The Complete History Of The Montreal Screwjob

In a professional wrestling tale that is as unbelievable as it is glaringly real, one of the most infamous angles in the history of the industry took place on November 9, 1997 as Bret Hart defended the WWF Championship against Shawn Michaels at Survivor Series inside Montreal’s Molson Centre. 

Despite the personal issues between the two men, they managed to work together in the main event of the WWF pay-per-view and the fans were entertained by the action taking place in front of them. What the fans and Bret Hart didn't know, however, was that several individuals both behind the curtain and at ringside had concocted a plan that would cause his decade-plus-long run with WWE to end in acrimony. 

Bret Hart & Shawn Michaels Cement Themselves As WWF's Top Stars

The first time Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels faced each other in singles action on TV occurred at Survivor Series 1992 when Hart, in his first reign as WWF Champion, put the belt on the line against The Heartbreak Kid. 

Hart and Michaels being featured in the main event scene is not a surprise today, but it most definitely was in 1992, having been precipitated due to the World Wrestling Federation carrying out major house-cleaning amidst a steroid scandal which had engulfed the company. While Hart and Michaels weren't squeaky clean, neither of them was a walking billboard for human growth hormone. 

The now-WWE roster underwent a great amount of change in the five years between the beginning of 1992 and Survivor Series 1997, with only four wrestlers of the 44 talents originally scheduled to wrestle at the 1992 Royal Rumble remaining with WWE throughout that entire stretch of time. Those wrestlers were Owen Hart, The Undertaker, Shawn Michaels, and Bret Hart and the quartet were there through all of the changes as the dying wheezes of Hulkamania gave way to the ill-fated New Generation. When that failed to resonate with the dwindling audience, elements of 1990s culture seeped into WWE with the Attitude Era. 

Through all the drastic changes in scenery and tone, Hart and Michaels consistently occupied the top title scenes as two of the company’s workhorses. They remained on top as dependable stars during a period when the World Wrestling Federation was hugely struggling. 

For the period of May 1, 1994 to April 30, 1995, WWE lost $4.4 million, leading to heavy downsizing. Though the company did turn a $3.3 million dollar profit the following fiscal year, they ended up losing $6.5 million in the same stretch for 1996-97, during the period in which rival World Championship Wrestling began making its boldest leaps, steered by Eric Bischoff who positioned WCW as a genuine threat to the globally-renowned (though image-wounded) World Wrestling Federation.

WCW becoming a genuine competitor to WWF began with the signing of Hulk Hogan in 1994, with Randy Savage following the Hulkster to World Championship Wrestling just six months later. The shocking signings then only continued as Lex Luger, Alundra Blayze, Kevin Nash, and Scott Hall all made their way from WWF to WCW by the spring of 1996, helping turn the tide of the Monday Night Wars in favour of WCW. 

Particularly in the cases of Nash and Hall, money was king as unlike the struggling WWF, Bischoff had the resources to bolster his thriving product through major league deals. As Bret Hart later revealed, when Nash told him the terms of the lucrative deal offered by Bischoff, it was more than what Hart was making in his third reign as WWF Champion, with far fewer dates.

The WWF roster was already thin by the spring of 1996, especially in the main event tier, and the Razor and Diesel-sized voids were only going to erode the company's diminished prestige even more. They weren’t the only top stars in WWF with expiring deals either as Bret Hart’s own contract was ticking down. 

WrestleMania XII

In August of 1995, Hart learned from Vince McMahon what he would be doing for around the next eight months; he would win the WWF Title from Diesel at November's Survivor Series, before going on to drop the gold to Shawn Michaels at WrestleMania XII in Anaheim, California. Hart was asked if he had any issues dropping the belt to Michaels, who by this time had gained a negative reputation in the locker room as arrogance, political manoeuvrings, an apparent disdain for his peers, and a host of other issues made Shawn a polarising figure. HBK was arguably the most complete performer in all of American wrestling, but one with plenty of baggage.

Regardless, Hart was fine with losing the belt to Michaels. Though he and others were well aware of Michaels' various idiosyncrasies and habits, he believed that Michaels had earned a run with the gold. Michaels looked to be the ideal ace too as while most of WCW's top guys aged older, 30-year-old Michaels was younger, wildly charismatic, and could do more between the ropes.

This all led to Michaels defeating Hart in overtime of a gruelling 60-minute Iron Man Match in the main event of WrestleMania 12 to make the boyhood dream come true and win the WWF Championship. The switch made Michaels the de facto leader of the New Generation and the man who would look to carry WWE against WCW in the heated Monday Night Wars.

When Michaels won the belt, WWF Monday Night Raw and WCW Monday Nitro were drawing similar ratings, although WCW was in the ascendancy as they had only won head-to-head four times thus far in 1996.

Post-WrestleMania, Raw won the next six match-ups with Nitro, though those were mostly weeks in which Nitro's scheduling was compromised by the NBA Playoffs. By mid-May, an unencumbered WCW was winning again, and was about to unveil the latest in their long line of shiny new toys. On May 27, the former Razor Ramon jumped the rail on WCW Monday Nitro during an undercard bout. The intrusion was faux-reality done justice, as Scott Hall - and two weeks later Kevin Nash - became the talk of the industry by gate-crashing Monday Nitro on a weekly basis.

Beginning the week after Nash's first appearance, Nitro began a near two-year run of dominance over Raw, with the WCW beating WWF every single week in the Nielsen ratings into April of 1998. 

Shawn Michaels Reigns As WWF Champion While Bret Hart Stays At Home

After the biggest win of his career, Michaels' exploits took a backseat to what his best friends were doing on TNT. The July 1 episode of Raw pitted champion Michaels against former partner Marty Jannetty, yet Nitro beat Raw 3.3 to 2.6 in the ratings. Two weeks later, Michaels successfully defended his title against tag team champion Billy Gunn, but Nitro won again, this time 3.4 to 2.6.

