In Honour of the Tenth Anniversary of the Screwjob

[Deleted]

k... they've all gotten over it... it's time we moved on as well. As for it i can see how both people are in the wrong. Vince more so than Bret though. Vince was paranoid for no reason. he still had Bret under contract and should have trusted him. Bret should have realized that although you may hate a person, if your boss tells you to work with said person, you should.

[wrestlecrapcrap]

brianzane said:

I was kind of hoping that the OP was going to finish the title with, "go screw someone you love...in the good way though."

Seriously though, I think Vince did the right thing to take the title off of Bret, they just went about it in a bad way. If Vince went along with Bret's original plan to have the SS match end in a Schmozz (tm), then have him vacate the belt the next night, you might as well have had Bret give the WWF Title the Alundra Blayze treatment. How good does the company look when he goes, "I'm dropping this title and going to another company. See you on TNT"? That would have been pretty bad for the image of the company compared to the interesting things WCW was doing at the time.

Great post.

It's not about the fact that Brett could have taken the actual belt with him to Nitro, or shown up the very next night. That isn't so much the problem.

The problem is, that if Brett was to vacate the title, it does just make him look like he is going 'I don't need this title anymore, I'm going to a better company...see ya!'. He had to lose the belt, firstly to put over the next biggest star and secondly to maintain WWF's credibility.

Also, I thought Bret had to either lose it on that night or the one after, and didn't have another month to do it? Why would Vince have done the whole thing if Brett still had another month in the company? Why was there a big deal being made of the match with HBK being Bret's last in the WWF if he actually had another month?

Anyway I digress, it isn't about the phyiscal belt. Vince had to do it to preserve his company's image and crediblity. He can't just have his champion give his title up to walk straight into another company. Bischoff could have done all manner of things that could bury the WWF that way.

[Dick Foley]

In the end I still say it was one fantastic work. The fact that they were shooting a documetary on Hart is just too coinceidental. I think if it wasn't for Bret's concussion he would have ended up back in WWF when the "Radicalz" came in.

[The Thread Barbi]

jcmark611 said:

In the end I still say it was one fantastic work. The fact that they were shooting a documetary on Hart is just too coinceidental. I think if it wasn't for Bret's concussion he would have ended up back in WWF when the "Radicalz" came in.

That's all up in the air. But one man's actions made me believe that it isn't a work - that man being Rick Rude. He jumped ship to Nitro and shot on the whole thing.

Until Hart and Michaels hug at the 25 yr anniversary as someone said, and point and laugh at us for believing the whole thing, I will say its a shoot.

[Red 'n' Black Reggie]

i think they were both in the wrong. what vince did was stupid, unprofessional and unacceptable. he ruined bret's final wwf match, and humiliated bret in front of his hometown crowd. to take a man who has put on some incredible performances, and made god knows how much money for you over the years, you don't treat him like that. however, what bret did was almost as bad. he had the world title around his waist, and was going to the competition. the logical thing is to say "okay, seeing as i'm on the way out, why don't you give shawn the belt, and we can both, hopefully, leave on good times. cheers for giving me all those opportunities. bye". that way, you can both part ways looking good and professional. you don't blatantly refuse to drop the belt. i know that bret probably wanted to give the title to someone else, but he was, at the end of the day, still employed with wwf. if your employer tells you to do something which you are physically able to do, and which makes perfect sense, you do it. you don't throw a hissy fit and refuse to do you job.

so basically, i don't really care that much about the way that bret or vince feel about it. it was a fifty-fifty balance on whose fault it was. bret was being immature and petty, and vince went overboard and acted like a dick. i lost a great amount of respect for both men on that night. (i also gained alot for mick foley, who walked out of the company temporarily out of disgrace, despite being at a crucial point in his career. that takes balls).

[Dick Foley]

coksf said:

jcmark611 said:

In the end I still say it was one fantastic work. The fact that they were shooting a documetary on Hart is just too coinceidental. I think if it wasn't for Bret's concussion he would have ended up back in WWF when the "Radicalz" came in.

