The Montreal Screw Job, Part III: Where The Truth Lies

To read Part I, click here

To read Part II, click here

“I’d (once) known him as a person who respected the business, the wrestlers and fans, upon whose shoulders we stood.  But that person seemed to be gone.”

-Bret Hart on Shawn Michaels

“All the things that he claimed I was, he was in spades.”

-Shawn Michaels on Bret Hart

The Montreal Screw Job could not have involved two more completely different people than Shawn Michaels and Bret Hart. Michaels was, at that time, the embodiment of the World Wrestling Federation’s Attitude era, a marketing gimmick defined by its edginess, over the top antics, violence, and gaudy flashiness.  Michaels was a complete entertainment package produced via the tutelage of Jose Lothario.  The former NWA wrestler gave Shawn Michaels a pro wrestling education influenced by the flashy Lucha Libre style, which is evident in the look and in ring style of Michaels throughout his WWF/E career.

Michaels, at that time, was Vince McMahon’s most exciting worker to watch; he could work a match,  he could tell a great story in the ring, he had charisma, he had the looks, and he could talk.  It wouldn’t be far fetched to call Michaels a different, more modern take on “The Nature Boy” Ric Flair.

Bret Hart represented the traditional spirit of pro wrestling’s territorial roots, a throwback to the days where the business focused on in-ring wrestling first, rather than over the top gimmicks and controversial angles.  Hart was classically trained in the art of pro wrestling within the confines of the infamous Hart Dungeon by his father Stu.  Hart also learned the ropes from Mr. Hito and Mr. Sakurada, two Japanese wrestlers who prided themselves on perfect in ring execution of even the simplest of moves.

It should be no surprise to anyone that Hart was McMahon’s most reliable in-ring worker; it was Hart that McMahon turned to when he wanted to put over the wrestler who eventually became the centerpiece of WWE’s most profitable era, “Stone Cold” Steven Austin.  It was also Hart that McMahon turned to in his attempt to put over the wrestler he envisioned as being the business’s next mega star, Shawn Michaels himself.

McMahon had good reason to turn to Hart; “The Hitman” was a masterful in ring technician with an unwritten PhD in ring psychology that few in the business own, with Michaels being another of the few.  “The excellence of execution” was a top notch storyteller capable of having a five star match with just about anyone.  Hart also had a reputation of being one of the safest workers to work with.

In order to execute the feel good story that McMahon hoped would turn Michaels into a highly profitable and marketable mega star for the next generation, McMahon needed to pair Michaels with an equally talented in ring performer and storyteller to not only make Michaels look good, but give him credibility.  McMahon also wanted someone who would protect his investment in the ring and wouldn’t be a risk to hurt Michaels; Hart was the perfect man for the job.  Unfortunately for Hart, McMahon’s vision for the company’s future didn’t include a prominent place at the top of the mountain for “The Hitman.”

Heading into Wrestlemania XII, it was clear that Vince McMahon was doing all he could to present Shawn Michaels as the future flag bearer of the promotion, one who would realize his “boyhood dream” of becoming a world champion professional wrestler.  The story McMahon envisioned telling his audience was steeped in a popular American ethos, the “American Dream.”  Shawn Michaels would overcome astronomical odds to live his dream on the WWF’s grand stage, mere weeks after it seemed that the dream was dead.

The road to Wrestlemania for Michaels was one filled with towering peaks and abyssal valleys that had fans riding right along side Michaels on an emotional roller coaster.  The fans cheered and cried as Michaels fought tooth and nail for an opportunity to live a dream he had harbored in the fabric of his being since he sat down to watch Tully Blanchard and Wahoo McDaniel on Southwest Championship Wrestling at the age of 12.

McMahon made it practically impossible NOT to cheer on “The Heartbreak Kid.” Michaels started earning sympathy from fans by returning from a career threatening concussion he suffered after taking an enziguri from Owen Hart in a match on Monday Night RAW.  Michaels was subsequently rushed to the hospital after dramatically collapsing (scripted) in the middle of the ring.  Michaels followed up his inspirational return to the ring by setting his sites on the one prize that had eluded him to this point in his career, the WWF Championship.  Michaels would then earn a shot at the WWF’s most prestigious championship by outlasting 29 other men in the Royal Rumble.

The heart wrenching, tear jerking tribulations of Shawn Michaels climaxed at Wrestlemania XII, when Michaels won his first WWF Championship after fighting for over one hour with “the best there is, was, and ever will be” in an Iron Man Match, a match that requires super human endurance to survive; the Iron Man Match made a perfect final hurdle for Michaels.

