All language subtitles for Dark Side of the Ring s01e02_English

♪

Bret was amazing.
By any standard,

Bret may go down as one
of the top technicians

in the industry.

Bret took the
business seriously.

I think sometimes
to his detriment,

he took himself a
little too seriously.

Bret believed he was
the WWF champion.

On November the 9th, 1997,

professional wrestler
Bret Hart had fought and

clawed his way to the
top as world's champion.

But in a matter of seconds,
he would realize that

those who make you can just
as easily destroy you.

Here's the problem:

Bret didn't want to lose
his championship.

It's your last night
in the company,

we need to crown
a new champion.

You know what;
we'll just take it from him.

It's like, I remember
when I was a kid,

exactly where I was standing
when John F. Kennedy

had been assassinated,
and I remember

just as precisely where
I was when I found out

about the
Montreal Screwjob.

Screwing a Canadian hero,
in Canada?

How much more evil
can one get? [laughs]

And I still feel,
to this day,

like I have a neon sign
on my fucking head.

"I fucked you, Bret.

Never told you about it,
but I fucked you."

I was so mad, I could
just really explode.

The Screwjob changed so
many things in the business.

The innocence of
wrestling changed.

This was one of the worst
things in the world that

happened to me
in this business.

Say what you want
about wrestling; that was real.

He really screwed that guy.

The incident known as the
Montreal Screwjob

marks a turning point in the
history of wrestling.

Never before had the curtain
been pulled back to

fully reveal the
behind-the-scenes drama.

A dark plot of
betrayal was exposed,

legacies were redefined,
and fans would

never see wrestling
the same again.

♪

You know, it's one thing
I always say about the

Screwjob, is that if you go
back and you look at

all the facts,
my story's never changed.

It's always been the same
story right from day one

'cause I tell the truth.

I'm Bret "The Hitman" Hart,
the best there is,

the best there was, and the
best there ever will be.

I always say I was a
real-world champion 'cause

I really traveled all around
the world and defended my belt.

This is my history and my
life here, all these guys.

Despite everything that's
happened with the Screwjobs

and all that kind
of stuff, for me,

it's mostly happy memories.

My name's Jim Cornette.
For the past 35 years,

I've worked for every major
professional wrestling promotion

in the United States,
as a manager, announcer,

trainer, matchmaker...
Pretty much done it all.

♪

I was actually there.
I actually lived it.

I'm giving you
my perspective,

it's just because my
perspective happens

to be entertaining,
and some people...

take exception to that.

I was the executive vice
president of talent relations.

I've been a writer,
producer, director.

Brother Love is a
alter ego of mine.

You name it; I've worn a lot
of hats in the WWF, WWE.

Bret "The Hitman" Hart!

The patriarch of the
Hart family was Stu Hart,

and Stu was an
aged old veteran.

Double tough.

The dungeon was the basement
in the Hart family house.

Well, the dungeon
is hard to explain.

My dad, 60 or 70-year-old
man would go down there and

torture a bunch of football
players and body builders.

I don't feel my arms, sir.
[groans]

"Let me show
you a hold here.

You just take your
arm like this..."

You just ease
this hand back...

Agh!

The Hart family is one of
the most famous families

in the history of our business.
The sons were all wrestlers,

the daughters
all married wrestlers.

They had a wrestling bear that
lived under their porch.

It was like the Munster's house
for the people in Calgary.

Stu would invite
everybody over and,

and make breakfast.
They had a bunch of cats.

And he'd take the thing where
he's, he's flipping the eggs,

and he'd flip the cat
shit over there,

then go back to flipping
the eggs, you know.

Made him tough,
is what it did.

And Stu began the Stampede
Wrestling Promotion in Alberta.

And, had a very successful
company there for a long time.

Hello, hello, hello,
and welcome to this,

another edition of...

And Bret Hart was kind of
a pale, skinny, you know,

maybe 21-year-old kid
or whatever,

but you could tell he kind
of knew what he was doing.

And I'm more confident right
now than I've ever been,

and there's no reason
right now that him and me

shouldn't have
those belts right now.

The Harts were very integral
to professional wrestling

around the world.

In 1984,
Stu Hart is trying to

keep his struggling
territory afloat.

The rapidly-expanding WWF
strikes a deal to acquire

the entire promotion,

along with Stu's main star,
his son, Bret.

When Vince bought Stu Hart's
Stampede Wrestling in 1984,

he took Bret Hart
and Jim Niedhart,

who was his son-in-law,
as a team.

The Hart Foundation,
they were managed

by Jimmy Hart,
no relation.

They were a
tremendous tag team,

and Bret Hart had a perfect
foil in Shawn Michaels.

When you have two guys like
Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels

that are as talented as they are
at what they do to begin with,

and then sometimes,
there's just chemistry,

you find a duet between
two singers that have

never worked together before,
but suddenly, it's a hit.

Look at this.
Whoa! 360 in mid-air!

Internationally, we're
getting reports back that

we've got a megastar on our
hands in the form of Bret Hart.

He, his work had
made him this megastar.

That was all
they wanted to see;

that's all they
wanted to talk about.

At the same time, Ric Flair
was the champion and

Ric was having some
health issues.

