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00:00Bret was amazing by any standard brett may go down as one of the top technicians in the industry
00:08brett took the business seriously i think sometimes to his detriment he took himself a
00:15little too seriously brett believed he was the wwf champion on november the 9th 1997 professional
00:22wrestler brett hart had fought and clawed his way to the top as world champion but in a matter of
00:28seconds he would realize that those who make you can just as easily destroy you here's the problem
00:35brett didn't want to lose at the championship it's your last night in the company we need to crown a
00:40new champion you know what we'll just take it from it it's like i remember when i was a kid exactly
00:47where i was standing when john f kennedy had been assassinated and i remember just as precisely
00:53where i was when i found out about the montreal screw job screwing a canadian hero in canada how
01:00much more evil can one get and i still feel to this day like i have a neon sign on my head i
01:06you brett never told you about it but i you i was so mad like it just ready to explode the screw job
01:13changed so many things in the business the innocence of wrestling changed this was one of the worst things
01:19in the world that happened to me in this business say what you want about wrestling that was real he
01:25really screwed that guy the incident known as the montreal screw job marks a turning point in the history
01:31of wrestling never before had the curtain been pulled back to fully reveal the behind the scenes drama
01:38a dark plot of betrayal was exposed legacies were redefined and fans would never see wrestling the same again
01:49you know it's one thing i always say about the screw job is that if you go back and you look at all the
02:03facts my story has never changed it's always been the same story right from day one because i tell the
02:08truth i'm brett the hitman hart the best there is the best there was and the best there will be i always
02:14say i was a real world champion because i really traveled all around the world and defended my belt
02:19this is my history and my life here all these guys despite everything that's happened with the
02:23screw jobs and all that kind of stuff for me it's mostly happy memories my name is jim cornett for the
02:29past 35 years i've worked for every major professional wrestling promotion in the united states as a manager
02:34announcer trainer matchmaker pretty much done it all i was actually there i actually lived it i'm giving you
02:42my perspective just because my perspective happens to be entertaining then some people take exception to
02:50that i was the executive vice president of talent relations i've been a writer producer director brother
02:57love is an alter ego of mine you name it worn a lot of hats in the wwf wwe
03:03the patriarch of the hart family was stew hart and stew was an angel veteran double tough the dungeon was
03:16the basement in the heart family house well the dungeon is hard to explain my dad 60 or 70 year old
03:23man would go down there and torture a bunch of football players and bodybuilders i don't feel my arms
03:27sir let me uh show you a hold here you just take your arm like this the heart family is one of the
03:35most famous families in the history of our business the sons were all wrestlers the daughters
03:39all married wrestlers they had a wrestling bear that lived under their porch it was like the munster's
03:45house for the people in calgary stew would invite everybody over and and make breakfast they had a
03:51bunch of cats and he'd take the thing where he's he's flipping the eggs and he'd flip the cat
03:55shit over there and then go back to flipping the eggs you know but it made him tough's what it did
04:00and stew began the uh stampede wrestling promotion in alberta and had a very successful company there
04:07for a long time hello hello hello and welcome to this another edition and bret hart was kind of a pale
04:15skinny you know maybe 21 year old kid or whatever but you could tell he kind of knew what he was doing
04:21i'm more confident right now than i've ever been there's no reason right now that him he should have
04:25those belts right now the hearts were very integral to professional wrestling around the world
04:30in 1984 stew hart is trying to keep his struggling territory afloat the rapidly expanding wwf strikes
04:37a deal to acquire the entire promotion along with stew's main star his son brett
04:44when vince bought stew hart stampede wrestling in 1984 he took bret hart and jim knight hart who was
04:50son-in-law as a team the hart foundation they were managed by jimmy hart no relation they were a
04:55tremendous tag team and bret hart had a perfect foil in sean michaels when you have two guys like bret
05:03hart and sean michaels that are as talented as they are at what they do to begin with and then sometimes
05:08there's just chemistry you find a duet between two singers that have never worked together before but
05:13suddenly it's a hit look at this 360 in mid-air internationally we're getting reports back that
05:23we've got a megastar on our hands in the form of bret hart he his work had made him this mega
05:31star that was all they wanted to see that's all they wanted to talk about this and at the same time
05:36rick flair was the champion and rick was having some health issues
05:39we needed to make a change so vince is looking at it going why not brett that's the kind of guy you
05:47want to reward vince mcmahon's one of the most unique individuals on the planet if you could cross
05:54a genius with pt barnum and donald trump you would get the love child that would be vince mcmahon
06:00vince honestly is the third generation wrestling promoter vince controls creative vince controls
06:05talent choices they run the lunch schedule past vince mcmahon to this day over the years vince
06:11had a good relationship with brett i don't know you know i think that once brett became champion in
06:18saskatoon um there started there was a change that was taking place the criteria for a world champion in
06:31those days there wasn't a set physical list of maneuvers or whatever that you had to perform it was
06:38whoever vince thought could be the guy vince mcmahon decides who the champion is going to be it's not
06:44actually won by anybody so brett didn't beat rick flair he won the championship in a in a scripted contest
06:53okay in a storyline brett deserved you know to have that accolade but at the same time remember that
07:01someone made you champion you didn't really beat anybody i think brett looked at the wwf championship
07:07like guys years ago used to maybe it was because of his father and his lineage but when you were
07:12chosen to be a champion of a major company it meant that the promoter thought that you were the best
07:18talent that you were the best draw that you would make him the most money that you were the guy
07:23while brett's star is rising in the wwf a fledgling promotion suddenly starts edging out vince mcmahon
07:30and the television ratings wcw in the early 90s was a was a secondary competitor to the wwf
07:39i happen to be eric bischoff you know as the executive producer at least i had a voice
07:43within wcw wwf is up here wcw is way down here there's no way i can be better than the wwf but i
07:52gotta be different than them their tape i'm live they target their content towards kids
07:58i decided i wanted my characters to be more reality based i would use their real names wcw came
08:04after our talent the perception was they offered them a lot more money you know when hulk hogan left
08:09the wwf i think it hurt vince personally it it stung a little bit and the first the first big names to
08:17go were scott hall kevin nash in the very beginning ted dibiase left roddy piper shortly thereafter the
08:24curtain call as it came to be known happened because nash and hall were leaving to go to wcw for
08:29their big contracts it is my last appearance for the wwe and it's also kevin nash's last appearance
08:36it was at madison square garden the most famous arena in the world after the last match hall and nash
08:43and michaels and hemsley two of them good guys two of them bad guys all went out to the ring and had a big
08:50hug and a big kiss and waved bye to the fans who had no idea what was going on with sean and those
08:56guys they broke kayfabe in front of the fans in madison square garden the word kayfabe is like a
09:03lot of wrestling terminology it comes from the days of the carnivals when you break kayfabe in wrestling
09:09you let the fans and the general public in the inside world and ruin the illusion
09:15it wasn't like that it all just happened organically because the fans were going crazy i mean it's like
09:21a magical moment here we are 25 years later talking about you had been chosen and selected to be in a
09:29secret brotherhood and you kept those illusions private and to yourself because that it was a code
09:35it was the code of kayfabe now as competition between the two biggest promotions heats up
09:41wrestling's fourth wall starts to crumble exposing its secrets and while brett enters the biggest
09:47rivalry of his career he never could have imagined that it would end up leading to his ultimate destruction
09:58before their off-screen feud would boil over into one of wrestling's most controversial moments
10:04bret hart and sean michaels contrasting in-ring styles led to some of the greatest matches of all time
10:11as far as wrestling styles between brett and sean brett was more basic more grounded more hard-hitting
10:17more technical michaels from the other side and oh no michaels he's an incredible performer but also a
10:24lot of his stuff is more pretty and a little bit more gymnastic oh he's caught by brett hart
10:29oh look at that i think sean michaels is probably the greatest performer all all round plus he was
10:36different he wasn't a big giant my contract was gonna expire eric bischoff has sent feelers out to
10:44me there were two separate occasions when i began to talk to brett about coming over and i heard the
10:50initial offer was two million and then it was two million something and it got up to like three
10:54million and i'm sure they were rounding off but at that point what's the difference right vince heard
10:59about them giving me an offer remember vince said he goes i'll make you an offer and we worked on a
11:04contract it was 1.5 million for 20 years i think brett favors loyalty over money and accepts the
11:12counter offer from vince mcmahon but then a mutual animosity between brett and sean begins to take
11:18hold sean was starting to get uh overwhelmed with uh negative doing a chip and dale kind of gimmick
11:26it's not a heroic thing to do sean michaels saw an opportunity to be more and more of a top