McMahon saw the future of his empire in Michaels, who at that time was in his physical prime at the age of 30.  The man who came to be known as “the Showstopper” was thrilling audiences on a nightly basis with spectacular displays of athleticism, but was also causing his fair share of headaches in the backstage area with his arrogance, evident drug usage, and constant whining.  Michaels, who was emboldened by his Kliq membership, was a powerful politician backstage; according to Hart, Michaels and Triple H actually managed to be put on the company’s booking committee in the mid to late 90’s.

Michaels himself even admits in his own book that he wasn’t exactly the best at choosing what was right for business over what was right for himself, but he also writes in his book that at the end of the day, what Vince wanted was the final word.  McMahon loved Shawn’s passion for the business and his willingness to cut other wrestlers waiting in line to see the boss, just so he could ask McMahon what he needed to do to make it in the World Wrestling Federation.

McMahon didn’t mind bearing the burden of Michaels’ attitude because his upside far outweighed the negatives. The money that Michaels was capable of lining Vince’s pockets with ultimately gave McMahon a great deal of patience when it came to Michaels and his less than model behavior.  Michaels more than made up for the headaches he caused outside of the ring and in the locker room by busting his ass in the ring every single night.

In Michaels, McMahon saw an immensely talented, highly marketable and dedicated employee, a valuable commodity in the pro wrestling business that promoters would love to have more of.  McMahon also liked the fact that Michaels listened to him when push came to shove; getting Michaels to listen may have been a chore at times for McMahon, but Michaels always came around and did what was asked of him.

Michaels was a worker McMahon could mentor and mold to his specifications, with some effort.  It also didn’t hurt that Michaels was in his prime prior to Wrestlemania XII, and had a bright and long future ahead of him, something that the decidedly more stubborn and less moldable Bret Hart, who was nearing the age of 40 after working in the business for over 20 years, did not have.

It became clear during the build for the Iron Man Match at Wrestlemania XII that the WWE viewed Hart as a wrestler whose popularity had peaked.  The company felt that “The Hitman’s” story was nearing its end, so they called on Hart to put over the rising Michaels at Wrestlemania XII while his stock was still high.

The company booked Hart in a fashion that made him look lucky to still be the WWF Champion.    When the program started, Hart was portrayed as a crafty veteran who was inferior to Michaels.  Michaels outwitted Hart every step of the way in their very first scripted interview together.  It seemed everything that Michaels was scripted to say and do was much more powerful, and well, cooler than what Hart would say.  Michaels demonstrated his excellent conditioning by displaying his chiseled six pack abs; Hart literally compared his own conditioning to the Energizer bunny.

The vignettes comparing the Iron Man Match training of Hart and Michaels were equally lopsided.  The company filmed Michaels training in warm and sunny San Antonio, where he ran the steps at a football stadium, performed upside-down sit ups, beat up several training partners, and pretended to spar with his mentor, Jose Lothario.

The WWF, who seemed wholly intent on documenting the early stages of the fall of an immortal to mortal status, chose to film Hart cautiously running over ice patches in Calgary like an old man.  Hart was also filmed lazily swimming laps in his pool, appearing to be lounging on vacation rather than training for a big fight.  To make matters worse, the WWF showed Hart being stretched in the Dungeon by his 80-year old father Stu, who tied Bret into knots, making him grimace in agony.  Nothing builds a defending champion heading into a monumental pay-per-view event quite like having him get his ass kicked by an 80-year old man.

Shawn was coming off as an inspirational world beater, while Bret was coming off as a far inferior athlete whose days as champion were numbered.  Hart, however, was determined to let his work in the ring do the talking; he was motivated to not let Shawn outshine him in the actual match and was training as hard as he had ever trained at any point in his life.

The nature of the booking heading into Wrestlemania XII may have been a business decision regarding the new direction of his company by Vince McMahon, a power play on behalf of the Kliq to insure Michaels would rule the company as Hall and Nash left to go to WCW, or it may have even been both, but one thing was for sure:  Michaels was on his way to the top, and Hart was on his way down, a reality that just wasn’t acceptable for Hart, who was proud of his character and took his career, as well as his “very real” status as a worldwide hero with a high level of seriousness that many find to be rather mark-like in a business that is supposed to work the marks.

Hart was less than thrilled with the booked result of Wrestlemania XII; Hart states in his book that he felt Michaels didn’t have what it took to hack it as a champion, much less fill his boots as the top draw in the company.  Hart was also not thrilled with the direction his character was heading in either; he sensed that he was beginning to slide down the ladder a bit in the World Wrestling Federation, though he didn’t understand why.

Hart felt that he had been a loyal employee and a consummate professional who had earned the right to be respected and recognized as one of the best in the world at his trade. Hart felt, and rightfully so, that he was a hero to children, his countrymen, and wrestling fans around the world, and that a hero belonged at or near the top of the mountain.

