Bret to WCW in 92?

By Scott Keith on 17 December 2012

Hey Scott,

I was recently reading your Retro Rant of Royal Rumble 92. In it, you make reference to Bret Hart's IC title loss to The Mountie coming because Hart was set to walk out on his WWF contract and debut in WCW. I've never heard that before. Can you explain this situation in more detail?

Thanks.

Not much more to it. Bret's contract was coming up and there was rumored to be fear he was going to pull a Honky Tonk Man and try to leave with the IC title as a receipt for Flair taking the NWA title to WWF, so they switched it to Mountie and renegotiated with him. Apparently WCW had made some pretty serious offers and even scheduled his debut for the Clash in January, although legally it would have been dicey at best if he had jumped with the belt because his contract wasn't exactly "expired" in the standard sense of the word. I'd have to check Bret's book for the millionth time for all the details, but that's the gist.