Context?

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montreal_Screwjob

Non-Mobile link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montreal_Screwjob

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Weak tea

Wait, wrestling is rigged? Jesus

The biggest conspiracy of them all!

They actually implant their bodies with cushions so when they take falls it doesn't hurt at all. Fake AF

You take that back! You take that back, good sir, or I challenge you to a bout of fisticuffs! What say ye good sir!

They often use "stunt grannies" to take a bump (fall) to get heat on the bad guy wrestlers. But don't worry - she's in on the act!

Is this a wrestling sub reddit ?

It was a shoot. Hart knew nothing about it, McMahon & co. set him up

I think the story is legit. Vince thought that Bret was going to go to WCW, and was afraid of having a repeat of when someone came on WCW and threw the WWF championship in the garbage. So, Vince took it out of the hands of Bret and came down a d called for the end of the match when HBK had Bret in the Sharpshooter.

Shawn and Bret didn't know the finish of the matxh beforehand, and Bret did punch Vince in the mouth backstage after the match. This led to Bret leaving WWF for a long time.

Shawn knew

Definitely a shoot. The Radiolab podcast did a good episode about this a few years ago

Radiolab covered this!? Please link

http://www.radiolab.org/story/montreal-screwjob/

Derp. Thanks man.

You know... Watching wrestling is one of the best exercises for keeping it together in a world where kayfabe and reality are blurred constantly. Thank you for this post.

Btw, I think it was a work.

Pretty sure Bret would've have knocked out Vince for a worked angle.

It was a shoot. Too many people were involved with it who corroborated it.

The incident created one of the best on screen characters ever. If this was an angle, McMahon would've taken credit for it

It really happened. Bret was going to leave WWF as champion and there’s sort of an unwritten rule that you drop the title if you leave. Shawn and Vince panicked so Shawn suggested that they screw Bret in the match, Vince agreed and that’s how it happened. This is how both Vince and Shawn have said it happened. In my opinion, Bret screwed Bret. He chose to leave the company for more money and if he had’ve arrived at WCW as still the best in the WWF that would’ve made the next WWF champion seem less of a title holder compared to if they had won it fair and square off of Bret which is what should’ve happened.

You got so much of the backstory hilariously wrong. Saying that Bret chose to leave for more money is 100% incorrect. Vince asked to be let out of a 20 year contract that Bret had signed the year previous. That's just one of the many things you don't seem to know about this event. Lol, Shawn didn't suggest the screwjob either. Did you just make this shit up in your head?

No this was in the Shawn Michaels story DVD.

So...much....wrong.

Shoot: reference something to wrestle with episodes “The Montreal Screwjob” And “Bret Hart 1996-1997”

Basically Vince Shawn and Jerry Brisco knew, even though it was discussed as a possibility for weeks leading up to it Vince wanted to find a way to work it out without having to do the screwjob. The finish was supposed to be a disqualification with a bunch of run ins. Bret suggested the sharpshooter reversal spot to Shawn and Shawn brought it to Jerry Brisco And Vince that day who said there’s the window to do a screwjob.

has to be a shoot... in my opinion.

Umm, wrestling is just soap operas for men... None of it is real, even all this controversy. This is like arguing whether it's fair that SpongeBob steals burgers from Plankton without paying for them....

Okay, so, you have never watched spongebob...

Lol as I reread that it doesn't sound right, does it? I could have sworn I saw an episode where SB was trying to steal Plankton's burger, but as I think about it I realize that the overarching story line is the exact opposite... Hmm... Lol

Yeah, to be fair though I have not watched every single episode of the show so there could be some episodes where the roles get reversed.

Work/Worked Shoot.

Never work yourself into a shoot, brother.

I watched throughout that whole era involving Hart/HBK. Hart signed a ridiculoulusy huge 20 year deal with Vince that would lead to him working behind the scenes for the company after wrestling. Eventually, WCW became huge by bringing in former WWF guys and pushing them on tv opposite RAW which led to a huge increase in tv ratings. WCW at one point was on the verge of possibly putting Vince out of business, it would of took time but if WCW would of stayed hot it may of happened!

Vince needed to get out of the Hart contract and Bret agreed he would goto WCW where they could pay him much much more for less, WCW handed out extremely huge contracts to almost anyone who was on WWF TV at that time. The problem now was how do they get the title off Bret? Hart wanted to drop the belt to Ken Shamrock who he was a supporter of and not HBK who he hated in real life and didn't respect how HBK did business. There was also some comment from HBK saying Bret was gonna drop his title to him and there's nothing he can do about it. Not verbatim but it was along those lines, and then this led to Triple H and HBK going to Vince about the finish at Survivor Series 97 where Bret would be screwed out of the belt live on PPV.

During this whole ordeal, Bret had a camera crew following him and it was turned into a documentary called, "Wrestling with Shadows" and you get exclusive footage of some of the backstage stuff that went down and you see some of the before and aftermath of Vince getting punched. You don't see the actual punch though. Good documentary though.

I believe it was a real screwjob, Vince got desperate. Thing is I really doubt Bret would if brought the title to WCW because the man was loyal and have a lot of integrity , he respected Vince for giving him his chance and becoming a big name. As a fan of Bret, it sucked watched his career unfold following that. WCW wasted him, then Owen died, and then Bret got mule kicked in the head by Goldberg which resulted in post concussion syndrome and retirement. Following that he ends up getting in a bad accident on his bicycle and having a stroke! No chance of returning to the ring after that.....

Worst part of his career ending way it did was the matches v CM Punk, Angle, Lesnar, The Rock, and so many more. As fans we were robbed just like Bret was.

thing is I really doubt Bret would if brought the title to WCW because the man was loyal and have a lot of integrity , he respected Vince for giving him his chance and becoming a big name.

