26 Times Wrestling Titles Have Been Disrespected

6. The Montreal Screwjob

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Everybody who's got any slight knowledge of wrestling history knows all about the Montreal Screwjob. Bret Hart, leaving the WWF for WCW, had agreed to have a no contest finish with Shawn Michaels in his last ever WWF match. Of course, Bret was unaware that the very real fix was in for Earl Hebner to award Shawn a submission victory that would get the WWF Championship off the Hitman.

The whole incident left a bad taste in the mouth of many, and this is arguably the moment where the notion of kayfabe was firmly blown out of the water, changing the wrestling industry forever more.

What is most disrespectful about the Montreal Screwjob is how it saw one wrester knowingly mislead one of his "brothers", as Shawn screwed over Bret Hart. This spat on Hart, the trust and respect that so many wrestlers had worked hard to create over decades prior, and essentially made the WWF Championship look like an afterthought in an environment of school yard backstabbing and politics.

Sure, Vince McMahon couldn't afford to take the risk of Bret walking over to WCW with the belt, but that was never, ever really going to happen.

 
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Senior Writer

Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main dayjob, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg.