MONTREAL : not a stage for fanboy wars

[The MAC]

yes, its a Montreal thread. No,its not about whether Bret is wrong or right etc and al the other fanboy shit. Its not about being over it etc.

Its about YOU and Montreal.

1. When you were watching it happen what was your reaction?

2. Some people still believe Montreal was a complete work.do you think it's
plausible?

3. Do you feel it exposed the inner workings of the business?

4. If you were booking WCW at the time, how would you have booked Bret?

thanks for playing...

[Xero]

1. I remember being very pissed. I was watching it on a scrambled feed with audio and feeling pissed about it. I knew even then that something was "wrong".

2. It's possible, yeah. It coincidentally set up one of the biggest characters ever. It's a hell of a lot more likely that it wasn't, but there are some things that do make it seem worked.

3. I think it bettered it with bringing McMahon, who before this time (and correct me if I'm wrong) wasn't considered the "bossman", he was just a commentator starting to come into storylines.

4. Really don't know.

[Mercury Bullet]

1. When you were watching it happen what was your reaction?
- My friend thought he had just legitamitely tapped out, and we had a huge arguement over it that ended in "Look you idiot! They were just yelling 'ring the bell' and it looked like nobody knew what the hell was going on! Nobody tapped, tard!"

2. Some people still believe Montreal was a complete work.do you think it's
plausible?
-Plausible yes, but I don't think it was.

3. Do you feel it exposed the inner workings of the business?
-Somewhat. It was one of those incidence that real life spilled over onto the 'stage'.

4. If you were booking WCW at the time, how would you have booked Bret?
-I would have had him directly attacking WWF week in and week out, maybe would have gone with having him claim to still be the legit WWF Champ or something like that. Either way, I would have used him to get very direct with the WWF.

[Xero]

You know, I just recently realized that it was McMahon yelling "Ring the Bell" and not Hebner. I had always associated that voice with Hebner.

[St. Jimmy]

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[Xero]

What the fuck does that have to do with anything?

[FourFifty]

.....it was in Canada?

[Xero]

One thing in common?

[Theo Dious]

"No, it's not evil spirits, it's just rain. RAIN. ...Fine, try and kill it."

Best. Line. Ever.

[St. Jimmy]

3 Things. It was Canada. It was Mon-Tree-All. It was irrelevant, just like talking about this event 10 years down the line.

[Thriller]

The fact that there was a documentry about Bret Hart that just so happen to be filming that same day is evidence to believe it could be a work.

[Rob]

1. When you were watching it happen what was your reaction?
- In my bed. 4am in the morning with school at 8:50am. Nothing new there. Reaction was of shock that something went wrong but not sure what. I knew it had to be something inside but I didn't know Bret was leaving for WCW then.

2. Some people still believe Montreal was a complete work.do you think it's
plausible?
- Absolutely not. No lawsuits. Owen Hart's career went in total decline after it and ultimately led to his death. Bret did fuck all in WCW other than get fucked around and collect a huge paycheck. The point of a work is the make money on an angle. 10 years later and still no angle. Ain't never happening. Plus nobody can keep quiet for this long. And there is no way Vince would ever allow Bret to knock him out in front of the boys. Davey Boy Smith left because of it after just signing a 5 year deal and had to front money to leave. Mick Foley no showed TV and Doug Furnas and Phil LaFon quit.

3. Do you feel it exposed the inner workings of the business?
- Of course it did. But it was gonna happen regardless.

4. If you were booking WCW at the time, how would you have booked Bret?
- Immediately booked him a 6 month run with Hulk Hogan leading to him beating him for the title. They had the man people still believed was the WWF champion and could have built champion vs. champion.

[Kane Knight]

I didn't see the PPV. I didn't know about the controversy for a few more days. I think I missed prgramming for almost a week afterwards. Yes, I missed out on a big deal. No, I don't remember how I responded.

Could be a work, but I fucking doubt it.

Yes, it exposed the inner workings of the biz, but not as bad as would eventually be done.

As for booking him, I think ROb's in the ballpark.

