By Miguel Mike Medina
Photo: wwe.com
The third episode of the McMahon documentary series focused on the start of the Monday Night Wars, Kayfabe, and the Montreal Screwjob.
Former WCW executive producer Eric Bischoff studied aggressively to take down Vince McMahon and the WWE. He would find every little ounce to make his product better than the WWE.
Bischoff aggravated WWE by telling the audience the final results of the event because WWE used to prerecord their matches at the time.
Ted Turner, owner and founder of Turner Sports and USA Network, and are friends. Although they’re “friends,” they’re competitors. She told Vince to stop digging at WCW because the pettiness was getting out of hand. She wanted Vince to be the bigger person.
The infamous curtain call changed the business forever. It was the end of Kayfabe. Triple H, who was supposed to win King of the Ring in 1996, was the only one punished by that incident. Shawn Michaels was the champion, and Scott Hall and Kevin Hall were off to WCW.
Bret Hart said it best about the curtain call incident: “It wasn’t wrestling anymore. It was entertainment.” The crowd, however, reacted loudly and cheered when the four men embraced.
As much as Vince and everyone else hated it, that needed to happen, especially for guys like Stone Cold Steve Austin, to get that major push in the business. Austin went on to win the 1996 King of the Ring.
The Montreal Screwjob is a pivotal moment in the business that will never be forgotten. Hart got screwed by Vince, and guys like Michaels and Triple H knew about the plan all along.
We saw Hart get visibly choked up for the first time when he remembered what Owen Hart said to him in the ring after the match. Owen defended his brother and told him that they were wrong for doing that to him, especially in his own country.
It’s tough what happened to Hart, but he should’ve done the right thing and dropped the belt to Michael’s before leaving for WCW. Going to WCW as the WWE champion is not a wise decision, and Vince wasn’t going to allow that. It would’ve been an embarrassment to the company.
Therefore, instead of pointing fingers and playing the blame game, Bret should’ve taken the higher road and lost the belt to Michaels, no matter how much of a headache he was back then.
Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars
Miguel Mike Medina is the publisher of The MMM Journal. He can be reached at medinamiguelmike@gmail.com and themmmjournal@gmail.com
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