We needed to make a change.

So, Vince is looking at it
and going, "Why not Bret?"

That's the kind of
guy you want to reward.

Vince McMahon's one of the
most unique individuals

on the planet.

If you could cross a genius with

P.T. Barnum and Donald Trump,

you would get the love child
that would be Vince McMahon.

Vince, honestly,

is a third-generation
wrestling promoter.

Vince controls creative;

Vince controls the
talent choices.

They run the lunch schedule past
Vince McMahon, to this day.

Over the years, Vince had a
good relationship with Bret.

I don't know; you know,
I think that once Bret

became champion in
Saskatoon that there started,

there was a change
that was taking place.

[cheering]

ANNOUNCER:
Bret Hart!

The criteria for a world
champion in those days,

there wasn't a set physical
list of maneuvers or

whatever that
you had perform.

It was whoever Vince
thought could be the guy.

Vince McMahon decides who
the champion is going to be.

It's not actually
won by anybody.

So, Bret didn't
beat Ric Flair.

He won the championship
in a scripted contest, okay,

in a storyline.

Bret deserved, you know,
to have that accolade.

But at the same time,
remember that someone

made you champion.
You didn't really beat anybody.

I think Bret looked at the
WWF championship like

guys years ago used to.

Maybe it was because of
his father and his lineage,

but when you were chosen to be
a champion of a major company,

it meant that the promoter
thought that you were

the best talent,
that you were the best draw,

that you would make
him the most money,

that you were the guy.

While Bret's star is
rising in the WWF,

a fledgling promotion
suddenly starts edging out

Vince McMahon in the
television ratings.

WCW in the early 90s was a
secondary competitor to the WWF.

I happen to be
Eric Bischoff.

You know, as the
executive producer,

at least I had a
voice within WCW.

WWF is up here,
WCW is way down here.

There's no way I can
be better than the WWF,

but I gotta be
different than them.

They're tape, I'm live.

They target their
content towards kids;

I decided I wanted my characters
to be more reality-based.

I would use
their real names.

WCW came after our talent.

The perception was they
offered them a lot more money.

You know, when Hulk Hogan
left the WWF,

I think it hurt
Vince, personally.

It stung a little bit,
and the first,

the first big names to go were
Scott Hall and Kevin Nash,

in the very beginning.
Ted DiBiase left.

Roddy Piper
shortly thereafter.

The curtain call,
as it came to be known,

happened because Nash and
Hall were leaving to go to

WCW for their big contracts.

It is my last
appearance for the WWE,

and it's also Kevin Nash's
last appearance.

It was at
Madison Square Garden,

the most famous
arena in the world.

After the last match,
Hall, and Nash,

and Michaels, and Helmsley -
two of 'em good guys,

two of 'em bad guys -
all went out to the ring and

had a big hug and a big kiss,
and waved bye to the fans,

who had no idea
what was going on.

With Shawn and those guys,
they broke kayfabe

in front of the fans in
Madison Square Garden.

The word "kayfabe" is like
a lot of wrestling terminology.

It comes from the
days of the carnivals.

When you break
kayfabe in wrestling,

you let the fans and the
general public in the

inside world and
ruin the illusion.

It wasn't like that.

It all just happened
organically.

Because the fans
were going crazy.

I mean, it was like
a magical moment.

Here were are, 25 years later,
talking about it?

You had been chosen and selected
to be in a secret brotherhood,

and you kept those illusions
private and to yourself

because it was a code.
It was a code of kayfabe.

Now,
as competition between

the two biggest
promotions heats up,

wrestling's fourth
wall starts to crumble,

exposing its secrets.

And while Bret enters the
biggest rivalry of his career,

he never could have imagined
that it would end up

leading to his
ultimate destruction.

Before their off-screen feud
would boil over into

one of wrestling's most
controversial moments,

Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels'
contrasting in-ring styles

led to some of the
greatest matches of all-time.

As far as wrestling styles
between Bret and Shawn,

Bret was more basic,
more grounded,

more hard hitting,
more technical.

Michaels, from the
other side, and oh!

Michaels, he's an
incredible performer,

but also a lot of his stuff
is more pretty and

a little bit more gymnastic.

Oh, he's caught by
Bret Hart! Look at that!

I think Shawn Michaels
is probably the greatest

performer all around,
plus he was different.

He wasn't a big giant.

My contract was
gonna expire.

Eric Bischoff has
sent feelers out to me.

There were two separate
occasions when I

began to talk to Bret
about coming over.

And I heard the initial offer
was 2 million and then

it was 2-million-something,
and it got up to like 3 million.

And I'm sure they
were rounding off,

but at that point,
what's the difference, right?

Vince heard about
them giving me an offer,

and I remember
Vince said, he goes,

"I'll make you an offer,"
and we worked out a contract.

It was 1.5 million
for 20 years, I think.

Bret favors
loyalty over money,

and accepts the counter
offer from Vince McMahon,

but then a mutual animosity
between Bret and Shawn

begins to take hold.

Shawn was starting to get
overwhelmed with the negative...

Doing a Chippendale
kind of gimmick is not

a "heroic" thing to do.

