How did you guys feel when Bret Hart jumped to WCW?

[Hit Girl]

I can't remember.


I do recall he did an interview for some magazine or whatever where he claimed Canada would stop watching WWF programming. I don't know if they did that

[Kevin Hamilton]

Lol, the image of Canada collectively as a nation changing channels is hilarious to me for some reason

[Deleted]

It was weird, he was the staple of WWE to me, and being a young fan still it was weird seeing him on WCW shortly after.

I watched both shows but it was a culture shock, and as much as I have a few fond memories of Bret in WCW he could never shake the "got screwed over/deserves to be in WWF with Austin" stigma in my mind.

With that being said I liked Shawn pre-screwjob when I was a kid, then came to dislike him heavily, and in that way he was the best heel you could have hoped for up until he went out with his back injury, but damn, until his return in 2002 I didn't want to see the guy...and then he special ref screwed over The Rock in a match a few years later! What a monster HBK was to young me.

[Baldobomb-22-OH-MAN!!!]

I wasn't really watching at the time. my only real memories of Bret in WCW are "Who are you to doubt El Dandy?" and the time when he wrestled Goldberg, Roddy Piper ran in to protect Goldberg from a beatdown, the ref counted Piper pinning Goldberg and handed the WCW title to Bret (fun fact, that was the only time I ever watched a Nitro beginning to end).

[RedSmile]

He seemed very out of place. Even more so in the NWO.

[Confused Mark Wahlberg]

[Straight Edge Scrotum]

"Oh...so Bret's on Nitro now."

[Welfare Willis]

I gave it a 4 outta 10.

[mizerable]

I wasn't bothered by it at all.

I know that Bret was a WWF guy for the most part, but the fact of the matter is that in the last few years, we'd see Hogan, then Savage, then Luger, then Diesel and Razor go to WCW. It's not like this was a major hit for WWF. It just felt like he had accomplished all he could here, which he did. If anything, I assumed that Michaels was going to go before then. This was prior to Starcade too, so I wasn't predicting WCW to explode.

While WCW was getting getting the stars (IMO, Bret, Luger and Razor weren't going much further in WWF), WWF had already struck gold with Stone Cold. As long as they held onto him, and believe me, Austin would have been stupid to jump back to WCW...then WWF was going to be okay.

[Milkman Norm]

I was super pissed with WWF and wanted nothing more than to see Bret lead WCW to glory.

[tekkenguy]

I felt doubtful about the Luchador jobbers they had on their roster.

[Bo Rida]

Bret was one of my favourites for years and was a big fan of the whole Hart Foundation, I was really into his anti-American angle (well apart from The Patriot).
In those pre-internet days I thought the screwjob was just a storyline and thought he'd be back on Raw soon, I seem to remember watching a lot less around that time before things really took off in '98 but the timeline is a bit fuzzy.

Needless to say he didn't reappear on Raw for quite some time, eventually I was gutted to see Bret on WCW, I tried to watch him periodically but it just wasn't the same, especially as I never really liked WCW* outside a few wrestlers and hated the guys he seemed to be feuding with like Flair, the NWO and later Bill f***ing Goldberg.

*I've since realised the error of my ways, there was some good stuff in the early to mid 90s and obviously later the cruiserweights stole the show.

[SOR]

I wasn't a fan back then but looking back on it, he should of been the guy to really win the war for WCW. Bret/Flair and Bret/Hogan would of won it for them in my mind.

[Deleted]

There is a South Park episode that describes it perfectly.

It started like this

Bret Hart: I'm not your friend, guy!

Shawn Michaels: I'm not your guy, buddy!

Bret Hart: I'm not your buddy, friend!

Shawn Michaels: I'm not your friend, buddy!

Then Bret was screwed and this:



Did not happen.

So Bret went to WCW, but there was one problem. Eric Bishoff was still negotiating (sucking up to) with Hulk Hogan:



So Bret wasn't allowed anywhere near the main event scene and thus went nowhere.

But back in WWF

Vince McMahon discovered a new formula that would allow him to beat WCW and win the Monday Night War:

Steve Austin: I'm not your Friend, Buddy!

Vince McMahon: I'm not your buddy, guy!

Steve Austin: I'm not your guy, Friend!

Vince McMahon: I'm not your Friend, BUDDY!!!!

And that is the story of the Montreal screw job!