For August 12 (the go-home show before SummerSlam), Michaels faced Owen Hart in a non-title bout. Nitro handily beat Raw that night 3.3 to 2.0 as Hall and Nash’s act had been complimented by the heel turn of Hulk Hogan to form the New World Order. WCW was one of the hottest products in all of television, never mind pro wrestling, and Michaels alone could do little to halt the momentum of Eric Bischoff’s rising empire. 

Beyond TV ratings, things were worse in the Monday Night Wars for WWF in pay-per-view buys as July’s Bash at the Beach, which hosted Hogan’s heel turn, drew almost double the buys than WWF In Your House: International Incident with 170,000 buys to 90,000. 

More humbling was the institutional SummerSlam, with Michaels in the main event opposite Vader for the WWE Title, only drawing 157,000 buys, which was the second-lowest buyrate for a big-four pay-per-view until the launch of the WWE Network in 2014. Eight nights earlier, 220,000 households purchased the first-ever WCW Hog Wild, where the ageing Hogan regained the WCW World Heavyweight Title by defeating The Giant at the Sturgis biker rally.

Michaels was still every bit the dynamic talent he had always been, but around him, the WWF was an ice-cold product matched up against a scorching-hot WCW that was mining a historic storyline. Through all of this, though, Bret Hart was sitting at home, and he would soon have a decision to make. 

The WrestleMania 12 championship loss began a period of hiatus for The Hitman, and for the next seven months, the only matches Hart took part in were during international tours. Aside from excursions to Germany, Kuwait and South Africa, Hart was gone from WWE and spent much of his time recharging at home. 

This meant he was also away from WWE storylines, except for a future continuation of the programme with Michaels that was set up at WrestleMania XII when a dejected, deflated Bret snubbed a handshake from Michaels during his tearful title win.

According to Hart, this was agreed upon by he and Michaels ahead of time to create a sense of friction over the match's result, setting the right tone for the inevitable rematch. It got the desired result too and a lot of their colleagues believed Bret and Shawn had heat with each other over the clear snub, something which Hart thought was perfect as it would allow both pro wrestling insiders and the fans to think there was acrimony between the two top stars and make great TV in the process when their feud was eventually rekindled. 

Hart had every intention of coming back to WWF TV too, but he also wanted to explore outside opportunities, such as acting. He was quite cognisant that as a 38-year-old who was soon to be 39, he would soon be winding down his in-ring career.

Shortly into Hart’s sabbatical, however, his WWF contract expired. Hart held talks with Vince McMahon at the WWF Chairman’s home with Jim Ross, with Bret recalling they had a pleasant catch-up where the two officials tried to re-sign him, only for Hart to defer for the time being. To give McMahon and JR some assurances, however, Bret laid out a pitch to continue his feud with Michaels that would see the Excellence of Execution regain the title in a babyface vs. babyface rematch to set up the rubber match where Hart would put Michaels over once and for all. 

By sheer coincidence, on one of his flights home, Hart found himself on a plane with Michaels, who was in the midst of touring as WWF Champion. Seated together, Hart decided to let Michaels in on his pitch. He explained the two rematches, but Michaels didn't seem too thrilled about the prospect of losing their next encounter. As Hart wrote: "I saw the color drain from his face. He clearly didn't like the sound of any of this."

What followed soon after was another meeting between Bret Hart and Vince McMahon on the day after In Your House: International Incident when McMahon chartered a flight to Hart’s Calgary home and tried to re-sign the former world champion then and there. Hart believed McMahon's sudden insistence on hammering out a deal was related to the Hogan reveal at Bash at the Beach, as the WWF didn't have anything to counter Hogan's head-spinning turn.

Bret has even claimed that McMahon told him to name his price, and informed Hart of what top-earners Michaels and Undertaker were making of $700,000 per year. Though the ball was firmly in his court, Hart again declined to sign when prompted.

While Hart wanted to remain with the WWF to finish his career in the place where he was given the opportunity to reach unfathomable heights as a star wrestler, he also remembered what Nash had told him about his WCW contract, the big money for less dates. Now 39, Hart wouldn't have many more chances to command such a towering deal and with four kids at home, he wanted to make sure he chose the right path.

That September, three days after WWF ran their Mind Games pay-per-view in Philadelphia, Hart was in Los Angeles to film a guest spot for The Simpsons when he was met at his hotel by Eric Bischoff, who had found out that he was there. After the usual pleasantries, Bischoff asked Hart what it would take for him to jump ship to WCW. Hart set out his terms of $3 million per year and a lighter schedule, but Bret wasn’t actually looking to sign with WCW and simply wanted an offer on the table that he could use as leverage in talks with WWE, knowing full well it could be his final contract as a full-time wrestler.

Two days later, Bischoff got back to Hart with the official offer of $2.8 million a year for three years, at 180 dates per year. If Hart signed that contract, he would make more than four times per year what he had brought in on his last WWF deal.

When Hart told Vince McMahon of the offer, the WWE Chairman conceded that he couldn't match that deal. Hart simply asked him to make the best offer possible, later writing: "I was in a position where if I wanted to, I could pound out three more years and go home with no worries, at least not financial ones. But could I kiss my entire legacy goodbye in order to end up in WCW?"

On Wednesday, October 9, 1996, McMahon flew to Calgary to present his counter-offer in person: a 20-year deal worth $10.5 million. Over the first three years, Hart would make $1.5 million a year as a main event wrestler. For seven years afterward, Hart would earn $500,000 annually as a "senior adviser" to Vince. For the final decade, beginning at age 49, an all-but-retired Hart would earn $250,000 annually as a "stand-by" legend who may or may not be used, but would be taken care of financially as he reached his middle age.

