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                    What if the Montreal Screw Job Didn’t Happen?

                    I Draw Wrestlers – What if the Montreal Screw Job Didn’t Happen

                    “I Draw Wrestlers – What if the Montreal Screw Job didn’t happen” is contributed by Chris Guest. Each week Chris will discuss a topic, and do a drawing that represents that subject matter. This is all posted to his You Tube channel (embedded video below), but we’ve reproduced it here in written form. He would love to hear your reviews on the artwork he produces. If you draw, send him a link through the comments on his You Tube Channel .  The best way to support him is by subscribing to his You Tube channel and connecting with him on Instagram at @IdrawWrestlers. 

                    Bret “Hitman” Hart

                    Growing up and loving wrestling there was no bigger wrestler to me than Bret the Hitman Hart. I can remember collecting the stickers growing up and you had to stick that shiny WWF logo on your favourite wrestler. There was no doubt where it was going! I also saw him wrestle his brother Owen in Manchester. Like many that night, we jumped the barrier fencing off the front row just so we could get a bit closer.  I never even minded him being a heel because I was from the UK, and Bret still liked us.

                    I even named my son after his brother, so you can probably guess that when I got the chance to meet him I was more than a little excited. They say you should never meet your heroes, and I wish I hadn’t. Bret was away from the rest of the wrestlers, which seemed to be having way more fun! When I recounted how I had followed his career and named my child after his brother Owen, I hoped for a little more than a disinterested Bret saying “A lot of people do that.”

                    Crucially this was prior to him reconciling with the WWE, but he seemed a shadow of the character he portrayed. I started thinking what if the Montreal Screw job had never happened?

                    Many years later, Bret made his peace with the WWE. He even shared the ring with a certain CM Punk who used this very same thought for his promo. Punk theorized that the WWE wouldn’t even have existed if the screw job hadn’t happened. With Undertaker’s recent ESPN interview in which he said he could have definitely helped the situation I thought it was worth us going back into the sands of time.

                    So – Let’s talk about

                    What if the Montreal screw job had never happened?

                    First off we need some Parameters, Bret had already signed his WCW contract prior to the Survivor Series match in 1997. In my alternate universe Bret still leaves for WCW, but everything else is up for debate!

                    The 1997 match was a barn stormer and what annoyed the 16 year old me (just as much as the screw job) was that we didn’t see a proper conclusion to what looked like an absolute classic! This match would of course go ahead, so that’s one good thing straight off!

                    The Mr. McMahon Character

                    Without the screw job, it’s probable that the Mr. McMahon character would not exist, or certainty not in the same way. McMahon was being referred to more and more as the owner of WWE in 1997, so it would have definitely been good material for a storyline, but which wrestler would benefit?

                    Chances are DX, given their sway in the company and their backstage politics. They would have no doubt capitalized on this railing against McMahon. I guarantee Vince would still try to play the face just as he did after the screw job, but just like then DX would have become the faces. Their humor and antics was in tune with the 90s crowd, so Vince would have had to become a heel. I doubt very much he would have been as big and instead become more like the Sgt. Slaughter commissioner character we saw.

                    I did a video all about comedy in wrestling, and DX was probably the only top act to utilize humor and not have it negatively affect them. If the screw job hadn’t happened, they would definitely have been the big winners, given how much Vince liked Shawn and HHH at that time.

                    Steve Austin

                    Who would have been the main losers though?  The biggest in ring losers had the Montreal screw job not happened would have been Steve Austin. Without Mr. McMahon, there is no Austin, certainly not to the same degree. After the Montreal screw job happened, fans hated McMahon. The betrayal was so huge that the animosity was palpable and in Steve Austin they found a character to stick it to Vince. Without the Mr. Macmahon character, Steve Austin simply would have an axe to grind, no authority maliciously cheating him, and no authority figure to give his legendary stunner to.

                    Bret in WCW

                    I do think Bret would have also still failed in WCW. After the screw job, Bret Hart was white hot and all WCW needed to do was join up the dots and they would have had a license to print money. WCW was so mismanaged, so broken that they didn’t even attempt to get Bret Hart over and eventually introducing him as a guest referee months later.

                    Eric Bischoff says Bret was a shadow of his former self and even if this was true, they never utilized him in a meaningful storyline at all. If the screw job didn’t happen, it’s easy to argue that Hart would have been treated exactly the same – with a bucket load of indifference.

                    But that wouldn’t have been the last we heard of the Hitman, had the screw job not happened. Vince was happy that Bret had agreed to terms with the WCW. It was an amicable decision for both parties, so it’s easy to see that once Bret’s WCW contract expired, he would have returned to the WWE.

                    And what a return it would have been.

                    By that time, Jericho, Angle, and Brock Lesnar would have been there. The Hitman would have taken them to great matches. The saddest thing about Montreal for me is that for some wrestling fans, especially those that came after 1997, Bret isn’t even in their conversation when it comes to the best ever. For me, he was the best in-ring wrestler ever. His matches made sense, innovated, and still stand up today. Imagine if the Hitman had a back catalogue similar to Shawn Michaels after he retuned from injury.

                    The benefit for other wrestlers would have also been huge. Not only would they have had stellar matches, but they also would have learned from one of the best. I think had Montreal not happened, Bret would have eventually become an agent or part of the creative team. Due to his good relationship with the McMahons, he would probably now be a high ranking member of the WWE, similar to Michael Hayes.

                    Other Wrestlers

                    Out of the ring some wrestlers would have definitely benefitted from Hart being on better terms with the company. The new generation of Harts coming up would have been given more opportunity. Bret said himself that had he been with the WWE, his brother Owen would have still be alive. It’s impossible for me to argue with that. Even if he wasn’t in the WWE, it’s impossible to imagine he wouldn’t have contacted them and expressed his concern over the angle.

                    The Belt

                    But what about the belt? The screw job happened because Bret didn’t want to drop the belt and for all that Vince Russo called them props, the WWE was so keen to keep it that they cheated Hart. If we imagine the match goes ahead as planned, then it would have been a DQ. I really think Bret would have either lost on Raw or relinquished it on the following Raw.

                    Undertaker said that Bret would have been open to losing it to him and from Bret’s own interviews he said that he suggested losing to Austin. Certainly I understand you couldn’t just have Bret hand it over. From a storyline alone, it kills all enthusiasm and momentum for the belt to have him hand it over.  He may as well have said “I’m leaving for something new so you can have this old belt back.” If he lost it on Raw that’s a different story. It could have even been used to catapult Austin into the top tier.

                    Attitude Era

                    Montreal kicked off the attitude era. Without that match finishing in that way, there is no Mr. McMahon – Austin rivalry. Shawn Michaels would have been nowhere near as hot as a heel.  It’s from that point on, WWE started to make ground on the WCW, but what if it hadn’t happened?

                    As WCW got more desperate it made more and more stupid booking decisions. The contracts they offered to the wrestlers continued to be ridiculously outlandish just to prevent wrestlers wanting to join their competition.

                    Without Montreal, WCW may not have felt the need to offer these contracts. While they would certainly have still competed, I think it would have been more of a stalemate between the two companies with neither gaining enough of an upper hand to destroy the other. Even though the Turner/ AOL merger may have done away with the WCW eventually, it may have been a lot tougher decision had WCW still been profitable.

                    With two large companies still in the wrestling business, smaller promotions may have struggled and the rebirth of the Indies may not have happened. The absence of WCW or a big second wrestling promotion was the space that others like TNA Impact and now AEW needed to introduce their own companies. So you could argue that they have the Montreal screw job to thank for that.

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