User:Wolverine X-eye/sandbox/2

Background

Before the 1997 Survivor Series, Shawn Michaels and Bret Hart were in the midst of a heated rivalry that began in early 1996. In that year's 30-man Royal Rumble match, Michaels entered at number 18 and eliminated 8 men in a winning effort. Per the match stipulation, Michaels challenged the WWF champion, who at the time was Bret Hart, to a match at the main event of WrestleMania XII. During the event on March 31,1996, Michaels defeated Hart for the WWF title in overtime of their 60-minute Iron man match, which ended in a scoreless draw. Upon the conclusion of the match, Michaels and Hart did not shake hands, leading many to believe that they legitimately despised each other. Acording to Hart, he and Michaels agreed to not shake hands, to create some sort of animosity over the match's result, which help build up their eventual rematch.

After WrestleMania, Hart went on a seven-month hiatus, while Michaels defended his title. Around a month into his hiatus, Hart's WWF contract expired. The chairman, Vince McMahon, along with Jim Ross paid a visit to Hart to discuss his contract and the possibilities of him resigning for the WWF. Although Hart described the conversation as pleasant, he and McMahon were not able to come up with an agreement, so Hart remained a free agent. In July that year, McMahon again attempted to resign Hart, but to no success. A few months later in September, Hart was approached by Eric Bischoff, the boss of WCW, a rival company, while filming a guest spot for the Simpsons. Bischoff met Hart in his Los Angeles hotel, and tried to persuade him into joining WCW. Hart told Bischoff that he will consider joining if they pay him $3 million a year for fewer dates. Two days later, Bischoff handed Hart an official contract that will see him earn a total of $2.8 million for 3 years, and that would require him to make around 180 appearances each year. Later, Hart informed McMahon of the contract and asked him to match the contract or give him the best contract possible. On October 9, McMahon flew to Hart's home to offer him a 20-year contract worth $10.5 million. Feeling as though he needs to be loyal to the WWF, Hart accepted the contract and agreed to return on the October 21 episode of Raw, where he signed the official contract just an hour before the show went live. The contract also added that "Should Bret Hart leave the WWF for whatever reason he would receive reasonable creative control in the final 30 days of employment". Michaels, aware of all of this, was not happy with the contract, and expressed his anger towards Vince, telling him that would not put Hart over at WrestleMania 13.

After recapturing the WWF title in the 1997 Royal Rumble against Sycho Sid, Michaels vacated the title in February due to a knee injury. He contemplated thoughts of retirement and said that he "had to find his smile" which he "lost" somewhere down the line. This infuriated Hart who believed Michaels was faking the injury so to avoid having to lose to him at WrestleMania. Michaels returned in late May after 3½ months, and a match was scheduled between him and Hart at the King of the Ring event, however the match was canceled after Hart told McMahon that he would not be able to recover from his knee injury in time. It was at this point that the rivalry between Michaels and Hart escalated as they had regular backstage arguments; this eventually culminated in a brawl on June 23, 40 minutes before Raw went on the air. Michaels threatened to quit due to what he felt was an unsafe working environment. McMahon was able to convince Michaels to return, and by SummerSlam in August, Michaels agreed to be the special guest referee for the match between Bret Hart and The Undertaker, which Hart won, becoming the WWF champion in the process.

On September 22, McMahon told Hart that he would be breaching his contract, as around this time the WWF were embroiled in stiff competition with WCW for quite some time and were not in the best position financially. He advised Hart to reach out to Bischoff to see if he would still be interested in signing him. Hart tried to negotiate with McMahon, as he did not want to leave the WWF, however McMahon remained firm with his decision and negotiation proved fruitless. Hart later reached out to Bischoff who offered him a $2.5 million, 3 year contract that would require him to make 125 appearances per year. After some consideration, Hart made a deal with Bischoff. Still under contract with the WWF, Hart was scheduled to wrestle against Michaels at Survivor Series in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. McMahon had originally planned for Michaels to defeat Hart for the title, however given the contract clause which gave Hart reasonable creative control, Hart refused to drop the belt to Michaels, citing his constant disrespect towards him, particularly in one incident where Michaels said he would not be willing to reciprocate Hart's actions after Hart told Michaels he would have no problem dropping the belt to him. McMahon and Hart came to a compromise and a new finish was created. This new finish would have seen Hart defeat Michaels by disqualification and vacate the title the next night on Raw. Michaels phoned McMahon and expressed his disapproval of the planned finish. Jim Cornett, as well as Triple H suggested to McMahon that they manipulate the finish of the match in favor of Michaels without Hart knowing. McMahon approved of the idea, and gathered a few employees to let them in on how the screwjob would occur. He also ordered Michaels and Triple H to act as confused as everybody else.