Before McMahon laid out those terms, though, Hart made one more request: a filmmaker named Paul Jay wanted to do a documentary on Hart, and so Bret asked that Jay have access to his matches and the WWF backstage area, for the project. McMahon agreed.

Though WCW's offer was in the same financial ballpark for 17 less years, Hart didn't want to leave the WWF and was satisfied with what McMahon offered. They shook on the deal in Hart's Calgary home.

Buyer's Remorse

Bret Hart's return to WWF television was set for the October 21 Raw, where he would address “Stone Cold” Steve Austin's numerous call-outs, accepting his challenge for a match at Survivor Series in November. Before that, however, Hart had to sign his contract and it took longer than expected.

After days of waiting, Hart finally received a draft of his contract the Friday before his planned return. But, according to Bret, the terms of the contract did not reflect what he and McMahon had agreed upon, and Hart called this particular draft "very controlling." After threatening to no-show Raw, Bret demanded the "right" contract with the terms he had agreed to. Bret still flew to Fort Wayne, Indiana for the Raw taping, but he did so with his unsigned WCW contract in his back pocket. 

Finally, one hour before Raw went on the air, with his attorney and accountant present, Hart signed his proper contract backstage at Raw to officially end his time as a free agent. This deal actually afforded more concessions to Hart, one of which meant that should Hart ever leave WWF for any reason whatsoever, he would receive "reasonable creative control" over his final 30 days under contract, to avoid being buried on the way out.

Hart then made his scheduled appearance in front of the Fort Wayne crowd, helping Raw to its highest TV audience in nearly two months. All was not right in the WWF, however, as some were unhappy with the terms of Bret's new deal, including Vince McMahon himself. 

In the nine-day hold-up between pitching the offer to Hart and actually sending him the modified contract, McMahon had second thoughts about the big money (and the ceded power) he was offering Bret. Carl DeMarco, WWF's head of Canadian operations, advised McMahon that signing Hart was paramount, with DeMarco reasoning that losing Hart would damage their business north of the border, a Federation stronghold. Having been persuaded, McMahon made the deal.

Also annoyed by Hart’s new deal was still-reigning WWF Champion Shawn Michaels, and HBK claimed that when he re-signed with WWE in early 1996, McMahon told him he was company’s highest-paid talent, so Shawn was insulted that a back-from-sabbatical 39-year-old Bret Hart was earning double the pay of the overworked WWF Champion. 

Shawn Michaels Loses His Smile

Already irritated with Bret for some of the work-shoot comments he had written about him in his weekly Calgary Sun columns - ostensibly building to the pair's inevitable rematch - Michaels vented his rage at McMahon. As Michaels recalled, in the same meeting where McMahon tried to lay out to Michaels the plan of having him lose to Bret at WrestleMania 13 in Chicago, Michaels not only bristled angrily about that plan, citing Hart's prior comments about him, but also openly took issue with Hart's towering contract. Angry about all matters Bret, Shawn expressed to Vince a complete disinterest in working with The Hitman at WrestleMania 13.

Personal disinterest aside, by early 1997, Shawn Michaels vs. Bret Hart at WrestleMania 13 still looked to be pencilled in. After losing the title to Sycho Sid at the 1996 Survivor Series, Shawn regained the gold in front of 60,000 fans at the Alamodome in his native San Antonio at the Royal Rumble.

Hart, the odds-on favourite to win the Royal Rumble match, was screwed over at the end of the 30-man gauntlet by an already-eliminated Austin. However, Hart was soon booked for a four corners match at the February In Your House pay-per-view, with his wrongfully-stolen title opportunity at stake. Common sense suggested Hart would win the four-way and move on to face Michaels in a rematch for the gold at WrestleMania 13. 

That isn’t what ended up happening, however. In early February, Hart spoke with McMahon and the WWF Head laid out an entirely different plan going forward; Michaels was going to drop the title to Sid on a special Thursday night Raw the following week, via Hart's interference. Michaels would then cost Hart the four-way match at In Your House three nights later, enabling Undertaker to win. Hart and Michaels would still face off at WrestleMania, but without the championship at stake.

When Hart asked why the plan had changed, he claimed McMahon said it was "too predictable." McMahon even proposed that for the WrestleMania match, after Hart's victory, he could shave Michaels bald. To Bret, the haircut suggestion sounded like Vince trying to soften the reality that Hart had already figured out in Michaels was refusing to put him over at WrestleMania for the title. 

Just one week later, Bret Hart vs. Shawn Michaels at WrestleMania 13 was completely off the table. The day before he was due to lose the WWF Championship to Sycho Sid, Michaels informed the WWF office that he was taking time off due to a serious (and sudden) knee injury, thus forfeiting the title. The timing was curious as Michaels had just worked a house show match involving Hart days earlier, and nothing seemed out of sorts. 

When news of Michaels' championship vacancy began making the rounds, sceptical wrestlers didn't believe the injury. Hart quoted Undertaker as saying: "I'll believe it when I see the scar. That little f*cker doesn't want to drop the belt."

That Thursday night, instead of wrestling Sid, Michaels' appearance was in an in-ring interview with Vince McMahon, where he would hand the belt over to an also-present Gorilla Monsoon. Many in the crowd at the Auditorium in Lowell, Massachusetts weren't unanimously sympathetic toward Michaels' morose speech, with some booing and some even chanting "We want Sid."

After parting with the physical belt, Michaels uttered one of the more ridiculed and parodied lines in wrestling's history when he said: "I know that over the last several months, I've lost a lot of things, and one of them has been my smile."

