The Montreal Screwjob (A retrospective)

The Montreal Screwjob was an incident that occurred in November of 1997, that is still discussed to this day. In case anyone is unsure of what actually happened, here's the brief outline.

Bret Hart was the WWF Champion, and the WWF owner and chairman Vince McMahon couldn't afford to renew his deal. As a result, Bret Hart spoke with the WWF's rival promotion WCW, eventually agreeing to sign with them. Leading up to Survivor Series '97, Bret Hart was scheduled to defend his title against Shawn Michaels in the main-event. Bret Hart and Shawn had a fierce, real life rivalry at the time, so Bret refused to let Shawn win or 'go over'. A large part of Bret's decision was based around the fact that the event was in his hometown of Montreal, Canada, as well as Shawn Michaels being perceived as disrespectful leading up to the event. McMahon was quite rightly worried what Bret Hart and WCW executive producer Eric Bischoff would do if Bret Hart retained the title and was no longer under a WWF contract (I.e. would Bret Hart appear on WCW television with a WWF World Title?) So Vince McMahon opted to 'screw' Bret Hart! No, not like that. A screwjob of this description is essentially when anyone in pro-wrestling goes 'off script' to change the finish of the match, in favour of themselves or even the promoter. An example of a notable screwjob (Also known as a double cross) besides Montreal, involved Wendi Richter and The Fabulous Moolah in 1985. Moolah went off script, pinning Richters shoulders to the mat. Allegedly the referee was also in on it, and counted the pinfall despite Richter kicking out. Allegedly this was also due to a contract dispute between Wendy Richter and Vince McMahon, although Richter allegedly denied this.

So, the Montreal Screwjob. Was it a work, was it a shoot, and how did it impact the landscape of Pro-Wrestling as we know it today. I have compiled a timeline of all of the incidents leading up to the event, as well as comments from those involved, as well as those surrounding it. Finally, I'll give you my take, hopefully settling the debate once and for all…"was it a work BRO?"

But first, here's a brief timeline of all the events as and when they happened, as documented by pro-wrestling journalist Dave Meltzer

Dave Meltzer's timeline of events

October 21st ‘96- Bret signs 20 year contract with WWF.

September 8th ‘97- Vince backtracks on the huge 20 year deal, telling Bret that he will have to breach his contract due to financial struggles. Vince offers Bret a back loaded contract instead, which Bret refuses due to concerns over in-ring longevity.

September 22nd- Vince actively encourages Bret to negotiate with WCW as he can’t afford to pay his deal. During meetings that day, Shawn tells both Vince and Bret he’s not doing any more jobs in "that territory” (Canada) During the meeting, Bret says he’s got no issues putting Shawn over at the end of their program/feud. Shawn says he wouldn’t do the same for him.

October 21st- Vince pitches the idea of Bret losing to Shawn in Canada at Survivor Series. Remembering what Shawn said in regards to him refusing to do jobs in Canada and doing any for Bret specifically, Bret declines. Especially as he saw his angle with Shawn as a big “patriotic deal” Shawn apologises, claiming his mouth ran away from him.

October 24th- Vince tells Bret he can pay the full amount of his contract. Vince gives Bret a deadline (1/11) to make a decision whether he wants to stay or not. Bret said he did want to stay but still refused to do a job for Shawn in Canada.

October 31st- Eric offers Bret a bumper offer. Bret doesn’t outright decline.

November 1st- Bret notifies Vince of the offer, with Vince telling him he had until midnight to decide. Eric calls making a “ridiculous” offer to Bret, with Vince urging him to accept it. Bret eventually signs a WCW contract that starts on the 1st December.

5th November- The story leaks and Vince is worried that Eric will announce the signing of their World Champion, ahead of time on Nitro. He urges Bret to drop the title the night before at Survivor Series to Shawn Michaels as a result.

9th November- Survivor Series '97. Bret Hart is 'screwed' out of his title.