Hart had agreed to put over Michaels, but Hart still wanted to be a fixture in the WWF Championship picture.  Hart wanted to prove to Vince, the boys, the agents, and his fans that his story wasn’t finished, he wasn’t ready to hand over his spot and he still belonged on the main event scene as he entered the final years of his WWF career.  Wrestling was Hart’s identity and it was very real for him.  He wanted one more run at the top to build up his legacy and secure himself a pleasant and comfortable retirement after heroically riding off into the sunset.

Hart sought to outshine Michaels, the most exciting and physically gifted worker in the promotion, in an effort to both create a new star and maintain his own.  Hart was doing Michaels a favor, but Hart didn’t feel that Michaels would be able to last as the man and be the sort of hero or draw that Hart was.  Michaels, however, seemed to feel that his championship victory was less a favor and more of a formality.

After hitting Sweet Chin Music and pinning Hart at Wrestlemania XII, Shawn rolled to his knees, buried his face in his hands and cried as his music hit the sound system.  Bret recalls “Shawn angrily (saying to referee) Earl (Hebner), “Tell him to get the fuck out of the ring!  This is my moment!” When one watches video of the match, about 30 seconds after Michaels pins Hart, Michaels looks up at Hebner, who is about to present Michaels the belt, and for some reason Michaels has an angry expression on his face, even though he just won his first WWE Championship.  Michaels clearly and angrily mouths something to Hebner, who promptly turned around, momentarily looked confused, and then inexplicably walked over to Hart while still carrying the WWE Championship belt as Hart continued to sell Michaels’ Sweet Chin Music.  Hebner then leaned down and said something to Hart.

Hart suddenly stirs and lifts his head up before eventually getting to his feet to lazily walk towards the ropes.  Hebner finally hands Michaels the belt as Hart leaves the ring.  Only then does Michaels go into full celebration mode.  Michaels recalls only celebrating his championship victory in his book, with Hart simply slinking out of the picture and his spotlight.  There is no mention of him saying anything to Hebner after the match.  Michaels does, however, recall that he tried to “capture what winning the title meant to (him),” and that it “(took) a little time for everything to sink in completely.”

Bret rolled out of the ring, shocked at what he just heard, leaving Michaels to be alone to cry tears of joy as he hugged and kissed his newly won belt.  Hart had passed the torch, but he doubted Michaels had the character to carry it; Hart believed Michaels was an outstanding athlete and a great performer, but felt that Michaels lacked the heart, discipline, and respect for the business that a champion needed to have in order to be successful.  Hart believed he had all of those qualities, as they were instilled in him by his father within the unforgiving confines of the Dungeon.  Hart believed Michaels had no respect for the business, no respect for the wrestlers, no respect for the fans, and no respect for “The Hitman.”

Hart wasted no time leaving the building, skipping out on any sort of post match festivities with the new champion as he likely felt that Shawn didn’t deserve his respect after what had just happened in the ring. Hart may also have been attempting to build some heat for a future rematch with Michaels by getting even the boys to mark out.  When Hart’s brother Owen called the following morning and told Bret he had heat with Michaels for leaving and not shaking his hand in the locker room after the match, Hart told him that there was no harm in letting the boys think he was really pissed off at Michaels.

Hart’s possible motivation for creating this heat can be found in the closing paragraphs of chapter 35 of his book:

“I watched the live Raw (the night after Wrestlemania XII) feeling uneasy in my easy chair as Shawn stood before Vince in the ring saying it was the toughest match he’d ever had.  He praised me, closing the page on my chapter…It took a couple of days for Vince and Shawn to phone me (after Wrestlemania XII).  Vince told me how grateful he was, as did Shawn, but I had the feeling that Shawn probably only called because Vince told him it was the right thing to do.  In those days Vince was old school like that.”

Hart feared that he would be “swept” out of the minds of World Wrestling Federation fans after Wrestlemania XII, having done his duty and put over a man who felt would eventually burn out.  Heading into a break that would now be devoid of activity for him, thanks to the cancellation of the Lonesome Dove television series he was scheduled to have a role in, Hart was more than likely experiencing some degree of fear, paranoia, and uncertainty.

With the highly political Kliq rallying against him, his expiring WWF contract, the down trending of the “Hitman” character, his advancing age, the rise of WCW to prominence, and Vince McMahon’s cold hearted history all working against his future, Hart needed a way of staying visible in the eyes of the fans during his hiatus.  For Hart, creating heat with the fast rising Michaels was a necessary evil.

Michaels, as one might expect, was legitimately furious about Hart’s choice to not shake his hand, and was only made more furious by Hart’s actions over his time away from the WWF.  Hart told Michaels after finding out they would be working together at Wrestlemania XIII that people would really believe they were feuding if Hart made derogatory, yet completely worked comments about Michaels to the public. The weekly column that Hart wrote for the Calgary Sun was his public weapon of choice for attacking Shawn Michaels.