With McMahon there providing emotional support, Michaels made it through his "lost smile" speech, the tone of which felt like a melancholy farewell from a star struck down in his prime.

However, in conjunction with the coverage of Shawn's title abdication, Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer reported that renowned orthopaedic surgeon Dr. James Andrews gave Michaels a much brighter prognosis, believing that the now-former champion could be back in the ring after just four to six weeks of rehab, with no surgery required.

In reality, Michaels returned to the ring in the last week of May, after three and a half months on the shelf. 

Bret Hart Turns Heel

With Shawn Michaels sidelined, Bret Hart needed a new WrestleMania opponent, which led to one of the best matches in the history of pro wrestling as he went one-on-one with “Stone Cold” Steve Austin in a Submission Match, with Ken Shamrock as special guest referee. 

Following Austin’s unjust win in the 1997 Royal Rumble, Hart briefly “quit” the company as part of the storyline. Behind the scenes, Bret was worried that fans would come to resent his character's new habit of whining, but he went along with the plan.

The build continued when Bret Hart lost Shawn’s vacated belt just 24 hours after winning the title at In Your House: Final Four, dropping the belt to Sycho Sid on the post-pay-per-view episode of Raw due to interference from Austin.

Four weeks later, Bret lost a steel cage rematch to Sid on Raw following interference from The Undertaker. After that match, Hart went on a high-volume, profanity-filled rant that went beyond what was permissible on USA Network at the time. This wasn't the cool, calm, and collected Bret Hart of old and The Hitman was about to begin his first heel run in nine years at WrestleMania 13, as part of an ambitious double-turn.

What followed is perhaps the greatest WrestleMania match of all time. Austin bled buckets during the hate-filled struggle which culminated in Hart snaring his foe into his trademark Sharpshooter. Austin refused to surrender, instead passing out from the alarming amount of blood loss.

After the match, an unsatisfied Bret began attacking a motionless Austin, before Shamrock sent him to the mat with a waistlock throw. Hart backed down from a fired-up World's Most Dangerous Man, leaving the ring to a chorus of boos.

Later in the card, Hart gate-crashed the main event of Sycho Sid vs. The Undertaker for the WWF Title on three occasions, while guest commentator Michaels mocked and laughed at him from the ringside table. The next night on Raw, Hart solidified his heel turn by railing against the moral decay of the United States. 

Hart's character change was proposed to him two weeks earlier by McMahon, who suggested a radical concept where Hart would be a heel in the United States, but a babyface everywhere else in the world. Vince reasoned that the US was despised internationally, and wanted Hart to take up the cause against the WWF's lawless Americans.

Hart considered the pros and cons, before ultimately agreeing to the turn. One of the points that he used to sell himself on the change was that he and Michaels would no longer be on the same side of the depth chart. There would be no more silent competition or bitterness over who outranked who on the babyface side of the roster.

With the turn came the recruitment of allies - brother Owen, English brother-in-law Davey Boy Smith, American brother-in-law Jim Neidhart, and longtime family acquaintance Brian Pillman joined Bret's cause, resurrecting The Hart Foundation name for their anti-American crusade. Their targets were American patriots, and other sworn enemies.

Michaels may have been inactive as a wrestler, but he remained a nuisance to Hart and with tensions continuing to mount, Michaels used his words to stoke the flames of animosity.

Sunny Days

On the April 7, 1997 episode of Raw from Muncie, Indiana, Michaels delivered a biting work-shoot promo on Hart. While Shawn acknowledged their genuine dislike of one another, he claimed that Bret was very much "the bad guy" in real life and accused Hart of exploiting his own family for money, that Bret grumbled about putting Michaels over, and said that Bret returning to WWF for any claimed reason besides money was, "horsesh*t." Michaels also vowed that Hart's obsession with him and the WWF Title "will ultimately be your destruction."

At the time of the promo, Hart was not in the arena as he was in Kuwait doing promotional work. Owen, Davey Boy Smith, and Bret's friend/personal adviser Marcy Engelstein had made Hart aware of what Michaels had said and Bret took serious umbrage with the concocted claims made by Shawn, particularly when Michaels claimed business had been better when he won the championship.

For Michaels' part, he felt justified in his comments, in large part because he perceived Hart's frequent remarks about him to be personal attacks. Michaels later put his perception down to being unable to see the difference in his character being attacked and he, the person, being attacked. HBK later admitted: "I didn't have the ability emotionally to look at things as just business back then."

Hart even conceded that he understood how his harsh comments struck a nerve with Michaels, adding: "I did it in such a realistic, nasty way that Shawn thought I wasn't being legitimate with him."

With that level of distrust, any sort of miscue between Hart and Michaels could lead to big problems, which is exactly what happened on the May 12 edition of Monday Night Raw.

The closing segment of the show was set to be Hart and Michaels sharing the ring, and they had earlier agreed to make some semblance of peace. That went out the window right after Raw went off the air.

At the time, Bret Hart was mostly bound to a wheelchair following genuine knee surgery. Nonetheless, he was set to work with Michaels in a match at the 1997 King of the Ring, where if Hart lost, he could no longer wrestle in the United States. For the Raw segment, Hart was supposed to berate Michaels incessantly, only for Michaels to shut him up by superkicking him out of the wheelchair.

That's exactly what happened, but the problem was Hart went too long with his diatribe and Raw went off the air while Bret was still brow-beating his enemy.

The superkick did take place, but viewers at home never saw it, and when Michaels found out backstage about the snafu - which was reportedly due to Hart forgetting the line that would spur the kick - he was livid. Michaels felt that Hart had purposely sabotaged the angle, which made Shawn look like an idiot as he stood there absorbing Bret's ridicule, offering no reply.

