The Monday Night War Debate: 14 Things We Learned From Eric Bischoff & Bruce Prichard

5. The Montreal Screwjob

The discussion then moves to another of the most pivotal moments in the war: the events of Survivor Series 1997 when Vince McMahon forcibly took the championship off Bret Hart in the main event. Bischoff says that the two had had talks about a year before and got along great, but just didn't connect on a deal and went their separate ways. Then Bret reached out to Eric and told him he'd decided to make the move to WCW and asked if he'd like him to bring the belt with him. Bischoff told him it wasn't necessary, and he asked "What if they want me to drop the belt?" and Eric told him "Then drop the belt. You're Bret Hart." Bruce then talks about Hart's lucrative contract that Vince realized wasn't a good idea, and how the WWE boss went to Bret and told him he couldn't coninue on with the deal and to use him as leverage to get as much money from WCW as he could.. He says it was a difficult time in the company, with all the animosity between Bret and Shawn and the endless debating about what they were going to do at the pay-per-view. He states that he had no idea what was happening and watched it unfold with Owen Hart and Davey Boy Smith. Eric asks Bruce if Vince had known that he had no intention of using the WWE belt on Nitro, would he have still gone along with the screwjob, and Prichard replies that he thinks he still would have because they needed the title on Shawn to move ahead with the plans for making Steve Austin the champion.