Hart attacked Michaels (not to mention many other wrestlers over the years) on a number of occasions in his column, mostly within the context of a given storyline.  Overall though, Hart was known to venture into the personal realm on occasion in his column with a number of wrestlers.  Michaels admits that he never actually laid his eyes on the column the column that trashed his family.  Michaels also states he only found out about the column after Hart apologized to him for writing it.  It also needs to be noted that in extensive research for this article, which included a phone call to the Calgary Sun, no columns were actually found where Hart makes comments about Michaels’ family, though it should be noted that the earliest of Hart’s columns that can be found was written in May of 1997, roughly one year after Michaels claims that the column in question was written.

Hart may have been working in his column, as he had told Michaels he would be, but Michaels took the columns seriously anyway, feeling that Hart’s comments were going too far and that Hart was trying to elevate his own character and bring Michaels back to earth after making him a star at Wrestlemania XII.  For Hart, it wasn’t a matter of Michaels, but rather a matter of long term security and protecting his own in-ring character.  In short, what Hart was doing was just business.

Hart never made it a secret that he had a lot of respect for pro wrestling, pro wrestlers, and pro wrestling fans, but not necessarily “the business” the way Vince McMahon practiced it.  Hart wanted to avoid ending up being one of McMahon’s broken down old mules, like his former brother-in-law Tom “Dynamite Kid” Billington.

Billington was once a brilliant in ring worker, one who Hart considers to be the greatest wrestler of all time.  Billington helped to revolutionize the business, introducing a fast paced style that influences wrestlers from around the world to this very day.  Unfortunately, his reckless but exciting style required a steady diet of steroids, painkillers, and alcohol to maintain; he abused these substances to mask the symptoms of working in the business, and regularly used steroids to compensate for his lack of height.

Billington’s lifestyle left him a crippled, psychotic and drug addled shadow of his former self less than a decade after his retirement.  Sadly, Billington is just one of many who have been consumed and discarded like garbage once the business sucks them dry, leaving them with nothing.

Hart felt that his years of loyal service and dedication to Vince McMahon and the World Wrestling Federation entitled him to some financial security and respect from the company that he worked for.  Hart had just put over Shawn Michaels at Wrestlemania XII (in what some call the greatest match in the history of Wrestlemania) when his contract expired in the spring of 1996. Hart saw an opportunity to obtain the security he sought by marketing his services to both WCW and the WWF in the midst of the Monday Night Wars.  To up his market value, Hart lied to McMahon about the fact that things were going well in the movies for him, as Lonesome Dove had been cancelled. WCW was, however, promising Hart an opportunity to work in the movies (since Hart had expressed interest in working in movies) as Bischoff had connections to various producers and film makers working in television and Hollywood.  Hart intended to stay in the World Wrestling Federation all along, but he intended to get a deal out of McMahon that would more than take care of his family, his health, and secure his own financial viability after his retirement from the ring.

When Hart signed his 20-year contract, he secured his own future (or so he thought), but he also became a huge liability for McMahon as the salary Hart was earning exceeded the money he was actually drawing for the company.  McMahon’s business was faltering; Hulk Hogan had just turned heel and formed the red hot New World Order faction, an angle that more than implied that former WWF Superstars were invading WCW.  The angle had the attention of the wrestling world focused on WCW, and McMahon had no intention of handing WCW yet another one of his superstars.

McMahon could not legitimately afford to match the contract WCW offered Hart, but McMahon was desperate.  On October of 1996, after cleverly playing both sides during the negotiation process, Hart turned down WCW’s 3-year, $2.8 million deal (plus a lighter schedule) to return to the WWF.

Hart got the respect he felt he deserved and he got it in the form of the most rewarding and protective contract that McMahon had ever given any wrestler, including Hulk Hogan.  McMahon was now, in essence, legally obligated to respect Hart and his career.  In Hart’s eyes, this was a step toward putting the power in the wrestlers’ hands for a change; a step that would stop professional wrestlers from being treated like circus animals by McMahon.  McMahon even granted Hart “reasonable” creative control to Hart over his final 30-days in the company, should Hart ever have decided to leave the company.

McMahon’s desperation clouded his good judgment.  Hart would ultimately prove to be MORE foolish though, as he actually trusted McMahon to honor the overly lucrative contract he manipulated the WWF to obtain.  Keep in mind that McMahon is the very same man who more or less single handedly destroyed the territorial arrangement of the pro wrestling business in North America, and ran Stu Hart’s Stampede Wrestling promotion (amongst dozens of others like the AWA, Mid-South Wrestling, and nearly the once mighty NWA) out of business.

