Bret had already agreed to leave. He didn't like nor approve of the direction of the company and didn't like Shawn, especially since Shawn took all Bret's heel heat. If he left on a good note, he still would've been gone when Owen did his thing and passed away. But who knows if he would have done that specific angle. Bret would have had a better attitude going into WCW and maybe try to be more positive and play more of a role into getting his ideas across.
If he didn't take that kick from Goldberg and Owen didn't die he very well could have come back to the WWF. Who knows if Michaels would have wrestled Taker in the casket match, or if he did decide to work it different and not hurt his back.
He wouldn't have taken the years off to heal and get re-born. He was bad into pills and booze. If he still had the asshole attitude and drug issues he could have ended up another wrestling tragedy. Joined: Apr 4, Messages: Likes Received: There are a couple things: 1. Where would the belt have gone? Cornette famously suggested putting it on Shamrock. Shamrock couldn't cut a promo to save his life but was an incredible UFC talent in ring performer.
He would have most probably held the title for a short reign back then this meant 2 or 3 months, not 2 or 3 hours like today before dropping it to Shawn. In 97 and 98, not everyone was a former World Champion and that was something to be said with prestige and would push someone to the main event card. I believe that Shamrock being more in line with that upper-mid card including Rock, HHH, Kane, Mankind could have helped legitimise the company as a 'sport', especially when compared to the hardcore antics of ECW and the unprofessional manner WCW was being run in.
Bret beats Shawn and then hands the company the belt back on Raw. This would have been a pretty harsh blow. It would deflate any legitimacy left in what was the second company at the time, and it would take them a hell of a lot longer to prove they were the better product. Bret puts over Shawn - belt follows the same path. If McMahon didn't 'screw' Bret, then would they have the biggest heel of the era? Of course they would! More important than the screwjob, you had Austin's neckbreak in 97!
Bret Hart and his stable openly berated the announce table because Vince was on it. Shawn and DX had thrown pot shots. It may not have happened as quickly, but Mr. McMahon was already in the process of happening when Bret got 'screwed'. There is no 'No' option. JR, Cornette, Patterson, Brisco and Vince were and are all great wrestling minds, Russo couldn't overwhelm them all with his stupidity. Bret in WCW 3a. He'd still be treated like shit, come on. He was more talented than any of their top guys bar Sting and they were going to keep him down like they did Flair, like how they kept Goldberg on midcard matches even when he was their top draw and had the belt etc.
We might have had a proper bloody match to end the Sting v. Hogan fued at Starrcade instead of the travesty that happened though. Basically, I don't think much would have changed.
The writing was on the wall for so many factors. Dark Match Jobber. Joined: Nov 1, Messages: 23 Likes Received: 5. Cobear Mr. Joined: Oct 24, Messages: 17 Likes Received: 3. The only thing I think that would have changed is that Bret would have came back to WWF a whole lot quicker, because the only reason he stayed in WCW at that time is because he loved what he did as a wrestler but was bitter and angry with Vince.
SO he stayed in WCW to at least continue to wrestle. But if the screw job never would have happened I believe he would have left WCW not to long after he arrived.
I think the way WCW handle Bret was probaly one of the biggest mistakes in wrestling history. How do you take an already Big star in pro wrestling and not be able to make him your main top guy. New Hot Fed Championship Contender. Joined: Jun 27, Messages: Likes Received: He keeps him around. Bret and Shawn have their match in Montreal. Austin vs Vince was successful but it was not something that excited me and it had a limited shelf life.
The U. Bret accepts and taps to the ankle lock in the middle of the ring. The stable is used to elevate all of these new rookies, but the clear cut above the rest is Lesnar, who is pushed straight to the top, he takes "old man" Ken Shamrock to the limit and we catch a glimpse of the future UFC career he'll have when he debuts the Kimora Lock. After Shamrock, Lesnar's next target is only other "real athlete," Kurt Angle. The MSG crowd delivers a rousing "Thank You Bret" standing ovation that brings out most of the locker room to thank the legend.
In their first meeting, The Undertaker defeats Sting. Triple H takes on Dwayne Johnson in the finals in a glass—ceiling shattering match that mints both stars. The Game wins, becoming the first undisputed champion as Hollywood calls on Johnson. Bret and Vince part ways amicably. Vince also agrees with Bret that he should drop the belt to Ken Shamrock.
HBK doesn't face The Undertaker at the Royal Rumble; he never suffers the injury that puts him on the shelf for years. Bret's career isn't ended by an errant Goldberg kick. The Road to Shamrock vs. Owen via ign. Share Share Tweet Email. But the bombshell … yeah, it got people talking alright. The San Jose, California audience, a market that had little exposure to the exclusively east-coast cult-like phenomena of ECW, gave the invasion the full force of their built-up hostility.
It was such a debacle that, years later, the event would be inducted en masse by RD Reynolds on his popular WrestleCrap website as an honorary Gooker Of The Year winner for , with the following text:.
They were short, and they were trying to sell you on an event. Beyond those two complications, Raw was tolerable, if predictable; Austin challenged and beat Jarrett. The debate, which is harangued by boos, predictably turned into a brawl, with Lawler backed by RVD, Sabu and a contingent of midcard WWF wrestlers and jobbers, while Heyman had his boys behind him.
And to the boys in the back, putting the rejects from a bingo hall on national TV meant a bite out of their television time and a sort of roundabout vote of no-confidence in their abilities. It was almost becoming a game amongst WWF-haters, disgruntled fans and the industry pundits; how will Vince top his last misstep? The debut of Bret Hart on WCW television was less than memorable, and certainly not befitting a man with his track record and recent notoriety. There was a lot of doubt that Eric Bischoff had more then one trick in his arsenal.
