8) The Referee’s Point Of View
Earl Hebner was the referee in the match between Shawn and Bret at Survivor Series. He played a MASSIVE role in the entire situation as he was the one who called for the bell. Bret has told the story several times about asking Hebner before the match if he was going to screw him over. Hebner would assure him that he wouldn’t.
Hebner told his side of the story in an interview with Inside the Ropes:
“I was sitting on a plane with Bret. His very words “Will you count me out?” I said “If you keep your shoulder up, I will not count you out” Which I didn’t count him out. Did he get pinned 1.2.3? You stop and think about my position. I’m thinking about the guys in the back. Austin, Undertaker, Rocky all the guys that put him over as being the Worlds Champion, we made him what he was, so he’s leaving us and he’s screwing us because he doesn’t want to drop the belt
“So on my way to the ring, I’m thinking it’s not fair. Someone asked me, I won’t say who, about two minutes before I walked to the ring, I said I can’t tell you what I’m gonna do, but when I walked to the ring, I thought about all the boys back in the dressing room, so it wasn’t right for him to screw 25 guys because of his stubbornness, so that’s why I did what I did. When McMahon and Sgt Slaughter came to the ring, whether I had done it or not, that bell was gonna ring. The only thing that made it more official is that I motioned for the bell.”
Bret has said that he doesn’t blame Hebner as he was just doing what he was told.
7) Mick Foley Organized A Protest
One of the little-known facts about the Montreal Screwjob was that Mick Foley tried to organize a protest among wrestlers after what went down. Many of the wrestlers backstage were pissed off because they are supposed to be able to trust the guy they were working for. How did they know that it couldn’t happen to them?
Mick told the story in an interview with ESPN, about him trying to organize a protest the night after on RAW:
“I was just upset because I was a friend of Bret Hart’s, and more importantly, he’s a guy that I respect as a champion and a person. So I walked out and didn’t show up the next night for Raw. If I had a car I would have driven home, but I didn’t, so I sat in the hotel room in Montreal”
Unfortunately, none of the other wrestlers joined him. Mick was the only one who sat off RAW the next night in protest of what went down:
“I found out that night that one really is the loneliest number when only one guy sits out. There was a bunch of guys talking about it, but looking around the hotel I was the only one that ended up sitting out, so I said, ‘Ah, I guess it didn’t happen”
Shows you the kind of loyalty that Foley has. It also shows us that at the end of the day, wrestlers are going to do what’s best for them.
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