Montreal Screwjob 20 years later: What role did Shawn Michaels play?

20 years later, exactly what role did Shawn Michaels play in the Montreal Screwjob at the 1997 WWE Survivor Series event?

Shawn Michaels will long be remembered as arguably the greatest in-ring performer the professional wrestling business has ever seen. With that being said, it’s very difficult not to think of Shawn Michaels without thinking of Bret Hart and the Montreal Screwjob at the 1997 Survivor Series.

By his own admission, Michaels was not the easiest person to get along with in the 1990s. After breaking away from Marty Jannetty and The Rockers, Shawn found quick success as a singles competitor in WWE, mirroring the career of another former tag team wrestler that made the transition to singles action in Bret “The Hitman” Hart.

The two were respectful of one another after some great matches early in their careers and would become friends… at least for a while. Following the exit of stars like Hulk Hogan, Randy Savage, The Ultimate Warrior and others, Hart became the top guy in the company and would win the WWE Championship on multiple occasions. Meanwhile, Michaels wasn’t far behind and would dominate the midcard as he positioned himself to challenge Hart for that top spot, finally winning the WWE Championship in a phenomenal 60-minute Iron Man Match at WrestleMania XII.

It was around this time that Michaels and Hart would set out on different paths that would somehow always lead right back to one another. As Shawn would embrace a new attitude, Bret was hesitant to change. Hart also didn’t like the fact that HBK refused to return the favor and face him for the title at WrestleMania 13, which led to plenty of tension backstage, a tension that would only get worse when Shawn accused Bret of cheating on his wife with WWE Diva Sunny.

Shawn was battling a lot of personal demons behind the scenes and found himself in a lot of trouble on many different occasions, including being assaulted by a group of Marines in Syracuse, New York a few months before WrestleMania 13. Citing a knee injury, Michaels relinquished the title, also saying that he needed to find his smile in one of the more interesting promos of the era. Bret wasn’t buying the story in front of or behind the camera and accused HBK of faking the injury to avoid dropping the title back to him.

Bret had signed a fresh 20-year contract with WWE the previous year but after Vince McMahon said that he could no longer afford to keep him on the roster, Hart chose to sign a lucrative deal with WCW, meaning that Michaels would once again become the WWE Champion. The problem was that Bret Hart was the champion and he absolutely did not want to drop the title to Shawn in his last match, especially seeing how that last match would be at Survivor Series in Montreal. However, Vince had other ideas and he and a group of others, including Shawn Michaels, devised a plan that would ensure the WWE Championship would never show up in WCW as the Women’s Championship had a few years earlier.

Bret was led to believe that the match would end in a disqualification and he would relinquish the title the next night on RAW, and quietly make his way down south. However, Michaels knew better but still went out and disrespected the Canadian flag before the match even got started, knowing full well he was going to be the villain anyway moving forward. Michaels didn’t seem to care about the consequences of his actions and went along with everything, which I still believe was the right thing to do.

Hart and Michaels, as they always did, put on a great show in front of the Canadian faithful, and although he may not have shown it, Shawn had to be nervous as could be as the finish neared. If you go back and watch, it’s clear that Hart had no idea he was going to be put in the Sharpshooter, and when the bell rang, everyone outside of Vince McMahon looked so confused… except maybe Earl Hebner. It’s hard to know what he was thinking as he bolted out of the ring so fast and just left the arena.

As for Michaels, he was yelling at Vince as if he had no idea what was happening but still made absolutely sure that he ran over and grabbed the belt before leaving the scene. He did throw one little jump and jab at the crowd in there before exiting to the back. The whole problem isn’t with what Shawn did but it’s the fact that he lied about it for so long. He immediately lied to Bret in the locker room and then denied it for years whenever he was asked about it. In his defense, it’s what the boss had told him to do. Everyone else that knew about the screwy finish was told by Vince to play dumb and let the boss take the hit, which he did literally as Bret decked him later in the night.

Next: 30 pro wrestling must-follows on Twitter

Michaels would continue to take jabs at Hart over the years, including his return to Montreal in 2005 when he was feuding with Hulk Hogan. However, HBK would finally admit that he knew everything going into the match and on an episode of RAW in January of 2010. Shawn Michaels and Bret Hart stood face to face in the middle of the ring for the first time since that crazy night and agreed to bury the hatchet.

It’s still crazy to think that Shawn Michaels and Bret Hart would both have their last match in WWE on the same night a few months later at WrestleMania XXVI as Shawn would lose to The Undertaker and Bret would defeat Vince McMahon. One has to wonder if Bret Hart stuck around to watch the world praise Shawn Michaels.