8 Things Everybody Gets Wrong About The Montreal Screwjob

The rationale for forcibly taking the belt off of Hart at Survivor Series stems from the theory that a spiteful "Hitman" could have showed up on Nitro the next night with the WWE Championship belt, and trashed it in Madusa-like fashion.

For one thing, Bischoff, at his most nefarious, would not have allowed that, owing to the fact that WWE sued Turner over the Madusa act. Bischoff had to keep things on the up-and-up.

Even then, Hart was bound to WWE until at least December 1. He couldn't show up on WCW programming until after that date. WWE's concern was that Bischoff would go on Nitro on November 10 and announce that he'd signed away WWE's champion, which would make WWE look like idiots.

In McMahon's mind, Hart could not leave Montreal with the belt for that reason.