Shawn Michaels saw an
opportunity to be more and

more of a top guy, and also
to be more and more of a prick.

Nobody breaks into this
wrestling business to

work their way to the middle.

I mean, if you don't
want to be on top,

you're in the
wrong business.

I don't really care if you
want to have dinner with me.

Do you want to wrestle me?

Oh, you do.
Okay.

I don't think that they
were really that different,

which is probably where the real
life rivalry came into play.

First day,
when I walked out,

and I end up trashing
Shawn Michaels on the

interview about his Playgirl
Magazine centerfold.

And before I went out,
I said, "Shawn, I'm gonna...

Is it okay if I bring up
that Playgirl Magazine and

take a jab at that and
say something about it?"

He goes, "No, go ahead.
Say whatever you want."

World Wrestling Federation
needs a hero.

They need a role model.

They need somebody
they can look up to,

not somebody that
poses for girly magazines.

And I came back and
Shawn was just crushed.

He almost looked like he
was gonna burst into tears.

Now, now we're doing live
TV and these guys are

saying things on live TV
about each other.

Shawn made
reference to Sunny days.

Sunny is Tammy Sytch.
She was one of the valets.

She was the first real,
you know,

big pinup girl of the WWF,
and Shawn was making the

inference that Bret was
having some kind of

an affair or some, some...

kind of relationship
with Sunny.

Even though lately you've had
some Sunny days, my friend,

you still can't get
the job done in any situation.

Oh, boy.

Now, from a
fan's point of view,

it's getting exciting.

But if you're the other guy,
you're hating the dude

who's talking about you 'cause
now you gotta go call home and

explain that to your wife.

You don't mess with a
guy's wife or his family,

or else you can find yourself
laying in a ditch somewhere.

So, we're in Hartford,
Connecticut one night at the

Hartford Civic Center,
and all of a sudden,

the door busts open and in
comes the Brooklyn Brawler.

And he says, "Hey, Vince.

Shawn and Bret have just got
in a fight in the bathroom."

Shawn finally comes
into my dressing room.

We haven't talked for
about a couple months.

I just remember I was
just trying to be nice.

I almost like forgot
that we ever had issues.

I said, "Hey, Shawn."
I was brushing my hair.

And he goes, "You think I'm
gonna fucking talk to you?"

And whatever it was,
Bret just leg dived

and took him down right there.

So I grabbed
him by the hair,

swung him around
the dressing room.

His feet were actually off the
ground a couple of times.

It was like two prostitutes

fighting in downtown
or something.

Here comes Shawn,
and he's hot.

And he has got in his hand,
a handful of his hair.

It looked like
a small possum.

And I'll never forget this.

He said, "This is an
unsafe working environment!"

As far as I know,
I think if anybody was

sleeping with Sunny it
probably was Shawn.

[laughs]

As the backstage
friction between

Bret and Shawn intensifies,

Vince begins to
lose the TV ratings war and

is forced to cut costs.

♪

Vince comes back and looks
at the commitment that

he had made to Bret Hart,
and it was, it was a drain.

It was a drain on
the company for

what we were bringing
in at the time.

Vince told me that,
basically,

he couldn't afford to pay me
the contract that he'd given me.

It kind of broke
my heart, like,

where it's like,
okay, I get it.

I remember I got off
the phone with him,

and I said, "I guess I'm,
I'm done," and

I hung up with Vince and I
signed my WCW contract.

I can't remember exactly
what day or when I heard

that Bret had made the
deal and was going to WCW,

but Vince told us Bret
was gonna finish up

at Survivor Series.

He'd drop the belt and
then he'd, you know,

he'd be free.
It didn't turn out that way.

With Bret leaving
the company,

Bret wasn't just
leaving the company.

He was leaving the company
and going to our competitor

that was beating
us in the ratings.

To have our champion leave
the company is bad enough.

To have them leave
the company -

with the championship -
is a kick in the nuts.

The time honored
tradition is,

when you're leaving a
territory or a promotion,

you lose on the way out.

I gotta tell you,
in the beginning,

there wasn't a whole lot of
worry about it because

it was Bret and
we thought that,

that there would not be any
issue with Bret dropping the

championship to whoever
we asked him to

drop the championship to.

When I first heard that I
was wrestling Shawn, was

maybe about three or four
weeks before Survivor Series.

Anyway, so Vince pulled me in
and he goes -

he was all excited,
he goes,

"We're gonna drop
the belt to Shawn."

So when I saw Shawn,
I remember, like,

I thought this is your chance to

open the door for
sort of dialogue.

So I remember when we
shook hands I said,

"Shawn, I just heard that we're
wrestling at Survivor Series."

I said, "I want you to know
that you'll always

be safe with me in the ring,

that I'll always
be professional.

I would never do anything
to hurt you or injure you

or anything like that."

And he looked at me
and he said, he goes,

"I appreciate that, but I
just want you to know that

I am not willing to do
the same thing for you," and

he turned around and walked
out of the dressing room and

slammed the door.

Vince, even though he knew
that Shawn and Bret

hated each other, somehow
he thought this match

was magically gonna go in the
ring and everything was

gonna work out
like he wanted.

And, the closer that
we got to the match,

the more obvious it
was that it was not.

