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Explore the most shocking and controversial moment of wrestling: a screwjob. From early double-crosses to modern-day betrayals, let's uncover the secrets and fallout of these dramatic moments. Perfect for fans and newcomers, this video explores the betrayals that shaped wrestling. Like, comment, and subscribe for more explosive content!
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Play now to find out - https://www.sportskeeda.com/wwe/brainbuster-wwe-player-guessing-game
Explore the most shocking and controversial moment of wrestling: a screwjob. From early double-crosses to modern-day betrayals, let's uncover the secrets and fallout of these dramatic moments. Perfect for fans and newcomers, this video explores the betrayals that shaped wrestling. Like, comment, and subscribe for more explosive content!
You can also visit our site: https://www.sportskeeda.com/wwe
#drewmcintyre #cmpunk #brethart #shawnmichaels #montrealscrewjob #wwe #wrestling #sportskeedawrestling
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SportsTranscript
00:00When you google the word screwjob, the first thing that pops up is images related to that
00:05infamous WWE moment.
00:07And when you think of screwjobs, the first thing that always comes to a wrestling fan's
00:11mind is the Montreal Screwjob, the infamous 1997 Survivor Series main event for the WWE
00:18Championship between Bret the Hitman Hart and Shawn Michaels, where Bret Hart, the Canadian
00:22hero, was screwed out of the championship legitimately by the promotion of WWE on his
00:28way out of the company, and the fans got screwed in the process.
00:32There's no denying that it is one of the most regrettable moments in wrestling history
00:37from every angle that it has been observed in retrospect.
00:40There are multiple documentaries and a whole lot of media going into it, so much so that
00:45anyone interviewing Bret Hart today basically has to work their way around the issue.
00:50Because of that, we're not going to go into the Montreal Screwjob that much.
00:53It is, for an unfortunate reality, the most well-known version of this practice.
00:58Instead, we're going to dive into the history of wrestling's most notorious screwjobs,
01:04and the finishes with the psychology behind them.
01:07The unfortunate truth is that there are probably a lot more of them that we simply don't
01:11know about publicly, so don't get up in arms at us for not covering every single
01:16incident of backstabbery out there.
01:19Stand back, there's a new wrestling quiz coming through.
01:22Check out Brain Buster, the daily quiz that tests your WWE knowledge with winning strengths,
01:28stats, and more.
01:29It's time to see if you're up for the challenge.
01:33At the center of it all lies the historically carny nature of the professional wrestling
01:38industry itself.
01:39It's always existed, and only worsened maybe throughout the time.
01:43Yeah, who is in on it, and who is not in on it.
01:47A carny business meant that there were a lot of carny figures doing carny things.
01:52One of wrestling's original screwjobs came all the way back in the 1910s.
01:57Yes, we're going back that far.
02:00It revolved around two of wrestling's biggest superstars at the time, Frank Koch and George
02:05Hackenschmidt.
02:06The series of matches they had were so old that the Titanic hadn't even set sail yet,
02:11and wouldn't do so for another year.
02:14Heck, even World War I didn't happen until a few years later after their rematch.
02:19This was an era of big, tough, legitimate men, and the clash of titans ended up damaging
02:25the wrestling industry as a whole.
02:27Yes, there was real grappling, shooters shooting with each other, but even back then, the business
02:33held its big secrets very close to the chest.
02:37One of them was the predetermined nature of the beautiful sport.
02:41In the first bout, Gotch used an underhanded tactic to end Hackenschmidt's undefeated
02:47record, but he proved to be Gotch's toughest opponent up until then.
02:52Naturally, a rematch three years later was always going to be a big money draw.
02:58It generated a record-breaking $87,000 gate, well over $2 million in today's money.
03:07There are a lot of contradictory stories about this incident, so we're going to condense
03:11it in the best way that we can.
03:13In the build-up and training for the bout, Gotch notoriously hired someone known as a
03:17hooker.
03:18No, not that type of hooker, but the hooker wasn't for him.
03:22No, let me explain.
03:23Gotch reportedly hired someone to train with Hackenschmidt, and it's time to tell you
03:28what these two kinds of hookers actually did.
03:34They were submission specialists with a notorious reputation for breaking a bone or two if needed.
03:41This hooker, hired by Gotch, supposedly went a little too hard on Hackenschmidt, leaving
03:46him with a busted knee.
03:49There was a lot of money on the line.
03:51Even though Hackenschmidt wanted to pull out of the fight, the promoters convinced him
03:54to stay in the mix.
03:57Gotch, being the humble man that he was, even told Hackenschmidt that he would make him
04:01look good and let him save at least one fall in their two-out-of-three-falls match.
04:08That's unfortunately not what happened.
