[hb2k]

Originally Posted by The CyNick You're right, Bret didn't know what was going to happen. My point about what ended up happening was just that clearly WCW didn't get Bret because he was a Canadian icon and wanted to use him to lead a charge to take the Canadian market. Anyone privy to the numbers, which Bret would have been, would have known WCW wasn't in the same galaxy as WWE in terms of popularity. WCW was barely on TV at that point in Canada. And if it was, it was on tape delay the next day or the day after. WCW wanted Bret for Thunder, no other reason. So either Bret is dilusional for thinking he was being brought in because of Canada or he just didn't want to put over a guy he hated and was jealous of.

Consider - in the moment - Vince is losing in the US, Canada he was leading in, and he's losing Bret, the guy that they'd spent months building as a Canadian hero. It's not delusional to think that Bret being brought in for Canada, it was the most obvious benefit for WCW to signing him at the time (which is why I questioned if you were watching at the time, because it was the big talk in the immediate aftermath). Of course WCW fucked it up and never made the play for Canada, it's WCW, but that doesn't mean the intention wasn't there in the beginning. There were plenty of things conceived with logical intentions in WCW that went to shit through disorganisation and politics. It's like saying they didn't start the Sting/Hogan build to make Sting a big deal because look how the match buried him.

All this talk of how Bret didn't give Vince an option, or that Bret would be leaving a void not losing to the right guy is bollocks, because he offered to drop it to Michaels and Austin at different times.