It had to be a Work??

[Deleted]

I've been thinking a lot about this, and looking back the HBK-Bret Hart Feud it was done almost perfectly, cause around this time HBK was turing Heel, and Bret was a heel.....except for when he was in Canada.
There were ppvs and raw done in Canada through this time, in which the Hart Foundation were mega over.

Now here's the big blowoff match which happens to be in Canada of all places. What better way to solify DX has a heel faction?

Now there's one more thing that furthers my opinion... There just so happened to be camera man that night documenting bret's last days in the WW. Now some reasons why I think it was a work

1. The Internet...around this time the internet was starting to to be become huge thus rumors and such leaking

2. I thought this was fake? By this time it was no big secret that wrestling was fixed, what better way to swerve the audince?

3. Vince McMahon is the Boss...Vince was getting ready to become and on screen caracther...what better than to show everyone he's the boss

4. Nitro advertises raw... Of course nitro was going to have some talk about this, leading viewers to raw to get the other side of the story.

I still think to this day the Montreal Screwjob was the greatest work in wrestling history...what do you think wf?

[markallenkellner]

I still think it was a work to this day. It was a way for Bret to drop the belt without actually losing and for him to automatically become the number 1 babyface and hottest thing in the world at that time for when he got to WCW. Not to mention, it was pretty convenient that this was all being filmed for Wrestling With Shadows.

[Chicago]

I will believe it was real unless proven otherwise by those that were involved in it. I would imagine dates for events are planned months in advance, so it's just a coincidence that the WWF was touring Canada at the same time the Screwjob occurred. The camera crew had been following Bret around for months to document his career and the saga that was his relationship with the WWF, Vince McMahon, Shawn Michaels, etc. I don't believe allowing a camera crew backstage is that convincing that everything was a work, but I can see how some might think that.

In response to your bullet points,

1. Rumors and dirt sheets have been around for ages, so the Internet doesn't really play an important role in this discussion.

2. Pro wrestling wasn't really accepted by the mainstream until 1998 once Austin was the face of the company, so I wouldn't say that the WWF had a stranglehold on the public and its attention. Plenty of screwjobs have happened in the past and they weren't done to gain interest in the product.

3. Vince's greatest success came from the Screwjob when his "Mr. McMahon" character was formed, I'll give you that, but in no way was it ever guaranteed to be a hit as he was merely a play-by-play commentator up until that point. Sure, most older fans knew he was the owner of the company, but it wasn't conceivable at the time that Vince would become one of the greatest heels of the era until the feud with Austin came around.

4. So does this mean that the WWF and WCW feud was all worked, too? There really was no competition since everyone was in on it all along? I don't believe this, and obviously WCW would have some say in it since it was one of the biggest events in pro wrestling history, which ushered in a whole new era. It's not like they were just going to ignore what happened when everyone was talking about it.

Also, WCW dropped the ing ball with Bret Hart when he debuted, so I'm less inclined to believe it was worked when, if that were the case, you would think Bret would have been a huge star for them.

[raz2005uk]

this topic always comes up every month or so - to put it best, I reckon some of it may have been a work, HOWEVER Vince decided to backtrack without bret's consent - which caused the whole situation to turn into a real life shoot.

[Grapple Arcade]

Mar 15, 2009 13:42:41 GMT -5 raz2005uk said:

this topic always comes up every month or so -

yes, it really does

[Deleted]

Mar 15, 2009 17:31:20 GMT -5 Grapple Arcade said:

Mar 15, 2009 13:42:41 GMT -5 raz2005uk said:

this topic always comes up every month or so -

yes, it really does

I had no idea.

And to this day, I guess the only people who will ever know are Vince, Bret and Shawn.

[Gene]

If it was a work Bret really knows how to act bitter and miserable.

[k5]

i don't think bret would manipulate the very business he loved.

[cenaroxorz123]

Yeah and they're still selling it to this day because there's so much money to be made off of it.

[LeighD]

I don't believe for a second it was a work.

[Next Man’s Yeeter]

Of course it wasn't a "work". Bret Hart's been bitter about it for years. And it would undercut everything in his book about trying to portray his life honestly if he tells huge lies about that situation.

[nibs92]

i always thought it was strange that wrestling with shadows - a year in the life of bret hart - had been filming for approximately 1 year when this happened.

however i do believe it was real, if not it would have come out by now

[Deleted]

Idk man I still think it was the greatest work ever in the History of our sport..

Also another thing I found funny was in his HOF speech he said the day after the screwjob his son came down wearing all HBK merchandise, as a joke, and Bret said he told Shawn about that and shared a laugh about it, yet i thought they had shunned each other

[Next Man’s Yeeter]

Mar 16, 2009 11:26:37 GMT -5 @jbone said:

Idk man I still think it was the greatest work ever in the History of our sport..

Even better than Steamboat vs Savage?

Also another thing I found funny was in his HOF speech he said the day after the screwjob his son came down wearing all HBK merchandise, as a joke, and Bret said he told Shawn about that and shared a laugh about it, yet i thought they had shunned each other

Are you sure that wasn't after the iron man match?

[OmegaGaijin]

it wasnt a work,i still think its a miracle that bret recoverd from it all,and is happy now(iam sure people will remind me it took awhile). i would never be stong enough to come back from that,let alone the family stuff that came afterwards.

[rockbottom423]

I don't think it was a work at all. Bret Hart could have come back to do some type of role with the WWE if this was a work. He has never stepped foot in a WWE ring since November of 1997. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame which was a great thing to see happen, but he didn't show up at Wrestlemania. He was offered to do something for Summerslam 2005 but he didn't want to. I don't know it's either the situation or he just doesn't like the wrestling atmosphere. He was pretty vocal about the Attitude era. However, since it is becoming more PG which certainly isn't a bad thing we'll see if he decides to do something. I think this whole thing is still a shoot.

[rollerhunk]

All of your points show why Vince would have thought it was a good idea, none of them suggest that Bret had to have been in on it.

[Deleted]

Mar 16, 2009 13:21:27 GMT -5 Next Man’s Yeeter said:

Mar 16, 2009 11:26:37 GMT -5 @jbone said:

Idk man I still think it was the greatest work ever in the History of our sport..

Even better than Steamboat vs Savage?

Also another thing I found funny was in his HOF speech he said the day after the screwjob his son came down wearing all HBK merchandise, as a joke, and Bret said he told Shawn about that and shared a laugh about it, yet i thought they had shunned each other

Are you sure that wasn't after the iron man match?

OHHHH snap i didnt think of that haha

[Bob Sapp]

It was a work.

It was a series of screwjobs played on Bret Hart. Watch Royal Rumble 1997 and up. Every match he talks about how he was screwed. It was a running story all year leading up to Montreal.

After he won the belt, he defended the next night on RAW to Sid, Austin hit him with a chair and he lost the belt, and claimed he had been "Screwed". That was following In Your House: Final Four, then there was the cage match with Sid. Undertaker slammed the door on his face when he was about to escape. After the match, he pushed everyone down and said he was "screwed".

The Montreal Screwjob was just part of the long string of screwjobs Bret had that year.