OK, last week, we discussed five reasons you can’t blame Vince McMahon for ordering the Montreal Screwjob. If you missed it, I can wait. Check it out here: http://www.worldwrestlinginsanity.com/artman/publish/article_190.shtml.

Go ahead, I have to put the clothes in the dryer anyhow.

OK, you guys back? Great. Now, since everyone deserves their day in court, we now present the flip side of the coin, the top five reasons you can’t blame Bret Hart for not wanting to do the job to Shawn Michaels:

Vince McMahon. Let’s put aside the fact that Bret had been a loyal WWE employee for over a decade. Let’s even forget that he was willing to keep going in WWE after he was promised he would get the belt from Hulk Hogan after WrestleMania IX and then Hogan reneged on the agreement and got off scot-free.

Let’s look at the fact that even though he didn’t have to, Bret Hart was willing to terminate his 20 year $20 million WWE contract and allow Vince to walk away with no strings attached. What did Bret ask in return? Only the chance to go out on his terms, which was promised in his contract. So why couldn’t Vince give this that he promised to Hart, who stayed loyal to him through years of poor booking and disrespect and was now being told that he wasn’t getting the money he was promised because of WWE’s poor management?

Vince McMahon. Why stop now? Granted, WWE and WCW were in a blood feud for rating and dollars and things were not going well for WWE. No question that Bischoff had every right to be concerned that Vince was coming after WCW next. By using Vince’s former stars against him and giving away taped Raw results, Bischoff declared war on Vince and was going for blood.

That’s too bad for Vince, but even though it could be argued that Vince wasn’t the first to invade another’s territory, no one was as aggressive, hostile or vindictive about it as Vince. Through his efforts, he eliminated such once-proud organizations as World Class, Southwest, Pacific Northwest, the AWA…and Stu Hart’s Stampede. But now, the sword was at Vince’s throat and Bischoff was only waiting for the right moment to make that final thrust.

That’s a bad break for Vince, but exactly what part of any of this was Bret Hart’s fault? He was, in fact, losing out on quite a bit of money by walking away from his contract. He let Vince off the hook, which was more of a courtesy than Vince gave the Hart family when he decimated Stampede and “generously” offered the Harts work with WWE, and he pretty much owed Vince nothing more. But during a time when Vince needed to show the remaining talent that they would be rewarded and appreciated if they stayed in WWE, he turned his back on one of the few superstars who stayed loyal to him.

Wanna bet Jim Ross doesn’t think about this moment and wonder why he didn’t see any red flags?

Steve Austin. Yeah, we’ll give Vince a rest for now. How does Steve Austin figure into this? Remember back to WrestleMania 13, the beginning of the end of Bret Hart’s career. Hart and Austin were locked in an “I Quit” match, which means that the match ends when one of the wrestlers says “I quit.” Seems simple, right? Yet though Bret won, he did so without Austin having to submit. Instead, Bret locked him in the sharpshooter and Austin passed out from loss of blood and could not continue.

The argument behind this is that Austin was becoming a hot player and WWE wasn’t about to do anything to halt his momentum. Fair enough. But the point is that one match was rebooked and tweaked to suit one wrestler’s situation. Why then couldn’t WWE come up with a way to do this for Bret in Montreal? How many times do you think Bret asked this the day of the show?

I cannot stress this enough: Bret Hart bled WWE for over a decade, while Austin was still an unproven commodity who Vince signed almost as an afterthought after WCW dumped him. Yet Austin got the match changed and Bret didn’t. You’re Bret, how do you feel?

Canada. Vince could have had Bret drop the belt later in that week at a house show in the United States. Bret was agreeable to that. But no, Vince insisted on him dropping the belt in Canada.

Why? Bret was by far the most over WWE superstar in Canada, which was one of the few aces that Vince was holding in the promotional wars. WCW seldom visited north of the border, but it was a steady source of rating, money and fan support for WWE. Again, Vince showed he had a strange way of staying loyal to the people who were loyal to him, basically telling those fans “thanks for your support, now watch us step all over everything you appreciate about us.”

Years later, has Vince learned his lesson about appreciating the fans in Canada? Well, we’ve all heard Chris Benoit being billed as hailing from Atlanta and Chris Jericho billed as being from New York City. What do you think?

Vince McMahon. True, Hart should have put his personal feelings aside when asked to do the job to Michaels. But even the most casual observer would have to admit that Michaels went out of his way to make it difficult for Bret. Keep in mind the fact that a few years earlier, Hart dropped the strap to Michaels at WrestleMania and stayed away for a year, allowing Michaels to run with the ball. When the time came for him to do the same, he made his famous announcement that he was giving up the WWE title to “find his smile.” Here are a few ways Michaels preferred to find that smile:

• desecrated the Canadian flag
• publicly alleged that Hart was having an affair with WWE Diva Sunny
• got into fights with Hart in the locker room.

But at the end of the day, as much of a pain as Michaels was, blame once again falls onto, that’s right, Vince. As the man in charge of WWE, he was completely aware of these incidents and could have, and should have, called Michaels on the carpet and straightened him out. Instead, McMahon turned a blind eye to the situation, which did nothing but send a message to Michaels that none of the rules in WWE applied to him. When Michaels began getting away with murder, it emboldened the remaining members of the Michaels posse and showed them that as long as they played up to Michaels, they could also get their way.

This would have been fine if any of them were truly drawing money. But even though The Kliq still had the power, it was Austin, The Rock, Undertaker and Mick Foley who were putting asses in the seats and seeing less authority and control over their storylines while Triple H, X-Pac and others close to Michaels, which eventually included the McMahons themselves, got their way and were unable to make it benefit anyone but themselves.

Within years, the inevitable happened: injuries took both Austin and Triple H off the shelf, X-Pac was fired due to personal demons, Undertaker cut back his ring time, The Rock quit for Hollywood and Foley just plain quit rather than continue to perform in repetitive matches that basically had him kill time until he jumped through a table.

When this happened, WWE had no go-to guy, no one who could be counted on to put out a five-star match when it counted, someone who the locker room could rally behind, no one the boys could trust. No one like Bret Hart.

So did Vince screw Bret? Maybe. But even worse, did Vince screw WWE on that night in Montreal?

Feel free to take a break from your holiday shopping and join me at: 
http://www.geocities.com/bobbyknightmare/megaweaponsgarage.html, 
featuring a visit to Girls Town, and 
http://www.geocities.com/bobbyknightmare/ulcbedford.html, for a lesson in minding one’s own business. As always, the apple cider and cookies are on the house!