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| McMahon is who he is because of Montreal Photo Credit: WWE.com |
Before I get to my main thesis, let's just have a quick version of the debate wrestling fans have engaged in ever since. Who was right, Hart or McMahon?
It cannot be argued that Hart, though I love him, took himself way too seriously. There might still be like five percent of his mind that thinks all this wrestling stuff has been real the whole time. Hart believed that if he dropped the title to Michaels in his home country, he might as well shoot himself in the head from a character standpoint. I've never understood this. He was leaving WWE anyway, and going to a company that theoretically was going to put him in a high position. Why would it matter if he lost to one of the best wrestlers in the world? He was Bret Hart, and a single loss was not going to change that, regardless of the country in which it took place.
On the other hand, McMahon was similarly delusional. His fear was that Hart would win in Montreal, and then run off to World Championship Wrestling with their title belt. Everyone with half a brain knows this absolutely never would have happened. Hart was far too loyal to McMahon and WWE, and his respect for the sanctity of wrestling would have prevented him from doing so nefarious. McMahon had been burned by Alundra Blayze a couple years earlier, but come on. Hart wouldn't have put the belt in a damn trash can.
So as you can see, both guys were wrong and the whole Screwjob was a big mess.
But what I really wanted to talk about is how the Montreal Screwjob either put a new idea in Vince McMahon's head, or confirmed what he had always believed — that he is infallible and that he should always be in charge and making the decisions, because it he doesn't, the whole company will fall apart.
Only about four or five people knew that the Screwjob was going to go down. This was not only because it needed to be a secret, but because many people in the company would have been flatly against it. Not even Pat Patterson, McMahon's right hand guy, was in the know. It was clearly a flagrant violation of the unwritten rules in pro wrestling, and most WWE employees would have advised McMahon to not go through with it.
But McMahon did, and not only did he get what he wanted, but it led to the greatest financial and creative period of McMahon's life. He became the "Mr. McMahon" character, exaggerating his power-hungry tendencies for the camera. He feuded with Steve Austin, sold millions of shirts, made more money than he had in years, began winning the ratings war with WCW, and then put them out of business.
This all happened because McMahon did what he never should have done. Just like in the 80's when he trampled all over the territorial system, and created his own empire. He ruined people's lives and subjugated nearly everyone in the wrestling business, and in each instance, he got away with it and got richer.
And now we expect a 72-year-old McMahon to quit and go away, just because we think he's lost his fastball? Pfft, not a chance. Vince McMahon could be presented with every bad decision he's made over the last decade, and he would shoot a hole in each one of your pieces of evidence. He would ask you how many billions of dollars you've made, pal. He would remind you that no one but him could have built WWE into what it is today.
The Mr. McMahon character is not a character at all. McMahon is exactly that person you've seen on screen, he's just slightly nicer to his employees in real life. But he firmly believes that his power is earned and completely justified.
He screwed Bret Hart in front of all of us, and in response, we gave him our money. Wouldn't you stick around and keep running the show too?
