Any smart businessman would choose Hogan over Bret. Hogan was a much bigger star and much bigger draw.
Also, there were rumors Bret was gonna bring the IC title with him to WCW in early '92 as a receipt for Flair bringing the Big Gold belt to the WWF.
From January 27th, 1992 Wrestling Observer Newsletter:
"One of the stranger stories of the past week involves the Intercontinental title. Officially, as the storyline goes, Bret Hart went to the ring with a 104 degree fever on Friday night (1/17) in Springfield, MA and lost the title to The Mountie. Mountie in turn dropped the title at the Rumble two days later to Roddy Piper.
As has become pretty common knowledge as the week went on, Hart had negotiated and at one point agreed to a deal where he would debut on Tuesday (1/21) at the Clash of the Champions for WCW in Topeka where he'd come out with the Intercontinental title as something of a payback for the WWF bringing in Ric Flair and having him wear what WCW considered their world title belt (of course the situations are completely different in that Flair was fired by WCW after the company attempted to cut an existing contract almost in half, which somehow six months later WCW feels is the WWF's fault for, to the extent they went to court over getting the belt off WWF television shows.
So this idea was to gain revenge on the WWF, but the difference is that Hart would be walking out on a valid contract). The fact Hart was losing the title in Springfield was the world's worst-kept secret being that the WWF syndicated shows went out on the satellite Wednesday, which means anyone with a dish (which probably means well over one million potential viewers) would have been able to watch on Wednesday them talk about, in the past tense, in detail, an angle that was going to occur two days later.
It should be noted that the decision made to change the Intercontinental title from Hart to Piper was made weeks ago, before any talks had even started with WCW. So despite rumors to the contrary that are sure to spread, it wasn't a last-minute decision made by Titan to get the belt off Hart for fear he was leaving. If anything, Hart knowing he was going to lose the title may have been an impetus in his exploring the option of a jump. Apparently WCW offered Hart a guaranteed deal that was substantially more than he had been earning as Intercontinental champ.
However after apparently agreeing to the deal, Hart had to back off because he realized his contract with the WWF, which he thought had run out, had rolled over and he couldn't give notice for several more months. However, WCW sources indicate that Hart, who had backed out of the deal as of a few days ago, will be coming in after all in not too many months.
Hart was promised that after losing the strap to Mountie at a house show that he would be getting it back at Wrestlemania, even if it meant in a babyface match against Piper. However those are the kind of promises in wrestling that aren't often kept. In this case, since word got out on several wrestling 900 numbers over the weekend (which said that Hart would be starting at the Clash on Tuesday, and I'm sure many people, with Hart not appearing at the Rumble--which was to sell the illness and allow Piper to get the match and the strap; believed that confirmed the reports he was jumping) the plan WCW was attempting, Hart probably isn't in exactly the most favorable political position in the WWF right now as a possible lame duck."
