WWE Legend Recalls How The Undertaker Signing a Lucrative Deal Hampered Bret Hart’s Contract: “Vince eventually couldn’t meet the deal, the dollar figure”

Bret “The Hitman” Hart is the most respected technical pro-wrestler of all time. When big men were ruling the wrestling industry, Bret Hart made a name for himself. He proved that to be a main eventer; one doesn’t need to be muscular of over 6.5ft. Bret Hart became WWE Champion on multiple occasions during his time in the company.

He played a heel in the USA and a baby-face in Canada at the same time. Bret was the key for Vince to establish his product in Canada. We still talk about his matches with Shawn Michaels.

However, in 1997, Bret Hart left WWE because of one of the darkest incidents in pro-wrestling, “The Montreal Screwjob”. Bret debuted for WCW in 1998. He wrestled for two years. Bret got injured in a match against Goldberg. He retired in the year 2000 because of an injury.

Gerald Brisco on Bret Hart’s contract disputes with Vince before The Montreal Screwjob

Recently, in an interview with Conrad Thomson, Gerald Brisco enlightened him about what was happening before the screwjob. It started when 1st two-hour RAW was making its debut at Madison Square Garden. Conrad asked Brisco was he aware of this meeting of Bret with Vince.

Brisco said, “Absolutely I was aware of it. With WCW printing money down there on billionaire Teddy’s printing machine.”.

WCW was running hot during that period. They had all the money to recruit new talents. They constantly tried to offer WWE superstars with big offers to join WCW.

Read More: CM Punk Names His Favorite Bret Hart Match

He added, “There was a little set through between Bret and Undertaker because Undertaker signed a deal and which made him the highest paid. Of course, Bret was the champion, Bret felt like he should be the highest paid.”

Bret Hart had signed a 20-year deal with WWE back in 1996. During this time around, WWE had some monetary issues. As a result, he could not honor the contract. Bret started his talks with Eric Bischoff and Ted Turner. Eventually, he signed a 3-year contract with WCW which offered him more money than the WWE. 

Watch This Story:- Why Did Bret Hart Leave WWF in 1997?

Vince didn’t like this and wanted him to lose the title at Survivor Series against Shawn Michaels, at Montreal before his departure. Bret didn’t want to lose the title at Montreal, as he was the baby-face there. This lead to Montreal Screwjob.

Brisco says that they should have taken the title from Bret Hart

The Montreal Screwjob was a controversial incident in pro-wrestling history. Both Vince and Bret weren’t on the same page at that moment. Conrad asked Brisco did he think that Vince could have gotten the belt off Bret before when Bret first came for negotiation.

Brisco said, “Bret is such a professional that we didn’t figure that there would be any issues with it and everything. So I in hindsight it’s easy to look back and say yeah we should have taken it from him.”

WWE had thought to take away the WWE title down from Bret before his departure. However, the company during that time was building a story between Bret and Shawn. They let Bret Hart keep the title because of the storyline.

Bret has publicly said many times that he regrets going to WCW. He stated the reason for Broken Skulls with Stone Cold.

However, Bret Hart was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in the year 2004. Bret later returned to WWE in 2010, almost 12 years later on an episode of RAW. 

Do you think if the Montreal Screwjob never happened, we would have got to see more of Bret Hart in WWE? He would have never retired that earlier if he had never joined WCW. Let us know by commenting below.