Alternate Reality by Vin Tastic

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One word: Montreal
PLUS: Survivor Series Roundtable results.

WWF’s 1997 Survivor Series ppv in Montreal is infamous for a strange and rare occurrence in the modern l wrestling era. Before the show, promoter Vince McMahon told his own world champion, Bret “The Hitman” Hart that his title match against challenger and hated rival “The Heartbreak Kid” Shawn Michaels would end in a disqualification, but McMahon secretly planned a different finish altogether, and “stole” the WWF Championship from the Hitman.

TODAY’S ISSUE: “You Screwed Bret!”

Let’s get one thing straight: in professional wrestling, the owner/promoter can place his championship on whomever he wishes. There’s no “fairness” to consider. Wrestlers don’t earn a chance to carry the world title simply by coming to work every day.

As Ric Flair says, being given the world championship is more like winning an Oscar than winning the Super Bowl. You are being recognized and respected by your employers for your ability, charisma, dedication and hard work. The company is placing their fortunes in your hands, for as the champion goes, so goes the promotion. The boss is hoping you will make fans purchase tickets, merchandise, and pay-per-view events. WWF gave Bret Hart that honor on five different occasions, and he had always been a fine representative of the company.

But the WWF was at that time, Vince McMahon’s company, and he had every right to anoint HBK his next champion. If he wanted to take the promotion in a new direction, it was his prerogative. If he wanted to release one of the most beloved and longstanding wrestlers on his roster, that was his right. However, it’s the underhanded manner in which McMahon betrayed and insulted a formerly trusted and valued 14-year member of his troupe that makes me sick. Let’s take a look at the principles.

The story of the Hitman and HBK is one of opposites. Both were great performers, but for vastly different reasons.

Bret Hart was the hardnosed pro wrestling veteran with respect for the business, who possessed the ring psychology, talent, and instincts to tell great stories between the ropes, and make every opponent look good in the process. He believed in earning respect from the fans, his fellow wrestlers, and management by being a quiet professional. He did what was asked of him night after night, working as hard as possible to entertain crowds all over the world. Most Hitman fans supported him because of how good he was between the ropes, and how dedicated he was to his craft. The man was an artist who carefully sculpted works of beauty every time he stepped in the ring.

Hart was a company man, who wrestled every opponent he was assigned without the slightest complaint or “suggestion”, always giving his all. He worked in virtually every position on the card, from jerking the curtain as a single, to a long and successful tag team run with brother-in-law Jim “The Anvil” Neidhart, to Intercontinental Champion, and then getting the honor of taking the WWF Championship away from “The Nature Boy” Ric Flair in a surprise to many, at a non-televised house show in Saskatchewan. The Hitman missed only two shows in 14 years due to injury, and never seriously injured an opponent.

Shawn Michaels was the flamboyant, colorful, sportz entertainer who believed in climbing the ladder via backstage politics as much as he did entertaining the crowd in amazing ladder matches. He brought an innovative offensive style to the main event scene, and could do things other world title contenders wouldn’t dream of, like moonsaults, missile dropkicks, a Macho Man-inspired top rope elbow drop, and other high flying attacks. His appeal was targeted primarily at the young female contingent of the audience, and he once posed naked with the WWF title belt in Playgirl magazine. His brazen arrogance, sophomoric humor, and “Suck It!” catchphrase allowed D-Generation X to be considered in the same breath with WCW’s red-hot nWo heel stable, ironically including of his buddies Hall, Nash, and Waltman.

But Michaels would take his ball and go home if he didn’t get his way, politicking on behalf of himself and his friends, the Clique/Klik/Click/Clic. Sure, Michaels was, and still is, brilliant in the ring when he wants to be, as long as his massive ego is getting stroked in the process. He can be absolutely phenomenal, but unfortunately, the very best work Michael Hickenbottom ever did in the wrestling business took place far away from the ring, and outside the camera’s eye.

Call it classic rock versus techno. Payphones on every street corner versus slick camera phones in everyone’s pockets. Drive in movies versus multi-screen mega-plexes. Anyway you look at it, the war between Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels was old school versus new wave.

According to legendary pro wrestling insider Dave Meltzer, Michaels informed McMahon and Hart just two months before Survivor Series that he would not job for anyone in the company anymore. Period. Imagine how Hart must have felt when he heard McMahon’s plan in which Michaels would win the belt in Montreal, and Hart would win it back from him at the December ppv. Hart certainly believed he had little chance of getting the job back from HBK.

