Montreal Screwjob

rdf:langString Montreal Screwjob

rdf:langString The Montreal Screwjob (also called the Montreal Incident; French: Le Coup Tordu de Montréal lit. Montreal's Twisted Coup) was an infamous unscripted professional wrestling incident that occurred on November 9, 1997, at the Survivor Series pay-per-view at the Molson Centre. Vince McMahon (World Wrestling Federation owner) and his employees covertly manipulated the outcome of the match between Bret Hart, the reigning WWF Champion, and Shawn Michaels. The manipulation – a "shoot screwjob" in professional wrestling parlance – occurred without Hart's knowledge and as a result he lost the title to Michaels in his last WWF match before departing for rival promotion World Championship Wrestling (WCW). The "screwjob" is generally believed to be an off-screen betrayal of Hart, who was one of the WWF's longest-tenured and most popular performers of all time. Hart won the WWF Championship at SummerSlam in August 1997. A week prior to Survivor Series, Hart, who had performed for the WWF since 1984, signed a contract to join WCW beginning in December 1997. McMahon sought to prevent Hart from leaving the company as the champion, but Hart was unwilling to drop the title to Michaels – with whom he had a long feud both on-screen and off – at the Survivor Series in his home country of Canada. Hart, Michaels, and McMahon came to an agreement where the Survivor Series match would end with a disqualification, which would result in Hart retaining the title. Hart would then lose or forfeit the title at a later date. However, McMahon decided without Hart's knowledge that Michaels would win the title at Survivor Series. Accounts differ as to who exactly was involved in the plan and the extent of their involvement. The plan was executed when match referee Earl Hebner, on direct orders from McMahon, ended the match as Michaels held Hart in the Sharpshooter submission hold, Hart's signature finishing move, even though Hart had not submitted. Michaels was declared the winner by submission and crowned as the new WWF Champion. The Montreal Screwjob has garnered a notorious legacy both on-screen and off, and was partly chronicled in the documentary film Hitman Hart: Wrestling with Shadows (1998). According to WWE, the Montreal Screwjob, which took place at the end of the last match on the card of Survivor Series 1997, is considered the beginning of the Attitude Era. The far-reaching impact of the incident led to its adoption as a theme in matches and storylines of the WWF's Attitude Era and the creation of evil arrogant boss character "Mr. McMahon". Many wrestling fans, and several within the business, believe the entire incident was an elaborate work executed in . Nonetheless, Hart was ostracized from the WWF while McMahon and Michaels continued to receive angry responses from Canadian audiences for many years. WWF and WCW, as well as other wrestling organizations, would perform recreations of the incident, including as part of Hart's first PPV appearance for WCW at Starrcade, and at WWF's Survivor Series the following year. Hart and McMahon later reconciled, and Hart was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame on April 1, 2006. On the January 4, 2010 episode of WWE Raw, Hart, in his first live appearance on WWE television since the 1997 Survivor Series, had a lengthy on-screen discussion with Michaels about the Montreal Screwjob and other events in their past, and agreed to call a truce, bringing closure to the incident after more than 12 years. Hart would defeat McMahon at WrestleMania XXVI in a No Holds Barred match built around lingering animosity from the Screwjob. Longtime industry writer Mike Johnson referred to the 1997 Survivor Series bout in which the Screwjob occurred as "arguably the most talked-about match in the history of professional wrestling".