The following week, Michaels made sure he got his point across. Taunting The Hart Foundation from the titantron, an oddly-acting Michaels accused Bret of having some "Sunny Days", an open insinuation that Hart had been having an affair with Tammy Sytch. Hart didn't fully hear the remark when Michaels uttered it due to crowd noise, but once backstage, much of the locker room was up in arms over what Michaels had said. Bret's own family even got wind of the barely-veiled accusation.

Hart was furious, and knew he had to pay Shawn back, but he decided to bide his time for when his knee was healthier. Bret then went to Vince to pull out of the King of the Ring match, citing a slower recovery than anticipated.

The night after King of the Ring, though, both Hart and Michaels were in attendance for the June 9 episode of Raw in Hartford, Connecticut and they were both planned for the show, only to end up not appearing. Forty minutes before Raw went on the air, an altercation took place backstage as months upon months of caustic animosity finally boiled over into violence, as Hart beat Michaels up in the locker room.

As several accounts of the incident note, it began with words being exchanged. Bret threw the first punch and missed, but caught Shawn with a second. The struggle continued, with the still-injured Hart grabbing Michaels by the hair and trying to violently swing him by the roots. Michaels went after Hart's wounded knee, only for Hart to take Michaels down to the locker room floor. With Shawn pinned down, Hart began raining down strikes.

Pat Patterson tried to intervene, even asking for help from both Davey Boy Smith and Brian "Crush" Adams. Allies of Bret, neither offered any assistance. When Hart was finally pried off of Michaels, he had a ripped-out chunk of Shawn's hair in his hand and parted by cautioning Shawn, "Don't f*ck with me or my family."

Backstage official Jim Cornette went to inform Vince McMahon about what had just transpired, but seconds after he entered the boss' office, a battered Michaels stormed in, threw the clump of his own hair down on Vince's desk, angrily claimed an unsafe working environment, and announced he was quitting. With that, Michaels left the arena and went home. 

Legal manoeuvring commenced to try and get Michaels to return to work, as WWF claimed a contract breach on his part, and were willing to withhold his pay. Michaels' attorney countered by reiterating the "unsafe working environment" that Shawn was claiming. Michaels went so far as to ask for his release, wanting to rejoin friends Hall, Nash, and Sean Waltman in WCW.

By early July, though, Michaels was coaxed back to WWF, after Vince personally met with him in San Antonio. He promised his star wrestler that he would make WWF "fun" for him again.

Bret Hart & Shawn Michaels Somewhat Mend Fences

Upon being drawn back, Michaels was apparently a little quicker to work with Hart again, and accepted a role as guest referee for Hart's title match with The Undertaker at the 1997 SummerSlam.

The finish played on the massive amount of heat between the two men as Hart went to use a steel chair, which Michaels pried away from him. After exchanging words, Hart spat at Michaels, who then wildly swung the chair, only for Bret to duck, causing Undertaker to eat the steel. Hart made the cover while an angry, apprehensive Michaels fulfilled his official obligations by registering the count.

Hart recalled there being a sense of peace between the two men after the match, as they shook hands in the locker room and thanked each other.

For Hart, though, the championship win was bittersweet. He may have entered his fifth reign as WWF Champion, but he had just been toppled as the top heel in the company as Michaels' errant chair shot at SummerSlam kicked off his own heel turn, pitting him against The Undertaker in a new rivalry. Hunter Hearst Helmsley and Chyna soon joined Michaels post-turn, as did a returning "Ravishing" Rick Rude in a bodyguard role, comprising the original D-Generation X.

The day of SummerSlam, Hart quizzically pondered to Pat Patterson about his and Shawn's futures, if both wrestlers being on the same side of the alignment fence was only going to renew hostilities. Just as they did as babyfaces, Hart figured he and Michaels would jockey for position atop the heap once more.

Michaels headlined the next two American pay-per-views, facing The Undertaker in both matches, including the inaugural Hell in a Cell match at Badd Blood in October. Hart, meanwhile, worked in the semi-main event of both shows, first successfully defending the WWF Title against The Patriot, before teaming with The British Bulldog to defeat Patriot and Vader in a Flag Match at Badd Blood. 

Michaels also headlined One Night Only between Ground Zero and Badd Blood in a hugely-controversial pay-per-view from Birmingham, England which aired exclusively in Canada and Europe on Saturday, September 20. Taking place in the United Kingdom, the main event looked set to be an easy win for Davey Boy Smith in a European Title defence against HBK, with Bulldog even being told weeks in advance by Vince McMahon that he would be winning in Birmingham. 

Having been informed of the result, Smith dedicated the match to his cancer-stricken sister Tracy, who would be in attendance with Smith's wife (and Bret and Owen's sister) Diana. Just hours before the match, however, McMahon changed the finish and decided Shawn Michaels would go over instead, and that is exactly what happened as a shenanigans-filled match ended with Michaels as the new WWE European Champion and DX were booed out of Birmingham. 

While there was a perception that Michaels politicked his way to a win over the brother-in-law of his greatest professional rival, it was actually Vince McMahon's call. Supposedly, McMahon wanted to build to a rematch on the next UK tour where Smith would have presumably gone over.

Vince McMahon Pushes Bret Hart To Sign With WCW

There has also been speculation that McMahon wanted to keep Shawn Michaels strong and put him over at One Night Only as just two days after the pay-per-view, the boss told Bret Hart that he was intending to breach his 20-year contract, not even one year into the deal.

At the meeting, McMahon suggested that Hart was free to reach back out to WCW to see if he could secure the original deal they offered him one year earlier, as it would actually be doing McMahon a favour financially. 

McMahon had first broached the idea of restructuring Bret's deal as far back as June 1997, claiming financial hardship. At the time, Vince floated the idea of stripping down Hart's weekly salary for the time being, with the intent of paying out the withheld amount when WWF became more profitable down the line. McMahon later said: "I had made a bad deal... I didn't want to pay [Bret] that because I didn't think he was worth it."

