegotiate a new contract and not impressed with the lacklustre plans WWF had for him going forward, Hart sign a considerable $3 million per annum contract with their direct competition WCW.

When Hart put pen to paper on the WCW contract there was the major issue of Hart being the reigning WWF Champion at the time, having won it from The Undertaker in the main event of SummerSlam. Fearing Bret would show up on WCW TV with the WWF Championship (that would have been similar to Madusa chucking the WWF Women's Championship in the trash on Nitro but a hundred times worse), the WWF screwed Bret out of the title in the famous sharpshooter spot at Survivor Series with Shawn Michaels.