Bret Hart is a name that immediately resonates with the WWF, after all he was there for roughly 13 years, held the WWF Championship five times and had memorable feuds with Roddy Piper, Mr Perfect, Owen Hart, Steve Austin, Shawn Michaels and many others. While the WWF had built Bret Hart from scratch, McMahon felt that Bret Hart's value as a character was waning in 1997, and this was certainly true given the huge change in the product from '95 to the early 2000's. It's hard to imagine Bret Hart adapting to the attitude era. After attempting to negotiate with Bret about his expensive contract that the WWF could no longer afford, Bret decided to sign with WCW. Bret Hart wanted to take the WWF Championship with him, but obviously that didn't happen as we all know what happened at Survivor Series '97 with the infamous Montreal Screwjob. While WCW and Eric Bischoff were happy to have taken a major star talent from the WWF, they had a slight problem in that they didn't have any idea how to use him, or have any upcoming storylines in which he fit. A feud with Hulk Hogan was planned and was one of the reasons WCW had wanted Hart, but it never ended up happening. For the few years, Bret Hart spent most of his time feuding over the WCW United States Heavyweight Championship which lead many to question why a top star that was being paid roughly $3 million a year, was not being pushed in the main event. Bret continued to be used in lackluster storylines, until he sustained several serious concussions whilst working with Bill Goldberg. Bret retired soon after. Bret Hart was one of the top wrestling stars of the mid to late 90's in the WWF, but WCW lacked any creative ideas for the Excellence of Execution. Shortly after the end of the decade, he was burned out, forgotten, injured and retired.
Sam is an experienced Film, Gaming and Wrestling writer, critic and journalist who was written for a vast number of different entertainment websites. Follow him on twitter at @Sams_Reel_Views.