Bret wasn't too happy about McMahon’s comments and he was stunned when he was outright told that WWE planned to violate his contract. Hart felt as if he was being shown the door and feared he would have to sue Vince for said breach of contract.

With WWF's written consent, Hart met with Eric Bischoff once again, with a negotiating window that closed at midnight on November 1. Hart made it clear that if he were to jump ship, he would want the same $2.8 million-per-year offer that Bischoff put together a year earlier. Bischoff said he needed to get the proper authorisation, and negotiations were left there. 

On the day of Halloween, when Hart returned home from a tour, Bischoff called him with his offer of $2.5 million annually for three years with just 125 dates a year. By comparison, Hart was working 275 dates a year for WWF for $1 million less.

The next day, Bret called McMahon, pressing him to counter WCW's offer - if not money, something creative. Or, at the very least, just the notion that he was still even wanted in the company. To Hart's senses, McMahon seemed aloof and detached towards him.

Meanwhile, an eager Bischoff called Hart back, asking if there was anything he could do to sweeten an already-mouth-watering deal. Hart requested full injury insurance, and the permission to arrive to events after the general call-time, which Bischoff granted. Somewhat shell-shocked by the ongoing turn of events, Hart told Bischoff they had a deal.

Bret waited for the remainder of November 1 for Vince to get back to him. With the deadline drawing near, McMahon finally called Hart. The two had an uneasy conversation, as Vince seemed to have little interest in keeping Bret around. Irritated, Bret noted how he had been systematically weakened by a year's worth of booking, from remoulding the "Hitman" character as a frequent whiner, to alienating his American fans, to the usurping of his top heel spot in favour of Michaels. Hart was asking the man who had authorised these changes for some kind of a lifeline, but there was none. 

McMahon ended the call by advising Bret to "Think with your head, not your heart", pushing him to the WCW offer. With that, a morose Hitman signed his new WCW contract, before faxing it.

Bret Hart Refuses To Put Over Shawn Michaels At Survivor Series

With the move, Bret's one month notice period had been activated, and the “reasonable creative control” clause with it, while The Hitman was still the reigning WWF Champion with the Winged Eagle around his waist. Hart was also scheduled to defend the world title in just one week against Shawn Michael at Survivor Series. 

A major problem, however, was that while Hart and Michaels had somewhat mended fences in the summer, their personal animosity towards each other had since resurfaced following an incident on October 12.

At a house show in San Jose, California in front of a locker room of their assembled peers, Hart told Michaels that he would have no problem dropping the WWF Championship to him if that was what Vince McMahon wanted. Then, for some reason, Michaels decided this would be a good time, in front of those same peers, to puff out his chest and tell Hart that he wasn't willing to do the same for him, before leaving the room in a defiant temper.

After that, Hart believed there was no way he could put Michaels over, not after that kind of blatant disrespect. Vince McMahon wanted Hart to lose to Michaels at Survivor Series, but Bret, citing Shawn's disrespect and the creative control clause, wouldn’t budge. He offered to drop the title to literally anyone else, but McMahon was insistent on it being Shawn at Survivor Series.

This left Vince McMahon in a bind as the last thing he wanted was for Eric Bischoff to appear on WCW Monday Nitro and proudly announce that he had signed the reigning WWF Champion. There are some who believe McMahon's concern was over Bret showing up on Nitro with the belt, although that simply was not going to happen as WCW and WWF were in a legal battle over the Madusa incident of 1995 where she dropped the WWF Women’s Title into a trash can, thus Bischoff wouldn't have dared reprising that moment.

There was nothing stopping Bischoff from announcing that the current WWF titleholder was jumping ship, however, and Bischoff even promised a "huge announcement" for the November 10 episode of Nitro, one day after Survivor Series.

As a result, in McMahon's mind, he had to get the Winged Eagle away from Bret Hart as quickly as possible. Bret Hart was immovable on putting over Michaels at Survivor Series, but a compromise was reached in which it was agreed that Hart would defeat Michaels via DQ. Hart would then lose the title in a four-way at an In Your House pay-per-view in December, and WCW even agreed to a one-week extension on Bret’s WWF deal so he could drop the belt. 

There was just one problem with that plan and that is Shawn Michaels was deeply unhappy about it. HBK, backed up by an irate Triple H, called McMahon on Wednesday, November 5 to express his anger over the suggested finish, refusing to give Hart any sort of win on his way out. McMahon then reached back out to Hart, who again refused to lose the title within McMahon's preferred timeframe, reaching a critical impasse.

The Screwjob Plot Comes Together

Jim Cornette was just as sick of the squabbles as his boss was and he couldn't believe McMahon didn't think to get the belt off of Bret before sending him spiralling into Bischoff's waiting arms. With McMahon unsure about what to do, Cornette frustratedly suggested McMahon just screw Beet, saying: "Goddamn Vince, it's your f*cking belt…just double-cross him."

Speaking with the two remaining Kliq members later, Triple H came to a similar conclusion, saying, "If he doesn't wanna do business, then we need to do business for him."

Following this, Vince McMahon endorsed the extreme idea. He had enacted it in the past against Wendi Richter, but this would be more high-profile. It was a last resort, but a very real possibility.

Though he knew it could be ugly, Michaels was open to the double-cross and McMahon instructed Shawn that when the "screwjob" was carried out, to act just as confused as everyone else. Vince himself wanted to be the sole target of any and all anger in the aftermath, though others would surely be blamed.

