A twenty year contract. It had to have sounded too good to Bret Hart in 1996, and it absolutely was. Eric Bischoff was offering a lot more money per year, more than The Hitman had ever made in the business to join him in the battle against the WWF. But Bret was loyal, and took less money to stay with the brand he knew. He was going to be on Vince's side for life. Well, he likely would have, until the boss believed he couldnt pay him. The following year, Vince told Bret he didnt have the kind of money to continue honoring his contract. While Bret didnt fully believe this (as he pointed out in his book the crazy amount of money handed out to Mike Tyson to referee at WrestleMania 14), he likely saw his time as the biggest star in the company coming to a close. Besides that, the prior couple years had been tough on Bret. He had a deeply personal feud with Shawn Michaels, who was his rival for top star in the promotion, and the two couldn't have been more different. To make matters worse, Shawn had a clique of wrestlers who had his back, and more importantly, had Vinces ear. But with that 20 year deal, Bret could establish his legacy and remain an important part of the company for a long time. When that was pulled away, what could Bret have done? Decided to restructure his contract, stay for less money and watch HBK (and eventually Steve Austin and The Rock) surpass him as the top guy? After being in the company for over 13 years, he wasnt just basically forced out of the WWF, he was also forced out of the championship too as we saw at Survivor Series 97. It remains one of the most shocking moments in the history of the business, and it took nearly a decade until he made another WWE appearance.
As Rust Cohle from True Detective said "Life's barely long enough to get good at one thing. So be careful what you're good at."
Sadly, I can't solve a murder like Rust...or change a tire, or even tie a tie. But I do know all the lyrics to Hulk Hogan's "Real American" theme song and can easily name every Natural Born Thriller from the dying days of WCW. I was once ranked 21st in the United States in Tetris...on the Playstation 3 version...for about a week.
Follow along @AndrewSoucek and check out my podcast at wrestlingwithfriends.com
