12 Misconceptions About WCW You Probably Believe
4. Bret Hart Deserves Zero Blame For His Run
It’s true that WCW's bursting at the seams roster didn’t seem to have space for yet another top liner in late-1997, and that’s presumably why Bret Hart’s first pay-per-view appearance was as a special guest referee for Eric Bischoff vs. Larry Zbyszko at Starrcade. However, whilst WCW and Bischoff do deserve some portion of the finger pointing for cramming the 'Hitman' in, they shouldn’t get it all.
Let's be upfront about something: Bret was a shell of himself following the well-documented (to say the least) ‘Montreal Screwjob’ over on the WWF’s side in November ’97. His heart just wasn’t in wrestling anymore, so to speak, and he’d never really wanted to join WCW in the first place anyway before being screwed over by Vince McMahon. Signing on under such a dark cloud and still reeling from the harsh treatment he'd received from someone he viewed as a father figure had Bret mentally frazzled.
The next 3 years of his career were nothing to write home about, and they were certainly not a patch on anything fans had seen from Hart since he stopped tagging with Jim Neidhart and blossomed into a genuine singles superstar. In-ring Bret went through the motions, and Eric Bischoff has detailed how the legend was occasionally tough to figure out.
The timing was all wrong for both parties, but Hart has to take some responsibility too. He was being paid an absolute shed load of cash to often phone it in and act like WCW was beneath him. Many of his performances were sulky rather than silky.