During the latest edition of his “Confessions of the Hitman” podcast, Bret Hart commented on speaking with Vince McMahon prior to the Montreal Screwjob incident, and more. You can check out some highlights from the interview below:
On his meeting with Vince McMahon over Survivor Series: “I told Vince what happened [with Shawn Michaels]. I told him I wouldn’t drop the belt to Shawn, and Vince said, ‘When I bring Shawn in, I’m going to bring him in and I want you to tell him everything you’ve just told me in front of him, and we’re going to deal with it.’ And it’s like, ‘Great – bring him in.’ And Vince took quite a while to find him and they never did. Maybe it was three hours later. This is all two or three weeks before The Screwjob, but they bring Shawn in the dressing room and I’m waiting for Vince to bring up this very touchy issue with Shawn in front of him. And if it had been handled properly by Vince right then and there, maybe we would have worked it out. I know Shawn burst into tears. He actually cried, and thanked me, and said he had so much respect for me, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. ‘That’s not what you said three days ago. Three days ago you said you would not be willing to do the same thing for me.’ And the way Vince didn’t even bring it up; I ended up being the one to have to bring it up. And then, the first thing Vince did in that meeting with Shawn, the first thing he told him was, ‘Bret’s going to drop the belt to you.’ It’s like, ‘What? Wait a minute. We haven’t agreed to that yet.’ And that’s where things stood until the night I signed the contract with WCW.”
On Michaels’ behavior at the time: “And still, I don’t think people in Canada have forgotten. I know my dad was pretty pissed about that. But Shawn, Shawn had a drug problem, which I don’t think that gives him a pass. But, I mean, he did have a serious drug problem at the time and I think he cleared that up. And a lot of this, even when I talked with Shawn for this WWE thing I did where they sat us both together, he was really fuzzy on a lot of the details of the things that happened. And maybe that was just his state of mind at the time, but I don’t know that that gives you a pass to say, ‘Oh, it’s all fine because you had a drug problem and you had issues.’ That doesn’t give you the right to walk in the dressing room and say the kinds of things he said to me, or act the way he did with other [pro] wrestlers. Shawn had a real attitude issue with a lot of the wrestlers, and I wasn’t the only one that wanted to set Shawn straight. It was quite a few wrestlers.”
On McMahon’s comment when they met in the dressing room after the Screwjob: “The first thing he said, he goes, ‘This was the first time I ever had to lie to one of my talent.’ And as I’m sitting down, I go, ‘You lying piece of s**t.’ Then, we started, like, ‘You’ve lied to me all week, all month, all the last six months. You’re lying to me, lying to me, lying to me, lying to me, lying to me. Everything is a lie, everything that comes out of your mouth.’ It’s like watching Donald Trump on the news. And it’s like, everything’s a lie and it gets my dander up again.”
On kicking the documentary team out of the room before the punch: “I regretted it right away. I did kick the camera crew out, and I remember after the whole thing happened, thinking, ‘S**t, I wish I kept that camera crew in here.’”
On regretting the punch immediately: “When Vince was out cold on the ground, I did feel bad. Like I’ve said, I had a lot of love and respect for Vince for a long time. And it’s not the right way to do business for me, but he crossed the line first and there are consequences for provoking a 240 lbs. man when you come to his dressing room when he [has] still got the blood going – like, the blood boiling a little bit.”
On who he thinks was involved: “I’d say I gave Shawn the benefit of the doubt up until I knew what happened, and I think that’s why he was so ashamed maybe. He felt so guilty. And Triple H, from what I gathered, I think he was pushing that thing more than Shawn. I think Shawn was more of a willing participant. Triple H, and Brisco, and Vince were the ones who created the whole thing happening.”