11:31guy and also to be more and more of a prick nobody breaks into this wrestling business to work their
11:36way to the middle i mean if you don't want to be on top you're in the wrong business i don't really
11:42care if you want to have dinner with me do you want to wrestle me oh you do okay i don't think that
11:47they were really that different which is probably where the real life rivalry came into play first day
11:54when i walked out and i ended up trashing sean michaels on the interview about his playgirl
11:59magazine centerfold before i went out i said sean i'm gonna it's okay if i bring up that playgirl
12:04magazine and take a jab at that and say something about it he was no go ahead say whatever you want
12:09world wrestling federation needs a hero they need a role model they need somebody they can look up to
12:14not somebody that poses for girly magazines and i came back and sean was just crushed he almost looked
12:20like he burst into tears now now we're doing live tv and these guys are saying things on live tv
12:26about each other sean made reference to sunny days sunny is uh tammy sit she was one of the valets she
12:33was the first real you know big pin-up girl of the wwf and sean was making the inference that brett was
12:42having some kind of an affair or some kind of relationship with sunny even though lately you've had some
12:50sunny days my friend you still can't get the job done in any situation oh boy now from a fan's
12:58point of view it's getting exciting but if you're the other guy you're hating the dude who's talking
13:03about you because now you've got to call home and explain that to your wife you don't mess with a
13:08guy's wife or his family or elsewise you find yourself laying in a ditch somewhere so we're in hartford
13:13connecticut one night at the hartford civic center and all of a sudden the door bus open and in comes
13:18the brooklyn brawler and he says hey vince sean and brett have just gotten a fight in the bathroom
13:24sean finally comes into my dressing room we haven't talked for about a couple months and i just remember
13:29i was just trying to be nice i almost like forgot that we ever had issues i said hey sean i was brushing
13:33my hair and he goes you think i'm gonna talk to you and whatever it was brett just leg dived him
13:37took him down right there so i grabbed him by the hair swung him around the dressing room i think his
13:41feet were actually off the ground a couple of times if anything it was like two prostitutes fighting in
13:46downtown or something here comes sean and he's hot and he has got in his hand a handful of his hair
13:52it looked like a small possum and i'll never forget this he said this is an unsafe working environment
14:01as far as i know i think if anybody was sleeping with sunny it probably was sean
14:07as the backstage friction between brett and sean intensifies vince begins to lose the tv ratings war
14:17and is forced to cut costs
14:21vince comes back and looks at the commitment that he had made to brett hart and it was it was a drain
14:28it was a drain on the company for what we were bringing in at the time vince told me that basically
14:33he couldn't afford to pay me the contract that he'd given me kind of broke my heart like where it's
14:37like okay i get it i remember i got off the phone from him and i said i guess i'm i'm done i hung up on
14:43vince and i signed my wcw contract i can't remember exactly what day or when i heard that that brett
14:50had made the deal and was going to wcw but vince told us brett was going to finish up at survivor
14:55series he dropped the belt and and then he'd you know he'd be free it didn't turn out that way
15:03with brett leaving the company brett wasn't just leaving the company he was leaving the company and
15:07going to our competitor that was beating us in the ratings to have our champion leave the company
15:12is bad enough to have them leave the company with the championship is kicking the nuts the time-honored
15:18tradition is when you're leaving a territory or a promotion you lose on the way out i gotta tell
15:24you in the beginning there wasn't a whole lot of worry about it because it was brett and we thought
15:30that that there would not be any issue with brett dropping the championship to whoever we asked him
15:36to drop the championship to when i first heard that i was wrestling sean was maybe about three or
15:43four weeks before survivor series anyway so vince pulled me he goes he's all excited he goes we're
15:50gonna drop the belt to sean so i saw sean i right i thought this is your chance to open the door for
15:57sort of dialogue so i remember when we shook hands i said sean i just heard that we're wrestling at
16:01survivor series i said i want you to know that you always be safe with me in the ring that i'll always
16:07be professional i would never do anything to hurt you or injure you or anything like that and he looked
16:12at me and he said he goes i appreciate that but i just want you to know that i am not willing to do
16:18the same thing for you and he turned around and walked out of the dress room slam the door vince
16:23even though he knew that sean and brett hated each other somehow he thought this match was magically
16:28going to go into ring and everything was going to work out like he wanted and the closer that we got
16:33to the match the more obvious it was that it was not one of the things he had given brett in that
