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The Montreal Screwjob (also called the Montreal Incident ) was a controversial, legitimate professional wrestling incident in which World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now World Wrestling Entertainment or WWE) owner Vince McMahon and WWF employees covertly manipulated the pre-determined outcome of the match between Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels at the 1997 Survivor Series. The pay-per-view event was held on November 9, 1997, at the Molson Centre in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The manipulation – a "shoot screwjob" in professional wrestling parlance – occurred without Hart's knowledge and resulted in Hart, the reigning WWF World Heavyweight Champion, losing the title to Michaels in Hart's last match with the WWF before departing for rival promotion World Championship Wrestling (WCW). The "screwjob" is generally believed to be an off-screen betrayal of Hart, who was one of the WWF's longest-tenured and most popular performers at the time. Hart won the WWF World Heavyweight Championship at SummerSlam in August 1997. A week prior to Survivor Series, Hart, who had performed for the WWF since 1984, signed a contract to perform with WCW beginning in December 1997. McMahon sought to prevent Hart from leaving the company as the champion, but Hart was unwilling to lose the title to Michaels – with whom he had a long feud both on-screen and off – at Survivor Series in his home country. Hart, Michaels, and McMahon came to an agreement where the Survivor Series match would end with a disqualification, which under normal rules would result in Hart retaining the title. Hart would then lose or forfeit the title at a later date. However, McMahon decided without Hart's knowledge that Michaels would win the title at Survivor Series. Accounts differ as to who exactly was involved in the plan and the extent of their involvement. The plan was executed when match referee Earl Hebner, on direct order from McMahon, ended the match as Michaels held Hart in the Sharpshooter submission hold, Hart's signature finishing move, even though Hart had not submitted. Michaels was declared the victor by submission and crowned as the new WWF World Heavyweight Champion. The Montreal Screwjob has garnered a notorious legacy both on-screen and off, and was partly chronicled in the documentary film ''Hitman Hart: Wrestling with Shadows'' (1998). The far-reaching impact of the incident led to its adoption as a theme in matches and storylines of the WWF's "Attitude Era" and the creation of the character, "Mr. McMahon", the evil boss. Many wrestling fans, and several within the business, believe the entire incident was an elaborate work executed in collaboration with Hart. Nonetheless, Hart was ostracized from the WWF while McMahon and Michaels continued to receive angry responses from audiences for many years, especially in Hart's home country Canada. Hart and McMahon later reconciled, and Hart was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame on April 1, 2006. On the January 4, 2010 episode of ''WWE Raw'', Hart, in his first appearance on live WWE television since the Montreal Screwjob, had a lengthy on-screen discussion with Michaels about the Montreal Screwjob and other events in their past, and agreed to call a truce, bringing closure to the incident after more than 12 years.〔〔 Both men sat side-by-side to discuss the Montreal Screwjob in detail on the 2011 WWE Home Video release, ''Greatest Rivalries: Shawn Michaels vs. Bret Hart''. Longtime industry writer Mike Johnson called it "arguably the most talked-about match in the history of professional wrestling". ==Hart's departure from the WWF== At the time of the screwjob, Bret Hart was a 14-year veteran of the WWF, having started his career in the 1980s as one-half of the popular Hart Foundation tag team with his brother-in-law Jim Neidhart. After the team had two reigns as the WWF Tag Team Champions, Hart then achieved tremendous success as a singles performer in the 1990s, twice taking the Intercontinental Title, and then winning the WWF World Heavyweight Championship five times. Hart took a seven-month leave of absence from the company after WrestleMania XII, during which he negotiated both a new contract with the WWF and an offer from its rival, World Championship Wrestling. In October 1996, Hart declined a three-year, $8.4 million offer from WCW, opting to sign an unprecedented 20-year deal that he had been offered by McMahon, which promised to make him the highest-paid wrestler in the company and secure him a major role with the company management following his retirement. Both Hart and the WWF saw the contract as an expression of mutual loyalty. By mid-1997, the WWF was facing financial difficulties due to stiff competition from WCW, which had become the