Execution

On November 8, 1997, one day before Survivor Series, McMahon met with Pat Patterson and Michaels in a hotel room in Montreal and planned the screwjob.[8] It is unclear how many people knew of the impending betrayal, but McMahon's close aide Gerald Brisco was involved in the planning. Jim Ross has insisted that he did not know the screwjob would take place, although many, including various members of Hart's family, thought he was involved.[23] Ross has stated that Jerry Lawler also did not know about the screwjob beforehand. Hart and Michaels had met with Pat Patterson to discuss the match setup and plan, during which Hart agreed to allow Michaels to put him into the Sharpshooter hold at a time when the referee would be unconscious, as Patterson suggested.[24]

Once the match began, Hart and Michaels brought their performance outside the ring and into the crowd, while being followed by McMahon and WWF officials. As the climax of the match approached, the two wrestlers returned to the ring while WWF officials continued to order more personnel to ringside. Hart's suspicions were first aroused upon noticing that Vince McMahon was not at the announcers' table to perform commentary, and that on-screen commissioner Sgt. Slaughter was also standing at ringside with Vince McMahon. Nevertheless, the match continued. As planned, Michaels pushed Hebner in front of him as Hart jumped from the top turnbuckle, sending all three men to the canvas. Michaels and Hart both got up, but Michaels performed a rake on Hart's eye, sending Hart back to the mat. Michaels then proceeded to grab Hart's legs to execute the Sharpshooter maneuver.

The rest of the match was planned to proceed thus: Hart would grab Michaels's foot and reverse the hold, putting him in the Sharpshooter. Michaels would submit to the hold, but the referee would still be unconscious. Hart would let go of the hold to try to revive the referee, but Michaels would hit Hart with his finisher, Sweet Chin Music, and make the pin. A second referee would then run to the ring with Owen Hart, Jim Neidhart, and Davey Boy Smith following close behind. The second referee would start the count, but Owen and Davey Boy would break the pin. The original referee would then recover and start to make the count, but Hart would kick out, setting up about five more minutes of brawling that would result in a disqualification.

At this point, the match director was heard shouting instructions into his headset for Hebner to get up, but Hart did not notice anything amiss. Mike Chioda, the referee who was supposed to run in after Hebner went down, began yelling back that Hebner was not supposed to be up yet. Pat Patterson reacted in a similar way, and Owen Hart and Davey Boy Smith, who were waiting for their cues to run in, remained backstage in a state of confusion. Michaels was then seen by many viewers as having glanced at Hebner as he put Hart in the sharpshooter, which some saw as proof that he was in on the scheme.[8] Contrary to their agreed plan, Michaels tightened the hold and refused to offer his own leg to Hart for the latter to break out of the hold.[28] At that moment, Hebner got to his feet, looked toward timekeeper Mark Yeaton, and shouted, "Ring the bell!" McMahon then elbowed Yeaton hard and yelled, "Ring the fucking bell!" Yeaton rang the bell just as Hart reached forward and grabbed Michaels's leg, which broke the hold and caused Michaels to fall. According to Bret Hart, while he was trying to trip Shawn Michaels's knee, he heard Vince McMahon say, "Ring the bell!" and he described he knew he was screwed right after the referee rang the bell.[

Michaels's theme music then began playing as the ring announcer declared him the winner and the new WWF Champion. Hebner had already exited the ring and was on his way out of the arena. Jim Ross can be heard on commentary asking, "What happened?" A moment later, he says, "Bret Hart gave up in the Sharpshooter."[29] After an initial moment of shock, Hart got to his feet, approached the apron where McMahon was standing and spat directly in his face, while Michaels feigned confusion.[25][28] Michaels was ordered by McMahon to "pick up the damn belt and get the hell out of here!" Michaels left the arena with Brisco and Triple H and the broadcast signal cut off almost immediately after Michaels exited, with the last shot being a tight closeup of the Survivor Series logo above the entranceway.[29] McMahon and most other WWF officials also quickly made their way backstage as an angry Hart smashed cameras, monitors, and ringside equipment.[30] Fans in attendance also began to vent their fury on McMahon and WWF officials; a few even heaped garbage on them and some who were close enough pushed Michaels as he hurried backstage. Owen Hart, Neidhart and Davey Boy came out to the ring and had a conversation with Bret calming him down. Hart proceeded to finger trace "W-C-W" and "I love you" to the cheering fans before returning backstage.