Eric Bischoff On Why He Agrees With Vince McMahon’s Decision In Montreal Screwjob

On the latest episode of 83 Weeks, Eric Bischoff talked about The Montreal Screwjob at the 1997 Survivor Series PPV event where Vince McMahon rang the bell while Shawn Michaels had Bret Hart in the Sharpshooter. This was done to have Michaels win the WWE Title as Hart was leaving for WCW. You can check out some highlights below:

On Vince McMahon screwing Bret Hart at Survivor Series in Montreal: “I agree with Vince. The unfortunate part of this whole story was that Vince was convinced that I was going to somehow convince Bret Hart to bring the belt over to WCW and drop the WWF belt in the trash, just like I had done with Madusa.”

On McMahon’s concerns with Hart dropping the WWE Title in a trash can: “Yeah, no, I don’t blame him for having that concern. What Vince didn’t know was that the Scott Hall/Kevin Nash lawsuit was still ongoing at that point in time. There were so many limitations on what I could and couldn’t do with regard to WWF — trademarks, copyrights, and all that. So I was hogtied and handcuffed in terms of that. There was no way I could have done it, but Vince couldn’t have known that. My reputation precedes me.”

On where Bret went wrong: “It wasn’t going to happen. When Bret and I talked about the situation going into Montreal, and Bret was concerned that Vince was going to ask him to drop the belt in Montreal. And I said, ‘Well. Bret, it doesn’t matter. You’re Bret Hart. You’re not Bret Hart with a WWF belt and some nobody without it. You’re Bret freaking Hart. It doesn’t matter at all to me.’ And I encouraged him to just do business. Not because I was as concerned about the time-honored tradition as this man apparently was, but because he mentioned that, I think, four times in an interview. Yeah, that wasn’t it. It just said it wasn’t an issue for me. I knew number one, I couldn’t do anything with the belt, even if I wanted to. Legal wouldn’t let me. Turner legal would not let me. It was not. And I knew that going in, it was not an issue. And in my heart, it just didn’t matter whether he did the job or not.

“And here’s where Bret screwed Bret. I don’t even think it was about dropping the belt. It was dropping the belt in Montreal because Bret was convinced that he was a Canadian hero of such a significant magnitude that it would have a devastating impact. And I don’t know other than Bret, because Bret’s vision of himself as the Canadian hero was going to be compromised if he did the job in Montreal, which I think is silly. And as I listened to that interview — and look, Vince can be as convincing as anybody I’ve ever met. Yes, he is amazing when he wants to be. And there was a little bit of an unusual charm in Vince McMahon in that sitdown. But I agree with him. Bret should have done what Bret should have done in Montreal. And as J.R. asked, ‘Vince, as a storyteller, how would you have presented it?’ I think listening to that for the very first time would have — that’s something that I would have been excited about seeing. And it would have been the right way for Bret, for his character, and for his legions of Canadian fans. It would have been the right thing to do. It just wasn’t the right thing to do for Bret’s ego at that point in time, and that’s what it was really all about. The other thing I noticed was Vince talking about the situation where Vince offered him a 20-year contract and guaranteed him a lot of money, and then woke up one day and went, ‘I can’t afford it because I’m getting my ass kicked by WCW and have been for the last year and a half’ when he had to get out of the contract. You made it sound like we orchestrated it. There was no orchestration. Vince told Bret that he couldn’t afford him any longer. Bret called me, and I made a deal. And the amount of money that I paid him had nothing to do with where WWE or WWF was at that time.”

On why he wanted to sign with Hart: “I knew what my budget was. I knew what I was facing with the addition of another show in prime time on Turner. So I had three hours of Nitro on Monday, and now I had two hours coming my way on Thursday. I knew I needed somebody to be the face of that show, Thunder. And I was well within my budget to offer Bret what I offered him. It wasn’t a stretch, didn’t have to ask anybody’s permission. Didn’t have to run it up the flagpole. It was an easy deal for me to make, which sounds crazy now at this point, but yeah.”

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit 83 Weeks with an h/t to 411mania.com for the transcription.