Could the infamous events of 1997’s
Survivor Series have been orchestrated as one big work between Vince McMahon Jr. and Bret Hart?
In other words, was it an angle they both came up with and have kayfabed all this time playing everyone for fools?
I first entertained this possibility during my extremely brief indy tenure, at which time I learned all too well just how simplistic, naïve, and downright fukking stupid many wrestling fans still are.
Actually - to be fair - many people in general are this way, so…
Anyway…
In my mind, kayfabe officially died in 1997 - specifically, it died in the weeks following that year’s
Survivor Series, during which Bret very openly and publicly complained about how his boss/promoter
CHANGED THE AGREED UPON FINISH OF HIS TITLE MATCH.It’s hard to be any more direct!
As a second-generation wrestler, Bret is an old-school worker, and a descendant of the even older school.
Bret has told the story of how when he & Neidhart were in the same bar as Tom & Davey, the teams would sit on opposite sides of the room to uphold kayfabe; even when they weren't feuding, and this was at a time when wrestlers were becoming rather lax in such practices.
Bret does not strike me as someone who would do what he did the way he did following Montreal, unless…he was supposed to.
Cactus Foley confirmed in his book that the old man had wanted to take his product in a different direction since the early 90’s, but in the midst of several high-profile scandals, had decided to postpone adopting the more mature edge into his programming.
As much as I hate to admit, Jim Hellwig
(I still refuse to call a grown man “Warrior”) raised an excellent point: the cameras seemed to be in the perfect place WAY too many times during what transpired.
And another thing about those cameras: the fact that Vince allowed third-party cameras access to literally showcase the backstage operations for Bret’s documentary suggests that the old man wasn’t too concerned with exposure
(“Beyond the Mat” would soon follow).A short time later, Vince delivered this monologue on WWF programming:
With a lot of the angles he would soon run involving sex, firearms, kidnapping, necrophilia, etc., it seemed almost necessary to issue a disclaimer proclaiming, in no uncertain terms, that wrestling is just a fictional show.
Sure, there would always be simpletons who bought into the storylines, but at least the critics could no longer complain that the industry was trying to con the public into believing it is “real.”
This admission would also remove a lot of the “sting” out of watching wrestling; now it could be cool to watch.
I believe the ‘97
SS was designed as a cool, creative, compelling way for Vince Jr. to come clean and effectively wash his hands of the old guard.
It sure beat the hell out of coming on and saying, “Oh, by the way…you know the last fourteen years? I lied.”
This is just my opinion.
Weigh in with yours.