One of the things he had given
Bret in that brand-new contract

with all the bells and
whistles was reasonable

creative control of his
character and

the way he was presented.

I'm the boss of
my last 60 days.

Why would I lose to Shawn?
He's disrespected me.

I'm not wrestling Shawn,
or I don't-- I'm not putting

Shawn over under any
circumstances until

he proves to me that he's got
enough respect for me

to put me over first.

And I was on Bret's side
'cause Shawn was the prick,

not Bret. But we had to
get the belt back.

The news of Vince's current
champion signing with

his main competitor would spell
his defeat in the ratings war.

With his back to the wall,

Vince must get his
belt off Bret,

and what he's about to do
will echo far beyond

the wrestling world.

With his last match in the
WWF less than 24 hours away,

Bret Hart is refusing
any scenario which has him

losing the belt to
his real life nemesis,

Shawn Michaels.

Bret is growing
suspicious of what his boss,

Vince McMahon, might do.

Showed up that day and I
was ready for my match,

but I did have suspicions
about the referee.

I remember thinking the only
way they can screw me is,

Shawn will never
pin me or tap me,

make me tap out, so I
wasn't worried about that.

I said, but the way it will work
is they'll get the referee.

Hello, I'm Earl Hebner.
I'm the referee.

My relationship
with Bret was great.

Most of the time, he always
wanted me to ref his matches.

People think, oh, I count
to three and it's over.

It's-- That's
not the ball game.

We were sort of a coach.

You're thinking
for three people.

It's very, very hard.

Do we have to?
[laughs]

Just kidding.
[laughs]

The day
before that show,

I got on a plane,
got in my seat.

The stewardess came back
and said, "Mr. Hebner?"

I said, "Yes, ma'am?"

She said, "You have
a first class seat."

I said, "My ticket
don't say 'first class'."

She said, "Mr. Hart bought you
a first class seat."

So I went up and
sat beside Bret,

and we talked,
and Bret said,

"Will you promise me
one thing?"

I said, "What's that?"

He said,
"You won't count me out?"

I said, "Nope, I will
not count you out."

I said, "You know they're gonna
ask you to screw me tomorrow,"

but he got the tears in
his eyes and he could,

his lip quivered and
he was like,

"The hell with that. I swear."

He said, "I swear to God
on my kids, I will never,"

you know,
and we was so adamant.

And I remember,
I shook his hand. I said,

"Just tell me if something
like that's gonna happen."

Complicating matters,
a film crew producing

a documentary called
Wrestling with Shadows

is following Bret to capture
his last WWF match.

From the second I land,
I've got the entire

High Road Production
film crew, they're filming.

And they got the boom
mics and the whole thing,

and they follow me
wherever I went.

It was like a lot of people
that I didn't even know,

all around the building.

The idea was that
Vince would get with Bret.

I think that Vince felt that
once he got in front of Bret,

face to face, that they would
work something out.

But I remember the whole
camera crew coming in.

They wanted to mic me
up and I remember going,

"No, I kind of don't--
It's not how I operate."

And he goes, "Just in case."

My name is Harry Zafrany.

I was the sound recordist
on Wrestling with Shadows.

The director told us,
"Look.

We gotta be very low profile
about this," you know,

"Nobody should know
that Bret Hart is wired."

It was a private meeting
and Bret went in wired,

didn't let Vince know
that he was recording it.

I never ever want to leave here
with any kind of bad feeling,

but this week has been
a bad week for me.

I feel kind of
betrayed a little bit,

the way this whole
thing has been depicted.

It's really hard for me as a
hero here to come up short.

I was determined to,
to stick to my guns,

and I was not backing down.

And right away
Vince goes,

"Well, what are we gonna do?"

I think what I'd like to
do is get through today.

I think tomorrow I should
just go in and do my speech

and forfeit the title.

I think it allows me a
chance to leave with

my head up and leave
in a nice way.

I would think it'd be
a run-in type thing.

But I'm open to anything.
I'm open to anything.

I knew that there
was a point in the match

where Bulldog and
Owen would run out,

referee would lose
control of the match,

ring the bell.

There would be no winner,
and we would go off with

a lot of chaos
going on in the ring.

Yeah, like a...
basically a no contest.

Like, I remember
walking out to the ring,

and I knew, like, okay,
be leery of submission holds

in a match like this, but
I already talked to Earl,

and I thought about it
and it's like,

I said, okay,
I trusted Earl.

And so, I put my guard down;
that was, that was my...

fatal mistake.

I'm walking down
to go to the ring,

and I'm getting
pulled aside.

And Gerry Brisco says,
"Vince McMahon wants you to

ring the bell when he puts
Bret in the sharpshooter."

I said, "What?"

He said, "Well,
are you gonna do it?"

I said, "I don't know."

Gerry Brisco is a
producer and agent,

and one of the toughest
son-of-a-bitches

on the face of the earth.

He grabs me by
the arm and says,

"Is Bret Hart gonna pay you?
This is what Vince wants.

Do you want a job or not?"

I said, "I don't have an idea
what I'm gonna do right now.

Y'all messed my mind up."
And this is the truth.

I'm thinking, he had an
opportunity to drop the belt.

