For The Record 11.09.08: Avoiding the Montreal Incident

Wrestling fans can legitimately take either Hart’s side or McMahon’s side when discussing the Montreal fiasco. But this article will not focus on who was the most righteous person on that dreadful night. The focus will be this: What simple steps could have been taken to avoid such a tense night in Montreal?

McMahon knew that taking the title off Hart in Montreal before millions of Canadian fans would be problematic for his departing veteran. And yet he still insisted on (A) Hart losing the title to his sworn enemy and (B) pushing for the title change in Montreal. Such a request was harsh even by McMahon’s standards and perhaps the WWE owner could have been more sensitive to the situation. Below are a few common sense ways to accommodate the departing legend while enabling the company to keep face.

Bret Hart could have dropped the title before the Survivor Series. There were several occasions in the lead up to the pay-per-view when WWE could have pulled the trigger on a title change. For instance, McMahon could have easily opened a Raw with Hart losing the championship to Michaels via a miscommunication between Bret and the rest of the Hart Foundation. Let’s say Owen accidentally struck his brother and that led to an HBK Superkick and quick fall. Michaels, quickly grabbing the belt and jogging back to the locker room could have stopped momentarily with a pompous smirk on his face as he witnesses the Hart Foundation meltdown. Bret could have slapped Owen in the face and –BAM- Canadian fans could have been treated to the final Hart encounter where Bret puts over his brother Owen one last time in Montreal.

Sure, some say that Owen was already scheduled to face Stone Cold at Survivor Series. But wouldn’t McMahon have garnered amazing heat by changing his mind and telling Austin that he wasn’t ready to face Owen Hart? McMahon could have easily thrown Austin into a traditional Survivor Series match and allowed Austin to eliminate an entire team or lay out all the members of both teams with a vintage Stone Cold tirade. Austin versus Owen could have waited for a later date. Okay, that is only one scenario that could have changed the mood of Survivor Series. But there’s another simple scenario that could have avoided the “screwjob.”

McMahon could have gone with the planned finish at Survivor Series but insisted that the belt stays in the hands of WWE officials before Hart took to the ring the next night on Raw. If McMahon was so fearful that Hart would take the belt to Nitro, ensuring that McMahon had a grip of the belt would have alleviated that concern. If Bret would have refused, McMahon could have cancelled the match altogether, confiscated the title, and created an impromptu match that would have crowned a new world champion. That way, McMahon could have kept face by saying that he had no choice but to cancel the match and the “screwjob” of sorts would have happened behind closed doors as opposed to on the air.

One can’t help but wonder what McMahon thought Michaels would gain by winning the belt in Montreal. Michaels was already an iconic main eventer at that point. In fact, one could argue that Michaels was already a bigger star than Hart. Michaels’s career was not going to “take off” by scoring a fall over the Hitman in Canada. McMahon’s stubbornness and lack of creativity was partly to blame for the incident.

However, Hart is also culpable in the matter. He was fully aware of the “time honored tradition” of departing wrestlers putting over opponents. If Bret Hart was a so-called traditionalist, he should have heeded McMahon’s request and put over whomever McMahon wished. And though putting over Michaels in Montreal might have been tough for Hart to swallow, it was the professional thing to do.

One thing Hart should have realized was WWE fans prefer clean finishes over no-contests. Canadian fans hardly ever get live pay-per-views and to give them a no-contest in the main event would have been moronic. Hart advocated for a double disqualification finish that would have seen the Hart Foundation and Degeneration X brawling as the show came to a close. I sincerely doubt that Canadian fans would have appreciated such a cop-out finish. They would have rather have seen a resolution to the feud with a clear winner and a clear loser. Ironically, Hart’s proposed finish would have been a disservice to the very fans that he was trying to please. If Hart could have been a better sport, the “screwjob” could have been avoided.

Hart should have also realized that what he was advocating was not in McMahon’s interest… not even in the slightest. Why, oh why, would Vince McMahon want to give a glorious exit to a guy who very well could have given WWE its final death knell? If handled properly, Bret Hart could have put WCW over the top. Hart at the time was the most sought after talent in professional wrestling since Hulk Hogan. He could have been a revolutionary figure in WCW and made WWE look like the bush leagues. Fortunately for McMahon, Hart’s impact on Nitro was marginal. But in November of 1997, all McMahon knew was that he star he created was about to join WCW and contribute towards Eric Bischoff’s efforts to put WWE out of business. McMahon, as I said above, will do anything to protect the company his father built. And if doing that means he has to lie to his workers’ faces, he’ll do it. Hart should have known that; where was his head?

I would now like to go beyond the specific hypotheticals. McMahon was put in a tough spot. Whether he did the right thing or not is open to debate. But what is beyond reasonable dispute is that in hindsight, Bret “screwed” Bret. We can obviously see what became of Vince McMahon after the “screwjob.” WWE reached unheard of heights. McMahon became a billionaire and enjoyed blockbuster ratings. The WWE Chairman has no reason to be bitter over the incident. However, Hart must always live with the fact that because of his inability to evolve with the changing wrestling world, his career suffered. One of Hart’s loudest complaints in his waning months with WWE was that the Hitman character was in limbo. He went from being the WWE’s top babyface to becoming WWE’s resident anti-American heel. So with WWE becoming more edgy and with Michaels emerging as the company’s top heel, Hart felt out of place and worried that his character lacked direction. Because of that, he left WWE. Now of course Hart was also offered the richest contract in wrestling history from WCW to change companies. But according to Bret from the “Wresting with Shadows” documentary, his departure was not about the money. So if his departure was not about the money, it was about the direction of WWE and his Hitman character. And if Bret couldn’t be THE top face or top heel, he wasn’t satisfied.

Unfortunately for Hart, he missed the opportunity to develop a brilliantly nuanced character. Bret “Hitman” Hart was an amazing performer in 1997, both in the ring and on the mike. Everything he said was correct, and yet he was booed despite the veracity of his promos. It is much akin to Chris Jericho’s gimmick of today. But Hart didn’t understand that professional wrestling was in the midst of a movement that saw characters become more realistic and less cartoonish. He failed to realize how cutting edge his character was. Hart was tailor made for the emerging Attitude Era and the Hitman really missed the boat.