10th November- WWF superstars unite with Bret. Bret Hart convinces them not to no show, as it would risk breach of contract and jeopardise their livelihoods. Aftermath is referenced for the first time on the following Raw (17/11) and immediately on Nitro (10/11) Evil McMahon character was born, as Vince proclaimed that “Bret screwed Bret”, as well as Bischoff mocking the situation with The nWo's rendition of 'O Canada' (Canadian national anthem)

I will now feature some comments made by Jim Cornette, Shawn Michaels, Bret Hart, as well as excerpts from various documentaires, podcasts and shoot interviews surrounding the matter. Let's start with good ole' Jim Cornette.

Jim Cornette

During his timeline documentary covering the year of 1997 (his final full year on the booking committee with the WWF) Jim Cornette said the following.

Jim clarified that Bret didn't want to lose the title BEFORE the PPV, as he had a scheduled match as the champion and didn't want to disappoint his hometown fans. Jim did however, take issue with Bret Hart calling the newspapers following the incident and informing them of the double cross as he believed it exposed the business. Jim added that Bret didn't call them (the newspapers) over the titles he won, to tell them that he didn't actually win them! Cornette also wasn't happy with how the angle was portrayed afterwards, as even Vince McMahon "exposed the business", when he spoke about the 'time honoured tradition' of giving up the title before you leave, with Cornette calling this "more behind the scenes bullshit!" Cornette humorously called it the first ever "shoot work double cross", as traditionally you would try to hide the fact that a performer went off script, but Vince made it plainly obvious that a screwjob occurred, and didn't attempt to disguise it whatsoever!

Leading up to the event itself, Cornette allegedly pitched the idea of pairing Bret Hart with Ken Shamrock, suggesting they should "double cross his ass" Cornette even made a point of staying for the match once it was apparent to him what was in place (he usually left the building as soon as possible)

Another interesting point is that according to Jim, Bret Hart had persuaded Eric Bischoff to agree to not mention that he was coming to WCW on TV, and even allow him to work a date with the WWF, dropping the title at their December PPV. As the Raw and Nitro shows following Survivor Series would be the first live TV tapings after Bret's WCW contract was officially put in place, the only way for Vince McMahon to GUARANTEE his champion wasn't mentioned in another promotion, was for Bret to drop the title at Survivor Series. Cornette, McMahon as well other employes trusted Bret Hart would keep his word, but they didn't trust that Bischoff wouldn't capitalise from the opportunity to mention that WCW had signed 'their World Champion' on live TV!

Jim Cornette also recounted a tale of personally calling Mick Foley and persuading him to come to TV, saying "Which one of those guys (Bret or Shawn) are going to send you a check?" Cornette adds that "being upset that a promoter would fuck one of the boys is like being upset that Jenna Jameson (noted porn-star) would take one up the ass!"

Ultimately, Jim said that everyone involved was acting childish and while he personally likes Bret Hart and dislikes Shawn Michaels, Cornette still admits to believing that Bret Hart took his own character far too seriously, hinting that Bret should have agreed to do business with someone else, before his final run-in with Shawn.

WWE produced sit-down interview

Over a decade after the incident, Bret and Shawn had a sit-down interview conducted by Jim Ross. Here's what the pair had to say on the matter

Bret Hart

Bret said that his main issue with Shawn was him saying that he refused to put him over. Bret claimed he would have dropped the title to anyone and anywhere, except to Shawn Michaels in Montreal! He also believed it was unfortunate how it ended, as he thought they could have worked together for a long time, and drawn a lot of money in doing so

Bret recalled that during the match, Shawn had initially put the sharpshooter on incorrectly, and in a cruel twist of fate, it was Bret Hart who ended up directing Shawn how to correctly perform the manoeuvre.

Bret recalled his experience in WCW, describing it as "painful" and adding that there was "no heart" in the company. Bret closed by saying that when Vince McMahon called him in the hospital following his stroke, it motivated Bret to recover, as well as allowing him to let go of a lot of his anger directed towards Vince McMahon.

