Vince McMahon delivered an infamous promo after the 1997 Survivor Series where he explained to the WWE Universe that “Bret screwed Bret.” Bret was going to jump ship to WCW but he did not want to drop the title to Shawn Michaels on his way out. So McMahon had no other choice but to execute the Montreal Screwjob.
On Something To Wrestle With, Bruce Prichard revealed the promo made Vince one of the biggest heels in the company’s history. But that was not his intention. This is what he said:
“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 for 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.”
Even though Vince’s plan to blame it all on Bret did not go the way he expected, the promo gave birth to the Mr. McMahon character that was hated throughout the late 90s.
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h/t to Ringside News for the transcription.