16:37brand new contract with all the bells and whistles was reasonable creative control of his
16:42character and the way he was presented i'm the boss of my last 60 days why would i lose the sean he's
16:48disrespected me i'm not wrestling sean or i don't know i'm not putting sean over under any circumstances
16:53until he proves me that he's got enough respect for me to put me over first and i was on brett's
16:58side because sean was the prick not brett but we had to get the belt back the news of vence's current
17:04champion signing with his main competitor would spell his defeat in the ratings war with his back to the
17:11wall vence must get his belt off brett and what he's about to do will echo far beyond the wrestling
17:17world with his last match in the wwf less than 24 hours away bret hart is refusing any scenario which
17:30has him losing the belt to his real life nemesis sean michaels brett is growing suspicious of what his
17:36boss this mcmahon might do showed up that day and i was ready for my match but i did have suspicions
17:43about the referee i mean oh i remember thinking the only way they can screw me if sean will never pin
17:47me or tap make me tap out so i wasn't worried about that i said but the way it'll work is they'll get the
17:53referee hello i'm earl hebner i'm a referee my relationship with brett was great most of the
18:00time he always wanted me to reference matches people think oh i can count to three and it's
18:05over it's that's not the ball game we're sort of a coach you're thinking for three people it's uh very
18:12very hard okay so let's get into the to the montreal story do we have to just kidding
18:20the day before that show i got on the plane got in my seat the students came back and said uh
18:25mr hebner i said yes ma'am she said uh you have a first class seat i said my ticket don't say first
18:31class she said mr hart bought you a first class seat so i went on up here step aside brett and we
18:37looked we talked and uh brett said uh will you promise me one thing i said what's that he said
18:41you won't count me out i said nope i will not count you out i said you know they're going to ask
18:46you to screw me tomorrow but he got the tears in his eyes and he could just lip quivering and he was
18:51like the hell with that i swear i swear to god on my kids i would never you know and he was so
18:55adamant and i shook his hand and i said just tell me if something like that's going to happen
19:01complicating matters a film crew producing a documentary called wrestling with shadows
19:06is following brett to capture his last wwf match from the second i land i've got the entire um
19:13highroads production film crew they're filming and they got the boom mics and the whole thing and
19:19they follow me where i went it was like uh a lot of people that i didn't even know all around the building
19:25the idea was that vince would get with brett i think that vince felt that once he got in front
19:30of brett face to face that they would work something out but i remember um the whole camera crew come in
19:35like they wanted to make me out there yeah i can't it's not how i operate he goes just in case
19:43my name is harry zafrani i was the sound recordist on wrestling with shadows the director told us look we
19:51got to be very low profile about this you know nobody should know that brett hart is is wired it
19:57was a private meeting and brett went in wired didn't let vince know that he was recording it
20:02i never ever wanted to leave here with any kind of bad feeling but this week has been a bad week for
20:06me i feel kind of betrayed a little bit the way this whole thing has been depicted it's really hard
20:11for me as a hero here to come up short i was determined to just to stick to my guns that i was not
20:17back and down and right away vince goes well what are we going to do i think what i'd like to do is
20:21get through today i think tomorrow i should just go in and do my speech and forfeit the title i think
20:26it allows me a chance to leave with my head up and leave in a nice way i would think it'd be a
20:31run-in type thing but yeah but i'm open to you no i think that's i'm open anyway going into this match
20:37you knew what what was going to happen i knew that there was a point in the match where bulldog
20:43and owen would run out referee would lose control of the match ring the bell there would be no winner
20:49and we would go off with a lot of chaos going on in the ring so the match would end in like a
20:54disqualification yeah like basically a no contest like i remember walking out to the ring and i knew
21:02like okay be leary of um submission holds in a match like this but i already talked to earl and i thought
21:08about it and it's like i said okay i trusted earl as i put my guard down that was that was my um
21:14fatal mistake i'm walking down to go to the ring and i'm getting pulled aside and jerry briscoe says
21:19fence right man wants you to ring the bell when he puts brett in the sharpshooter i said what he said
21:25well are you going to do it i said i don't know jerry briscoe is a producer agent one of the toughest
21:30sumbitches on the face of the earth he grabs anybody arm he says is bret hot going to pay you this is what
21:37vince wants do you want a job or not i said i don't have an idea of what i'm going to do right