[Jordan]

I thought it was a work initially.

No its deffinatly not a work.

Yes.

Have him join the NWO and take out Sting.

[Dorkchop]

1. Didn't see it live, but saw what happened shortly after. I was shocked and pissed.

2. Hell no.

3. Yes.

4. Bret comes in as a face. Mainly wrestles, but does have some feuds and angles. Bret is the one to End Goldberg's streak (but a little after Nash did). Bret gets a good title run and drops it to an up and comer. I don't know. Maybe even a few title changes with Sting, Hogan, Goldberg and Bret. That's just what I can think of right now.

[Zen v.W.o.]

1. I saw it live at the Bell Centre.(Molson Centre at the time). I was depressed that Bret got jobbed, but had no idea about what was truly happening at the time, since I was without any access to the inside doings of wrestling at the time. I said at the time 3 times here, now four.
I can tell you that there were many people there that did know what was happening and the scene afterwards was pretty riotous.

2. No way this was a work. Some reasons already given I agree with. And you dont risk doing such a grand scheme like this and then ship Bret off to wcw, where if it was a work, I am sure somone in wcw would have found out and tried to spoil it all, to lessen the impact it would have later on.

3. Yeah, it exposed it all.

4. I wouldnt have Bret come in as a heel or face, just as an angry guy who has given up loyalties to anyone, and is there to take out all his frustrations on the wcw roster, and prove he's still the best in the industry, despite not having a belt. Let the fans decide how they wanna react towards him fron the get-go. Push him into big things that show you have the wwe's top star coming into your company.

[M-A-G]

1. I know for sure I didn't see it live because the next day was school and I had to be in bed early but when they later aired the footage I was mostly confused.

2. No way. Too many variables.

3. Do you feel it exposed the inner workings of the business? Not at first as people just generally reacted with hatred but I'm sure as the weeks went on they looked back and had somewhat of an idea.

4. Build-up to a title match with Hogan with no bullsh*t. Clean win, goes on to feud with other nWo members, Goldberg, and Sting. Simple as that.

[Theo Dious]

1. When you were watching it happen what was your reaction?
I wasn't watching wrestling at the time; I had a Monday night class from 6-9 and mostly fell into bed when I got back to my dorm.

2. Some people still believe Montreal was a complete work.do you think it's plausible?
Absolutely not. The payoff to admitting to that would have been too great for them to sit on this long. Nobody gains by continuing to pretend.

3. Do you feel it exposed the inner workings of the business?
Exposed, no. It had already been exposed. It did draw fresh attention to it.

4. If you were booking WCW at the time, how would you have booked Bret?
I never would have brought Bret in in the first place. With everything that was going on over there, his pricetag was far too high to pay for the perpetual WCW midcarder he was doomed to be.

[Jeritron]

not to mention Bret would have appeared on WWE television by now and drawn a huge buyrate, perhaps even revealing the work with Vince, instead of sitting around having pissing contests and being bitchy about things.

I think the Vince Russo sabotage theory holds more water than this

[Theo Dious]

I think the Vince Russo sabotage theory holds more water than this

Would that be the one where he was sent to WCW to purposefully book it into the ground? Yeah, I've never entirely stopped giving that one some cred.

[Jeritron]

Yea thats the theory

[Theo Dious]

That one at least maintains some shred of sense to it. Especially when you throw in the idea that Nash had the same goal.

[311]

yes, its a Montreal thread. No,its not about whether Bret is wrong or right etc and al the other fanboy shit. Its not about being over it etc.

Its about YOU and Montreal.

1. When you were watching it happen what was your reaction?

2. Some people still believe Montreal was a complete work.do you think it's
plausible?

3. Do you feel it exposed the inner workings of the business?

4. If you were booking WCW at the time, how would you have booked Bret?

thanks for playing...

1. I was watching live on PPV actually. For some reason, I've been extremely lucky to see the most notable events in wrestling for the past ten years on PPV. I haven't bought them all either, just the ones I have, things seem to happen.