Do you remember the last time Hart laid down for Michaels? It was WrestleMania XII in 1996. Michaels won his first of several WWF titles from Hart in the overtime period of their 60-minute Iron Man Match, but suffered a phantom injury when it was time to return the favor to the Hitman one year later, having allegedly “lost his smile”. For Hart, to trust that he’d get his victory back this time around would have been absurd, especially considering Michaels’ comment two months prior about not lying down for anyone, ever again. Michaels reiterated that same sentiment many times over the next few months.

I can only speculate as to why Michaels wanted Hart gone from the company so badly. The two performers had a long, ugly history between them, highlighted by Michaels’ public accusation that Hart was having an extramarital affair with Tammy “Sunny” Sitch. My guess is that Hart represented to Michaels the last of the old guard, an obstacle who stood between Michaels and McMahon. HBK probably figured that with the Hitman gone, he’d have carte blanche regarding manipulating McMahon for his own purposes.

In late 1996, Eric Bischoff was courting Hart from Atlanta, and McMahon certainly didn’t want to lose a public bidding war for one of his top talents. So when Hart and McMahon agreed to an unprecedented 20-year contract for the Hitman, including the last 2-3 years of Hart’s active in-ring career with the remaining years as a powerful member of the booking committee, Michaels must have been worried.

Reportedly more important to the Hitman than the money was the guarantee that he’d be respected creatively until he retired. Hart must have envisioned the Hitman character riding off into the sunset in a few years, and hanging up his boots in a most other former champs had been unable to accomplish, with his head held high. After his active career, Hart’s old-school wrestling sensibilities would be around the creative department as long as HBK was with the company, and Michaels most likely couldn’t work his backstage magic as successfully in that environment.

But soon after the iron-clad deal was signed, McMahon started having second thoughts. Like a young man who tirelessly pursues the girl he can’t get because he can’t have her, once Vince got Hart locked in, he regretted the deal. He not only claimed the company was in financial peril and that he could no longer afford the contract, he also turned Bret heel, a move that Hart resisted.

McMahon persuaded Hart by promising him a more lucrative run against higher-profile babyfaces than heels, but also guaranteed the Hitman would be turned back babyface himself at the end of his run with the company, which obviously never happened. How much of McMahon’s dissatisfaction with the contract came directly from Michael Hickenbottom’s backstage venom is unknown, but common sense says at least some of it developed that way.

Eventually, McMahon told Hart he wanted out of the deal, and encouraged and authorized him to restart negotiations with WCW. Like a dedicated friend and loyal employee, Hart never really wanted to leave, but Vince forced his hand. So now the issue was what to do with the championship belt. McMahon wanted if off of the Hitman before Hart’s WWF contract expired in December of 1997.

So during the match, amidst all manner of strange occurrences in and around the ring that night, Bret allowed himself to be placed into his own submission hold, the Sharpshooter, while trusted friend and referee Earl Hebner was “unconscious”. If you take a look at the last seconds of the match, you can clearly see Bret and Shawn reversing the hold as previously planned. Meanwhile Hebner made the fastest, most remarkable recovery in the history of the game, calling the Hitman’s “phantom” submission that nobody else heard, as Vince McMahon himself firmly elbowed the timekeeper in the ribs and ordered the match ended with the infamous, “ring the f*cking bell!” Shawn Michaels’ surprised facial expression was fairly convincing when the bell rang, but his performance wouldn’t stand up over time.

On one hand, I can understand what Vince McMahon did, and what he was afraid of. When Madusa showed up on Nitro and tossed the WWF Women’s Championship belt into the trash on worldwide television, it buried the women’s division for a good long time, and that was only a minor title. Vince simply COULD NOT have Bret Hart doing the same thing to the WWF Championship, the most critical piece of hardware WWF possessed. Vince didn’t want Eric Bischoff to announce live on Nitro that WCW had signed away the reigning WWF Champion from right under McMahon’s nose.

Therefore it was imperative to WWF that Bret lose the title before news leaked that he was jumping to WCW. Unfortunately for Vince, that news was out before Survivor Series, of course, thanks in great part to the IWC. That fact probably aggravated McMahon, who doesn’t like to ever show weakness or look foolish. It looked as if Ted Turner had signed away his #1 guy, even though McMahon himself was the cause of Hart’s departure.

However, while I understand what Vince did, I can’t accept the way he did it. According to Hart, he offered to lie down for any piece of talent on the roster, from Shawn Michaels himself to the Brooklyn Brawler, in any non-Canadian city in the world, on any show. The Canadian Hero only asked that he not come up short in his home country, against HBK, on that weekend. He still had more than a month left on his contract to get the strap off of him. Also, Bret had some degree of “creative control” written into his contract for the last 30 days of his WWF run, so his request shouldn’t have been seen as unreasonable. Getting destroyed on WWF television for a month before jumping to WCW was obviously not going to do the Hitman any favors.