21:42now y'all messed my mind up and this is the truth i'm thinking he had opportunity to drop the bill
21:49i know this is not right but i gotta have a job i told my brother to put all my in the car
21:56just ain't gonna look good get all my out the dresser and put in the car so i'm walking to the
22:00ring god i promised brett i wouldn't count him out that was the longest walk of my life
22:04we had a great match planned out and sean was a great wrestler we're gonna start fighting before
22:10the bell starts i don't i don't think this match has officially even started finally after about 10
22:14minutes of brawling out and fighting out in the crowd and stuff i eventually fight sean back to the
22:19ring throw him in the ring and now the match starts i get in the ring right i ring the bell to start and
22:24i'm going god don't put the sharpshooter on the match lasts 10 15 minutes look at this oh putting
22:34brett in the sharpshooter oh my gosh how humiliating he's gonna beat him with his own finish sean
22:38actually didn't know how to put the sharpshooter on he steps through the wrong way folds my legs the
22:42wrong way and i moved my legs and switched them the right way i remember when he put it on i flipped
22:48over i could see vince mcmahon and i could see if he's got this cold look on his chest and he's yelling
22:52out to bring the fucking bell and he kept saying it to the guy ring the bell as the match was going
22:57on i'm going i don't know what i'm going to do i hated it and i remember in that moment of looking
23:07at the timekeeper and vince snaps at him to bring the fucking bell oh they're screwing me right now
23:13and i remember reaching back and showing that i wasn't submitting and i grabbed sean's thing and
23:18they started to reverse and you could hear the bell banging if i hadn't rung the bell
23:24vince mcmahon was going to ring that bell and at first i was like i wanted to just kill vince i
23:29want to just jump through the ropes and just punch him out i couldn't believe he did it to me after
23:32all the years that i gave him all the matches and all the hard work and he would disrespect me like
23:37that you son of a bitch i jumped out of the ring ran across the floor jumped the hockey fence and could
23:43still hear the bell ringing jumped in the car and we drove off i had enough sense to paint wcw
23:49backwards so that you could read it on tv brett did the wcw for the fans there in montreal but it was
23:58you know it was what it was i had a nice good gobber spit and i really just leaned over the top rope
24:04the hollywood couldn't recreate something better than that i wrecked a bunch of monitors and threw
24:14the hundred thousand dollar headphones out into the crowd and stuff because of a couple of guys
24:18who couldn't get along they hit on the most talked about match ending in the history of professional
24:23wrestling since the dawn of time widely viewed by fans as wrestling's most treacherous act the montreal
24:29screwjob would tear the lid off of wrestling's sacred brotherhood but its true architect has yet
24:36to be revealed this is where i've told a couple of these things i've never gone this far but i figured
24:46like i said i'm not going to talk about this on tv anytime in the rest of my life so i guess at this
24:51point i don't care who gets mad at me so it was me and vince russo at vince mcmahon's house my name is
24:56vince russo i was the head writer at the wwe during the infamous montreal screwjob and quite
25:03honestly um i wasn't even originally slated for this documentary and then i wanted to be a part of
25:11it because i was there like i knew what went what happened so i'm sitting there that day first vince
25:17gets up and he takes phone call from brent what i could tell you about that phone call is you know vince
25:23pitched many different scenarios for sean michaels to take the belt off of bret hart and brett soured
25:31on every single one of them vince told brett we'd go back to the drawing board and that's exactly what
25:37we did well this finish won't work and that finish won't work and brett just wants to come out and
25:42hand the belt over on tv the following night without getting beat i'm sure he does so then he goes and he
25:48calls sean every time vince goes in there then i sit in a room twiddling my thumbs with the
25:53guy that i hate worse than anybody in the world vince russo we'd get in these creative meetings and the
25:59three of us would argue and it wasn't the three of us it was jim and me we could not be farther apart
26:07physically philosophically mentally morally if one of us was an african-american lesbian nun and the
26:13other was a nazi skinhead martian from outer space we could not be more different the problem is he's
26:21still living in 1970 i'll never forget he made the comment oh when a guy comes out of a box he's
26:28instantly over like bro this is like 1996 like who's coming out of boxes bro vince russo's never had any
26:35respect for professional wrestling he booked the wrestling program to pattern after jerry springer
26:41our styles completely crash finally vince comes out and i'm about lost my religion with whole
26:48creative team thing anyway because it's not my style of wrestling i'm living in connecticut i'm
26:52miserable i weigh 280 pounds because i'm aggravation eating i'm just i'm not in my element here i said
26:58vince i said there's got to be something we can do i said it's your company and it's your belt and vince
