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| #16 - How the Screwjob changed our World | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Aug 20 2007, 01:49 PM (282 Views) | |
| administrator | Aug 20 2007, 01:49 PM Post #1 |
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Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome back to The Squared Circle. For this special edition feature, I will look at the Montreal Screwjob and how this landmark event changed the entire professional wrestling industry. It was Ten years ago that the wrestling industry was stunned silent by a betrayal of trust so great it would never heal. On November 9th, 1997 at the sold out Molson Centre in Montreal, Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels were scheduled to wrestle to a no-contest in Hart's home town, allowing him to retain the WWE Championship. Vince McMahon, however, was so concerned that Bret would take the title to WCW with him, conspired to alter the agreed finish in order to save his federation's title. So when HBK executed the spot where he would put Bret in the sharpshooter with the referee down, Earl Hebner called for the bell and awarded the match to Michaels. The fans, the other wrestlers, and everybody around the world was stunned by what they had just witnessed. But just how did the events of that night change the industry? Firstly, when the Screwjob happened, the Monday Night Wars were firmly in favour of World Championship Wrestling. Nitro was dominating RAW every week in the ratings, and the WWF was in real trouble after being stuck in a 5-year period of poor television, abysmal buyrates and low ratings. When Bret Hart, one of the biggest drawing stars in the WWF, signed for World Championship Wrestling in November 1997, many called it the final nail in the coffin of the World Wrestling Federation. Although the ratings for RAW had been increasing slowly from WrestleMania 13, most of this increase was fueled by Bret Hart challenging for, and eventually winning, the Championship back from The Undertaker at Summerslam. With Nitro now offering a host of former WWF main-event superstars including Kevin Nash, Lex Luger and Randy Savage, as well as WWF's biggest ever draw Hulk Hogan, and a host of their own characters and superstars such as Bill Goldberg, Diamond Dallas Page and Sting, signing Bret Hart should have been the final peice in the jigsaw of complete domination. However, in an ironic twist of fate, what should have been Nitro's crowning glory would actually end up being the start of RAW's greatest years. The decision that Vince McMahon took to take the WWF Championship from Bret Hart in the way he did gave Vince McMahon legitimate heel heat with the worldwide wrestling audience, and this created a fresh interest in the product because people were curious to see how the company would handle the fall-out to the screwjob. The WWF had people interested in what they would do after the incident, and needed to serve them up fresh television angles to keep this fanbase entertained. So Vince McMahon pulled off an incredibly smart, yet logical, move and twisted a real event into a kayfabe wrestling character. On Monday, November 10th 1997, Vincent Kennedy McMahon began his megalomaniacal transformation into the evil, scheming Chairman - Mr McMahon. The "Bret Screwed Bret" promo was the first leap towards the WWF winning the war. Following this, the average viewing audience were soon segued from Nitro to RAW With WCW making the most of pushing superstars they had contracted from the WWF, including Bret Hart, McMahon realised they had to start creating new characters, new angles and new gimmicks which would launch them into the stratusphere. Mr McMahon, in turning himself into the controlling heel found himself a longterm archnemisis, and his name was Stone Cold Steve Austin. Austin's constant mindgames and pranks would be done with the sold intention of usurping his boss, and McMahon would always counteract him with evil scheming. The constant one-upsmanship between the blue-collar redneck and his boss made RAW must-see television for the first time, partially because it reflected the American society which views the show, and also because it was entertaining, edgy, provocative and amusing television all in one. The massive build-up towards WrestleMania XIV, the introduction of Mike Tyson, the long-term popularity of The Undertaker, and the rebuilding and pushing of superstars like The Rock, Triple H and Mankind, made the World Wrestling Federation once more the market leader in Professional Wrestling. But for all this, we will always wonder if this would have happened were it not for that infamous night in Montreal. Would Vince really have been able to step-up into an on-air role quickly enough to prevent WCW taking complete control? Would the World Wrestling Federation have felt the need or ability to start building new main-eventers and draws to replace Hart? Would The Rock and Triple H ever made it to the top of the company, or Austin? Would WCW have survived if McMahon had not been forced to change his product? I guess we will never know. |
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8:36 AM Jul 11