“Bret screwed Bret” became one of the most infamous lines Vince McMahon ever delivered, but apparently nobody handed it to him on a script. Vince Russo says McMahon came up with the promo himself just days after the Montreal Screwjob, while the Mr. McMahon character was essentially being created on the fly.
While speaking on The Coach and Bro Show, Russo was asked how WWE decided to turn McMahon from simply the company’s owner into the character who would eventually go to war with Steve Austin. According to Russo, there was no long-term master plan behind it.
It started immediately after Survivor Series 1997. Bret Hart had punched McMahon backstage following the controversial finish to his match with Shawn Michaels, leaving Vince walking around with a black eye while Russo watched people inside WWE try to move past the entire situation. Russo thought they were crazy.
“This is why I’m saying, man, so much in wrestling, if done correctly, is organic. It was Survivor Series. Vince was walking around in the locker room with a black eye. And Coach, everyone wanted to sweep this under the carpet, and I’m sitting there like, ‘Are you out of your freaking minds? There will never be another incident perhaps in the history of pro wrestling. This is a story, guys!’”
Vince Russo could tell McMahon was listening. Shortly afterwards, Vince sat down with Jim Ross for the interview that would change how WWE fans looked at him forever.
“And Vince was listening, I could tell. Next thing you know, Monday morning Vince is in the studio and we get that interview with JR. ‘I didn’t screw Bret Hart. Bret Hart screwed Bret Hart.’ That was the beginning of the Mr. McMahon character, all done organically.”
According to Russo, there weren’t months of creative meetings building toward that moment. He says he made the pitch the day after Survivor Series because WWE was still considering simply burying what had happened in Montreal.
“No written months in advance. Literally, he was punched in the eye two days earlier. No, I did the pitch right there in the meeting the day after. It was the next day, the day after Survivor Series. It was Raw. They wanted to bury this. I was like, ‘Vince was walking around with a black eye. Are you out of your mind?’”
Russo also made an important distinction about his own involvement. He may have pushed WWE to turn the real-life controversy into television, but he says he did not write McMahon’s interview or give him the promo that became synonymous with the Montreal Screwjob.
“Then as soon as he got back—I didn’t book or write it—he got together with JR, he cut that promo. The Mr. McMahon character was born. It was not planned. That was his line. No one wrote that line for him.”
The Montreal Screwjob already blurred the line between WWE’s real-life problems and what fans saw on television. According to Russo, WWE nearly tried to move past it entirely. Instead, one black eye, one creative pitch and one unscripted promo helped turn Vince McMahon into the villain who would eventually become Steve Austin’s greatest enemy.
Do you think the Mr. McMahon character would have ever become what it did without the Montreal Screwjob and the “Bret screwed Bret” interview? Let us know in the comments.
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