UnWrest Focus: Survivor Series: Bret Hart vs. Shawn Michaels- "The Montreal Screwjob" (Survivor Series 1997)

Welcome to another edition of UnWrest Focus. For this edition, I'm going to be watching random classic moments from Survivor Series past. This can be traditional Survivor Series matches or classic moments from the Survivor Series event in general.

And I'm starting this off with perhaps the most famous/infamous moment in the history of the event. It's 1997, and the WWF has its back against the wall. To make matters worse, Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels aren't exactly seeing eye to eye and have had an on-air/off-air heated rivalry that has left both men trying to undermine the other. Around this time, WWF Champion Bret Hart signed a deal to leave WWF to go to WCW... at the request and urging of Vince McMahon who could not afford to pay Bret's contract or match the offer WCW was offering.

But here's the problem: Vince wanted Bret to drop the title to Shawn Michaels in Montreal at Survivor Series. After some major back and forth negotiating and drama, the decision was supposedly made to go for a DQ finish that would lead to Bret surrendering the championship the next night on Raw.

Well.... that didn't exactly happen. And the biggest exposure of the business would happen in front of a Pay-Per-View audience and would become the catalyst for many bad and good things to happen in the wrestling world. It's still talked about this day as perhaps the most controversial moment in wrestling history.

So, I invite you to find the match and follow along as Bret Hart faces Shawn Michaels at Survivor Series 1997 in Montreal, Ontario, Canada.

WWF Survivor Series 1997
11/9/1997
WWF Championship
Bret "The Hitman" Hart (c) vs. "The Heartbreak Kid" Shawn Michaels

Shawn Michaels might as well have a sign that says "BOO ME" over his head. He's getting things thrown at him left and right, and he continues to smile through all of it. And he takes the Canadian flag and uses it as his towel. He is now blowing his nose with it and... well, trying to make a baby with it. He continues to just trash the flag.

Here comes Bret Hart with Bulldog and Neidhart in the backstage area. One of his sons seems to be carrying the flag behind them. And the home country area comes out to a sustained electric ovation. These two were technically heels going into this match with Bret being a heel in America, and Shawn had transitioned to being a general heel. But in Canada, they swore Bret walked on water. 

Shawn Michaels jumps Bret in the ring, and they're going at it. Bret is throwing fists at Shawn. More fists by Hart who sends Michaels out to the floor. Michaels gets thrown into the ring post. Shawn gets thrown into the first row, and Bret goes out after him. They are going through this angry horde of French Canadians, and Bret mercifully dumps him back over the rail into the ringside area. Bret now gets his head bounced off the table and the steel ring steps. Shawn now dumps Bret out to the front row and starts going after Bret. Bret backdrops Michaels over the rail back to ringside. Low blow by Bret.

(So far at about 3-4 minutes in, this has been nothing but a brawl. It's definitely different from their other matches that they have had over the prior years. So, you can't accuse them of having the same old match that they're used to.)

Both men are fighting amid a bunch of men in zebra shirts (referees) down the entrance way. Shawn goes for a piledriver, but he gets backdropped on the concrete floor instead. A suplex now to Michaels on the concrete floor. They are using each other as bowling balls to knock down the referees. And now Michaels takes another throw near the entrance itself. And now, Bret is using a dang fire extinguisher. That's right. Bret Hart just used a fire extinguisher. Vince is now arguing with Bret to get him to take Shawn into the ring. Bret is ramming Shawn into the railing around the entrance way and then throws him inside the ring. THE BELL FINALLY RINGS!

Bret is choking Shawn with the Quebec flag. And it's just Bret Hart now destroying Shawn. Flying forearm by Shawn Michaels followed by the kip up. And now, it's Shawn on offense. Shawn now takes the Quebec flag and chokes Bret with it. Shawn just mouths off and insults the fans as he continues to attack Bret. Bret gets thrown to the floor. Here we go again. Shawn beats down on Bret in front of the fans at ringside. A Face First Suplex on the ring step by Shawn. Now, Shawn uses a flag pole to attack Bret.
Bret has finally been rolled into the ring. Michaels gets a weak looking double ax handle off the top onto Bret's back. Front face lock now by HBK. Bret stands up and throws Michaels off of him. Then, Bret starts working on the knee of HBK. A rake to the eyes ends that. More eye rakes by Shawn to fight off Bret Hart. Flying crossbody by HBK only leads to a Hart reversal for a 2 count. Hart now smacks Michael's leg off of the ring post, and it's the classic Bret Hart "Figure Four around the ring post" spot.
Back in the ring, Bret continues to work on the leg of HBK. (Just noticed a faint "Bret sold out" chant by a couple fans. And a "Thanks for the Memories Bret" sign in the audience. In other words, the word is out about Bret's run coming to an end.) Figure Four by Bret to HBK. HBK reverses it, and Bret gets to the ropes. Bret goes back to work on Shawn. Shawn does his corner flip. Side Russian Leg Sweep by Bret for a 2 count. Bret goes back to work on the midsection of HBK. The classic rotation of Bret Hart moves here. Shawn puts the referee between him and Hart when Hart jumps off the top rope. Eye rake to Bret.