That's all up in the air. But one man's actions made me believe that it isn't a work - that man being Rick Rude. He jumped ship to Nitro and shot on the whole thing.

Until Hart and Michaels hug at the 25 yr anniversary as someone said, and point and laugh at us for believing the whole thing, I will say its a shoot.

Who is to say they didn't work the boys too? This wasn't long after Brian Pillman's death and seems like something he would have cooked up or something even done in his honor.

[Mister Pigwell]

coksf said:

jcmark611 said:

In the end I still say it was one fantastic work. The fact that they were shooting a documetary on Hart is just too coinceidental. I think if it wasn't for Bret's concussion he would have ended up back in WWF when the "Radicalz" came in.

That's all up in the air. But one man's actions made me believe that it isn't a work - that man being Rick Rude. He jumped ship to Nitro and shot on the whole thing.

Until Hart and Michaels hug at the 25 yr anniversary as someone said, and point and laugh at us for believing the whole thing, I will say its a shoot.

See that's the exact part that makes me feel conflicted about this whole deal too. Sans that moment and I'd say the whole thing is a definite work in my eyes... no changing it.

[angryfan]

Part of me wants to beleive, still, that it was a shoot, but I simply can't, for a few reasons.

Bret was leaving regardless, this much was known, so they HAD to do something, right? Bret and Vince were on good terms, admittedly, when Bret announced he was leaving, so what do you do to make lemonade out of lemons, so to speak? Simple, you get everybody over.

Bret gets "screwed" and is the big babyface in peril for life, screwed by the evil, selfish owner in his home country, where he's as much rockstar celeb as pro wrestler. Thus, he goes in to WCW with the focus not being just "hey, here's Bret Hart", but rather "look, it's Bret Hart who was so terribly wronged by New York, but he's here now, let's all be happy". Bret comes out, potentially, looking even better as a babyface, and would have stayed that way had WCW not been, well, WCW.

Vince, on the other hand, goes from "face announcer more or less" to "biggestg damn heel in the entire WWF" overnight. He is hated, booed, and this sets up storylines for YEARS. Win for Vince.

Shawn gets another title run, gets the kind of heat most heels only dream about, so win for him as well.

Were it not for WCW's ineptitude at booking Hart, all three guys in "the screwjob" actually looked better AFTERWARDS in terms of the reaction they wanted to garner. It was a work, beautifully played, but still just a work.

[The Thread Barbi]

jcmark611 said:

Who is to say they didn't work the boys too? This wasn't long after Brian Pillman's death and seems like something he would have cooked up or something even done in his honor.

Good point. I didn't think of that. However, Bret maintains that Rude phoned up Bischoff to confirm it wasn't a work, and that put Bret in good stead with his new boss. After all that's happened, personally, and professionally, to him, why would he want to 'protect' this 'angle'?

Part of me wants to beleive, still, that it was a shoot, but I simply can't, for a few reasons.

Bret was leaving regardless, this much was known, so they HAD to do something, right? Bret and Vince were on good terms, admittedly, when Bret announced he was leaving, so what do you do to make lemonade out of lemons, so to speak? Simple, you get everybody over.

Bret gets "screwed" and is the big babyface in peril for life, screwed by the evil, selfish owner in his home country, where he's as much rockstar celeb as pro wrestler. Thus, he goes in to WCW with the focus not being just "hey, here's Bret Hart", but rather "look, it's Bret Hart who was so terribly wronged by New York, but he's here now, let's all be happy". Bret comes out, potentially, looking even better as a babyface, and would have stayed that way had WCW not been, well, WCW.

Vince, on the other hand, goes from "face announcer more or less" to "biggestg damn heel in the entire WWF" overnight. He is hated, booed, and this sets up storylines for YEARS. Win for Vince.

Shawn gets another title run, gets the kind of heat most heels only dream about, so win for him as well.

Were it not for WCW's ineptitude at booking Hart, all three guys in "the screwjob" actually looked better AFTERWARDS in terms of the reaction they wanted to garner. It was a work, beautifully played, but still just a work.

I don't believe that it was a well played out work, rather, a shoot, that if over-analysed, looks like a work of fiction.