Hart’s contract was a financial burden that McMahon was doomed to breach given the business the promotion was doing at the time.  Still, McMahon had to find a way to either make the money on his investment back before the breach became necessary, or find a way to get out of the contract all together.  From a creative standpoint, McMahon saw no way that the “old-school” Bret Hart, who was highly protective of his status as a baby face, would ever be controversial or popular enough at his age to make back the money McMahon would be investing into him.

For McMahon, Hart was the vehicle that would transport his chosen ones to superstardom; he wasn’t supposed to actually be the star.  With the amount of money being paid to Hart, he would have to be the star, even at the expense of none other than the man Vince really favored, Shawn Michaels.

McMahon happened to like an idea that Hart, in an effort to insure his character would be in the spotlight upon his return, proposed to him during Hart’s contract negotiations, which Hart discusses in his book:

“I told them I saw myself coming back to the WWF eventually and that I’d behave like I still had a chip on my shoulder over losing to Shawn.  We’d work a rematch where I’d narrowly regain the title in another epic baby face contest.  This could set up a third match, where I’d put Shawn over clean, but this time I’d shake his hand at the end of it and endorse him.  Vince and J.R. told me they liked it.”

It is important to note that Michaels explicitly claims in his book that he did not see Hart for around seven to eight months after Wrestlemania XII.  This claim from Michaels is interesting, considering that Hart claims that McMahon and Michaels both called him only a couple of days after Wrestlemania XII.

Michaels’ legitimacy is called even further into question as Hart claims to have run into Michaels on the first leg of his plane trip home from the very meeting with McMahon and Jim Ross where Hart proposed his idea to work with Michaels at Wrestlemania XIII.  Hart says he sat next to Michaels on the plane and shot the breeze with him for a time before telling Michaels about his idea.  Hart felt it would be beneficial for the program if he and Michaels hammered out the details on the plane without any of the boys knowing they had even discussed it.  Hart says that he told Shawn he would start building heat for their program by making worked remarks about his ring character before he returned.

Hart doesn’t say what he meant by this, but it is interesting to note that this was the first time Hart acknowledges in his book saying something about making comments in the Calgary Sun to Michaels, where as Michaels says in his book that Hart randomly approached him about that subject when he found out that they were working together at Wrestlemania XIII to tell.  Michaels and Hart appear to be talking about the same meeting-conversation, but Michaels does not mention anything about the conversation taking place on the plane, and either man has a grossly different story about when and where that conversation occurred.  Hart then told Michaels about the specifics of the program he pitched to McMahon:

“When I came back I’d beat him in a return match, probably around the time of WrestleMania XIII.  I saw the color drain from his face.  He clearly didn’t like the sound of any of this.  I went on to explain that he’d win the belt back in a third return match, and then I’d endorse him, but I got the impression they’d promised him a really long run, like they always did, and he wasn’t expecting any interruptions.  I told him that our rematch didn’t have to be right away-we could wait awhile.  I wanted him tot know that I understood, better than anyone, that Vince needed him to be WWF’s next big star, and that he could trust me.  In the end, nobody could make him like I could.”

This conversation occurred, according to Hart’s timelines, somewhere in the month of June, roughly two months after Wrestlemania XII.  Either the conversation on the plane never happened, or Shawn Michaels is mistaken, or maybe even lying, about not talking to Hart for seven or eight months after Wrestlemania XII.  If the plane trip discussion did happen, one could imagine that Michaels would not have been too happy with McMahon, as McMahon clearly would not have had much, if any, time to discuss it with Michaels before Hart did.  Given Hart’s account of Michaels’ reaction, it would appear that this was news to him.

McMahon felt that there was some potential in Hart’s idea, given the success of the match between the two rivals at Wrestlemania XII.  Unfortunately, McMahon would have to run the idea by Michaels, who was sure to not like it given the fact that Michaels was upset with Hart over his failure to stick around and shake his hand after their match at Wrestlemania XII, Hart’s negotiations with WCW at the expense of the WWF, and Hart’s alleged comments in the Calgary Sun.

Michaels was even convinced at this point that Hart was spreading rumors about him and his bad attitude to various pro wrestling insiders and dirt sheets.  There is no actual evidence that this ever occurred, though Hart acknowledges that he frequently read the work of celebrated and highly regarded pro wrestling journalist Dave Meltzer in the Wrestling Observer. Hart frequently read the Observer as a way of keeping up on the business prior to the Internet explosion, but he has stated that he is not a fan of insiders like Meltzer because they profit off of someone else’s sweat and write on a subject as if they know everything about it when they aren’t actual wrestlers or workers in the business.  Hart did, however, come to recognize Meltzer as the business’ “most accurate chronicler” at some point, and chose to speak with Meltzer about a wrestling business related topic for what Hart says was the first time in his life following the Montreal Screw Job.