27:03looks at me and says well then how would you do it pal well now it's a challenge once again i'm going
27:09through every finish i can think of or every situation i ever think of where nobody wanted
27:12to do a job i said goddamn double crossing you can learn more about modern wrestling from these
27:20classic books and classic magazines than you can by talking to people today because history always
27:26repeats itself in 1931 there was another double cross in montreal the battle of the bite straggler lewis
27:34controlled the championship and nobody could get it away from because it was worth so much money
27:39lewis has a title match in montreal against henry de glane henry de glane they lock up and immediately
27:47de glane grabs lewis's own hold on lewis the headlock and takes him down and they go down on the mat
27:53because lewis is working with him and they've and probably they're going to do some kind of reversal
27:57de glane starts screaming bloody murder at the top of his lungs the referee checks de glane huge bite mark
28:04on the guy's chest apparently when de glane got the headlock on lewis lewis had bitten him here's the
28:12thing it was actually dan kolov de glane's corner man had bitten him in the locker room and then did
28:18this and then when they locked up boom headlock nobody can see what happened referee disqualifies
28:24strangler lewis and awards the title to henry de glane that's a double cross and it's as old as the hills
28:32in wrestling so when vince says well how would you do it then brett's hold is the sharpshooter
28:41but let sean get brett's hold on him if the referee just calls for the bell as a submission
28:49nobody can tell anything was wrong because that's what it's supposed to look like anyway
28:53and to tell anybody anything was wrong i said bret hart of all people would have to expose the
28:59business i said what's he going to do call the newspapers but then vince and he gave that humph
29:05like he does when whenever you would be discussing tomfoolery and he would say all right let's get
29:10back to reality and we went on do you recall during that meeting with vince and cornet cornet ever
29:15told a history lesson about double crosses that had happened in the past unless i was in the bathroom
29:22during that scenario that scenario did not take place in front of me when i was sitting at the table
29:28i'm not going to call jim cornet a liar and when i was sitting at the table and cornet was sitting at
29:34the same table i pitched that exact scenario to vince so basically out of pure frustration i said vince i
29:43said screw it vince have sean put the sharpshooter on brett and have the referee call for the bell
29:49do that vince russo didn't know what a double cross was he was sitting there with his eyes open
29:56people tell me all the time oh vince you you you take credit for the montreal screws i wish i didn't
30:02pitch the idea that was a miserable night it was one of the worst experiences in my life in the
30:10wrestling business i swear on my mother's grave my father's grave my wife's life and my dog's life
30:16the story i just told you is true vince russo is the biggest liar in professional wrestling and
30:22imagine the territory that takes in when i was sitting there at the monitor i saw him going to the
30:29spot that's when i shit myself holy he's actually gonna do this and look to this look right now
30:38close up on the goosebumps
30:42now i'm thinking i don't know who else knows about this i just know that there is a high probability
30:49that somebody in this building is going to want to beat the out of me in the next 10 minutes and i'm
30:53gonna get out of here when i'm starting my car up and starting to pull out i heard her car rev the
30:58motor and saw the headlights pop up behind me that had to be hebner i beat him out of the building
31:11just as bret hart was double-crossed on live television by his boss vince mcmahon
31:16wwf executive bruce pritchard is blindsided himself by the sudden change in plans
31:23so it's chaos i'm not even realizing what's happening in front of me how did you feel about
31:29not being involved in oh god i was pissed off that i wasn't smart enough as to what they were doing and
31:34i was pissed off because i was left in the back alone in a position where everyone thought they knew
31:42that i was involved and i wasn't i felt very alone i felt betrayed a piece of shits locked himself in his
31:49office cameras are off show's over i got screwed and i was so mad and there's sean suddenly in my
31:58dress room he's swearing to god that he had nothing to do with it sean you weren't in on that my hands are
32:04clean this much where to god he was a bad actor but one of the two was in on it that i think sean had to be
32:12in on it you know at that time i had no idea well now we know sean was just putting on an act
32:21there was like this hush in the dressing room everyone was kind of stunned i remember undertaker
32:24got so mad that he kicked over one of those big steel barrels he just slammed the door and said
32:30something about he was going down to vince's office to get a straight answer on why they did that to
32:34me you know vince you got to go over and talk to him explain why you did what you did you got to
32:40give him one and by giving him one let if he's gonna he's gonna hit you you got to take one brett
32:45came out of the shower and told vince get out of his fucking dressing room and then he said he goes
