Insane Insights From Mr. McMahon - Episode 3: Screwjob

This is episode three of the Netflix Mr. McMahon documentary. This documentary is focused on Former WWE Chairman Vincent McMahon. At one point in the world, he was on top of the wrestling world and now his legacy is rotten and it's such a fall from grace. This episode is titled Screwjob and it talks about the Montreal Screwjob and the Post Steroid Trial era.

10. "Screwing" Wendi Richter

When somebody thinks about the word Screwjob it's often pointed to the Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels in Survivor Series 1997. Another one that happened in 1985 involved Wendi Richter.

At the time Richter was the Woman's Champion for the company and Vince claimed that she was a problem. What he doesn't mention is that Richter wanted a new contract and was about to expire. Then came the Madison Square Garden match with The Spider. Vince decided to make a plan where The Spider was actually the Fabulous Moolah in a mask and have her win in a screwy finish.

Vince did it because he had the mentality of giving the fans the match in the ring and then figuring out the rest. McMahon pulled the ref to the side and told him to count three no matter what. When the ref counted to 3 Richter's shoulder was clearly off the mat at 1. Moolah won the title and Richter left the company. Richter claims that it was a painful night. In typical Vince fashion, he states, "I don’t fight fair. Life’s not fair... There’s nothing I wouldn’t do for the business.”

9. Hulk's Testimony In The Steroid Trials

Hulk Hogan was brought in to testify and it was an important moment. This was the key witness the government wanted to help put Vince behind bars. The government was disappointed because Hogan's testimony helped Vince. He told the court that Vince never forced or told him to take steroids, it was his choice.

That caught everyone off guard and his testimony helped secure the Not Guilty verdict and Vince was a free man. Vince was lucky that the case took place in New York instead of Connecticut because the government would have gotten more proof of steroid distribution.

8. How WCW Got Lex Luger To Join

WCW was starting to get a ton of talent to join the company including Hulk Hogan, Randy Savage, etc. in September 1995, WCW made one of the more shocking additions, bringing in Lex Luger. It was stunning as Luger showed up one night after working a live event with WWF. According to Eric Bischoff Luger was not happy with the WWF and WCW gave him an offer he couldn't refuse, especially compared to the handshake agreement he had with Vince McMahon. Luger wasn't on a contract at the time and WCW took advantage.

7. WWF Got A Ton Of Heat For The Billionaire Ted Skits

WCW was starting to heat up and get talent from the WWF to jump ship including Madusa, who was the WWF Women's Champion. When she appeared on the show and threw the title in the trash Vince knew he had to react. The first idea he was these weird Billionaire Ted Skits making fun of Ted Turner.

Nobody was a fan of this including Kay Koplovitz the founder of the USA Network. She called it distasteful and forced Vince to stop the segments while competitors Turner and Koplovitz were still good friends with each other. The crazy part too with these skits is Vince wanted Razor Ramon and Diesel to be a part of them, but they refused. Why? Well, they were going to jump ship to WCW.

6. The Curtain Call Incident

With Scott Hall and Kevin Nash leaving the company, Shawn wanted to honor both of them. Vince approved of it, but it turned out to be a tremendous mistake. After Shawn and Diesel had a cage match, both Scott Hall and Triple H came down and all four men embraced. A lot of fans were losing their minds as they were breaking Kayfabe which was a big no-no at that time.

While Vince allowed it to happen, he knew he had to give a form of punishment. The problem was Scott and Kevin went to WCW and Shawn Michaels was the Champion. The one who got punished was Triple H. Triple H lost his planned King of the Ring win and was jobbing out wrestlers for months.

5. The Hypocrisy Of Vince McMahon

Vince McMahon has been called a lot of things including being a hypocrite. Vince at the time and still today claims that Ted was using his resources to put him out of business and stealing his talent. This is coming from the same man who once raided the territories and stole talent in the mid-80s. Both Eric Bischoff and Dave Meltzer would go on to say the same thing agreeing with each other. That is hard to do today with how much both hate each other in real life. Even the producers bring the hypocrisy to Vince. Vince responded, "Ted’s philosophy was to hurt his competitor, and that’s not mine. I wanted to compete.”. Who is Vince trying to fool here?

4. Vince McMahon Never Once Considered Turning Hulk Heel

With Hogan Fully in WCW, the documentary jumps to Bash at The Beach 96. This was the event where Hulk Hogan finally turns heel and joins the NWO. While talking about it the producers asked if Vince ever considered turning Hulk heel. The answer Vince gave was No and always wanted to make him into a good guy. This is a shame as Vince could have made a lot of money and should have turned Hogan heel in 1992 after costing Sid Justice the Royal Rumble.

3. Eric Bischoff Auditioned For WWF In 1990

This was the most fascinating fact of the documentary. Eric Bischoff auditioned for a role in the WWF and the documentary showed footage of it. Bischoff wanted to be in a similar role that Gene Okerlund was in, but Bischoff did not get the job. When asked if Vince regrets not hiring Eric he says No and has not regretted anything in his life.

2. Why Bret Refused To Drop The Title To Michaels

The documentary then covers the infamous Montreal Screwjob that occurred in the 1997 Survivor Series. Bret Hart was signed to a 20-year extension with the company, but Vince could no longer afford to pay him and even admitted his ego resulted in him overpaying to keep Bret.

Bret finds loopholes and signs with WCW, but a big problem he was the WWF Champion and he refused to drop the title to Shawn Michaels. Bret and Shawn hated each other at that time and it was chaotic. This wasn't mentioned in the documentary, but Bret had creative control in the final months of his contract and used it to not lose at all to Michaels. It's stunning that fact wasn't mentioned as that's a key detail in this story.

It didn't help that Shawn was a real piece of work at the time. The documentary played the famous "Sunny Days" promo which made everything worse. Shawn was telling National TV he was “banging” Sunny when he was a married man. Vince is at fault too because he airs it claiming it was "good television".  

1. Bret Hart Legit Punched Vince

Bret Hart officially gets screwed over by Vince McMahon and he is not happy. There is footage of an angry Bret Hart and his family backstage being super upset. Vince felt he owed something to Bret and wanted to speak with him. Well, he did and he got legit punched by Bret Hart. Vince walked up to Bret with his hands down and Bret gave an uppercut to him. The punch was so hard that Vince got a concussion, was limping around, and got a black eye. Vince doesn't regret any of it and did what he felt was best for the business.

My Thoughts On Episode 3

Not a ton of new information was revealed here, however, this was a really solid episode. It covered the 2nd half of the Steroid Trials to The Montreal Screwjob. Like I said last episode and Vince dodged a real bullet with the not-guilty verdict of the steroid trial. It could have taken the entire company down if he was guilty.

I do have a question to ask Why in the world did the documentary cover The Curtain Call incident? Especially in a documentary solely focused on Vince, this could have easily been cut out. I like the coverage of the Montreal Screwjob, but it's been covered so many times that I'm sick of hearing about it.

Vince still doesn't come off as great in this episode ever and it exposed him as a hypocrite. While Eric Bischoff always comes across as a Malcontent, it was nice seeing him gloat a little with WCW beating Vince at the time. It won't be that way the entire documentary that's for sure.

The next episode is titled "Attitude" and that one will be covering the Monday night wars.