Montreal Screwjob 20 years later: What role did Vince McMahon play?

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

“Bret screwed Bret.”

These were the words from WWE owner Vince McMahon following the most infamous and controversial event in professional wrestling history that celebrates its 20th anniversary this year. Of course, the topic here is the 1997 edition of WWE Survivor Series and the Montreal Screwjob.

For years, many people had no idea that Vince McMahon was the owner of WWE and thought he was just a member of the announce team. To many kids, like myself, who grew up in the Golden Era in the 1980s, McMahon was just the announcer that really liked Hulk Hogan. Little did we know that it was McMahon who had made Hogan the focus of his company and used his immense popularity to build what would become a professional wrestling empire.

Following the Hogan era, Vince had to build new stars and McMahon decided to hand the ball to Bret “The Hitman” Hart, who would win his first WWE Championship in the fall of 1992. However, there was another youngster waiting in the wings for his time to shine. That man was Shawn Michaels. Hart and Michaels had been in the ring on numerous occasions as members of The Hart Foundation and The Rockers but had never really been in an important one-on-one situation. That changed at Survivor Series in 1992 as “The Hitman” defeated “The Heartbreak Kid” in one of the best Survivor Series main events in history. The two would meet again five years later in the same event but things wouldn’t go quite as smoothly.

While Hart was a good champion, Vince McMahon had decided that perhaps Shawn Michaels was the real future of WWE and the decision was made to have Bret drop the WWE Championship to Shawn in a 60-minute Iron Man Match at WrestleMania 12 in one of the best matches of all time. HBK’s spot at the top was solidified that night but the issues between the two men, who had been friends for a while now, started to get personal and Bret took some time off following the match, during which time he was offered a big contract with WWE’s main rival, World Championship Wrestling.

Not wanting to lose Bret to Ted Turner and company, McMahon signed Hart to an unprecedented 20-year contract, and upon his return in the fall of 1996, “The Hitman” stated that he would remain in WWE forever. Fast forward to a year later and things had drastically changed. The issues between Hart and Michaels had escalated backstage and McMahon would soon find himself in a very tough spot.

WCW had been taking it to WWE in the ratings for quite some time and Vince was looking for a new, edgier product and basically told Bret that he could no longer afford the 20-year contract he had given him the year before and essentially gave his blessing to Hart to sign with WCW. Bret accepted a huge contract with WCW and his contract was set to expire in November of 1997. The big problem here was that Bret Hart was the WWE Champion and Vince needed to find a way to get the title off of him to avoid any kind of situation that might mirror the incident from 1995 when Alundra Blayze took the WWE Women’s Championship to Monday Nitro and threw it in the trash. One wouldn’t think Bret would do anything like that but as the owner, McMahon needed to have his bases covered.

A big issue was that Bret had creative control in the final month of his contract, meaning he could say no to anything having to do with his character, which included dropping the title to Shawn Michaels. Vince had brought the idea of once again losing the belt to HBK at Survivor Series and Bret basically said he’d rather blow his own head off than let that happen, especially in his homeland. Vince gave Bret scenario after scenario but Hart wouldn’t budge and McMahon eventually agreed to allow the match to finish in a disqualification and then let “The Hitman” relinquish the following Monday night.

Well, McMahon had other plans.

After discussing the situation with Michaels and his good friend (and McMahon’s future son-in-law), Triple H, Vince decided to take matters into his own hands and force the title change without Bret knowing about it. We all know what happened from there. At the end of the match, Shawn had Bret locked in the Sharpshooter and referee Earl Hebner called for the bell with McMahon at ringside. Hebner was out of the ring immediately and Shawn pretended he had no idea what was happening, running out of the arena with the title in hand.

Hart had no idea what was happening and almost immediately spat in McMahon’s face. Vince had told anyone that knew of the plan to deny, deny and deny some more, and he would take the entire blame for the incident. He knew Bret would be upset and even expected a confrontation backstage and that’s exactly what happened as Vince gave Hart a free shot and Bret took full advantage. He blackened the eye of the boss before exiting the company and heading down south.

As for McMahon, his role in the Montreal Screwjob is actually quite clear. He’s the boss and made a choice that was best for his company. I completely agree with everything he said in the interview the following night. Bret should have done the right thing and agreed to drop the title to Shawn in Montreal. It was the right thing to do and knowing the business better than anyone, Vince McMahon made the call to ensure that it happened no matter what.

What that night in Montreal also did was create one of the most successful characters in WWE history as Vince McMahon became Mr. McMahon, one of the best heels the business has ever seen. He took a bad situation and turned it into gold. Sure, there are still people out there who sympathize with Bret Hart about what happened that night but Vince put the business ahead of any one individual and made the call… like a boss.

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What are your thoughts on Vince McMahon’s role in the Montreal Screwjob?