Question for those who seen the Montreal screwjob live

[ChitownKnight]

Or for those watching around the time. What were everyone’s thoughts right after watching the screwjob happen? Watching the match it definitely looked like something was off with the camera pointing to hbk running to the back and jr asking what was going on before saying hbk won by submission

[adamclark52]

Having only watched the pay per view itself I can only imagine everyone being extremely confused as to why the show ended so suddenly.

[Push R Truth]

With my group of friends that watched PPV's together...

It was 2-3 minutes of confusion and waiting for the match to restart. We thought it was normal wrestling shenanigans. Then it was like "holy shit I think that was real". Then my friend that loved Bret Hart cried a bit because it all sank in that Bret was really gonna be gone.


Was a strange night.

[RedDevil]

It aired at 1 am here in England, so I was recording it overnight like I did with all the PPVs at the time. Before school I’d race through the parts of the PPVs I was most interested in and then watch the full thing when I got back home. For this one though, I don’t really remember my immediate reaction - confusion I guess. The Hart Foundation were my favourites so I was pissed-off at the result, but I obviously didn’t grasp what had happened. Bret submitting to the Sharpshooter just as he was hitting the counter definitely didn’t make sense on any level, so yeah, confusion mostly.

I had no idea it was anything other than a storyline though. I did have internet access back then, but slow dial-up wasn’t exactly ideal to spend time reading about wrestling online. It wasn’t until Friday when Sky broadcast Raw and JR off-handedly said that Bret had left the WWF that I realised something had gone down. I was on the internet the rest of the night trying to find-out what was going on. By the end of the night, I was ready to drop the WWF for WCW out of disgust. But then Bret didn’t appear on Nitro for a while, and then Owen returned against DX, so I continued with both having never watched WCW before Bret joined, but we all know how that worked-out. In terms of the WWF, most of the magic was gone - especially knowing who Vince actually was (he was presented as just a commentator up until then) and how he had conducted himself.

[Pushed to the Moon]

I don't really remember but I'm pretty sure I didn't understand and thought it was storyline stuff.

[Cieto]

I was worked when I originally watched it the day after (UK viewer), right up until the point Bret sky-wrote WCW then I knew something was up.

[koreycaskets]

My buddy had a bunch of us over drinking watching it and honestly we all just thought it was part of a story line and Brett would be back on RAW the next night. I had the internet then and read the NeWZ Sites but I don't remember reading them at all that night or next day.

[fw91]

lol I was stoked. I was a 6 year old HBK mark. Hell I didn't realize he was a heel at the time.

[Johnny D]

My initial thoughts were that Bret threw the match then spat in Vince's face in defiance. Very soon after I found out the truth though despite what Vince was saying to JR.

[marvelocity]

I was "watching" it through scrambled PPV, so I just thought Michaels made Bret give up. Then the next night when Bischoff said Bret was coming to WCW I thought he was full of shit. It was only when he wasn't on Raw that I knew something was up. I was only 13 at the time so I didn't really know about the backstage politics. I started looking things up about the whole situation, and when Wrestling With Shadows came out it officially killed kayfabe for me.

[dirtyoldman]

I knew a guy who recorded all the WWF ppvs.
After ss97 he burnt the video tape.

[RI Richmark]

I remember watching the PPV and the first thing that signaled that something was up was the signs. They were saying stuff like "NWO fears Bret" and "Bret Hart NWO 4 Life." I hadn't been on the internet in a few days and had no idea what they were talking about. It wasn't until the match was about to start and JR mentioned that Bret was leaving after this match. Shocked, I went to my computer to find out more. I was still searching when I heard the bell and turned to see Shawn being shooed out with the title.

After rewinding and seeing the finish I realized what happened. My immediate thought was that was going to be the deathblow to the WWF. WCW had just signed away its champion who now had major sympathy on his side, the title was now on the controversial Michaels and Vince's brightest star, Steve Austin, looked terrible in his first match back from injury. The WWF looked weak and unprepared and I thought WCW was well on its way to winning the war.

I guess that's why I don't bet.

[sunnytaker]

I remember thinking something went wrong because neither bret nor shawn looked like they had any idea what just happened because I was all "wait bret didn't tap" when they called for the bell. I vaguely recall bret yelling/spitting at vince while shawn just vanished. but I just figured they would have a rematch on RAW the next night to "make things right" and get a ratings boost at the same time.

[segaz]

It was confusing because the commentators didn't announce or acknowledge shawn as being new champ. They just said "I don't understand this". Plus with Bret and Shawn just sitting there, it didn't make sense. I wanted to watch the next raw, and there was no mention of it. I didn't think anything was wrong until that Bret screwed Bret interview.

Slowly over the next month I got the news to what happened.

[A Platypus Rave]

Apr 18, 2020 20:27:33 GMT -5 RI Richmark said:

I remember watching the PPV and the first thing that signaled that something was up was the signs. They were saying stuff like "NWO fears Bret" and "Bret Hart NWO 4 Life." I hadn't been on the internet in a few days and had no idea what they were talking about. It wasn't until the match was about to start and JR mentioned that Bret was leaving after this match. Shocked, I went to my computer to find out more. I was still searching when I heard the bell and turned to see Shawn being shooed out with the title.

After rewinding and seeing the finish I realized what happened. My immediate thought was that was going to be the deathblow to the WWF. WCW had just signed away its champion who now had major sympathy on his side, the title was now on the controversial Michaels and Vince's brightest star, Steve Austin, looked terrible in his first match back from injury. The WWF looked weak and unprepared and I thought WCW was well on its way to winning the war.

I guess that's why I don't bet.

I mean... part of it was... how were you going to know that the WCW would take the momentum of Bret Hart getting publicly screwed over... and like blow it immediately?