I know this is not right,
but I gotta have a job.

I told my brother to put
all my shit in the car.

This ain't gonna look good.
Get all my shit out the

dressing room and
put it in the car.

So I'm walking
to the ring, "God,

I promised Bret I
wouldn't count him out."

That was the
longest walk of my life.

We had a great match planned out
and Shawn was a great wrestler.

We're gonna start fighting
before the bell starts.

I don't think this match
has officially even started.

Finally, after about 10
minutes of brawling and

fighting out in
the crowd and stuff,

I eventually fight
Shawn back to the ring,

throw him in the ring,
and now the match starts.

They get in the ring.

I ring the bell to start,
and I'm going,

God, don't put the
sharpshooter on.

The match lasted
10, 15 minutes.

ANNOUNCER:
Look at this!

SCOTT: Oh! Putting Bret into
the sharpshooter.

Oh my gosh, how humiliating.

He's gonna beat him
with his own finish.

Shawn actually didn't know
how to put the sharpshooter on.

He steps through
the wrong way,

folds my legs the wrong way.

And I moved my legs and
switched them the right way.

I remember when he put
it on and I flipped over,

I could see Vince McMahon,
and I can see him.

He's got this cold look on
his face and he's yelling,

"Ring the fucking bell."

"Ring the bell," and he
kept saying it to the guy,

"Ring the bell!"

As the match was
going on, I'm going,

"I don't know
what I'm gonna do."

I hated it.

And I remember in that
moment of looking at the

time keeper, and
Vince snaps at him,

"Ring the fucking bell!"

Well, they're
screwing me right now.

And I remember reaching back
and showing that I wasn't

submitting and I grabbed Shawn's
leg and started to reverse.

But you could hear
the bell, "ding, ding, ding."

[match bell]

If I hadn't 'a rung the bell,

Vince McMahon was
gonna ring that bell.

And at first I was like,
I wanted to just kill Vince.

I wanted to just jump
through the ropes and

just punch him out.

I couldn't believe he did it to
me after all the years

that I gave him,
and all the matches,

and all the hard work, and he
disrespected me like that.

You son of a bitch.

I jump out of the ring,
ran across the floor,

jumped the hockey fence
and could still

hear the bell ringing.

Jumped in the car
and we drove off.

I had enough sense to paint
WCW backwards so that

you can read it on TV.

Bret did the "W-C-W" for the
fans that are in Montreal.

But it was, you know,
it was what it was.

I remember I had a nice good
gobber of spit and I remember

I just leaned over the top...

♪

Hollywood couldn't 'a
created something

better than that.

I wrecked a bunch
of monitors and

threw $100,000 headphones out
into the crowd and stuff.

Because of a couple of guys
that couldn't get along,

they hit on the most talked
about match ending

in the history of
professional wrestling

since the dawn of time.

Widely viewed by fans as

wrestling's most
treacherous act,

the Montreal Screwjob
would tear the lid off

of wrestling's
sacred brotherhood,

but it's true architect
has yet to be revealed.

This is where I've told a
couple of these things.

I've never gone this far,
but I figure,

like I said, I'm not gonna
talk about this on TV

any time in the rest of my life,
so I guess at this point

I don't care who
gets mad at me.

So, it was me and Vince Russo
at Vince McMahon's house.

My name is Vince Russo.
I was the head writer at

the WWE during the
infamous Montreal Screwjob.

And quite honestly,
I wasn't even

originally slated for
this documentary.

And then, I wanted to be a
part of it because I was there.

Like, I knew
what would happen.

So, I'm sitting
there that day.

First, Vince gets up and he
takes a phone call from Bret.

What I could tell you
about that phone call is,

you know, Vince pitched
many different scenarios for

Shawn Michaels to take
the belt off of Bret Hart.

And Bret soured on
every single one of them.

Vince told Bret we'd go
back to the drawing board,

and that's exactly
what we did.

"Well, this finish won't work
and that finish won't work,

and Bret just wants to come
out and hand the belt over

on TV the following
night without getting beat."

I'm sure he does!

So, then he goes
and he calls Shawn.

Every time Vince
goes in there,

then I have to sit in a room
twiddling my thumbs with the

fucking guy that I hate worse
than anybody in the world,

Vince Russo.

We'd get in these creative
meetings and the three of us

would argue, and it
wasn't the three of us,

it was Jim and me.

We could not be
farther apart,

physically, philosophically,
mentally, morally.

If one of us was an African
American lesbian nun and

the other was a Nazi skinhead
Martian from outer space,

we could not be
more different.

The problem is,
he's still living in 1970.

I'll never forget
he made the comment,

"Oh, when a guy
comes out of a box,

he's instantly over."

Like, bro,
this is like 1996.

Like, who's coming out
of boxes, bro?

Vince Russo's never
had any respect

for professional wrestling.
He booked the wrestling program

to pattern after Jerry Springer.

Our styles completely crash.

Finally, Vince comes out,
and I'm about lost

my religion with the whole
creative team thing anyway

'cause it's not my
style of wrestling.

I'm living in Connecticut.
I'm miserable.

I weight 280 pounds 'cause
I'm aggravation eating.

I'm just, I'm not
in my element here.