The insiders Michaels accuses Hart of going to could have very easily been getting their information from any number of the wrestlers or backstage workers who might have had heat with Michaels.  Given what is known about Michaels, the nature of the Kliq, his drug problems, and his attitude, it isn’t exactly far fetched to believe that he had enemies, other than Hart, who might have been spreading rumors to the dirt sheets.  Michaels felt that the rumors about him in the dirt sheets like the Wrestling Observer, Hart’s public comments and his status as, what Michaels calls a “white-meat babyface,”were causing Michaels to be booed by the fans.

In addition to proposing the Hart-Michaels Wrestlemania XIII program to Michaels, McMahon would also be forced, to acknowledge Hart’s contract to Michaels.  Michaels managed to find out about Hart’s deal prior to the meeting where McMahon asked Michaels to work with Hart at Wrestlemania XIII.  Michaels let McMahon know he was very eager to discuss Bret’s new contract.

While renegotiating his contract several years before hand, Michaels asked McMahon to make sure that no one would ever make more money than the Undertaker and himself, and McMahon gave him his word.  McMahon figured that Michaels would be furious about Hart’s contract and would likely scoff at working with Hart; McMahon figured right.

At the meeting, Michaels made no secret of the fact that he was infuriated with McMahon for signing Hart to a deal Michaels reported in his book as being worth “$1.5 million for twenty years.”  Hart and various other media have reported that contract being worth 1.5 million for three years as a wrestler, and worth $250,000 to $500,000 a year for the next 17 in varying roles within the company.

McMahon may have told Michaels that the contract was 1.5 million for twenty years as a way of further infuriating Michaels, even though the reality of the contract still, unquestionably, would not have sat well with Michaels.  It seems pretty unlikely, though, that Michaels, given the amount of publicity Hart’s contract received, somehow managed to remain ignorant to the terms of the contract.  Perhaps Michaels had no interest in reading dirt sheets and newsletters at the time, given they were filled with rumors about him.  It is possible that Michaels’ knowledge of the contract was hear say from the boys.

If Michaels did know the reality of Hart’s contract, there was no doubt that he was bothered that Hart would essentially be McMahon’s right hand man for the next decade.  The World Wrestling Federation with Hart in Vince’s ear may have equaled a World Wrestling Federation without Shawn Michaels, in the mind of “The Heartbreak Kid.”  Given his status and influence, Michaels likely felt threatened, which explains his need to discuss Hart’s contract in a meeting with Vince McMahon.

It’s interesting that McMahon would chose to mix a creative proposal involving Bret Hart with a broken business promise to Shawn Michaels in the very same meeting.  Michaels wrote in his book that he discussed Hart’s contract with McMahon for the first time in the same meeting that McMahon asked him to work with Hart at Wrestlemania XIII.  It almost seems as if the promoter was playing two men who made perfect on screen rivals against one another in real life as a way of adding fuel to the on screen fire.  If you really wanted to have your temperamental superstar work a program with a guy he hadn’t been terribly happy with recently, would you chose to broach the subject in the same meeting that you informed your temperamental star that his rival used WCW to force you to sign him to a contract that pays him TWICE the money temperamental star makes?

The fact that McMahon was “forced” to give Hart a big contract so he wouldn’t go to WCW ignited an even larger fire under Shawn Michaels and made him even angrier with Hart.  Given that McMahon was more than likely aware of Shawn Michaels and his political Kliq, why would McMahon feel compelled to tell Michaels that Hart forced him to sign him to a big contract in the first place?  Was McMahon trying to save face with Michaels?  Was McMahon trying to piss off an already pissed off Michaels more?  Did McMahon, in a moment of weakness merely crack under the pressure Hart was putting on the company’s finances, realizing that signing Hart to the contract was a huge mistake? What would Michaels, of all people, even be able to do about another worker’s contract?

It shouldn’t be a surprise that Michaels vehemently rejected the proposal to work with Hart, given what he just learned from McMahon, and the heat he already had with Hart.  With some work, McMahon likely could have talked Michaels into working with Hart and putting him over, given that Michaels is on record for saying that he believes Vince’s word is final and will ultimately do whatever McMahon asks of him.

The real key question that needs to be asked here is how much did Vince McMahon actually insist that Michaels work with Hart?  After all, Michaels had just shot down the one idea that McMahon felt stood the best chance of making his money back from Hart.  It would stand to reason that McMahon would continue to try and push the issue with Michaels, but after the meeting, Michaels makes no mention in his book of McMahon trying to get him to work with Hart, other than McMahon asking Michaels to reconsider his stance on working with Hart during the meeting.