That's absolutely true, but from Vince's standpoint, it wasn't a chance that he could afford to take. We know that Bischoff absolutely wanted Bret to trash the WWF title on TV. Bret has integrity, but what if Bischoff offered him something absurd, like a $10 Million signing bonus if he dumped the title in the trash like Medusa did? If you're Vince, no matter how much you trust Bret Hart is a man of his word, you're better off getting the title off of him.

We know that Bischoff absolutely wanted Bret to trash the WWF title on TV.

This isn't true at all. All sides recount that Bret bringing the title wasn't even in the discussion, because there was still ongoing legal proceedings from when Medusa dropped her title in the trash on Nitro; this has been confirmed by Meltzer and other pro wrestling journalists. There is literally no proof or evidence for the "Bischoff wanted Bret to bring the title to Nitro" outside of the revisionist history employed by Vince and his cronies in WWF.

What is the name of the documentary?

Wrestling with Shadows I believe

Thanks! I’m going to check it out.

I think Bret Hart just knows to never drop kayfabe

I grew up in Canada in the 90s, and was a huge wwf/wcw fan at the time this happened. Being canadian, I was a huge Bret Hart fan. Bret Hart and his crew were feuding with Michael's and his crew at the time, and the storyline had a Canada vs. USA angle. I remember rooting for Bret extra hard because of this. You can see how Michaels disgraces the Canadian flag at the beginning of the Survivor Series match. I always believed the story that Bret was leaving to the WCW, and McMahon purposefully called the tap out during the match to ensure Bret didn't take the belt over to WCW when he left. However, Bret didn't want to drop the belt in Canada, and this is where this issues arise.

I stopped watching wrestling wayyy back, maybe early 2000s. Then recently on Youtube I saw many famous wrestlers from that era had done real interviews concerning the screwjob. I was surprised to hear a lot of them (watch Xpac and Kevin Nash) say that the screwjob was scripted, and it was the greatest wrestling work ever because of how well it blurred the line between reality/fiction.

However, this is not the conspiracy I'm concerned with anymore. Whether it was or wasn't, I became interested in another conspiratorial aspect of the wrestling industry. I was always interested in conspiracy theories regarding the film and music industries. Whether actors and musicians "sell their souls" or provide a "sacrifice" in order to gain their wealth and fame in the industry. However, I never thought about how this may have affected the wrestling business...until recently.

Who in the wrestling business do you think sold their soul? Guys like Cena, The Rock etc who have transcended WWE to become well known to everyone?

Its a weird industry, nothing else is really like it. You'd really have to go person by person.

Cena is a huge influence through his make a wish work alone and The Rock is entirely his own category.

Cant say for sure, but Bret Harts situation is a bit odd. From what Ive heard, in making his jump from wwf to wcw doubled his annual salary, from 1.2 something to 2.4 mil. That was in 1997. Did he pay a price for this? His brother owen Hart in wwf falls to his death at the "Over the edge" ppv in 1999. Somethings definitely fishy with that death. From what Ive heard, vince russo the shows writer wants owen to do an angle where he cheats on his wife and gets with a diva or something. owen declines because he respects his wife and family. so they change it to make him dress as his old wwf character called the blue blazer, who repels down to the ring. owen hart doesnt like heights but agrees since he turned down the original idea. the rest is history. the roddy piper confonted russo on wcw thunder about if he killed owen. it doesnt look scripted.

Then theres the British bulldog. Close with owen and bret, wrestled and trained with the Hart family in canada. he dies in the early 2000s at a young age. He had a cousin, the dynamite kid, praised as one of the most influential of all time. He has ties to Bret and stampede wrestling in calgary, amd his careers cut short from back issues, and turns into a vegetable while still fairly young.

Theres also Chris Benoit, a canadian who trained with the Harts. Kills his whole family out of the blue? his death and circumstances are very odd. The episode of RAW before the story broke in the news was McMahon being blown up,his limousine burning in flames. People on the internet and some news sources report vince actually died. then BAM vince is back alive on TV the next day reporting the news of Benoit, which ruined the storyline at the time. benoit was married to nancy, who was a wwf diva. back in the 80s she was paired with a guy named kevin sullivan. people claim hes a devil worshipper, and blame him for the death. his gimmick in the 80s was as a satanist dude called the fallen angel or something, with nancy benoit as his partner. in the wcw years later, sullivan becomes the main booker of matches, and creates a story line where nancy (his real gf at the time and old wwf diva partner) begins having an affair with chris benoit. behind the scenes the two actually are having an affair, and nancy leaves sullivan for chris, who also left his wife, and they get married, and have a son. years later, that tragic day occurs at their home in atlanta....

Interestingly enough, the one wrestler who everyone assumes would have quickly "sold his soul," The Undertaker, is a devout Christian.

Well Kevin Nash, Scott Hall and Sean Waltman all think it was a work and make good points as to why it is.

Care to elaborate on their points? Or link me up.

Very interested on what they had to say. I'm sure they have many backstage stories.

Good ol rasslin

Just met Brett at RI comicon in November. He's still obviously bitter about it. Definitely a shoot. Check out The Lapsed Fan wrestling podcast. They just did about 20 hours of podcasts on the subject. A really great listen.

Real.

Bret & Vince were deposed during the Owen Hart lawsuit and both stated that it was real.

Bret screwed Bret

Hey Sam Roberts

I thought it was out there now that Shawn, HHH, Vince and a few others were in the know. I think they owned up to it? HHH is an evil genius. Single handy stopped me watching, it was never the same after hia shitty Reign of Terror.

I personally believe it was staged, but it pales in comparison to the later years of WWF before it was renamed to WWE. More famously, nineteen ninety eight when the undertaker threw mankind off hеll in a cell, and he plummeted sixteen feet through an announcer's table.