From there, the conspiracy began coming together. On Saturday, November 8, as Hart wrestled in his last WWF match in the United States at a house show in Detroit, McMahon and his various confidantes were already in Montreal, staging their production meeting. At what appeared to be the conclusion of the meeting, McMahon asked a few of his closest allies to stay behind while others left. Those select few were clued in about what was going to happen in the main event the next night.

While it's not 100 per cent clear who knew, neither Pat Patterson nor Jim Ross were aware of the plot. Since Patterson was the head producer and Ross was the head of talent relations, McMahon understood the locker room would be in uproar after they screwed Bret and he didn’t want to risk having the wrestlers be unable to trust Patterson and JR. 

One name who was in on the plan, though, was Gerald Brisco, and he was advised to help concoct the match finish, as well as teach Shawn Michaels some self-defence holds to use in case Bret Hart jumped him after the match. 

Bret Hart, meanwhile, who had been warned by some veterans of the business about the possibility of a double-cross, personally sought out Earl Hebner, who would be the referee of the main event of Survivor Series, and told him that he was concerned about a screwjob. A taken-aback Hebner pledged loyalty to Hart, vowing that he would never allow that to happen. 

Survivor Series 1997

At Survivor Series the next day, the proposed finish of the main event that made the rounds was a DQ, followed by Hart vacating the title the next night on Raw.

Vince McMahon had been the regular lead announcer for WWF's main shows up to this point, including pay-per-views. On this night, however, Ross and Jerry Lawler alone would comprise the broadcast team and McMahon told Hart that he would be there with other officials to hit the ring on the DQ-laden finish to make it look like a shoot. Incredibly, Hart didn't think anything was amiss with Vince not being on the headset.

Michaels, meanwhile, had pondered what move or hold he would use to create the finish, but he still needed to put together the match with Hart in order to know where to inject the unexpected ending.

Bret later met with Michaels to go over the match. Despite the obvious tension in the air, the two men were cordial towards each other, which caused Michaels to feel more than a tinge of advance guilt. He later said: "I felt really bad for him because I knew this was the end and he had no idea what was coming."

The two wrestlers got together with an unsuspecting Pat Patterson to devise the match. At one juncture, Patterson pondered if it was possible to do a Sharpshooter reversal spot, in which Michaels would apply Hart's own hold, only for Bret to sweep the feet and stand up into his own counter version. In Michaels' mind, that was the moment for the screwjob. He admitted to tuning out the rest of the discussion, because this was the finish. He took the spot to Vince, who concurred that they had their ending.

As for Earl Hebner - despite giving his word to Bret that he wouldn't double-cross him - the official was given marching orders to do just that, just hours before the match. It is disputed who got Hebner on board, but the end result was the same and Hebner was now under orders to call for the bell when Michaels had Hart snared in the Sharpshooter.

It was then time for the actual match and after a lengthy entrance video, the two combatants were shown making the long walk through the backstage area for their respective entrances. Michaels entered first, the incorrigible villain. If he wasn't hated enough, his desecration of a Canadian flag only had the crowd frothing even more.

Bret Hart entered second to the expected deafening cheers and Michaels jumped the champion before the bell, kicking off a wild, arena-encompassing brawl that McMahon and a slew of other officials attempted to intervene on.

JR alternated between acknowledging the real-life melodrama and calling the chaos unfolding before him, underscoring an atmosphere unlike any WWF main event before it. Patterson and referee Jack Doan both got decked in the midst of the brawl, as McMahon and others pleaded for Hart and Michaels to get into the ring.

Finally, the proper match began, but the simmering tension remained heavy in the air. As the battle see-sawed, Hart attempted a sledge from the ropes, only for Michaels to pull Hebner into his path, wiping out the referee with a bump. Waiting in the wings were Hart Foundation and DX members, as well as referee Mike Chioda, to be dispatched at different cues, per the plan.

Michaels soon after took Hart down, and this led to the moment that has been etched in history. Shawn began twisting Hart's legs to execute the Sharpshooter, as was arranged. However, to the confusion of many - but certainly not everyone - Hebner began standing up "prematurely." Michaels turned Hart onto his stomach to complete the move, at which point a vertical Hebner appeared before Bret. 

Making exuberant hand gestures typical of referee pantomime, Hebner feigned like he was questioning Hart, before turning to call for the bell, just as Bret desperately tried to trip Shawn. The last distinct sound before the bell rang was Vince McMahon yelling to timekeeper Mark Yeaton, "Ring the bell. Ring the f*cking bell."

Michaels - as instructed - feigned ignorance and confusion immediately after the match. An irate Hart, meanwhile, calmly stood and delivered a spit for the ages to the face of Vince McMahon at ringside. Jim Ross openly bemoaned the controversy that had just taken place, vaguely acknowledging that what had happened was no work.

Shawn Michaels was handed the belt amid the confusion and was escorted up the aisle by Triple H and Gerald Brisco. The pay-per-view broadcast faded to black soon after as Michaels spun through the entrance curtain, lest anything truly regrettable and ugly wind up on everybody's TV screens.

Though not broadcast to the home viewer, Hart - flanked by Owen Hart, Davey Boy Smith, and Jim Neidhart - drew the letters 'WCW' in the air with his finger, before taking the TV monitors and violently spiking them into the arena floor, as righteously-angry fans cheered him on.

As for Hebner, he had already bolted from the arena. Twin brother Dave, also a WWF official, waited outside the venue in a running car, and the two got the hell out of there. 

Bret Hart Punches Vince McMahon

Making his way past throngs of astonished fans, Hart stormed up the aisleway and behind the curtain, where more history would soon be made.

Some of the fallout was filmed by the production crew of Paul Jay, the filmmaker that had wanted to do that documentary on Hart. He was backstage that night at the Molson Centre and ended up capturing some unexpected moments for posterity, including Bret's then-wife Julie admonishing Triple H for his part in whatever had just happened, as Paul Levesque repeatedly denied he knew nothing about it.