It is popularly believed that McMahon wanted Michaels to work with Hart at Wrestlemania XIII, with Michaels losing to Hart and dropping the WWF Championship, through at least the first quarter of 1997.  There are plenty of indications in Bret Hart’s book that demonstrate that McMahon was changing his mind, or was at least gauging Hart’s interest in working a program that didn’t involve the WWE Championship.

Factoring into the Wrestlemania equation was “Stone Cold” Steve Austin, who was hotter than either Hart or Michaels at the time.  Austin won the Royal Rumble that year in controversial fashion by last eliminating Hart, which lead to a four way elimination match at that February’s Final Four pay-per-view to determine the number one contender for the title at Wrestlemania; the match involved Vader, Austin, Hart, and the Undertaker.

Given the way he lost at the Rumble, the convoluted nature of the Final Four match, and the fact that his character was being booked as a whiner who constantly complained about being screwed, which didn’t allow him to generate much momentum in his coveted baby face role, Hart asked McMahon where his character was going.  McMahon told him that the plan was for Hart to screw Shawn out of the belt at the pay-per-view, making Psycho Sid the champion.  Michaels would return the favor by screwing Hart out of the victory in the Final Four match, leading to a ladder match with Shawn Michaels at Wrestlemania XIII, where Michaels would actually put his hair on the line.  Hart would win, allowing him to shave Michaels’ head, but Sid and Undertaker would be working for the championship instead of he and Michaels, something that Hart claims Vince had lead him to believe would happen.  Hart believed that all of this was happening because Michaels was refusing to work with him and drop the title at Wrestlemania XIII.  Hart vocalized this to Vince, as well as his other concerns:

“I told Vince that I knew he wasn’t being straight with me: Everything he’d promised me was being changed because Shawn didn’t want to put me over.  If he was trying to ruin me, I said, I wanted him to know that I was aware of it.  With this kind of treachery and deception, I might as well be in WCW.  “I don’t know if you realize it but I’ve only won three matches since I came back.”  Vince stammered that everything I said just wasn’t true-he now had too much invested in me not to get everything out of me that he could.”

This seems like an overly ridiculous idea, as it is highly unlikely that Michaels would agree to have his hair cut off in any scenario.  Michaels makes no mention in his book of Vince ever asking him to put his hair up in a ladder match at Wrestlemania XIII against Hart, and he also makes no mention of having to drop the championship to anyone at Wrestlemania XIII at all.

A short time later, Shawn Michaels came up with a “career ending” knee injury that forced him to vacate the WWF Championship on the February 13, 1997 edition of Monday Night RAW. Michaels claims the injury happened in a three way match with Sid and Bret Hart at a house show on February 2, 1997.  This is inconsistent with Hart’s version of the story, as Hart said Shawn’s knee was “fine” while working a tag match with him at a house show on February 9.

Shawn claims in his book that after hurting his knee, he called McMahon, who recommended that he get his knee checked out by Dr. James Andrews, one of the foremost orthopedic surgeons in the United States.  Michaels said that he would rather just go home and get his knee checked out by a doctor based in San Antonio.  The San Antonio doctor, who Michaels curiously chooses not to name in his book, took an MRI and told him that there was no ACL in his knee.  Michaels knew that his ACL was gone already, and told the doctor he had been working for years without an ACL.  The doctor then told Michaels that he wasn’t working without one anymore, because his knee had deteriorated and he now needed a knee replacement surgery.  Such a surgery would basically end Michaels’ career.

Michaels says that he was devastated by the news, but he elected to wait until the next set of TV tapings on February 13 to break the bad news to Vince.  Strangely, Michaels actually worked FOUR matches with a career ending knee injury at house shows from the time he claims to have hurt his knee on February 2nd until the RAW tapings on February 13.  Of those four matches, two of them were tag team matches that featured Bret Hart pinning Shawn Michaels.

Three of the four matches occurred after a lull in his schedule between February 2 and February 7, during which it is presumed he went home to get his knee checked out.  If Michaels actually had his knee examined between the 2 and the 7, it would appear that Michaels, for some reason, worked three matches knowing that he had a career ending knee injury, unless he decided to get his knee checked out during the lull in his schedule between February 9 and the RAW tapings on February 13.

Hart claims that Shawn’s knee was fine when he worked with him in a tag team match on February 9.  Either Shawn inexplicably kept his career ending knee injury a secret in order to work three house show dates in which he was pinned by Hart twice, or he strangely waited until the lull in his schedule between the 9 and 13 to have his knee checked out by the doctor who told him his career was over.

In the instance of the second possibility, it begs to be asked why Michaels would wait over a week and work three house show dates before having his knee checked out if he legitimately wanted to make sure his knee was OK, as he claims he did.

