Survivor Series ‘97 Forever Changed Pro Wrestling
November 9, 1997.
Whether you believed Vince screwed Bret, or that Bret screwed Bret, the date is one of wrestling’s most memorable.
WWE held the 1997 Survivor Series in Montreal, and the finish of the main event was unforgettable.
Courtesy WWE
Shawn Michaels defeated Bret Hart to win the WWF title, with Vince McMahon sitting ringside and overseeing and ending sequence that Hart was not suspecting.
“It was a pretty close-knit group who knew about the screw job,” Hart told Sports Illustrated in 2014. “Vince, Triple H, and Shawn were the three who planned it, and they got Jerry Brisco to come up with a plan when to execute the finish.
“I was getting ready to go through the curtain when they circled Earl and basically told him this was how the match was going down. They also reminded him he was mic’d, with a microphone behind his ear, so they could hear everything he said. If he did anything to tip me off, they’d fire him.”
Courtesy WWE
The finish came when Michaels locked Hart in the Sharpshooter. Before he could reverse it, referee Earl Hebner called for the bell. McMahon, who was sitting ringside to add legitimacy to the storyline of the match, made sure the bell was rung.
“Before I went in the ring, I told myself I’d never let them put a submission hold on me,” Hart explained. “But because I had Earl as the referee, and I trusted that he wouldn’t screw me, I wasn’t too worried about that any more. That was my big mistake.”
As Michaels and Hebner fled the scene, the fireworks were only beginning. Hart exploded in anger in and around the around, famously telling the crowd he was headed to WCW. And then even more chaos ensued backstage.
There was the ridiculous. “The British Bulldog” Davey Boy Smith had a knack of using Hart’s towel, so after Hart showered, he realized he had no way to dry off.
When Hart exited the shower and prepared to confront McMahon, he immediately recognized he could not get into a physical scrap with McMahon until he was dressed.
“The first time I walked past Vince, there was a part of me that wanted to take him out right then and there,” said Hart. “But the thought of me getting into a scrap with him while naked seemed ridiculous.”
As Hart put on his clothes, he warned McMahon to leave the locker room. McMahon never left. Hart decided he needed to stand up for himself after being lied to the promoter, a cardinal sin in pro wrestling.
“The last thing I tied was my shoelaces, and I remember thinking there was nothing else to put on,” said Hart. “So I stood up and started to realize that Vince had this all planned out. He wanted to put on a good showing to all of the wrestlers, showing he wasn’t this conniving little chickenshit guy that everyone thought he was. He wanted to show everyone he was this courageous Vince McMahon who stood Bret Hart down.”
Courtesy WWE
That was when it happened: life imitated art. The men who portrayed pro wrestlers for a living embraced that ethos backstage, with Hart embodying the wronged babyface and McMahon playing the role of the villain.
“When we walked towards each other, it was a lot like a wrestling match,” explained Hart. “On one side of the room was Vince, and he had Sgt. Slaughter, Shane McMahon, and Jerry Brisco with their arms crossed behind him. On my side of the room was Owen, Davey, Rick Rude, and Neidhart all in the corner to my left. On my right was the Undertaker, and Shawn was on his right. Shawn was sitting in the corner holding his head in his hands balling his eyes out. He cried like a baby the whole time. I always knew Shawn was guilty, but I wanted to find out for sure before I did something about it.”
“I got a good grip in with my left hand.I think everyone in the room–including Vince–was expecting me to throw an overhand punch. That would be my one shot, but then a bunch of guys would grab my arm, they’d grab Vince, and then we’d have a little pull-apart like they do in wrestling. It would end with me yelling at Vince, calling him a bunch of names, and Vince would have left having backed me down. I knew as we grabbed each other that this was not going to be a long scuffle. Everyone in the room was ready to pounce on us. No one in the room wanted to see us fight.
“It was the most beautiful uppercut punch you could ever imagine,” said Hart. “I actually thought it would miss and go right up the side of his head, but I popped him right up like a cork was under his jaw and lifted him right off the hand. I broke my right hand just beneath the knuckle, and knocked Vince out cold. He thought he would come out of that OK, but he didn’t plan on an upper cut. They dragged Vince out of the room and it was pretty much done.”
Courtesy WWE
Lost in all the commotion was that Hart and Michaels were piecing together another masterpiece. Yet that would not be how the night would be remembered.
McMahon became a full fledged heel on screen, providing the perfect adversary for “Stone Cold” Steve Austin. Hart struggled in WCW, never finding his place after almost 15 brilliant years in WWE.
No matter what happened moving forward, the “Montreal Screwjob” will forever be part of their stories. It is an infamous, seminal moment in pro wrestling, forever connecting McMahon and Hart.
November 9, 1997. The day pro wrestling forever changed.