Hart himself recommended the DQ finish in the ppv match, suggesting he honorably relinquish the title the following night on RAW, putting over the company in the process, before exploring his new horizons in WCW. McMahon deceitfully agreed to this plan, knowing full well that he was getting belt away from the Hitman in Montreal.

Remember, it was Vince himself who breached the 20-year contract they had just signed a year earlier. Bret intended and expected to end his wrestling career in the WWF, and had every reason to believe Vince made that deal with him in good faith. But then Vince drove Hart into the waiting arms of Turner and Bishoff (where they promptly misused the Hitman and dissolved much of his legend faster than you could say “nWo”, but that’s another story).

Some say “Vince screwed Bret”, and while he orchestrated the deal from square one, he was not alone in this conspiracy.

Shawn Michaels was supposedly following orders and looking out for his employer, which I can understand, but let’s be honest. If Shawn truly disagreed with McMahon’s plan and wanted to honor the business and Hart’s contributions to it, he could have allowed the match to end in a shmozz as Hart understood it would. What would have been Michaels’ punishment for disobeying McMahon? Do you really think Vince would have depushed the man who would carry the company for a year after Bret jumped to WCW? Was Michaels in danger of being taken off television, or of his planned title run going to somebody else? Absolutely not. So to absolve HBK of all blame in the situation is absurd, and simply incorrect. Not to mention that he has since come clean about it and claimed he’d do it again, if need be.

I do understand Earl Hebner being less inclined to disobey, since he had no backstage stroke, no power to wield in the political games, and had a twin brother who could have replaced him in an instant if he were fired. Hebner was in a tough position. While I’m sure Michaels relished the idea of “raping the Hitman character” in Montreal, I don’t believe Hebner wanted to do it. I’d imagine the poor guy felt he had little choice. Still, his line to Bret that day, “I swear on my kids lives that I’d quit my job before double-crossing you”, was most hurtful when Hart recalled it after the match.

In fact, had Hart not trusted his long time friend and hand-selected referee as much as he did, he might not have allowed himself to be put into a compromising position during the match in the first place. Hebner’s professed allegiance lulled the Hitman into a false sense of security, at least as far as crooked refereeing was concerned. That might have all been designed by McMahon as well.

Ever since that fateful night in Montreal, McMahon and his WWE have crowed incessantly about the knife they stabbed into the heart of the Hitman. So proud were they; so grand the design. What a disgusting, cowardly, foul event, to stab a good man in the back, who simply didn’t deserve his fate.

In the end, Michaels’ politicking won out, and Vince did the unthinkable. No, a pro wrestling promoter changing his own championship to another performer is NOT the unthinkable. Publicly betraying a dedicated, loyal employee and friend is. Hart was cheated, humiliated, and made to look foolish in front of his hometown fans. Many Hitman fans, including myself will never forgive, and will never forget. We’ve never quite looked at the business the same way since.

We now return you to your regularly scheduled reality.

Speaking of Survivor Series, here’s our Roundtable for this year’s show. Compare it to Troy Hepple’s live coverage to see how we fared in our picks, and check the running tally below.

IP Staff Survivor Series Roundtable Results
(plus one bonus point per traditional match for predicting the survivors)

Steve Murray Roundtable Champion!
WWE Survivor Series (26 Nov 06): 7-1
Total: 19-11

Danny Cox
WWE Survivor Series (26 Nov 06): 5-2
Total: 8-8

GRUT
WWE Survivor Series (26 Nov 06): 4-3
Total: 9-5

BLATT
WWE Survivor Series (26 Nov 06): 4-3
Total: 16-24

ML Kennedy
WWE Survivor Series (26 Nov 06): 4-3
Total: 4-3

Iain Burnside
WWE Survivor Series (26 Nov 06): 4-3
Total: 32-29

Troy Hepple
WWE Survivor Series (26 Nov 06): 3-4
Total: 10-11

Aaron
WWE Survivor Series (26 Nov 06): 3-5
Total: 7-10

Vinny Truncellito
WWE Survivor Series (26 Nov 06): 3-5
Total: 41-27

Eric Szulczewski
WWE Survivor Series (26 Nov 06): 2-5
Total: 30-37

p.s. — What’s the difference between “unlawful” and “illegal”? Do we really need both words in the language?

Master Sergeant, United States Air Force