Today marks 18 years since the infamous Montreal Screwjob took place. WWE Hall of Famer Jim Ross spoke with Fox Sports to talk about the incident and shut down some misconceptions about the Montreal Screwjob that have been going around for years.
Ross addressed the misconception that he and Jerry Lawler knew about the finish by saying the following:
“Not so fast my friends. The King and I were working off the Saturday night production meeting finish, which was simply described as going to be a “DQ.” Who or why was not discussed and it did not affect Jerry or me in our prep and our presentation of broadcasting the bout. So the truth of the matter is that neither of us knew was was gong to transpire in the main event.
Not knowing the minutia of a match including all the nuances of the finish was commonplace for the King and I. We felt that we did a better job when we called the matches like a sporting event and the less we knew about the endings, etc the more natural and spontaneous we could make it.
Being the Head of Talent Relations as EVP of the department, I was upset that McMahon had not confided in me of his covert actions.
“I wanted to keep you clean of this matter,” he told me then. “You have to continue to communicate and support the talent roster and they have to trust you. You knew nothing on-purpose because you can honestly tell each and every one of them how you feel about what went down and be honest with them and that you did not know. Your role in restoring a productive and professional locker room is going to be a challenge we have to meet.” the WWE Chairman told me.
While I understand Vince’s logic and it makes a great deal of sense but there we still plenty of issues convincing the talents of that they could trust me and that I was there to listen and to help them. Thank goodness that this was during the pre-smart phone world, which lessened the insanity. Most of my work was done in-person and not via phone, text, etc. There may be a message there we can all use today when it comes to being so dependent on our gadgets and not our our ability to look a person in the eye and get to the hear t of the matter.
I’m of the mindset that there are still those in the internet wrestling community that totally believe that I was in on the planning, but I hate to disappoint them but I’m clean on this one.:
