Didn't Vince want to cut Hitman's off his payroll because he was about to turn his private company into a public traded company and need to show his company as profitable as possible?
Not sure about that but i know that Vince realised he couldn't match the money so opted to offer a long-term contract to Bret to stop him going to WCW. Then he changed his mind and asked Bret to see if he could still get his WCW offer coz he couldn't afford the contract he originally offered. Bret said he'd do it for the good of WWF which he still didn't want to leave.