Back in 1997 the hitman had a legitimate beef with his employer. The WWF was taken on a whole new direction that the clean babyface didn't want to partake on. The hitman became outraged when he realized that he was being over looked for the WWF title for the heartbreak kid Shawn Michaels.
The hitman wouldn't stand for this so when he got a chance to speak on what he believe was right things took a dark turn for the man known as Mr. McMahon.
There's always been a certain amount of romanticism about Bret Hart's run in the WWF, at least until the beginning of 1997 anyway. People categorise the "new generation" era, that between the end of Hogan and the rise of Austin, as the time when the smaller Hart and Shawn Michaels were ushered in as the next rising stars of the company, only to be ended by a combination of Bret's defection to WCW, Shawn's retirement and the rise of Stone Cold Steve Austin. But none of that is really true.
Because, there's a list of names that Vince McMahon pushed in the number one spot in the time after Hulk Hogan left and, before 1997, that list never included Bret Hart. Sure, Bret was champion – multiple times in fact, but Bret's job was often just clean-up. He won the title in 1994, only after Vince McMahon abonded an experiment with Lex Luger. He won the title at the end of 1995, only after McMahon abandoned an experiment with Diesel. Even Bret's fourth reign, not until 1997, came about when Shawn Michaels abdicated – a reign that would only last 24 hours before Bret put the title back onto Sid.
Even Bret's status as the best wrestler of that era doesn't really hold up. Bret's wrestling ability was more about being believable and compelling more than it was about raw excitement, but the problem was rarely was he put in spots for that to matter. In 1995 Bret had a pair of showing saving matches with Hakushi and Jean-Pierre Lafitte (to which, you might quite rightly shout "who?") - but neither match mattered. But the truth of the matter is, ask anyone with a broad enough view of wrestling in 1995/1996 who the best wrestler in North America was, and it's not difficult to imagine most wouldn't say Bret's name. For all of his positives, he wasn't Chris Benoit, he wasn't Rey Mysterio and, perhaps hardest of all to take, he wasn't Shawn Michaels.
Bret was a 9/10 guy often in an 8/10 spot – that was all. When it came to his first title defence in 1994, against Diesel at King of the Ring, the match that main evented was Jerry Lawler vs Roddy Piper. When it came to Summerslam, in a match against his brother Owen, the main event was Undertaker vs Undertaker. We can say all we want about the merits (or lack thereof) of those matches headlining those shows, but I can guarantee that Hulk Hogan wouldn't have gone on in the middle of those cards. Neither would Steve Austin at his peak, neither would any "top star" worthy of the name.
Well as we all know Bret Hart left the promotion for WCW and his career would never be the
same again.