04:10When the bell rang, the world heavyweight champion Frank Gotch went right after that
04:15injured knee of Hackenschmidt, and made the bout go less than 20 minutes, picking up two
04:21straight falls and going back on his word.
04:24Presumably heartbroken after knowing he was betrayed, George Hackenschmidt would exit
04:30the arena.
04:32This incident banged up his knee really badly.
04:34Remember that it was 1911, the medical advancements we've seen since then were not there for
04:39a knee like his.
04:41This would be Hackenschmidt's last dance in the ring.
04:44It damaged the reputation of professional wrestling, which went on a decades-long battle
04:49of trying to protect the business and not give away those predetermined nature of the
04:55matches.
04:56And behind it came two major factors, Frank Gotch's ego and the promoters' greed.
05:01In 1936, one of the earliest screw-jobs in wrestling history involved the inventor of
05:06one of the most used wrestling maneuvers, the Irish Whip.
05:10Hailing from County Cork, Ireland, the tough Irishman, Dano O'Mahony, O'Mahony had reportedly
05:17said that he had never been asked to lie down, despite being a questionable grappler but
05:22still a tough man in an era where the grapplers ruled the wrestling game.
05:27While he managed to become a big draw, Boston promoter Paul Bowser pushed him big, knowing
05:32how big of a draw he would be to the Irish immigrant crowd in Boston, Massachusetts.
05:38Similar to how Bruno Sammartino became champion of the greater New York region in professional
05:43wrestling for the Italian-American crowd there in New York City in the 1960s and 70s, O'Mahony
05:50won 49 straight matches, being built to an opportunity for the NWA World Heavyweight
05:57Championship against then-champion Jim Londos.
06:00In June of 1935, at Boston's Fenway Park, a massive crowd assembled deeply behind O'Mahony
06:07as he would challenge for the National Wrestling Association's World Heavyweight Championship.
06:12Dano became the first Irish-born World Heavyweight Champion in professional wrestling.
06:18The Shamrock Goldberg of the 1930s would continue to be quite the draw, even headlining Yankee
06:23Stadium in New York City, but it would take a dark turn.
06:27One wrestler who wasn't going to do the job for Dano was Dick Chakat.
06:32In a move that wasn't uncommon as you might think, Chakat was a legitimate tough man and
06:37went to work on O'Mahony during their bout.
06:39The two had faced off before, but O'Mahony had won the first contest via disqualification
06:45when Chakat had kicked him so hard that the Irishman suffered legitimate broken ribs.
06:51On March 2, 1936, it got even more off the rails between Dano and Chakat.
06:56Chakat went into business for himself just five minutes into the main event bout, and
07:00back then if a champion was disqualified or counted out, he would lose their championship
07:05title.
07:06Reluctantly, the Irishman had to go back into the ring and get the crap beaten out of him.
07:11In Madison Square Garden, Dano got caught by a legitimate hold from Chakat, and that
07:17was it.
07:18He had to lose the title and tap out, leading to Chakat becoming the new World Heavyweight
07:23Champion.
07:24Dano may not have been the legitimate shooter, but he was the draw, and his star power as
07:29a stadium attraction simply just wasn't the same after this.
07:33How did this happen?
07:35Why did this happen?
07:36According to combat sports historian Ken Zimmerman Jr., the source of the story really
07:41goes back to Dick Chakat having been cheated out of the title four years earlier by promoter
07:49Paul Bowser when he was supposed to beat Ed Strangler-Lewis only for Lewis to drop the
07:55title to someone else.
07:58This was a little bit beyond greed, this was outright revenge for Chakat.
08:03Screwjobs have always been a direct reflection of politics within professional wrestling,
08:09and someone we mentioned earlier, Ed Strangler-Lewis, he was reportedly the king of this maneuver,
08:16being involved in not just one, not two, but three of them.
08:19The first one had very little involvement from him because it ended up seeing him losing
08:24the world championship to a green and popular football player by the name of Wayne Munn.
08:30This set up a situation where a wrestler by the name of Stanislas Zabisko screwed Munn
08:35out of his championship by suddenly turning it into a shoot before the cowardly Zabisko
08:41jumped ship to the promotion of a wrestler by the name of Joe Strecker.
08:46Strangler-Lewis' second screwjob was a little bit more sinister.
08:50Promoter Paul Bowser wanted Ed Lewis to drop his title to a wrestler by the name of Ed
08:55Don George, a man who had represented the United States in Amsterdam at the Olympics
08:59in 1928.
09:01Lewis just went like, that doesn't work for me, brother, and threatened to beat the
09:06ever-living daylights out of Don George.
09:08By simply imposing violent threats, he regained the title in their scheduled match.
09:14But the story doesn't end there.
