This week’s episode of “Mailbag Monday with Mike Chioda” has been released.
During it, he was asked about the Montreal Screwjob at the 1997 Survivor Series PPV event where Vince McMahon rang the bell while Shawn Michaels had Bret Hart in the Sharpshooter. This was done to have Michaels win the WWE Title as Hart was leaving for WCW.
The original plans for the match would’ve seen Chiod run down to the ring after Earl Hebner was attacked and count a pinfall until Owen Hart pulled him out of the ring. Michaels would’ve then laid out Owen with a superkick.
I really don’t know to be honest with you. At that time, I felt I was very good friends with Bret. I had to run down in that match. I was supposed to run down in that match, but it never got to that point. Probably at the beginning of that day, Bret came up to me. Me and Joey Marella were very good friends and he was very good friends with Bret. Me and Joey always had a thing where you swore on your mother that you are telling the truth. Bret came up to me that day because he knew I had a run-in on that match. He was very concerned because he knew something was going down and he felt it. He felt it but he didn’t think they might do it in Montreal because he was in Montreal, in Canada. Bret has always been a good stand up guy and a good family man. Here comes Shawn Michaels with the rise and they seen that Shawn Michaels was going to be at the top of this. But Shawn didn’t want to drop the strap to him at a certain point before this.
Bret came up to me that day and said, ‘Hey Mike, did they ask you to do anything during this match that I’m not aware of.’ I said, ‘Bret, I swear on my mother that nobody asked me anything. I feel like something is going down because nobody is talking to me about a lot of stuff which normally they would talk to me about a match.’ I did see Gerry Brisco on the side talking with Earl Hebner having chit chats in a corner having a secret little meeting at times during the day. So I knew something was going down. I definitely saw that meeting before the match went out there. I knew something was going down and I know Bret asked Earl Hebner the same thing and Earl said, ‘I swear on my kids, they didn’t say anything.’ Bret told me he asked Earl and he swore on his kids and I said I swore on my mother they didn’t say anything to me. I don’t know what I would have done. But, I was supposed to go out, run down, count at least to one, and behind me was Owen Hart who was supposed to slide in, grab me by my shirt and the back of my belt and throw me between the second and third rope, but we never got to that point. I think right after Owen throws me out, Shawn superkicks Owen to get him out of the picture. I would come in and count one, two, and boom, Owen is right behind me and cans me right out of the ring who turns into Shawn Michaels superkick, but it never got to that point. I heard a bell. I was looking through the curtain and Owen was behind me looking at me like, what the f**k just happened. I said, ‘I don’t know.’ I’m looking and Earl is running right out of the arena, right through the crowd. There was a car waiting for him to take him out.
H/T to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription