On the topic of Bret, over been watching Reliving the War and I'll just say it, Bret's WCW booking wasn't nearly as bad as he and others make it out to be.
First, as a matter of timing, he came in while Hogan and Sting are in the height of their program, and he wasn't going to disrupt it. Nick Patrick and Hogan botched the Starrcade finish that temporarily made him look dumb, but I think everyone was over that by the next night and it didn't have any impact on his run. His angle where he was an associate of Hogan and the nWo without being a full member was good, and it points toward an eventual payoff with Hart turning on Hogan and winning the title from him as a face, but in the midst of that Bill Goldberg had a meteoric rise in popularity and Bischoff pivoted on the title picture (which is a whole other conversation). Hart then went into a good US title run and a program with Sting that should've been really good if Sting wasn't hurt.
In the end I think the booking was fine but he was a victim of circumstances. WCW had so much going on in 1998 that it was hard for anyone to disrupt what was happening - there wasn't a lot of room to get to the top of the card when Hogan and Sting were paying off a two year long angle, you had Macho Man carrying another nwo split narrative, and then Bill Goldberg getting massively over (more over than Hart or any other alternative at that point).
Bret acts like Bischoff sent him out to look like an idiot and a jobber every week, but he had some good storylines, good promos, and great matches during 1998, including a US Title run - which is really throwing him a bone after Bill Goldberg leapfrogged him and everyone when he got the WCW title. Wouldn't ever say WCW booking was perfect at this point and time, but it wasn't as bad as he claims.