09:17Later that year, promoter Paul Bowser once again had an opportunity for payback himself.
09:24Strangler-Lewis would face Henri de Glam, in a two out of three falls match.
09:29Lewis already had major issues with promoter Paul Bowser, and had already used his legitimate
09:34skills to shoot a championship off one of his chosen boys.
09:38Now it was time for Bowser to get his revenge through Henri de Glam.
09:43Between the second and third fall, de Glam went backstage and bit his arm, causing it
09:49to bleed.
09:50He disguised this well enough, because when the third fall started, Henri screamed in
09:55agony and revealed his wound, forcing the referee, under the rules at the time, to disqualify
10:02Lewis.
10:03This was about where Lewis was told he would win, and it went down in Montreal.
10:08Yeah, it was the original Montreal Screwjob.
10:11Yes, as a result of manipulative master-stroking by Bowser, it would get the world title off
10:18of Ed Strangler-Lewis.
10:20There was even a 1950 Screwjob involving one of the most important wrestlers of all time,
10:25a man we did a big video about recently, go check it out on the channel, Gorgeous George.
10:30If you didn't watch that video, we highly suggest you do it.
10:34But in short, Gorgeous George was the most influential pre-1980s pro wrestler by a massive
10:41margin.
10:42He may have been the first real national television star.
10:45Professional wrestling wouldn't have the showmanship, the flair, the psychology, and
10:49the character work it eventually did without Gorgeous George's work.
10:54Funny enough, just like the Montreal Screwjob 47 years later, there was a referee named
10:59Earl involved in this scenario.
11:01Don Eagle was set to defend his world title against Gorgeous George, and presumed that
11:07he would walk out of the match with his title, and was even told as much before the bell
11:12rang.
11:13This time, the promoters were like, that doesn't work for me brother, and crafted a finish
11:18where the referee, Earl Malahan, would betray Don Eagle by counting a pinfall despite him
11:25kicking out at two.
11:26Suddenly, Gorgeous George was the champion, and Don Eagle left the building, presumably
11:31heartbroken, but he was suspended by the Illinois Athletic Commission for attacking the referee
11:37post-match.
11:39In what would be known as the Chicago Short Count, the Chicago crowd in attendance would
11:45not respond too kindly in the International Amphitheater that night in 1950.
11:51TV commentator Russ Davis would recall, boy this is a shamble, and fans are throwing things
11:56into the, honest to goodness, things have really happened around here, I've never seen
12:02a crowd in as ugly a mood as this gang here tonight.
12:05There aren't too many accounts stating whether or not Gorgeous George was in on the entire
12:10But there seems to be some speculation that even he wasn't aware of how it was going
12:15to play out.
12:16In reality, the two men were just pawns in a much larger game.
12:20The promoter, Frank Kohler, from Chicago, wanted revenge against the previously mentioned
12:24Paul Bowser.
12:25Yeah, he comes up again, and another promoter by the name of Paul Hoft, for their alliance
12:30with his sworn rival, another promoter by the name of Leonard Schwartz.
12:36Kohler complained that Al Half begged him to push Chief Don Eagle and elevate his stardom,
12:42only to tie Eagle into a contract that made it hard to wrestle for other promotions.
12:48And in an act of vengeance, Kohler had Eagle be the victim of this screwjob so he could
12:54devalue his stardom and send him back to Half as half of the superstar he was before.
13:01Man, politics are insane here.
13:05Oh, and Kohler went on to become the president of the NWA for a whole year as well.
13:10Jumping up to the 1980s rock and wrestling boom period launched by WWE, then known by
13:15WWF, they had their own screwjob that was absolutely ridiculous.
13:21It was one of the ugliest scenes in the history of women's pro wrestling, and while the
13:25women then were trying to fight for credibility and ring time in a crowded space during a
13:29big time in the business, this would be a real setback.
13:33On one side of the ring you have the fabulous Moolah, who was once celebrated as a women's
13:39wrestling legend, only to be exposed years later for some pretty evil behavior within
13:44the industry and her alleged abuse of other wrestlers and politicking to stay above them.
13:50This was supposed to be a passing of the torch match between her and the up and coming Wendy
13:56Richter.
13:57It was a rightful changing of the guard type moment.
13:59On July 23, 1984, in the world's most famous arena, Madison Square Garden, a day after
14:06her 61st birthday, Moolah would take on Richter, who obviously had the celebrity bump, with
14:14very popular pop singer Cyndi Lauper at her side.
14:18Yes, defeating Moolah, ending what was the longest reign in professional wrestling history
14:23as a champion at that point.
14:2528 years, yes, 28 years Moolah had the championship.
14:31Some would argue it was 7 years, but like 21 years of inconsistent title defenses.