Shawn Michaels

Shawn claimed that it was HHH who was the first to push the idea of a screwjob. Shawn says they pitched a number of ideas, only for Hunter to yell "Fuck that…if he doesn't want to business, we'll do business for him!". Shawn added that he knew he'd get heat for it, and didn't like that fact, so was desperate for someone to convince Bret to go along with what Vince wanted.

Podcasts and shoot interviews.

Eric Bischoff

During an episode of the critically acclaimed podcast '83 Weeks', hosted by former WCW executive producer and head of creative Eric Bischoff, and the mortgage broker by day, superfan by night Conrad Thompson, Eric had this to say on the matter. Bischoff stated that he doesn't believe Bret Hart to be a liar, and that it would have been hard for Bret to keep up a false story for multiple decades. Biscoff also mentioned that when working with Bret Hart in WCW, it was clearly obvious how hurt and angry Bret was about it all. Eric even said that he encouraged Bret to either use the feelings creatively, or let them go all together.

Kevin Nash & X Pac

During a 'shoot interview' with Title Match Wrestling, both Sean Waltman aka X-Pac and Kevin Nash sat down, briefly touching on the so called "screwjob"

X Pac questioned how Bret "didn't see it coming" while Nash made the point that Vince McMahon was notorious for 'no selling' negative situations. As a result, Nash found it questionable that he showed himself on Bret Hart's documentary, visibly dazed and hurt by the alleged punch from Bret Hart.

Wrestling with Shadows (1998 documentary)

Finally, we will look at the critically acclaimed documentary 'Wrestling with Shadows'. This was produced independently from the WWF/E. In my opinion, it was one of, if not the most, raw and compelling wrestling documentaries I've ever seen! Upon learning I was a wrestling fan, my older cousin kindly gifted me his personal collector's edition on DVD. So if you're reading this, thank you Andy!

The film opens with Bret, and it was immediately obvious how seriously he took both the business of pro-wrestling, as well as his in-ring character of Bret 'The Hitman' Hart. Mere minutes into the film, Bret Hart dramatically claimed that he was "like a god" to little kids, as well as the fact that Bret Hart (hopefully speaking about his in-ring character) would "blow his brains out with a shotgun" if he lost to Shawn Michaels in Canada. Bret claimed this creative decision would be tantamount to 'suicide' for the Bret Hart character.

The film then moves to some of Bret's colleagues, as we are introduced to Sunny aka Tammy Sytch. Bret said she was very flirtatious on and off screen (that was putting it mildly), before calling her a good friend. He then moved onto the villain of the piece, Shawn Michaels. Bret admitted that Shawn was a great athlete, but also called him arrogant, obnoxious and generally unlikeable. Immediately afterwards he called himself (or his character, the way he speaks made it hard to differentiate between the two if I'm being honest) wholesome, family friendly and honest.

Bret Hart then spoke about his family's background in shoot fighting (particularly his father) and said that it was his dad who gave him the inspiration to create the sharpshooter. This may have been a slip of the tongue from Bret or just poorly worded, as the move was actually invented by Japanese wrestler Riki Choshu. The point of this part seemingly being to smash over how much the move meant to Bret, and to further the drama and the end of the film when he was eventually 'beaten by it'.

The next portion is largely detailing admin, as it explains he's been offered a 20 year deal by Vince, as well as the 3 year $9 Million dollar contract offered by Ted Turner and WCW. Bret spoke about his loyalty to the WWF being the reason he initially declined the WCW offer. The way he speaks here came across as very genuine, and in all credit to Bret Hart, how he was perceived by his peers as well as the fans, seemed exceptionally important to him.

Next, Bret Hart discussed his heel turn. He initially agreed to it, but only on the proviso that his character would remain loyal to the Canadian

fans, and only go after Steve Austin and his fan base in the United States.

