at the same time world championship wrestling (wcw), another professional wrestling company, was getting more popular. wcw had become popular using wrestlers who left wwf, like hulk hogan, scott hall, and kevin nash. they were now more popular than wwf. this meant wwf could not make as much money. wwf had signed a 20-year contract with hart because they did not want him to leave, go to wcw, and make them even more popular. but now they found it hard to pay hart, so they had to promise to pay him later because they were in danger of running out of money.