The episodes of Nitro between Starrcade and Helter Skelter had their critics, to be sure, and almost all the criticism centered around one fact: the new storyline still involved the nWo. But unlike the previous two years, WCW was no longer a group of individuals all getting trounced on a weekly basis. And with the defeat of his rival so close, Bischoff recognized a changing of strategy was in order. The emotional, raw response from the crowd silenced critics that another round of faction wars would drag WCW down.
That was real. And here he is, in the ring with two of the original Horsemen, the dominant stable of WCW. But we believe you can. And do it for us. And, in this case, the ratings backed up everything Sting and Flair would say years later; the turfing of the Horsemen and the rise of the Honor Guard turned WCW from red-hot to supernova. Everything he served up, the crowd ate, and demanded more. And even though Helter Skelter ended on a sour note, it fulfilled the promise that Starrcade reneged on; the nWo was rocked to the very core, from the opening bell to the fade to black.
But the audience got something to look forward to at the end, when the Honor Guard surrounded the cage, allowing Bret to get his hands on Hogan. But the audience reaction said that Bischoff was on the right track. And the numbers confirmed it. The ECW angle, especially, reportedly but never confirmed drew enough negative letters in one week to fill a dump truck. The first says that when a promoter is hot, they can do no wrong; and the second, applicable to Vince and the WWF in , is that when a promoter is cold, they can do no right.
And that second rule was being exemplified everywhere they turned. Critics were all over the ECW arrangement, saying it was for nothing so noble or altruistic as to help out ECW, but a desperate act by a desperate company trying to plug holes in a sinking ship. The message was clear: they were drowning in a teaspoon. Amazingly, the ratings rebounded, if only marginally, after the Rumble.
But still, it had Austin, and the crowd lapped up his antics as fast as he did beer. And then, Shawn Michaels popped up like a bad virus.
And with him, naturally, came a lawyer and a lawsuit. It was, in no uncertain terms, the biggest load of horseshit ever forced into the shape of a lawsuit. And it was also one of the most brilliant end-arounds ever executed.
And just as predictably, Shawn set a land-speed record getting to Atlanta. I did it all his way, and look where it got me; he screwed me and ran. Segments featuring clashes between the Honor Guard and the nWo set ratings records for the company, and this was happening every week. And Superbrawl would only continue the hot streak; whether it was just a coincidence, or it was a concerted effort to one-up the WWF, everyone went out and busted ass like never before.
Even a match between Kimberly and Miss Elizabeth, which would normally be a piss-break match for sure, turned out surprisingly entertaining, thanks to clever booking and Kimberly getting her shirt ripped off. But the main event, as overbooked as it was with extra referees and Eric Bischoff changing rules in mid-stream, hit on all cylinders anyway; in fact, the overbooking brought together a number of storylines and succeeded in paying them off. It is far from a technical classic, and, in retrospect, lacks the drama that it had at the time, thanks to the amazing build-up.
Equally buoying the good will was a series of good breaks for the ailing company; despite ratings hovering somewhere just above immeasurable, USA committed themselves to broadcasting the WWF for the foreseeable future.
That meant, until they could build up challengers, Bret would be stuck with paper challengers, a tactic that always proved damaging to the champ. This was viewed by the WWF as the best news of all, since that meant the time was right to strike back and get the ship righted once and for all.
WrestleMania was, internally, declared make-or-break for the company, and to that end, they threw every ounce of muscle, every bit of creative energy, behind it. The main event was a foregone conclusion—Vader against Steve Austin for the WWF Title—but what audience there was left was rabid for it.
So we had heatless faces and heatless heels. The best match in the world will still look like a dud if neither participant can draw a reaction. The sight of exposed breasts sent the crowd into an uproar, as it did Sable; unlike the crowd, though, Sable was not thrilled at having her chesticles laid bare live on PPV. She covered herself and fled, all the way to her rental car and right out of the arena. The match started on top of the cell instead of inside it, and with the previous Hell In A Cell setting a high benchmark for brutality, it afforded them the opportunity to try something huge: namely, throwing Cactus Jack off the top, through one of the announce tables.
From there, Cactus somehow managed to get up and continue the fight; chairs, thumbtacks, and a barbed-wire two-by-four were all found use. And while Cactus won the match, his litany of injuries—a broken collarbone, two broken ribs, dislocated jaw, hundreds of puncture wounds and a gouge across his forehead that requires twenty-two stitches to close—would put him out of action for months.
The debut of Shawn Michaels—who ran in after the main event, superkicked Bret into oblivion, and revealed a New World Order t-shirt under his HBK shirt—on PPV without any advance hype was questioned endlessly as a waste of a money-making opportunity, but it got people talking … and ratings climbing, and more merchandise selling, and improvements in every other metric of success.
With the acquisition of Shawn Michaels, many questioned whether WCW could survive the all-out political warfare that would erupt with personalities like Michaels, Nash, Hogan and Hart all under one roof. Bischoff was adamant that he could reign in the BS and keep everyone in check for the greater good, and their shared goal: the extermination of the WWF.
Just when. Epilogue: Many critics, and in fact many employees within WCW, were left looking at their watches when Shawn Michaels walked in the door; how long until the inevitable blow-up between Shawn and Bret? How long until they clashed with Hogan? McMahon character. That kind of heat made people cheer Stone Cold even more when he got a chance to beat up his boss, and that was the cornerstone of the Attitude Era.
Without the Screwjob, that storyline and the Attitude Era in general, may not have been as effective. So, what would have happened to pro wrestling if the Montreal Screwjob never happened? We do know we have a memorable moment that happened 20 years ago which will always be looked at and dissected by wrestling fans and experts for a long time. News editor for The Comeback and Awful Announcing, highlight consultant for Major League Soccer as well as a freelance writer for hire.
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