32:50he said if you're still here when i get out i'm gonna get dressed i'm gonna punch you out brett
32:54finished his shower i mean he went back and took his sweet ass time and finished his shower and vince
32:59stood right in the middle of the room waiting for him to finish so i finished shower and i come out
33:06and it's funny because i walk out of the shower sopping wet naked vince said something to me along
33:12the lines of this is the first time i ever had to lie to one of my talent which is such a lie
33:17i remember tying my shoes and i remember when i got tying my last shoelace i started to tie it and i
33:23go this is it i'm gonna punch out vince man i can't believe i'm doing this and we walk towards each
33:28other end up tying up just like a pro wrestling match and i remember just sinking down and kind
33:34of just turning my whole body and thinking 14 years and coming up right between our arms and i hit vince
33:42with a man with the most beautiful mike tyson uppercut i popped him literally off the right off the ground
33:49he went straight down out cold everybody was stunned no one could believe it just dead silent for a while
33:56and nobody said anything and then brett said get the out of my dressing rooms i mean i have to say
34:00that i remember sean michaels he was bawling his eyes out like a baby and i remember thinking i
34:06know you were in on it and he knew it he was like waiting for me to make my way over to him and finish
34:11him off but i just tapped him on the shoulder and i said sean thanks for the match or he couldn't
34:16believe that i thanked him for the match and then he looked up at me and he just burst into tears like
34:21really properly i had never to that point heard of that much drama and backstage just
34:27bullshit sometimes i lost sleep over what i should have done that day brett you're not going to
34:32understand this now but vince was trying to protect his business it was never about not trusting you
34:37he didn't trust eric i went to vince's office and said i need to talk to you he said okay i said i'm
34:44fucked he said i got a meeting with everybody today we'll take care of it set everybody down and said
34:49what i did last night was my call it's not earl's fault and anybody don't like it can come to my
34:54office and i'll release your ass right now screwjob was already in the makings they had to find
34:59somebody that would do it the conversation i had with vince where where we really had the big heart
35:05to heart was the following wednesday in stanford and i told him what i thought vince's reaction was
35:12if you had known then you would have known you would never be able to say that you didn't know sean
35:16michaels risked everything for you and for this company so before you condemn sean michaels understand
35:23what he did for you and your family there were a lot of what-if scenarios discussed the night before
35:28and i think that everybody believed that at the end of the day vince was going to be able to convince
35:35brett to drop the championship that didn't happen so vince asked jerry briscoe to let sean know
35:44there's a spot in the match uh that sean to get him in the in the sharpshooter will ring the bell
35:50of all people bret hart who was raised in the wrestling business whose father was a wrestler
35:54who went through the code he's the one that exposed the business we're talking with bret
35:59hart the hitman today how are you it was very important to me after 14 years of uh probably the
36:03most dedicated loyal hard-working service that you could ever get out of a professional wrestler
36:08i've given this man everything you could ever ask for and i made it very very clear that my character
36:15was not in any way shape or form going to be humiliated brett was telling any and everybody
36:20that he could he didn't lose he was screwed and it was something that vince felt it was important
36:26to address on monday night raw did you or did you not screw bret hart there's a time-honored tradition
36:34in the wrestling business that when someone is leaving that they show the right amount of respect
36:41the people i know we don't want to like the rich billionaire boss we liked bret hart he was our
36:45hero bret hart didn't want to honor that tradition vince was really giving bret hart all kinds of
36:52shit for not honoring the time-honored tradition of doing the right thing on the way out on tv this
36:58didn't happen ever before vince in this interview just came across very cold calculated and very very
37:07heelish i truly believe that bret hart screwed bret hart and he can look in the mirror and know that
37:16rather than sweep this incident under the rug vince capitalizes on it by transforming this real-life
37:22incident into a storyline where he reinvents himself as an evil conniving mastermind when i debuted the
37:30fans didn't know that vince was the owner he was an announcer and then once the word got out that he
37:37actually owns the company he's the power behind the throne this and that vince ran with mr mcmahon is
37:43one of the greatest heel characters of all time yes i mean you've heard arenas full of people chant
37:48assholes if they had done it right everybody prospered sean michaels became the wwf champion
37:58off a big win vince mcmahon became the catalyst to the evil empire mr mcmahon and they handed the hottest