I said, "Vince,"
I said,

"There's got to be
something we can do."

I said, "It's your company
and it's your belt."

So then, Vince
looks at me and says,

"Well, then,
how would you do it, pal?"

Well, now it's a
fucking challenge.

Once again, I'm going
through every finish

I can think of or every
situation I ever think of

where nobody wanted to do a job.

I said, "goddamn
double cross him."

You can learn more about
modern wrestling from these

classic books and classic
magazines than you can

by talking to people today

because history always
repeats itself.

In 1931, there was another
double cross in Montreal,

the Battle of the Bite.

Strangler Lewis controlled
the championship and

nobody could get it away
from him because

it was worth so much money.

Lewis has a title match
in Montreal against

[French accent]
Henri DeGlane,

[American accent]
"Henry De-Glane."

They lock up
and immediately,

DeGlane grabs Lewis'
own hold on Lewis,

the head lock,
and takes him down,

and they go down on
the mat because

Lewis is working with
him and they--

and probably they're gonna do
some kind of reversal.

DeGlane starts
screaming bloody murder

at the top of his lungs.

The referee checks DeGlane,

huge bite mark on
the guy's chest.

Apparently, when DeGlane
got the headlock on Lewis,

Lewis had bitten him.

Here's the thing:
it was actually Dan Kolov,

DeGlane's corner man had
bitten him in the locker room,

and then did this. And then,
when they locked up, boom,

headlock, nobody could see
what happened.

Referee disqualifies
Strangler Lewis and

awards the title to
Henri DeGlane.

That's a double cross,

and it's as old as the hills
in wrestling.

So, when Vince says, "Well,
how would you do it, then?"

"Bret's hold is
the sharpshooter."

♪

But, let Shawn...

get Bret's hold on him.

If the referee just calls
for the bell as a submission...

Nobody can tell anything was
wrong because that's what

it's supposed to
look like anyway.

And to tell anybody
anything was wrong,

I said, "Bret Hart,
of all people,

would have to
expose the business."

I said, "What's he gonna do?
Call the newspapers?"

But then Vince, "Nah!"

And he gave the "hmph"
like he does when,

whenever you would be
discussing tomfoolery and

he would say, "Alright,
let's get back to reality,"

and we went on.

Unless I was in the bathroom
during that scenario,

that scenario did not take
place in front of me

when I was sitting
at the table.

I'm not gonna call
Jim Cornette a liar.

When I was sitting
at the table -

and Cornette was
sitting at the same table -

I pitched that exact
scenario to Vince.

So, basically,
out of pure frustration,

I said, "Vince,
I said, "screw it, Vince."

Have Shawn put the
sharpshooter on Bret,

and have the referee
call for the bell. Do that."

Vince Russo didn't know
what a double cross was.

He was sitting there
with his eyes open.

People tell me all the time,
"Oh, Vince, you,

you take credit for the
Montreal Screwjob."

I wish I didn't
pitch the idea.

That was a miserable night.

It was one of the worst
experiences in my life

in the wrestling business.

I swear on my mother's grave,
my father's grave,

my wife's life,
and my dog's life,

the story I just
told you is true.

Vince Russo is the biggest liar
in professional wrestling

and imagine the
territory that takes in.

♪

When I was sitting
there at the monitor,

I saw him go into the spot;
that's when I shit myself.

Holy fuck, he's actually
gonna do this.

And look, to this--
Look, right now.

Close up on the goosebumps.

♪

Now I'm thinking...

I don't know who
else knows about this.

I just know that there is a
high probability that

somebody in this building
is gonna want to

beat the shit out of me in
the next ten minutes and

I'm gonna get out of here.

When I'm starting my car up
and starting to pull out,

I heard a car rev the motor
and saw the headlights

pop up behind me;
that had to be Hebner.

[laughs] I beat him
out of the building.

♪

Just as Bret Hart was double
crossed on live television

by his boss,
Vince McMahon,

WWF executive Bruce Prichard,
is blindsided himself

by the sudden
change in plans.

[match bell]

So, it's chaos.

I'm not even realizing what's
happening in front of me.

Oh, God, I was pissed off
that I wasn't smartened up as to

what they were doing, and
I was pissed off because

I was left in the back alone,
in a position

where everyone thought they
knew that I was involved,

and I wasn't.

I felt very alone.
I felt betrayed.

That piece of shit's locked
himself in his office.

[crowd chatter]

The cameras are off.
Show's over.

I got screwed.
And I was so mad.

And there's Shawn,
suddenly in my dressing room,

and he's swearing to God that
he had nothing to do with it.

Shawn,
you weren't in on that?

My hands are clean on
this one, I swear to God.

He was a bad actor.

The one of the two
was in on it, that I think.

Shawn had to be in on it.

You know, at that time,
I had no idea.

Well, now we know Shawn
was just putting on an act.

♪

There was like this hush
in the dressing room and

everyone's kind of stunned.

I remember Undertaker got so
mad that he kicked over

one of those big steel barrels.

He just slammed the door
and said something about,

he was going down to
Vince's office to get

a straight answer on why
they did that to me.

You know, "Vince...

You gotta go over
and talk to him,

explain why you
did what you did.

