7 Wrestlers Who Became Too Big For WWE
3. Bret Hart
Unlike the other stars on the list, Bret Hart didn't leave wrestling - instead, WWE simply couldn't afford to keep the the best there is, best there was and the best there ever will be.
The Hitman took a sabbatical from wrestling after losing the WWE Championship at WrestleMania XII. While he was resting, his contract was coming to an end. Naturally, WCW made a play for The Excellence of Execution, offering him a contract worth $9 million over three years. WWE couldn't match that, but they did counter with an unprecedented offer - a 20-year contract (three years as a talent, 17 as an office worker) at $1 million a year for the first three years.
Hart chose to stay with WWE, but the company's financial difficulties worsened and the tensions between Hart and Shawn Michaels became unbearable. In 1997, Vince McMahon could no longer afford to pay Hart the money he owed him (and was also tiring of the backstage squabbling), so he urged the star to see if WCW's offer was still on the table. It was, and Bret begrudgingly agreed to join the competition.
Of course, that wasn't the end of the story - Hart was the WWE Champion, and a disagreement between him and McMahon about how to get the belt off of him led to the most famous double-cross in wrestling history. Still, if Hart hadn't outgrown WWE, none of that would have went down.