The locker room mood, meanwhile, was mutinous, as furious wrestlers began destroying things. Mick Foley briefly quit the organisation out of anger, though his walkout lasted only a day after he was talked into returning. The others in the Hart contingent all walked out, their futures with the company uncertain.

At one juncture, Hart made a beeline toward Vince's office, where the boss was holed up with son Shane, as well as Brisco, Sgt. Slaughter, and others. Bret tried breaking the steel door down, to no avail. Hart then returned to the locker room, where he questioned new champion Shawn Michaels regarding his involvement. Though Hart knew the real answer, Michaels lied, swearing that he wasn't in on it. HBK promised Bret that he didn't play any part in what happened in the closing moments of Survivor Series, to which Bret said he would judge him by what he did on Raw the next night.

Hart then addressed the stunned locker room, telling the boys that if Vince could do this to him, he could do it to anyone. At this point, an angry Undertaker announced he was going to bring Vince to the locker room and make the boss explain himself. 

Minutes later, The Undertaker returned with Vince and his associates. By this time, Hart was already in the shower. When informed that Vince was there, Bret told his confidantes to get Vince out of there, that it wasn't safe for him. Vince wouldn't budge, though, and he insisted on facing Bret.

When Bret got out and began to get dressed, McMahon started into his explanation, saying it was the first time he had to lie to one of his wrestlers. Bret called him out on that statement and other apparent remarks made during this tense summit.

As Hart fired back at his soon-to-be ex-boss over an innumerable number of lies told to him over the previous year, he had Owen Hart, Davey Boy Smith, Jim Neidhart, Vader, Ken Shamrock, Mick Foley, Rick Rude, Crush, Savio Vega, and The Undertaker all backing him up.

Bret then added that if Vince was still there when he got dressed, he was going to knock him out. Hart was hoping Vince would eventually leave the room because after he had said his piece, he understood there was only one logical follow-up. Vince, wasn't leaving, though. 

At one juncture before the tirade began, Hart advised Paul Jay's film crew to leave the room. Lamentably, they missed what happened next.

After Bret tied his shoes, he stood up and physically engaged Vince. Surrounded by their closest allies, Bret sought to make one good shot count. With that, before anybody could step in, Hart rocked McMahon with a jolting uppercut, flush on the chin. McMahon recoiled backward and landed on the floor with a thud.

After some jostling among the parties, the sides separated, with Vince laying motionless on the carpet. As if the punch wasn't bad enough, McMahon also apparently broke his ankle, after either (according to Bret) he landed badly off the punch or (according to Vince) because Brisco accidentally stepped on it during the ensuing skirmish.

Though not present in the room when the fight took place, Paul Jay's film crew did capture a woozy McMahon as he limped down the hallway, braced by his inner circle.

Hart's last act before leaving was to walk over to Michaels, who by this time was disconsolate by all that had just occurred. Though he was 99 per cent certain that Shawn was in on it, he decided to leave with a peaceful act. Hart offered Michaels his now broken hand and simply thanked him for the match.

The Aftermath

Before long, the story was out - about the conspiracy, the backstage incidents, all of the before-and-after that surrounded the fateful sharpshooter. Bret ended up giving his entire side of the story to Dave Meltzer. Hart figured "exposing the business" was the last thing that Vince believed he would ever do, even if he were double crossed, but with one phone call, Hart offered up a thorough recollection that would counter any story that the WWF's spin-doctoring could offer.

Hart debuted in WCW on December 15. In his very first promo, he made a clear allusion to Montreal, which the crowd knowingly roared over.

Despite reigning twice as WCW World Heavyweight Champion, Hart's WCW run was a lacklustre use of a genuine star. Though at odds with Vince, Bret later conceded that his estranged ex-boss was right when he said that WCW would never know what to do with him.

With Hart out of the picture, Shawn Michaels stood tall, happy to gloat over the injustices over the ensuing weeks. Four months later, however, Michaels suddenly found himself at the possible end of his career. Back injuries had compounded to the point where he was staring legitimate retirement in the face.

After dropping the WWF Title to “Stone Cold” Steve Austin at WrestleMania XIV, Michaels went away for a long time. When he returned to a WWE ring in 2002, he was far humbler than when he left, having finally cleaned up his bad habits and found peace as a born again Christian. 

Arguably, the greatest irony is Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels at one point were seen as indispensable commodities by WWF, yet they went on to experience unseen heights in the Attitude Era with Steve Austin and The Rock as the top stars. 

For Vince McMahon, Montreal - and the infamous "Bret Screwed Bret" interview - turned McMahon into a star heel. Months later, he began mining that legitimate heat by becoming Mr. McMahon, one of the greatest scripted villains in wrestling history.

So much mileage was gained from "Vince the heel" that we forget that he wouldn't have existed without Montreal. Steve Austin's main event run, and WWF as a whole, would have turned out much differently in the years to come.

Fences were eventually mended between all parties. Bret Hart re-entered the WWE fold in 2005 for a DVD project, and went into the company's Hall of Fame the next year. A few years later, Hart and Michaels mended fences, and even got on the same page for their own shared DVD release.

Shawn Michaels and Bret Hart’s respectively legacies have now been cemented in a positive way, and the incident is one of the biggest stories in the lore of pro wrestling. To this day, though, it is still heavily talked about. 

That conversation may never end. An angst-filled melodrama with elements of espionage film and political thriller is always going to captivate the mind, compelling us with its intricacies.

We all watch wrestling for the stories and it's fair to say that no scripted in-ring tale has ever, or perhaps could possibly ever, equal the maximum insanity of Montreal. It's a story that you just can't make up.