Just interested, When Hitman hit vince, why didn't Vince press charges? I mean anyone in Bets shows would've done the same and he did deserve it, but if i was bret i would think twice before hitting a guy of that stature. I mean he could've been jailed for gbh or something.
Can anyone explain?
thanks
First, Vince has stated that he understood why Bret hit him, he expected to get punched, & he decided not to press charges, because it wouldn't look good for Bret to be fined or jailed, before starting his new career in WCW. Not that Vince cared about WCW, he always figured that WCW would tank, he would get wrestlers contracts (the ones that jumped ship) & tear them up in their face & tell them to hit the bricks. Jeff Jarrett is a prime example, he worked for two months in WWE without a contract & when he faced Chyna for the IC championship, he wrangled 250 grand from Vince telling him that he didn't have to wrestle that night, because he wasn't under contract anymore. You can believe that Vince took great pleasure in telling Jarrett to kiss his ass when WCW folded. Second, what the hell is "ghb"???
sharewell here in the uk we call it gbh, it stands for grevious bodily harm. Not sure what you guys call it in the US. Assault i think
shareI don't buy that story from McMahon at all.
I was wondering why didn't Bret Hart sue McMahon for contract violation & possibly career sabotage.
IMO the reason McMahon didn't charge Bret Hart for assault is because he knew if he did that then Bret Hart would sue him for those other things. I figure that Hart was just too nice of a guy to take things to the legal arena and make McMahon have to pay out to him big-time, but he wouldn't be so nice any more if McMahon took it into the legal arena first.
Bottomline IMO; McMahon didn't charge Bret Hart solely because it was not in his best financial interest to do so.
That makes good sense Navaros.
shareVince Didn't press charges simply because he knew Bret would Explode and he wanted the heat mostly on him he knew he'd deserve it after all it was his call.
However Vince had a right to do the screwjob Bret REFUSED Yes that's right REFUSED to lose the Title to Shawn michaels simply because he had creative control and decided that he would not lose in canada.
Vince was scared that bret would take the WWF Title to WCW and trash it.
Or anything else to it.
The Title was not the property of Bret Hart but rather World wrestling entertainment INC.
Owned by Vince Mcmahon.
If Vince had a worry of his biggest Title being taken to WCW and Dumped in a trash can like Medusa did a few years earlier with the women's Championship. Then What he did was warrented and if a few accounts I've read over the years are any indication Bret Hart was a major A$$hole to work with during his last few months there.
Even some people who worked with Bret in WCW calim he was a control freak and a Pain in the A$$.
However Vince said all along he knew what was going to happen and he deserved it.
Bret punching him or spitting on him was what he thought was a fair exchange to keep his title in the company
However Vince had a right to do the screwjob Bret REFUSED Yes that's right REFUSED to lose the Title to Shawn michaels simply because he had creative control and decided that he would not lose in canada.
Surely thats the point of a creative control stipulation regardless of end of contract
"Remember! You can repent and be electrocuted on the premises"
Yesthat's true but what if Bret simply took the Title to WCW with him?
That was something Vince was not willing to have happen and regardless The Title is owned by him not Bret Hart and Bret should've understood that and not played prima donna with a maybe I will maybe I won't atitude.
He wouldn't have taken the title with him he had too much respect for the company to do that, if he had been given the victory at the survivor series he would have dropped the title on Raw before leaving for WCW and may have even returned to the company not long after.
Bret would lose that lawsuit. The contract was "reasonable creative control". Many could argue that a wrestler refusing to lose the title on a major PPV, in their last match with the company, is not reasonable. Especially since McMahon can easily site Madusa's incident where she threw the belt in the trash.
Bret has no grounds to say his career was sabotaged. This was not the first time he lost at a PPV nor was it the first time he lost to HBK. He lost to the WWE's #1 guy.
Bret Hart never had any grounds for a lawsuit. It'd be thrown out very quickly if he'd have even tried it.
I don't see what was so unreasonable about Vince affording Bret the opportunity to finally quit the WWF(as it was known at the time)with his head held high. To give him one final taste of victory and carry the heavyweight title one last time. Was it so inconceivable that if Bret was leaving that he couldn't just give up the title, Vince could have called for a massive tournament to crown the next WWF Heavyweight champion. After fourteen long year of loyal service to the corporation where he only ever missed two matches and to the man who Bret himself admitted was practically like a second father to him. Was it too much to ask? Vince was the boss and if he thought Bret was being unreasonable then why did he not just simply say that to his face rather than lie straight to his face. And don't say for a second that he didn't because it was caught on tape when Bret wore a wire and spoke with his former employer before his final big match with Shawn Michaels.
