Ken Shamrock Believes Montreal Screwjob Hurt His WWE Ascent

The Montreal Screwjob left Bret Hart on the outs with WWE for decades, but Ken Shamrock believes it also hurt his own career. Shamrock discussed the incident in a recent interview with Vlad TV and talked about how he was rising up the ranks before the Survivor Series 1997 incident happened, and how he believes it derailed plans for his push. You can check out the highlights below:

On the feeling of winning the Intercontinental Title: “Accomplishment. Like yeah, here I was coming in there from the UFC, not sure. And then having that opportunity, King of the Ring, Intercontinental Champion, Tag Team Champion, you know. It felt like I was on my way, like ‘This is the path you have to go, right? Gotta do King of the Ring, you got to be a tag team, Intercontinental, and then up to the challenging for the title. And the Rock went there after I captured the Intercontinental Title. He went up and started working, so I felt like it was going to be the Rock, Stone Cold, Bret Hart, Ken Shamrock. There was going to be that that fight for that title.

On why he thinks it didn’t happen: “The [Montreal] Screwjob, that put ice on it. Because Bret even said, and this was the reason why they did — I think, and not positive, it’s just my take on it — why the Screwjob happened, was because Brett didn’t want to put over Shawn Michaels. And that he told me that he wanted to lose it to me. He wanted to put me over. And so I was like, ‘Cool.’ But at the time I didn’t realize that the office wasn’t with this. I didn’t know, right? I was like, ‘Oh great, we’re going to get there, like, me and The Rock are gonna go at it. Didn’t happen, the Screwjob happened and then like I told you, from that point on man, we started going downhill. from there.”

On what the issue was: “I believe it was because I trained with Bret. I went to Calgary and worked out with them at Stu’s place. And I became close to that group. And when that happened, Bret came into the locker room, and I was in there with all those guys. And of course when Vince went in there, he told them everybody to leave and of course we all left. But that’s when Bret, you know, hit Vince and all that stuff happened. So I think I was kind of lumped in with the — what do you call, the Canada Connection. And so they didn’t trust where we were going from that point in time.”

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit JD Vlad with a h/t to 411mania.com for the transcription.