largest professional wrestling promotion in the United States. At the same time McMahon was planning to make the WWF a publicly traded company, a move which required him to minimize any long-term financial commitments. For several months prior to Survivor Series, Hart and Shawn Michaels had several backstage arguments including a fight before a house show in Hartford, Connecticut (after Michaels had publicly accused Hart of having an affair with Sunny), which saw Michaels suspended for 2 months. After a show in San Jose, California on October 12, 1997, Hart claimed he spoke to Michaels about being professional and trusting one another in the ring. Hart allegedly said he would have no problem losing to Michaels if McMahon requested. Hart also claimed that when Michaels replied that he would never lose to Hart, Bret was shocked and became angry.〔 This led to Hart's outright refusal to lose the WWF World Heavyweight Championship to Michaels at the pay-per-view event in Montreal, although in Hart's documentary, Hart states to McMahon that he would happily drop the belt but not in Canada. However, in his own autobiography, Michaels refuted Hart's claim, saying that he would have cleanly lost to Hart had storylines demanded so (however others, including Jim Cornette in various shoot interviews, have often refuted this saying that they knew first hand that Michaels had no intention of jobbing to Hart). Michaels also pointed out that he had lost cleanly to Hart several times in the past, most notably in the WWF's first ever ladder match at a ''Wrestling Challenge'' taping on July 21, 1992, which would subsequently be made available on multiple Coliseum/WWE Home Video releases〔(WWF @ Portland, ME - Civic Center - July 21, 1992 ). The History of WWE. Retrieved May 30, 2011.〕 and in the main event of Survivor Series 1992. Michaels also lost to Hart in a Steel Cage match in December 1993.〔(WWF @ Utica, NY - War Memorial - December 1, 1993 (4,500) ). The History of WWE. Retrieved May 30, 2011.〕 McMahon believed he made the right choice in fighting for Hart to return, which kept him from joining rival WCW in 1996. However, by late 1997 the WWF's monetary problems were at an all-time high. McMahon began to defer payments to Hart, claiming that the WWF was in "financial peril." At this time, McMahon reviewed the WWF's plans for the future, and saw the likes of Stone Cold Steve Austin, The Rock, The Undertaker and D-Generation X leading what was to become "The Attitude Era". His plans included many stars, but not Hart; as such McMahon encouraged Hart to reopen negotiations with WCW.〔 While Hart considered an offer from then-WCW President Eric Bischoff, McMahon informed Hart that the WWF would honor his contract if he chose to stay. However, when Hart talked to McMahon about future plans and storylines, he was disappointed by McMahon's response and what he considered lackluster suggestions. As seen in the documentary, ''Hitman Hart: Wrestling with Shadows'', Hart acknowledged around this time that his career had been sabotaged by his nationalist character, invented by McMahon. Throughout 1997, "The Hitman" regularly criticized America and deemed it inferior to Canada, drawing the ire of American audiences and yet winning him the respect of WWF's sizable Canadian fan-base; this rendered Hart neither a definite hero nor a villain, even outside the United States, and left him unable to properly enter into feuds with other wrestlers. Hart had also been unhappy about McMahon's move towards more controversial subject matter, which the World Wrestling Federation would later call "The Attitude Era". Convinced that McMahon's future plans did not include him, Hart resigned from the WWF. He signed an agreement with WCW, which had just offered him a large $3 million per annum contract on November 1, 1997. McMahon was worried about the possibility of him entering WCW as the WWF World Heavyweight Champion. Hart asked McMahon if he would be mocked after leaving for WCW, as had occurred with other wrestlers who had transferred to WCW from the WWF; for example, in the previous year the WWF had made fun of Hulk Hogan and "Macho Man" Randy Savage in vignettes referring to them as "The Huckster" and "The Nacho Man", in addition to having Glenn Jacobs and Rick Bognar portray "Diesel" and "Razor Ramon", characters that Kevin Nash and Scott Hall had made famous before their 1996 departure from the WWF. McMahon assured him that nothing of the sort would happen. Despite this, on the night after the Montreal Screwjob on ''Monday Night Raw'', D-Generation X performed a segment mockingly re-enacting the match between Michaels and Hart, with a little person dressed as Bret.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Montreal Screwjob」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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