You gotta give him one.

And by giving him one,
if he's gonna,

he's gonna hit you,
you gotta take one."

Bret came out of the shower
and told Vince get out of

his fucking dressing room,
and then he said,

he goes, "If you're
still here when I get out,

I'm gonna get dressed and
I'm gonna punch you out."

Bret finished his shower.

I mean, he went back in,
took his sweet ass time and

finished his shower.

And Vince stood right in
the middle of the room

waiting for him to finish.

♪

So I finish the
shower and I come out.

And, it's funny 'cause I
walk out of the shower

sopping wet, naked.

Vince said something to
me along the lines of,

"This is the first time I ever
had to lie to one of my talent,"

which is such a lie.

I remember tying my shoes,

and I remember when
I got tying my last shoelace,

I started to tie it like,
this is it,

I'm gonna punch out
Vince McMahon.

I can't believe
I'm doing this.

And, we walked
towards each other,

end up tying up, just like
a pro wrestling match,

and I remember just sinking
down and kind of just

turning my whole body
and thinking, 14 years,

and coming up right
between our arms,

and I hit Vince McMahon
with the most beautiful

Mike Tyson upper cut.
I popped him, literally,

off the,
right off the ground.

He went straight down,
out cold.

Everybody was stunned.
No one could believe it.

It was dead silent for a while
and nobody said anything,

and then, Bret said,

"Get the fuck out of
my dressing room."

So, I mean, I have to say that
I remember Shawn Michaels,

he was bawling
his eyes out like a baby.

And I remember thinking,
I know you were in on it.

And he knew it, he was
like waiting for me to

make my way over to him
and finish him off.

But, I just tapped him on
the shoulder and I said,

"Shawn,
thanks for the match."

He couldn't believe that I
thanked him for the match,

and then he looked up at me
and he just burst into tears,

like,
really blubbering.

I had never,
to that point,

heard of that much drama and
backstage just bullshit.

Sometimes I lost sleep over

what I should have
done that day.

Bret, you're not gonna
understand this now,

but Vince was trying to
protect his business.

It was never about
not trusting you.

He didn't trust Eric.

I went into
Vince's office and said,

"I need to talk to you."
He said, "Okay."

I said, "I'm fucked."

He said, "I got a meeting
with everybody today.

We'll take care of it."

Sat everybody down and said,

"What I did last
night was my call.

It's not Earl's fault, and
anybody that don't like it

can come to my office and I'll
release your ass right now."

Screwjob was
already in the makings.

They had to find
somebody that would do it.

The conversation I
had with Vince where,

where we really had the
big heart-to-heart

was the following
Wednesday in Stanford.

And, I told him
what I thought.

Vince's reaction was,
"If you had known,

then you would have known.

You would never be able to
say that you didn't know.

Shawn Michaels risked
everything for you and

for this company, so before
you condemn Shawn Michaels,

understand what he did
for you and your family."

There were a lot of "what if"
scenarios discussed

the night before, and I think
that everybody believed

that at the end of the day,
Vince was going to be able to

convince Bret to
drop the championship.

That didn't happen, so
Vince asked Gerry Brisco to

let Shawn know there's a
spot in the match that,

Shawn, when you
get him in the,

in the sharpshooter,
we'll ring the bell.

Of all people, Bret Hart,
who was raised in the

wrestling business,
whose father was a wrestler,

who went through the code,

he's the one that
exposed the business!

So, we're talking with Bret Hart
"The Hitman" today. How are ya?

It was very important to me,
after 14 years of probably

the most dedicated, loyal,
hard working service that

you could ever get out of a
professional wrestler -

I'd given this man everything
you could ever ask for and

I made it very, very clear
that my character was not in

any way shape or form
gonna be humiliated.

Bret was telling any and
everybody that he could,

he didn't lose.
He was screwed.

And, it was something that
Vince felt it was important

to address on
Monday Night Raw.

Did you or did you
not screw Bret Hart?

There's a time-honored tradition
in the wrestling business

that when someone
is leaving that they show

the right amount of respect.

And the people are like,
"No, we don't want to like

the rich billionaire boss.

We liked Bret Hart.
He was our hero."

Bret Hart didn't want
to honor that tradition.

Vince was really giving
Bret Hart all kinds of shit

for not honoring the
time-honored tradition of

doing the right
thing on the way out.

On TV, this didn't
happen ever before.

Vince, in this interview,
just came across very

cold, calculated,
and very, very heelish.

I truly believe that Bret Hart
screwed Bret Hart,

and he can look in the
mirror and know that.

Rather than sweep this
incident under the rug,

Vince capitalizes on it by
transforming this real-life

incident into a story line
where he reinvents himself

as an evil,
conniving mastermind.

When I debuted,
the fans didn't know that

Vince was the owner.

He was an announcer.

And then, once the word got
out that he actually

owns the company and he's the
power behind the throne,

this and that,
Vince ran with it.

Mr. McMahon is one of the
greatest heel characters

of all time, yes.

I mean, you've heard
arenas full of people chant,

"Asshole, asshole!"

CROWD:
Asshole! Asshole!

If they had done it right,
everybody prospered.

