Vince McMahon Thought The “Bret Screwed Bret” Promo Was A Babyface Segment

Vince McMahon delivered a famous promo after the 1997 Survivor Series where he explained to the WWE Universe that “Bret screwed Bret.” The Hitman was on his way to WCW and he didn’t want to do the favor for Shawn Michaels on the way out, so McMahon had no other choice but to execute the Montreal Screwjob. This promo brought him a lot of heat while exposing the business to many fans at the same time.
Bruce Prichard was there and he revealed on Something To Wrestle With that although McMahon ended up as one of the biggest heels in the pro wrestling business after his “Bret screwed Bret” promo, that was not his intention in the slightest.

“There was so much backlash from a certain segment of the audience and audience members that probably wouldn’t normally speak up were speaking up about this and it was a peek behind the curtain of the business. Vince felt it was important to address it and to address the television audience and talk about, ‘Hey guys, this is what happened,’ and come out for the first time in his mind as the owner of WWE and he made this decision to kinda put the heat where he thought it should be.”
“I know Vince felt this was a babyface promo 100%, 100% Vince looked at it as a babyface promo on his part because he was explaining to the audience, ‘I did this for you. I did this for all the Superstars fo the WWE and I did this for you, the audience who support us. Bret didn’t wanna do the time-honored tradition and do what was right.’ So in Vince’s mind he’s telling the audience, ‘Hey guys, in order to continue to bring you the entertainment we do every week, this is why I had to do what I had to do, but Bret made me do it.”

Vince McMahon’s plan to place the blame of the Montreal Screwjob on Bret Hart didn’t work out the way he thought it would. It still created a historic promo in the process which not only introduced the Mr. McMahon character, but also created a million instances of kayfabe dying all over the world.
McMahon thought he was walking into the situation with a solid plan which would see him getting cheers, only it didn’t quite work out like he thought it would at all.

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