It's the most infamous example of backstage politics in WWE, and probably also the most public. Bret Hart had agreed to sign a deal with WCW and leave WWF but, whoops, he was also the WWF Champion at the time. Bret had agreed to drop his title to Shawn Michaels, but he didn't want to do it in Montreal, his home town. So he, Michaels and Vince McMahon agreed that the match in Montreal would end in a disqualification and Bret would drop the title another time. Of course, that's not what happened. McMahon told the referee to act as though Hart had submitted, and everyone went on pretending he had. Hart didn't, and went to WCW angry, with a point to prove. Now, this didn't exactly destroy Bret's career. It did, however, destroy his relationship with the WWE. It took 14 years for Bret Hart to forgive McMahon and Michaels. And his run in WCW was patchy at best. From McMahon's point of view though, this incident is often cited as one of the launching points of the Attitude Era. It gave him the idea of the on-screen heel authority figure "Mr McMahon" right at the point where Stone Cold Steve Austin was becoming the "man of the people". An indirect line can be drawn form this incident to WWF winning the Monday Night War. There's a time for backstage politics becoming centre stage after all, then.
Michael Palmer is a contributor at whatculture.com and thelineofbestfit.com, and he probably likes WWE slightly more than most people would call "healthy".
