At the time of the screwjob, Bret Hart was a 14-year veteran of the WWF, having got his first break in the promotion in the 1980s as one-half of the hated Hart Foundation tag team with his brother-in-law Jim Neidhart and manager Jimmy Hart. After the team had two reigns as the WWF Tag Team Champions - splitting from Jimmy Hart and becoming heroes between reigns - Hart then achieved tremendous success as a singles performer in the 1990s, twice taking the Intercontinental Heavyweight Title, and then winning the WWF Championship five times. Between his third and fourth reigns, he took a seven-month leave of absence from the company after WrestleMania XII, during which he considered contract offers from both the WWF and its rival, WCW. In October 1996, Hart declined a three-year, $8.4 million offer from WCW, instead opting to sign an unprecedented 20-year deal offered by McMahon, which promised to make him the highest-paid wrestler in the company and secure him a major role with the company management following his retirement. Both Hart and the WWF saw the contract as an expression of mutual loyalty.