In the history of wrestling, no kayfabe break has been as widely-reported and far-reaching as the Montreal Screwjob. It changed wrestling forever in a variety of ways, and not the least of which was that any attempts at portraying any pro wrestling anywhere as legitimate were completely shattered. In a nutshell, Bret Hart was leaving WWE, but he was the WWE Champion. He was willing to lose the title before he left, but not to Shawn Michaels, and not in Canada (and since he had a creative control clause in his contract, it was Hart's legal right to refuse). Vince McMahon told Hart not to worry about it and said that he could leave as champion after Survivor Series, but at the show - where Hart wrestled Michaels in Canada - McMahon came down to ringside and demanded the match be stopped, with HBK declared the winner and new champion. Fans who saw that Bret Hart never tapped out to Michaels's Sharpshooter were confused, but a picture began to form over the next few days. Hart began publicly stating that McMahon surprised him in the ring by going back on the agreed-upon finish, while McMahon said that he had to protect his company by lying to Hart about his intentions. Michaels, meanwhile, said that he had no knowledge of the plans, and that he expected the match to end as they had discussed. All over the media, WWE's Chairman and top stars were talking about the finish to a match - so what could be even more damning than that?
Scott Fried is a Slammy Award-winning* writer living and working in New York City. He has been following/writing about professional wrestling for many years and is a graduate of Lance Storm's Storm Wrestling Academy. Follow him on Twitter at https://twitter.com/scottfried.
*Best Crowd of the Year, 2013