38:06wrestler in the world bret hart took wcw and they dropped that ball
38:12in the aftermath of the montreal screwjob wrestling chains forever the fourth wall had fallen
38:23vince mcmahon's villainous character would propel his company into the stratosphere while bret hart would
38:29make his lackluster debut in wcw you know if you look at how bret hart even came to wcw and how i
38:36god they launched me the very first day why don't we bring the man out that's gonna referee this match
38:42god i remember like referee it's so lame like such a lame way to bring me in is that what you want
38:48referee eric bischoff was an imbecile trying to run wrestling he didn't have any idea about how to run
38:54wrestling i have to take some responsibility and the fact that there may have been better ways
38:59to bring bret in i would be honored to be the referee but at the same time we'll never know that
39:07because the plans that we did have for bret were executed so pissed poorly because of his just
39:12detachment from it all he didn't get over in wcw zero impact hey bischoff at the wcw i quit
39:24i think the legacy of the montreal screwjob is that nobody knows if it was really a screwjob or not
39:29i happen to believe it was the real deal to me i feel the same way now seeing him back as i did
39:35the first time i thought saw it as a total work everybody was in on it and they all did it together
39:42now look at brett's face he doesn't look too shocked to me you're gonna spit on vince and then
39:48the truck is gonna go tight on vince go tight on vince get vince wiping the loogie out of his eye
39:53vince has been in the tv business his whole life nothing's gonna happen without his consent
39:59everybody knows you're leaving you're gonna stand in what's now your opposition's ring on a global
40:06broadcast and you're gonna motion the call signs of your competitor if that's not okayed by a big
40:14boss in my mind they're gonna cut away from that i mean i've never discussed it with sean and i wasn't
40:18there and i didn't ask guys who were there watching it as an educated fan i would say it was a complete
40:26collaboration by all parties and that's all i got to say about that people do say it was a work and
40:32brett was in on it no man this is the way this piece of history went down conspiracy theorists
40:39will always be conspiracy theorists but unfortunately sometimes when people want more of a story to be
40:45there that just isn't there they try to create it when we did an interview with with scott hall he
40:51believes that the montreal screwjob is this very scripted sort of thing he's not one of them too
40:56is he i'm sorry just it's just it's ludicrous that scott hall would say that he didn't talk sean
41:04michaels about this i know they all talk to each other about everything but especially about this
41:09why the wouldn't they i will tell anybody to their face that thinks that this was a work
41:14you were a dumb stupid these are death threats i've gotten a bunch of them but these were some
41:20of the most creative and and some of the most picturesque so i framed these get by the ring one
41:25more time you make a target under those lights you won't know where it comes from bye-bye they pulled
41:29it all off because i trusted the referee poor earl he's just a little guy i feel so bad for him to put that
41:39on him was such a rotten thing to do for the last 15 years it's been the shits that's always a chance
41:46in any arena as you screw brett we never talked for a long long time many years
41:53even though brett and i are friends now this is still upsetting i guess you can tell i'm kind of
41:59breaking down a little bit but it's something that will be with me forever a lot of people say hey it
42:04was their idea all the way from vince russo to jim cornett to triple h to sean to me you know we all
42:11said it the montreal screw job is remembered all kinds of different ways by all kinds of different
42:16people for the fans it was like one of the first big behind the scenes things that exploded and they
42:23heard about and they realized that there was more intrigue in the locker room and in the boardroom than
42:28there sometimes was in the ring as soon as you start doing that as soon as you don't believe it's real
42:33anymore it's not really worth watching that's the way the people feel when they lose faith in their
42:38hero that's when you lose people in wrestling because they believed in the people involved even
42:45if they didn't always believe all the action they believed in the people i take a lot of pride almost
42:52ridiculous pride in being the rest that i was i believe that i was the guy that reinforced
42:59wrestling aspect of the wrestling show and that's what i'd like to be remembered for
43:06the reality of the situation is is that if two guys just could have you know could have got over
43:14themselves well we wouldn't be sitting here today i mean any final thoughts on like jim i've ignored him
43:23for years and it's on and on it's my my personal enjoyment at this advanced age to remind everybody
43:31at every opportunity that he's a liar it's freaking wrestling it means nothing i will live to piss on his
43:40grave even if i'm in a walker my wife already has instructions she's out of the wheel if she doesn't
43:45get 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
43:50picture of that hanging on my wall when i pass away and hate is a hell of a motivator