Posted on by bdamage1
Brian Damage
By now, we should be all well versed in the infamous WWF ‘Montreal Screw job’ that took place on November 9th, 1997. If not, basically Vince McMahon made the decision to strip Bret Hart of the WWF world title in a match against his bitter rival Shawn Michaels. McMahon used referee Earl Hebner (who Bret trusted) to ring the bell after Michaels had Hart in Bret’s own finisher…the sharpshooter. This, despite Hart not submitting. The end result was Bret going to WCW and Shawn as the new champion. While unscripted, there is a base of fans who believe that Bret was in on the whole thing. It wasn’t the first time there was a controversy in Montreal involving the WWF.
Ten years earlier, on August 10th, 1987 at the famed Montreal Forum….Vince McMahon and the WWF pulled off another screw job of sorts. It did involve Bret Hart, although he was on the other side of the screwing this time around. It also involved a title….the tag team titles to be precise. This version of the Montreal Screw job wasn’t well publicized and didn’t even make news in the United States. The incident didn’t happen on pay per view as the real Montreal Screw job, but rather on an ordinary house show.
The Rougeau Brothers (Jacques and Raymond) were an extremely popular tag team in their home country of Canada. In particular….the province of Quebec. When the WWF was expanding in the 1980’s, a part of it was its expansion into Canada. The Rougeaus were signed to help fill arenas up north. While the brothers were superstars in Quebec, they had a very hard time as babyfaces in the States. Despite this, Jacques and Raymond were helping sell tickets in Canada where their popularity wasn’t questioned.
It was Pat Patterson who went to Vince McMahon and pushed for the Rougeaus to get a run as the WWF tag team champions. Patterson felt that them winning the titles would only help business in that region. McMahon eventually agreed and it all began with the Rougeaus defeating the reigning tag team champs the Hart Foundation in a non title match at a Quebec City house show. The victory showed the fans that the Rougeaus could be legitimate tag team title contenders. It also set up a title match at the Montreal Forum in August of 1987 between the two teams.
The tag team title showdown saw, the Hart Foundation’s manager Jimmy Hart throw his megaphone in the ring. Ray Rougeau got his hands on the megaphone and when the referee’s back was turned….used it on Bret Hart knocking him out and pinning him. The crowd at the Forum went nuts and as the Rougeaus were announced as the new WWF tag team champions. After the show, Jacques recalled how fans stuck around hours after the show had ended and were celebrating in the parking lot jumping on cars and dancing in the streets. It was certainly a big moment for fans of the Rougeau brothers.
The next day the television newscasts and newspapers announced the Rougeaus title victory. This was a huge deal for the area when wrestling was still somewhat protected. That week when fans tuned in to WWF programming to see their Rougeaus as champions….they saw the Hart Foundation with the belts instead. Airing only on the Canadian broadcast of WWF TV, WWF President Jack Tunney announced that due to Ray Rougeau’s use of a foreign object…the tag titles were returned to the Hart Foundation. As quickly as the Montreal faithful celebrated the victory…their elation was very short-lived.
The title change was nothing more than a stunt by McMahon to sell out town in Quebec while WWF was on tour. He had no intention of legitimately giving the brothers a title run during that time. According to Jacques, he felt that McMahon had a bias towards French Canadians like he and his brother, Rick Martel and Dino Bravo. McMahon always seemed to be reluctant to fully push French Canadians for whatever reason. He just used the Rougeaus to get a spike in ticket sales.
Raymond Rougeau had a bit of a different take on the situation. He claimed that he and Jacques knew all along what the outcome would be. They knew that winning the belts would not really work at the time because they were struggling to get over in the United States. While he would have loved to become tag champions with his brother…it didn’t make good business sense overall.
The people who were really screwed in this Montreal debacle were the die hard fans who paid their money to see the Rougeaus win and become champions. They witnessed a title change, but were robbed of seeing a championship run. I guess Montreal screwed Montreal.
