WWE legend gives his thoughts on TNA’s spoof of The Montreal Screwjob which was named “The Orlando Screwjob” and that ultimately failed.
In 2010, TNA tried recreating wrestling’s most controversial segment which was not a work, The Montreal Screwjob. In case you didn’t know, on November 9, 1997, Shawn Michaels and the then WWF Champion Bret Hart competed in a match with the title on the line.
At this point, Bret Hart was sour on WWE and had expressed his willingness to jump ship to WCW. Vince McMahon was against the idea of Bret Hart winning his final Championship match on WWE and so he devised a plan that was unbeknownst to Bret Hart.
Shawn Michaels and WWE official Earl Hebner were in on McMahon’s devious ploy. Fast forward to the match’s final moments, Michaels put Hart in his own finisher submission move, Sharpshooter and the referee called for the bell and bolted backstage.
It is important to note that Bret Hart did not tap out during the submission hold. Consequently, Hart was furious over what had happened and proceeded to spit in Vince’s face who was standing outside the ring. Hart even air-wrote WCW on WWF cameras and left the company.
Thirteen years later, history repeated itself except this time it was a storyline. During a match between Kurt Angle and AJ Styles, Styles used Angle’s Ankle lock after which Earl Hebner, who was ironically the same referee, called for the bell. TNA did a good job emulating the exact setting as the real incident.
After the bell, Hulk Hogan, who was the person in charge, made his way to the ringside only to be spat on by Kurt Angle. Angle said, “ I’ll go back to WWE!” and began wrecking everything he could get his hands on.
Kurt Angle comments on the spoof of Montreal Screwjob
During an edition of Talk is Jericho, Kurt Angle gave his thoughts on the incident. Surprisingly, Angle cringed on the entire setup. The storyline did not occasion the reaction that it was expected to and ultimately failed.
“[TNA] wanted to compete with Raw, and it was like, ‘oh my god, we are not going live on Monday nights!’ AJ [Styles] and I wrestled in the main event [of the first live Monday show], and we did the whole Bret Hart — I had to spit on Hogan’s face, and you know the whole thing with Vince McMahon, we’re doing a spoof of it. I was like ‘I can’t believe I’m doing this right now.’ So we took a chance and it backfired.”
Angle had a great career in TNA. From his debut in 2006 to his departure in 2016, Angle conquered big names in the company such as Samoa Joe, AJ Styles, Sting, and then some. When he made it back to WWE in 2017, he was inducted into the Hall of Fame. Kurt then had a short run as a wrestler after which he decided to hang his boots and rest on his laurels.
