exhaust problem

i know it's generally frowned upon in these forums, but i need to know how to remove the catalytic converter on my '90 4.0 cherokee. i'm not planning on running an illegal exhaust, i have a new cat from napa in the garage and am trying to get it on there, just cant get the old one off first. i undid the 4 bolts at the front of the cat, and the bracket holding it to the muffler. the cat is loose and be turned back and forth inside the muffler sleeve, but cant be pulled out. is there something i'm missing here, or is it just too rusty to be pulled free?

If you have a torch, use it on the outside of the pipe to try and expand it. Once it is well heated then try to remove the inner pipe by moving it up and down and side to side.

When I did my muffler I had to whack the crap out of it with a 6lb sledge to get it to come off of the cat. The tubing was dimpled in pretty well by the U-bolt on that joint. Give it a good torching like Wagonman said, see how it goes after that.