14:36But that's not the point.
14:38The point is how Moolah had a chokehold on women's wrestling and had been accused of
14:43being one of the biggest politickers in the business, and maybe it took that long to progress
14:48the wrestling business beyond her.
14:50Leilani Kai would dethrone Wendy Richter, but Richter would win the title back at the
14:55first WrestleMania.
14:57Things were booming, things were great, Wendy Richter was the most popular and successful
15:01women's wrestler in the world.
15:03But behind the scenes, things weren't as great.
15:05As Richter and then WWE boss Vince McMahon reportedly were butting heads on a contract
15:11dispute and WWE was continuing to roar successfully on.
15:16One side of the story was that Richter refused to sign a contract, while Wendy swore she
15:22was in the middle of a 5 year deal and had regular disagreements about compensation.
15:28McMahon then reportedly concocted some type of plan to get the title off the then women's
15:33champion.
15:34In November of 85, Richter was scheduled to defend her title once again against a mysterious
15:41challenger, a masked wrestler known as the Spider Lady.
15:45Backstage that night at MSG, Richter was surprised to see Fabulous Moolah there, because
15:51Moolah had made it a habit not to be on shows she wasn't scheduled to wrestle on.
15:55When the time came for the women's championship match, Richter was shocked when the referee
16:00counted three despite her kicking out at one.
16:04Of course she realized she had been set up, and the Spider Lady was revealed to be Fabulous
16:10Moolah.
16:11The paranoia of McMahon was a driving force here, but Moolah was the perfect pawn for
16:18him to use, perhaps because of the financial control she had over all other female wrestlers.
16:25The fear of what could happen with an unruly women's champion within the WWE ranks would
16:31oddly enough play into why the biggest screwjob of all times would occur years later.
16:39When talking about the Montreal Screwjob of 1997, it's important to consider all
16:44of the elements at play in the big Monday Night Wars between WWE and their arch-nemesis
16:52WCW.
16:54Reportedly McMahon's paranoia revolved around Alundra Blaze.
16:58She was a valiant fighting champion for WWE, but like too many women in the business at
17:03the time, she felt underappreciated and left for WCW.
17:08But she brought something with her.
17:10Taking on the name Medusa once again, she appeared on WCW television with the WWE Women's
17:17Championship and dropped it in the trash.
17:20To avoid this happening again, McMahon felt reportedly that he couldn't take Bret Hart
17:27at his word, that he would leave the company in an honorable way and would simply hand
17:32the championship over before taking on a big-money contract with WCW.
17:38And then the infamous screwjob in Montreal happened and that became the biggest controversy
17:43ever booked in a wrestling ring for quite some time.
17:46But the reality is that Bret Hart didn't exactly have a fruitful career in WCW for
17:51a few years.
17:53The Montreal Screwjob helped create the Mr. McMahon character, the biggest bankable villain
17:58in wrestling history opposed against the biggest bankable hero in Stone Cold Steve Austin.
18:05And this directly ushered in the Attitude Era.
18:08That's right, one of the worst moments in wrestling created one of the biggest boom
18:12periods in wrestling.
18:13And the idea of a screwjob as a wrestling angle where everyone's in on the story has
18:20been utilized many times since, just like a year later at Survivor Series 1998.
18:25The screwjob was recreated, this time as a full-fledged story with The Rock becoming
18:30the corporate WWE champion and screwing out the beloved mankind for the title.
18:36This has become a trope in wrestling that continues to be used in different ways, even
18:40the recent Clash at the Castle incident with CM Punk and Drew McIntyre was sort of a twist
18:45on that entire angle.
18:47When it comes to the psychology of screwjobs in wrestling, we can think of a few words
18:52that string them together, greed, ego, jealousy, and paranoia.
18:58These are what make screwjobs one of the worst things that have come out of the professional
19:02wrestling industry.
19:04Many critics of professional wrestling have called it a selfish industry, and this has
19:09manifested in the most clear way in screwjobs, especially the legitimate ones.
19:14It certainly isn't the worst issue from the entire business, but it's a sign of
19:19just how cutthroat pro wrestling has historically been.
19:23It may not be the same way anymore, and a lot has certainly changed, but the reality
19:27is a lot of competition is always amongst the peers in wrestling, and when egos get
19:33in the way and politics come out of it at the end, sometimes this is the unfortunate
19:39result.
19:40We can only hope for the days of legitimate screwjobs like the Montreal one being simply
19:46a thing of the past, something that will never happen again, but if it did, could you imagine
19:52how the internet would react?
19:54Yeah, when looking at it from that angle, the industry has come a long way.
19:59Let's just hope it's truly something of the past we never see again.
20:04Thanks for watching.
20:05Let us know what you think in the comments below.