One MIND-BLOWING Secret From Every Year Of WCW History
13. 1989 | LOLWCW Was Always A “Thing”
If you read his autobiography, ‘Hitman’, Bret Hart was not entirely satisfied with life in the WWF in 1989. The promotion was finally creating merchandise on his behalf - tank tops, his trademark shades - but Bret felt that the push promised to him by Vince McMahon was not forthcoming. Instead, Bret was asked to job for Mr. Perfect so that Perfect himself could credibly job for the Ultimate Warrior and Hulk Hogan. Bret was in, at best, the third tier.
As he revealed in the book, Bret struck up talks with WCW in the summer of 1989. What you might not recall - since ‘Hitman’ is remembered mostly for the 1997 passages and the very graphic descriptions of Bret’s extramarital activity - is that WCW WCW’d itself out of any deal.
Bret was very willing to go. WCW was booked by a great, pure wrestler in Ric Flair, which appealed to Bret; the crux of his issue with the WWF is that he was looked over by Vince in favour of body guys. WCW however was born and died as a laughing stock, and in very typical fashion, observed the comedy rule of three when messing up the chance to tempt Bret away.
Firstly, Ric Flair took it upon himself to offer Bret a money deal to the tune of $200,000 per year, even though this sort of thing wasn’t up to him at all. Secondly, WCW, in a bid to create some buzz around itself, leaked the story to the media well before any deal had been agreed. Thirdly, WCW lowballed Bret when a new offer of $156,000 was made to him by Jim Barnett; the real boss, Jim Herd, couldn’t even do this himself.
Bret, in the event of making the jump, might have been as screwed in 1989 as he was in 1997. WCW was notorious for its inability to develop and strongly push young talent even before Hulk Hogan came in; there’s every chance Bret would have found himself in the same midcard dead zone as Steve Austin, Brian Pillman, and Cactus Jack.
As for what the WWF might have looked like on this alternate timeline, Vince, without Bret as his post-steroids talisman, might have had to get over his bizarre Randy Savage ageism, and push the slimmed-down Macho Man for as long as possible. Or, failing that, there’s a not inconsiderable chance that Crush might have been WWF Champion in 1993.