The ‘Montreal Screwjob’ is one of the most infamous incidents in the history of pro wrestling. What made the incident gain so much notoriety was that it was an unscripted incident. On November 9, 1997, at WWE Survivor Serious PPV, the then-WWF Champion Bret Hart squared off against Shawn Michaels.

The match was supposed to end in disqualification, which would lead to the champion retaining his title. However, Vince McMahon, with the help of the match referee, Earl Hebner, altered the match finish without the champion’s knowledge. As a result, ‘HBK’ walked out of the ring as the champion that night.

Montreal Screwjob: Former WWE star sides with Vince McMahon

As per WrestlingNews.co, ‘The Mountie’ Jacques Rougeau, took Mr. McMahon’s side in the Montreal Screwjob incident. He developed a strained relationship with McMahon following his 1994 downfall incident with WWF. But putting his personal grievances aside, he details why he thinks Vinni Mac was right in his approach.

He said, “That was the only decision to do, and I think Vince did the absolute right thing to do. I agree a hundred miles an hour with what happened because you have to give back the belt honorably after holding it and everything Vince did with him and gave him.”

At the time, ‘The Hitman’ was in talks of jumping ships from WWE to WCW. ‘The Mountie’ believes that WWE gave Hart everything, from opportunities to titles to exposure, So, he owed it to WWE to give back the title before he left the company.

Why did the Montreal Screwjob incident happen?

As mentioned before, ‘The Heartthrob’ had made up his mind to leave WWE for WCW. During that time, he was also the WWF Champion, and leaving the Stamford-based promotion with its title was feared to bring a poor reputation to the company.

McMahon tried to convince him to relinquish his title before leaving the promotion. But the then-champion denied his request. In addition, since he and Michaels had a legitimate feud at the time, he was also not ready to lose to him, that too in his home country.

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This led ‘The Evil Genius’ to devise a plan behind the champion’s back. During the Survivor Series match with the championship on the line, ‘HBK’ put ‘The Hitman’ into a sharpshooter (Hart’s signature submission hold). Even though the champion never tapped out, Hebner called for the match to stop and declared Michaels as the winner via submission.

This incident garnered a lot of heat for Mr. McMahon, and the fans began to portray him as the ‘evil boss’. In fact, many believe that this incident gave birth to the boss’s ‘evil genius’ character and also the ‘Attitude Era’. What do you think about ‘The Mountie’s’ statement? Also, let us know your thoughts on the Montreal Screwjob incident in the comments section below.

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