Shortly after Michaels told the world that he was going home to find his lost smile, Austin blew out his own knee and was going to see Dr. James Andrews about the injury.  Michaels claims that he received a phone call from McMahon who told him about Austin going to see Andrews.  McMahon asked Michaels, again, to go see Andrews about his knee, if for no other reason than to get a second opinion.  On this occasion, Michaels finally agreed to go.

“Dr. Andrews, unlike a lot of other doctors, understands athletes and knows that they can do things ordinary people can’t or won’t.  He told me that my knee was terrible, but if I wore a brace, trained my legs, and did some rehab, I would be able to wrestle again.  He said I might as well try because if I got the replacement, my career would be over, no questions asked.  I had nothing to lose by trying to come back.”

It seems more than strange that McMahon would continue to insist that Michaels see Andrews after running the lost smile angle for him on RAW.  It would seem that the promoter would be more adamant about Michaels seeing the highly regarded Andrews before running such a drastic angle for Michaels, changing the creative direction of his Wrestlemania XIII card and taking one of his biggest names completely out of the picture.

It seems even funnier that a man who was working without an ACL for years (something many doctors would not allow anyway) would tweak his knee, as he admits to having done many times before, take the advice of one doctor, and decide to pull the plug on his career.  Michaels knew that he had been working for years without an ACL, so he had to know that the doctor was probably going to see that, ask him about it, and recommend that he stop wrestling.  Given that the doctor is in San Antonio, the story Michaels tells is even more implausible if the doctor happens to be one of Michaels’ personal physicians.  Michaels does refer to the doctor in his book as “my doctor.”

Ironically, Michaels would end up rehabbing his knee alongside Austin at the HealthSouth facility in San Antonio, Texas.  Michaels says that Austin was in bad shape, but Austin had related to him that he really wanted to make Wrestlemania so he could work his “I Quit” match with Bret Hart.  Austin’s rehab went well and he was able to work his match with Hart at Wrestlemania.  Meanwhile, Michaels would not return to work until May 25.

Michaels denies that that the injury was a scheme he cooked up to avoid dropping the championship at Wrestlemania XIII. Te prevailing rumor at this time was that Michaels refused to work with Hart, and he definitely would not drop the WWF Championship to Hart, or for that matter anyone else.  It is said that McMahon insisted that Michaels drop the belt to Hart in late January or early February.  Michaels then conveniently came up with a career ending knee injury on the doorstep of Wrestlemania to avoid dropping the belt to Hart.  Michaels addresses this rumor in his book:

“That (rumor) is not true….Had I been asked to (drop the title to Bret at Wrestlemania XIII)?  Yes.  Did I want to?  No.  I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: there is no refusing to do a job.  Ask Bret Hart.  Ask the people in Montreal.  It only happens if Vince allows it.  I’m not going to say I would have been fine working with Bret.  I won’t say my unwillingness to work with him didn’t cause a problem from a creative standpoint.  That’s fair.  But again, I’m sure I’m not the first guy who’s ever done that.”

Michaels comments are rather funny, considering that a man with a “career ending injury” very well wouldn’t have to do a job, much less be in a position to refuse to do it.  Michaels seems to be saying that Vince did insist that he drop the belt to Hart, and may have even actually agreed to do it, but his injury made all of it a moot point. It’s also funny that Michaels uses Hart and the Montreal Screw Job for his example of what happens when you refuse to do a job.  Given that Michaels knows what happens when you refuse to do a job, it would stand to reason that he would come around and go along with what Vince was asking him to do.

The question here is whether or not it can be determined, based on what Michaels says in his book, if he ever actually agreed to do the job before his injury?  Michaels himself admits in his book that he would have done the job to Hart if McMahon had pressed him on the subject because he always did what Vince asked him to do.  Was the injury just his way of protesting without refusing to do the job?  Michaels speaks further on his injury in his book:

I retired because a doctor told me I could never wrestle again and I took his words at face value.  Some people may not believe me, but these are probably the same people who think I faked my back injury that made me retire in 1998.  I have a four-inch scar, a metal plate, and four screw in my back to prove it.  You’ve got two choices when it comes to me and injuries.  I am either the toughest guy you ever met, or you believe in the miracles of Jesus Christ and that he heals.  Take your pick.”

Whether the rumor about Michaels’ knee injury was true or not, in Hart’s eyes the rumors were true, and given the angst that already existed between the two men, some of which may have been created by McMahon playing the roll of puppeteer with his two best workers, there was bound to be an explosion in one way or another very soon.  We may not have had a wrestling match between these two men at Wrestlemania XIII, but we would have a real fight between the two upon Shawn Michaels’ return to the World Wrestling Federation from his “career ending” knee injury.

Stay tuned for Part IV…