The film quickly moves on to Vince reneging his initial 20 year deal, pleading poverty and imploring Bret to sign with WCW instead. Bret says by this point, he was already replaced by the number one heel at the time 'Shawn Michaels' and Steve Austin was the number one babyface. Bret says that he felt as if the creative decision to turn heel sabotaged his career as he was "left with nothing" Upon reflection, Bret came across as quite self serving here. Wrestling is cyclical, and new stars have to be created to keep things fresh. I understand from his perspective he may have felt as if they killed his character, but even Bret Hart himself admitted that times had changed and the patriotic good guy character just wasn't cool anymore. Theoretically, if Bret would have stayed with the WWF, he could have continued his heel run and been on an even footing with Shawn, or maybe just a top 5 guy in the company without being the number one draw overall. Although some now believe that Vince had no plans whatsoever for Hart, following his feud with Shawn Michaels.

The next chapter shows footage of Bret Hart backstage on the day of Survivor Series '97. Bret allegedly 'wore a wire' during his final creative discussion with Vince McMahon on the day of the match. We hear Bret suggest a "shmoz" (a double dq or run-in of some kind, whereby there is no official winner declared) with Vince seemingly open to the idea. We then saw select footage of the match itself, between Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels! In the closing moments of the match, Shawn Micheals locked Bret Hart into the sharpshooter as referee Earl Hebner prematurely called for the bell, with Shawn Michaels announced as the winner, leaving an angry Bret Hart standing in the middle of the ring post-match! Vince walked to ringside, Bret spat at him and Shawn grabbed the title before rushing to the backstage area. Once backstage, Shawn pleaded that his "hands are clean on this one". Bret's now ex-wife Julie Hart, also verbally dresses down HHH, along with some of the other talent and producers, before Bret's brother Owen Hart consoles Julie, while walking her away. Vince McMahon stumbled out of Bret's locker room sporting a black eye. It then cuts to Vince's famous line of "Bret Hart screwed Bret Hart" on one of the episodes of Raw, with an Angry Bret Hart presumably watching on from home.

The film closes with Bret Hart saying that Vince McMahon has always treated his talent like "circus animals", dumping them when they are no longer useful or productive.

Personal thoughts and final conclusion

Here's the thing. I DON'T think it was a work in the sense that everyone sat down, planned it out, and were all in on it. However, in my opinion, it is possible that Bret Hart was either being extremely naive (which I don't buy for one second) or that he knowingly walked into the screwjob, almost accepting his fate. Like any conspiracy theory, there are some red herrings to give it validation.

The most notable one for me being the point that Kevin Nash made about how Vince "sold the punch" from Bret Hart on his documentary 'Wrestling with Shadows'. Vince was the kind of man to brush off the negatives, trying to show the world that he was made of teflon. So the fact he stumbled out of Bret's locker room hamming up the punch was a bit strange. Although rewatching the film, while Vince is stumbling slightly, it was perhaps a slight exaggeration on Kevin's part. There are also questions such as "why did Vince walk to ringside after the match" and "why didn't they take the title of him MUCH SOONER" All legitimate questions. But at the end of the day this is professional wrestling, an odd place where even reality can defy logic!

However, from all of my personal research stemming from the various interviews I've listened to, books I've read and documentaries I've watched. I don't actually believe it was a work. Mainly because Jim Cornette who was actually in the WWF's inner circle at the time, has never suggested that, and if it was a work I think he of all people would have cracked by now! But also because of how Eric Bischoff spoke about how much it seemed to deeply affect Bret Hart, even years removed during his time in WCW.

Regardless of what your opinion is, it is certainly a fascinating topic, and one I thankfully NEVER have to hear about, write about, speak about or revisit any time soon. Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels are both ELITE performers, and when you have two guys on the level of them with a real life issue. In the words of HHH, sometimes you've just got to do what's "Best for business!"