WWE Hall Of Fame legend and one of the commentators for All Elite Wrestling (AEW), Jim Ross, reflected on the often forgotten rivalry between Shawn Michaels and the late Owen Hart that proceeded the infamous Montreal Screwjob that involved Owen’s brother, Bret “The Hitman” Hart, during a recent installment of his Grilling JR podcast.
Featured below is an excerpt from the show where “Good Ole’ J.R.” recalls how everything played out the way it did in the 1998 year.
“Could it have happened? Of course, it could have happened,” JR responded when asked if Triple H and HBK quashed the idea of Owen feuding with Shawn. “Can I confirm that it definitely happened? No, I cannot. I don’t know the answer.”
“I don’t know if there was as much confidence in Vince’s eyes in Owen because of the perception that Owen didn’t have this animal magnetism that Bret possessed.”
“So maybe Vince’s lack of total confidence in Owen affected that decision making. Owen was another guy just like Shawn, you knew that bell-to-bell, nobody was going to be better. Owen Hart was a great worker but maybe he didn’t have that zest of charisma to the level that Bret had and that is what he was being compared to. That was obviously not that fair, but that’s the only thing I can think of, Conrad.”
“Maybe Shawn and Hunter just wanted to get away from the Hart thing. They rode that horse a long time. I don’t know, I don’t have the answer to that scenario, I wish I did.”
Listen to highlights from the episode of Grilling JR featuring Jim Ross talking about the above subject via the YouTube player embedded below.
(H/T to SEScoops.com for transcribing the above Jim Ross quote.)
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