Shawn Michaels became the
WWF champion off a big win.

Vince McMahon became the
catalyst to the evil empire

of Mr. McMahon, and they
handed the hottest wrestler

in the world -
Bret Hart - to WCW,

and they drop that ball.

In the aftermath of
the Montreal Screwjob,

wrestling changed forever.

The fourth wall had fallen.

Vince McMahon's villainous
character would propel

his company into
the stratosphere,

while Bret Hart would make
his lackluster debut in WCW.

You know, if you look at how
Bret Hart even came to WCW

and how I, how they launched
me the very first day...

Why don't we bring the
man out that's gonna

referee this match.

God, I remember
like, referee?

That's so lame, like, such
a lame way to bring me in.

Is that what you want,
referee?

Eric Bischoff was an imbecile
trying to run wrestling.

He didn't have any idea
about how to run wrestling.

I have to take some
responsibility in the fact that

there may have been
better ways to bring Bret in.

I would be honored
to be the referee...

But at the same time,
we'll never know that because

the plans that we did have for
Bret were executed so

piss poorly because of his
just detachment from it all.

He didn't get over in WCW.
Zero impact.

Hey, Bischoff!

And the WCW...

- I quit!
- [cheering]

I think the legacy of the
Montreal Screwjob is that

nobody knows if it was
really a screwjob or not.

I happen to believe
it was the real deal.

To me, I feel the same way
now seeing it back

as I did the first
time I saw it.

It's a total work.

Everybody was in on it and
they all did it together.

Now, look at Bret's face.

He doesn't look
too shocked to me.

You're gonna spit on Vince
and then the truck is

gonna go, "Go tight on Vince,
go tight on Vince.

Get Vince wiping the
loogy out of his eye."

Vince has been in the TV
business his whole life.

Nothing's gonna happen
without his consent.

Everybody knows
you're leaving.

You're gonna stand in what's
now your opposition's ring

on a global broadcast,
and you're gonna

motion the call signs of
your competitor?

If that's not okay by
a big boss in my mind,

they're gonna cut
away from that.

I mean, I've never
discussed it with Shawn.

You know,
I wasn't there,

and I didn't ask guys
who were there.

Watching it as
an educated fan,

I would say it was a
complete collaboration

by all parties, and that's
all I got to say about that.

People do say it was a work
and Bret was in on it.

No, man.

This is the way this
piece of history went down.

Conspiracy theorists will always
be conspiracy theorists.

But unfortunately,
sometimes,

when people want more of a
story to be there that

just isn't there,
they try to create it.

He's not one of
'em too, is he?

[laughs]

I'm sorry. Just, it's just,
it's ludicrous that Scott Hall

would say that he didn't talk
to Shawn Michaels about this.

I know they all talked to
each other about everything,

but especially about this.
Why the fuck wouldn't they?

I will tell anybody to their
face that thinks that

this was a work, you're a
dumb stupid fucker.

These are death threats.
I've gotten a bunch of 'em.

But, these were some of
the most creative and

some of the most picturesque
so I framed these.

"Get by the ring
one more time,

you make a target
under those lights.

You won't know where it
comes from. Bye-bye."

They pulled it all off because
I trusted the referee.

Poor Earl, and he's
just a little guy.

I feel so bad for him.

To put that on him was
such a rotten thing to do.

For the last 15 years,
it's been the shits.

That's always a
chant in any arena is,

"You screwed Bret."

We never talked for
a long, long time.

Many years.
It's...

even though Bret and
I are friends now,

this is still upsetting.

I guess you can tell I'm kind
of breaking down a little bit,

but it's something that
will be with me forever.

A lot of people will say,
"Hey, it was their idea,

all the way from
Vince Russo,

to Jim Cornette,
to Triple H,

to Shawn, to me,"
you know, we all said it.

The Montreal Screwjob is
remembered all kinds of

different ways by all
kinds of different people.

For the fans, it was like
one of the first big

behind the scenes
things that exploded,

and they heard about, and
they realized there was more

intrigue in the locker room
and in the board room

than there sometimes
was in the ring.

You know, as soon
you start doing that,

as soon as you don't
believe it's real anymore,

it's not really
worth watching.

That's the way the people
feel when they lose faith

in their hero; that's when you
lose people in wrestling,

because they believed
in the people involved,

even if they didn't always
believe all the action,

they believed in the people.

I take a lot of pride,
almost ridiculous pride in

being the wrestler that I was.

I believe that I was the
guy that reinforced the

wrestling aspect of
the wrestling show,

and that's what I like
to be remembered for.

The reality of
the situation is,

is that if two
guys just could've,

you know, could've
got over themselves...

Well, we wouldn't be
sitting here today.

I've ignored him for years,
and it's on, and on.

It's my, my personal enjoyment
at this advanced age,

to remind everybody
at every opportunity

that he's a liar.

It's freaking wrestling.
It means nothing.

I will live to
piss on his grave.

Even if I'm in a walker,

my wife already
has instructions.

She's out of the will if
she doesn't get me there,

if I'm not ambulatory.

I'll find Vince Russo's grave
and I will piss on it,

and there will be a picture
of that hanging on my wall

when I pass away.

And hate is a
hell of a motivator.