One of the biggest controversies in wrestling history gets the spotlight again in the Netflix series ‘Mr. McMahon’: the Montreal Screwjob.
As most wrestling fans know, in 1997 at the Bell Centre, Bret Hart defended the WWF title against Shawn Michaels. During the match, Michaels had Hart in the sharpshooter — Hart’s signature move — and Vince McMahon ordered referee Earl Hebner to end the match early, despite Hart not tapping out, and declare Michaels the winner. The infamous moment was met with heavy backlash, but also doubts as to whether Hart knew it was going to happen, or he was genuinely screwed out of giving up the title.
With a docuseries focusing on all the major moments of McMahon’s rise to power, the WWE founder, Michaels and Hart all had another chance to speak again on what happened that night.
What is said about the Montreal Screwjob?
Ahead of the match, Hart and McMahon discussed how ‘The Hitman’ was going to leave WWE for WCW. With his champion set to depart, McMahon wanted Hart to drop the title in his final appearance. The only issue was Hart didn’t want to drop the title to Michaels because the two had a legitimate feud against one another.
”Bret, I want you to do the honors for Shawn tonight, because we need someone to replace you. And Bret said ‘Well, I don’t wanna do that,” McMahon recalled.
Current WWE chief content officer Paul ‘Triple H’ Levesque said he then told McMahon if Bret wasn’t going to drop the title, then he would have to do it for him. McMahon then told Hart the plan was going to be the match ending by disqualification. But when Michaels got to putting Hart in the sharpshooter, McMahon said he ordered the match to be ended, and he was ringside on purpose.
“I wanted to be out at ringside so that (Hart) would know what happened, and I took back what was mine. Bret obviously didn’t like that,’ McMahon said.
Hart then talked about how angry he was about it, with the notion he was not in on the ending.
‘It’s hard for people to imagine how mad you can get when you get betrayed like that on national television, and in a lot of ways, kind of made a fool of,’ he said. ‘I couldn’t have given a man more than what I gave Vince McMahon. None of that meant anything when Vince screwed me that day in Montreal.’
Was anyone else in on the Montreal Screwjob?
No other person confirmed they were in on the Montreal Screwjob, including Michaels, who told Hart after the match he wasn’t in on it. But Levesque made it appear he at least knew what was going to happen.
‘Vince was so adamant we had to absolutely swear that we knew nothing about this. He was like, ‘I don’t care who asks you, you bold-face lie right to them and say ‘I knew nothing about this. This was a Vince McMahon call,” he said.
Hart and McMahon met in the locker room after the incident, and the WWE boss said he knew he was going to be hit. When they confronted, McMahon said Hart hit him so hard ‘right in the temple’ and it knocked him out.
“He was out cold like a starfish,’ Hart said. ‘Probably the best thing I ever did, and he deserved every bit of that.’
McMahon capped off looking back at the incident by saying he doesn’t regret doing it at all.