The Montreal Screwjob is one of the most infamous incidents in the history of wrestling and it created a lot of bad blood between Bret Hart and WWE. However, Bret did return to WWE programming in 2006 when he was inducted into the Hall of Fame.
Former WWE writer Court Bauer recently explained on Talk Is Jericho that there was an idea pitched to get Bret Hart on the WrestleMania card with a Hart family vs. McMahon family feud.
“‘Alright, what about the Hart family led by Bret versus the McMahon family.’ So we started looking at that, and it’s like, ‘Well, you’ve got Shane, Hunter, Stephanie.’ And then we were like, ‘How do we fill this out with younger kids?'”
For the Hart family side of the feud the writers reportedly pitched Chris Jericho, Davey Boy Smith Jr., Teddy Hart, and Natalya and Tyson Kidd who weren’t signed to the company at the time. Shawn Michaels, Paul London, Brian Kendrick, and Bryan Danielson were pitched for McMahon’s team.
“Bret ultimately said, ‘Yeah, no.’ I remember Vince saying, ‘Hold on, I’ll call Bret and pitch it right now.’ This is surreal. Last I knew, Vince got punched out by Bret. So then you get to hear Vince pitch a top guy, and those conversations usually happen far away from everyone.”
It was noted that Bret Hart initially agreed, but then backed out. However, Natalya and Tyson Kidd ended up getting signed thanks to the pitch so it wasn’t a total loss for the company.
Ultimately Bret Hart did end up returning for one more WrestleMania match years later as he defeated Vince McMahon in a No Holds Barred Lumberjack match at WrestleMania 26.
H/T Wrestling Inc.
