Even though I was no longer a wrestling fan, I had heard about The Montreal Screwjob beforehand and how Brett The Hitman Hart was fucked over by the WWE after 14 years of service just before he left to go to WCW. The documentary goes into the background of Hart, how he became a wrestler and his journey into the WWE.
At the time, Hart was the WWF World Champion and this would be because the owner Vince McMahon had made that decision. Hart was leaving the WWF and he needed to relinquish his belt. Hart whose character had become very popular with the fans was turning into an anti-American pro-Canadian nationalist.
Shawn Michaels and Hart had very little respect for each other, they had a brawl after a wrestling match when Michaels accused Hart of having an affair with his wife, something which he denies in the documentary. As the storylines are decided before anyone wrestler steps into the ring, insiders within the WWF was speaking about how he would lose the belt. Hart was asked if he would give up the belt to Michaels. He said that he would have no problem losing to Michaels if McMahon requested it but when Michaels replied that he would not be willing to do the same, Hart was shocked and super pissed off, so he refused to lose the WWF Championship belt to Michaels at the pay-per-view event in Montreal.
While there are conflicting stories of how the screwjob was setup between Jim Cornette and Vince Russo who both claim it was their idea. The documented gives a comprehensive account of the build-up and as to what transpired directly after the match. Cornette and Russo clearly don’t like each other and it shows but in my humble opinion, Cornette's story sounds more plausible. He talks about a wrestling match where this happened to another wrestler.
Bret’s personal account of his interactions with McMahon and Michaels after the match should be well known to any wrestling fan but the stories from referee Earl Hebner show the reality of how far-reaching this story goes.
If you haven't seen any of these documentaries on Channel 4 On Demand, then put your computer away and get watching them. Otherwise, you are not a wrestling fan as far as I'm concerned.
Hybrid Rules.
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