Here we go. Shawn puts The Sharpshooter on Bret, and the referee just calls for the bell. Shawn gets pushed off by Bret. Bret looks down at Vince and spits right in his eye. Shawn yanks the belt from the timekeeper's area, and he's escorted out by Gerald Brisco. Brisco yells something to Shawn, perhaps to hold up the belt. Shawn holds it up for a quick second without really turning around and walks to the backstage area to end the show. God, that moment still is shocking all these years later.

Winner: Shawn Michaels (NEW WWF Champion)
Match Grade: C. The atmosphere in this match is great. Do not get me wrong, but this may be my least favorite Bret vs. Shawn match that I've ever seen. The first 8-10 of their match technically never happened according to record and was just a bunch of brawling at that. The in-ring stuff once the match started was just subpar compared to what we know the two can do. Of course none of that matters thanks to the way the ending worked out (more on that in a second), but I don't like this being called a classic until the end. It's not. It's one of their worst matches, and you have to be truthful when analyzing these things.
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Analysis of The Montreal Screwjob
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As for the Montreal Screwjob, who really is to blame for it going down? When I was younger, I used to side with Bret Hart 100%. I thought Vince and Shawn had basically screwed him out of the championship and that they dishonored Hart by screwing him in such a fashion on national television. But now that I'm a little older and "a little smarter," I have come to realize that everyone is really to blame for this.
And if anything, Vince McMahon was basically put in a position where he HAD to do something. If Bret had the WWF Championship and didn't put anyone over on his way out, that would have been a disservice. Also, Bret holding that title hostage and refusing to put over the talent you want that championship on also set a dangerous precedent too. Bret wouldn't have been the last one to pull that kind of trick had he gotten away with it. So, what do you do if you have a talent who has your world championship going to your main rival who just so happens to be kicking your butt into the point of near bankruptcy? I think Vince did the morally "wrong" thing for all the right reasons. He didn't have much of a choice. 
Shawn Michaels, in this case, was in an awkward situation being the guy that Bret Hart hated, yet the guy Vince wanted to put his world championship on. And when the decision was made to make Bret lose the championship, Shawn was put in the uncomfortable position to lie about the whole thing to Bret up to the finish and even afterwards. Vince took all the heat, but it was Shawn who had to look someone (who he had recently tried to bury the hatchet with somewhat backstage leading up to this match) in the eyes and pull off the lie. And the weight of that deception weighed on Shawn as he has said over the years. So, this wasn't the "Oh boy. I get to stick it to Bret" mentality many of us thought Shawn had maybe thought before.
As for Bret Hart, his fault was pride. Pride came before the fall. He could have worked things out with Vince in a much better way and gone through with a type of title change that would have preserved him going into WCW as opposed to being sent out on such a sour note. Bret Hart's entire history up to that point was nothing but respect for the business and a legacy of sportsmanship. However, he (and Shawn) had worked himself up into so much of a shoot (the blending of work and reality) that he lost perspective. As a result, the decision to go out the right way was taken from him due to his own failure.

As for what happened afterwards, obviously the big winner in this situation was Vince McMahon and the WWF. Vince would use this situation to create the "Mr. McMahon" character on TV that would help propel WWF to new heights in the late 1990s-early 2000s. By putting himself as the evil boss against Stone Cold Steve Austin's "blue collar" antihero, the $$$$ started falling and the fortunes of the Monday Night War turned. For Shawn Michaels, the guilt of the event would be another grain of sand added to a lot of other physical and mental issues which drove him out of the WWF for 4 years. As for Bret Hart, WCW mismanaged Bret Hart from the start and weren't able to capitalize on the momentum from the incident. In fact, Eric Bischoff and others realized that Bret Hart really never fit in much in WCW and was somewhat not the same as he had been in the WWF. And then Bill Goldberg kicked his head 2 years into the company (Starrcade 1999) and ended up ending Bret Hart's career and setting Bret's health in a downward spiral.

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Well, that does it for this edition of UnWrest Focus: Survivor Series. Next time, we'll look at the debut of some guy named Sting in WWE.

Until then, take care of yourselves. Spread some awesomeness.