2. Absolutely not.

3. Yes, to alot of people who were still markified at the time.

4. I would have put him on a huge push and have him eventually beat Hogan for the championship. I cannot 'believe' how much momentum WCW pissed away. He could have been huge.

[Jeritron]

Stangers things have happened, and Vince and Vince were a creative duo. I wouldn't doubt it for a second, but there's no reason to believe it.

In fact, I don't believe it simply because I don't think Russo booked the company into the ground. I think he tried to do good things and change the place around and the politics and contracts and disputes were already such a mess that the whole thing wasn't conducive to such changes. Then the whole thing became a giant shoot promo and it flew apart.
IMO

[Theo Dious]

Stangers things have happened, and Vince and Vince were a creative duo. I wouldn't doubt it for a second, but there's no reason to believe it.

In fact, I don't believe it simply because I don't think Russo booked the company into the ground. I think he tried to do good things and change the place around and the politics and contracts and disputes were already such a mess that the whole thing wasn't conducive to such changes. Then the whole thing became a giant shoot promo and it flew apart.
IMO

Vince Russo is like a pitcher who has a killer arm, monster fastballs and a ton of stamina, but absolutely no control.

[Jeritron]

Honestly, when you really think of some of the things he has thought of it amazes me. As disasterous as his booking can be in 2000, if you look at some moments its just like jesus christ that's creative.

[Rob]

If Russo was sent to WCW to kill it, he would have had a job in WWE today. He wouldn't be defending all his shitty angles either. I heard him say all the stuff Vince McMahon refused to do in WWE, he took to WCW and used there. Shows you how smart both McMahon and Russo are really.

[Jeritron]

He had a job in WWE in 2002 as soon as his contract ran out but he left almost immediately because "things weren't the same". His good relationships with Vince, Triple H and all the boys had deteriorated for whatever reason and he didn't feel comfortable taking back his old job without the same friends and environment.

[The One]

1) My initialy reaction was to laugh uncontrolably. I then began to flip off the screne and shout "Fuck you Hart! Fuck you WCW! Fuck you, you fucking pink pansy" or something to that effect. I thought it was a work, and that McMahon was going to become DX's manager, which at the time I thought McMahon enterting into a more visable role would be good...little did I know HOW good it would turn out.

2) Of course it is possible that this is all a work, but personally I simply don't think so. Also, if it is, it's simply the single greatest angle in proessional wrestling history.

3) No I don't, the fallowing coverage of it coupled with people's interest is what I believe created the internet wrestling community, so in that sense it did blow the entire backstage world wide open. But the actual event didn't do anything.

4) Had him come in and become Nash and Hall's personal jobber whipping boy. :D

[Rob]

2) Of course it is possible that this is all a work, but personally I simply don't think so. Also, if it is, it's simply the single greatest angle in proessional wrestling history.


I don't know how the single greatest angle in wrestling history can never have a program and draw ZERO money. And if it ever came out as a work, I'd probably completely quit watching wrestling purely on the basis that I could never think of Bret Hart in the same light.

[The One]

Montreal made McMahon and evil person in people's eyes. Evil Mr. McMahon went on to feud with Steve Austin. Now explain to me how that didn't draw please.

[The One]

And I know what you mean about not being able to think of Bret in the same light. He would have, you know, actually done his job if he kept it going this long. And Bret doing his job is just baffling to me. (I know it's a cheap shop with no purpose, but I had to take it.)

[Jeritron]

Montreal made McMahon and evil person in people's eyes. Evil Mr. McMahon went on to feud with Steve Austin. Now explain to me how that didn't draw please.

exactly correct:y:

[Jeritron]

I don't know how the single greatest angle in wrestling history can never have a program and draw ZERO money. And if it ever came out as a work, I'd probably completely quit watching wrestling purely on the basis that I could never think of Bret Hart in the same light.


So hold on, your love for wrestling would be completely gone because it would come out that a wrestler who's been retired for 7 years was involved in a work and not actually the tragic sad puppy dog victim of a huge conspiracy? (not true anyways)

What do you like more, professional wrestling or Bret Harts junk?