With a special shout-out to ESPN Classic, who I admit do this a lot better than I ever could. And hurry up and put “Cheap Seats” on DVD!

For wrestling fans, the main-event match at Survivor Series 1997, WWE Champion Bret Hart defending against Shawn Michaels, will go down in history as the Montreal Screwjob. It was a not-well-kept secret that this would be Hart’s last WWE match before he would jump to WCW. But even though tradition has it that the outgoing champion loses the belt to the contender of the promoter’s choice, Hart had reached an agreement that he would not have to drop the belt to Michaels, who he personally despised. Once the match ended in a double disqualification, he would simply hand over the belt and that would be that.

Or so he thought.

What actually happened would be quite different and the subject to much dispute. At a pivotal point in the match, Michaels reversed Hart’s own finishing move, the sharpshooter, and applied one of his own. Just as it appeared Hart would escape, Vince McMahon ordered the bell rung and Michaels declared the new champion. Michaels appeared confused, though he admitted later he was in on it. Hart spit on McMahon and the Hitman’s decade plus in WWE came to an end.

But what really happened and who is to blame? Bret Hart to this day claims that he was betrayed. Vince McMahon claims that Bret cheated himself. Usually, the truth lies somewhere in the middle. To find the middle, it often helps to take a look at both ends. This week, we’ll look at one side and present five reasons that Vince McMahon deserves a mulligan. Relax, The Hitman will have his day in court, as well. But now, the top five reasons you can’t blame Vince McMahon for the Montreal Screwjob:

Not the first one. For all of Bret Hart’s complaining about how he was singled out for unfair treatment, it helps to know that Bret was far from the first man WWE suddenly and without notice took titles from, fair or not. In 1983, WWE Champion Bob Backlund claims that he was totally unaware of any plan to take the title from him in a match against the Iron Sheik. But while in the Camel Clutch, Backlund was probably as shocked as anyone to see manager Arnold Skaaland toss in the towel for him, giving Sheik the title and setting in motion the plan for the belt to go to Hulk Hogan, who new WWE boss Vince McMahon wanted the belt on to begin with. Popular story is that McMahon wanted Backlund to turn heel, but refused, so McMahon went with this alternate plan.

Just a few years later, popular woman champion Wendi Richter appeared to have her shoulder raised at two, only to have the referee count three and award the belt to the Spider Lady, who turned out to be the Fabulous Moolah. Word again is that the change was done this way because Richter refused to go along with the story line.

So for all of Hart’s indignation and cries of unfair treatment, someone as obsessed with wrestling history and tradition like he was should have remembered these examples and have been prepared for what would happen.

Shawn ended up better. In doing the ending the way they did, WWE knew they were delivering what could have been a mortal blow to both Hart and Michaels. In short, they were gambling that Michaels would turn out to reinvent himself and come back from the event better than Hart would.

This gamble turned out to pay off handsomely for McMahon. Michaels continued to lead D-Generation X and helped WWE regain its position on top of the wrestling world, which they never lost again. WCW, meanwhile, never booked Hart in any meaningful way, bouncing him without warning from one inane angle to another in an effort to make him fit in with the NWO dominated WCW.

Had WCW been smarter and more patient in using Hart, it could very well be that WCW could have survived longer, maybe even stayed in business today. Who knows if the group who would be known as The Radicalz would have been so quick to leave had they seen a wrestler so similar to them treated better?

Eric Bischoff. One thing Hart seems to forget is that there was a war on between WWE and WCW, one that WWE was in great danger of losing. Leading the war for WCW was Eric Bischoff. So far, Bischoff had ordered Madusa Micelli to throw her WWE Women’s Title into a garbage can on live television, given away pre-taped results of WWE matches and do anything else he could to undermine WWE.

Now, Hart expected McMahon to trust Bischoff to allow Hart to voluntarily give up the WWE title before he was to make his WCW debut. R-i-i-i-ght! Or had Hart forgotten that Bischoff was so arrogant and unconcerned with ethics that he fired TWO of his employees by FedEx while they were injured. If not, then Hart should not have complained when Bischoff did the same to his brother-in-law, Davey Boy Smith.

Bottom line: for McMahon to trust Bischoff to do the honorable thing would have made him either the most naïve or stupid man in wrestling history, McMahon is neither and he saw Bischoff’s promises for what they were.

Bret Hart. For all of Hart’s chest pounding of how innocent he was, it should be pointed out that Hart was no model employee.

First of all, Hart reacted to what he felt was a bad booking decision by throwing a fit and began accusing McMahon, who had just given him the biggest contract ever in wrestling, of undermining him.

But who was undermining who? For a wrestler who so often tried to portray himself as the upholder of wrestling tradition (which was not going over well in the locker room full of superstars who were doing just fine without Hart, thank you very much), he refused to follow through on one of the most important traditions of all: he refused to drop the title on his last night. He presented all kinds of plans to McMahon to avoid him losing the title, but these plans were all out to benefit Hart, not WWE.

To top things off, in the weeks leading up to the event, Hart told McMahon that he was not willing to lose his title to Shawn Michaels, though the Heartbreak Kid was hotter and on a better role that Hart was. While Hart was focusing on cementing his role as the defender of all things Canadian because of his addiction to fan acceptance, Michaels and D-Generation X were creating new excitement and proving that the fans were not as interested in Hart’s old-school style as he wanted to think they were.

Uh, excuse me Mr. Hart, but just about everyone in the audience or watching on television have had to deal with and work with someone they didn’t personally like or agree with and did not throw a tantrum or demand that the entire company change its plans around you. They simply pull up their big boy underpants and do the job they have to do, at least without spitting on the boss or assaulting him, an action which would be considered classless unacceptable in pretty much any other business.

And now we come to the number one reason you can’t blame Vince McMahon for the Montreal Screwjob:

Attitude era. From the fallout of the Montreal event and Hart’s last year in general, McMahon saw that fans were ready to get behind a new type of hero fighting a new type of villain. Fans of the 21^st Century got behind Austin in his fight with McMahon in a way that they never could have gotten behind Hart.

What Hart often failed to understand is that for all its talk of tradition, wrestling promoters are out to make a living, as are professional wrestlers. For too long, Hart seemed to be in denial of all this and that’s what must have made the idea that McMahon would choose the path that would make him and his company more money over satisfying Hart’s principles, honorable as they may have been.

And ironically, that naivete might have cost Bret Hart the chance for even more money and a better career than he could have ever imagined. So in that way, it’s quite possible that Bret indeed screwed Bret.

If Juvi or Rey are reading, you especially might want
to check me out online at:
http://www.geocities.com/bobbyknightmare/megaweaponsgarage.html,
where I take a look at a Mexican take on the Santa
Claus legend, and stop by at
http://www.geocities.com/bobbyknightmare/ulcbedford.html
for a look at one of the shortest books in the Bible.