This wasn't so much about Bret's career being sabotaged as it was about Vince showing him little or no respect what so ever. After fourteen years you would have thought Vince could have been straight with Bret. There was nothing unreasonable about Brets request and I believe Vince was merely bitter because one of his biggest stars who had made him a lot of money over the years was jumping ship to wrestle for Ted Turner in the then rival wrestling corporation, WCW. There may have been no formal contract to say that Bret shouldn't lose the match but morally he was in the right and a verbal contract should always been binding, particularly when it's either been witnessed by others or recorded for others to hear.
Let's not forget as well that it was Vince's fault that Bret was leaving in the first place. He had stated that the WWF was in financial difficulty etc. which may have put Brets contract in jeopardy. He was beginning to steer the entertainment side of the business in a direction that Bret didn't like not to mention that Vince had transformed his former golden boy in to a heel and made a hero out of the personae of “Stonecold” Steve Austin who's character was nothing more than a glorified thug. It was due to the less savoury slant that Vince convinced placed on the “Hitman” charatcer that the fickle US fans turned against their former hero and made a dubious hero out of Austin. Who would want a brutal, mindless Redneck as a hero?!
Vince was the first guy to bring another company's belt into the WWF. He did it with Flair long before Madusa.
And since Bret's contract actually wasn't up at the Survivor Series (his contract extended past that date), it wasn't his last match.
Straightedge means I'm better than you.
And vince was juiced to the gills at the time, and had started dishing out roids to his wrestlers like candy again. so he probably wouldn't want to go anywhere near a courthouse
shareHe didn't press charges because THE WHOLE THING WAS STAGED!!!!
Welcome to the world of pro wrestling people. If Vince really didn't want anything to be filmed, believe me, there wouldn't have been any cameras allowed in the locker room area when it happened... I mean come on, look at the overacting as Vince kinda stumbles by the camera.
I think all parties understood why things had to happen the way they did and it was the perfect way to end the story line while beginning others.
i'm a little late to this debate lol... but wtf overacting? he just got punched in the face by bret hart... if you even watched the documentary, you could see the size of bret's forearms... i'd like to see how u walked down a hallway after getting punched in the face by that guy...
staged... bulllll *beep* getting punched in the face by bret was last thing Vince expected, he let the cameras in because they were doing a documentary on bret, he had no clue that the documentary would make him out to be the *beep* he is.. there is real emotion in the backstage footage, if vince and the rest of the wrestlers could act that well, they wouldn't be wrestlers..
i mean look at shawn michaels face when the bell is rung, even he was surprised..
after watching this i almost feel ashamed for rooting for stone cold when i was a kid.
" I intend to live forever......So far, so good."
He probably knew he deserved it!
I know Im late, but Ill be honest, Ive always been on Vinces side.
Is it too much to ask Bret Hart to leave the champ? WELL..is it too much to ask to job to HBK after VINCE MADE BRET A STAR, that's right, Vince made Bret a star. Vince could have went a different direction, but he gave Bret the opportunity. Now yes, Bret ran with the ball, but again, when you leave the company, you job.
Now, for Bret was mad about Bret leaving for WcW, how do you figure? HE TOLD BRET TO GO! He was like you gotta accept that amount of cash! In the end, Vince wanted Bret to job to HBK. It's what you do when you leave the company, you job to whoever will be the number one guy. IT'S VINCE'S COMPANY!
Again Bret and his creative control. I mean he didnt wanna lose in Canada? What is this the last time youre ever gonna wrestle in Canada? Is wrestling being banned in Canada after tonight? If either of those were true, fine, otherwise, get over it. Shawn has lost in San Antonio. Im sure other wrestlers have lost in their home state. I mean yikes.
Bret wanted to win and job on Raw the next night and give a speech putting over the WWF? What the hell!? I mean..what is he gonna say? I love the WWF but WcW is offering a TON of money but WWF will always be my home? Yea that will look good going to WcW.
The sad shame in this, WcW got handed Bret Hart, the hottest thing in wrestling, and BLEW IT. WcW never used Bret well at all!
you gotta fix those typos man.. " Now, for Bret was mad about Bret leaving for WcW,"
huh???? hahah.. "Vince wanted Bret to job to HBK" whaaaaat? lol
Vince made Bret a heel once he knew he was leaving.. and the fact of the matter is Vince gave Bret his word, and then went back on it...
and the whole Canada Vs America thing was all Vince making American fans hate Bret.. Vince is a money making unstoppable guy and he *beep* Bret over, simple as that.
" I intend to live forever......So far, so good."
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you gotta fix those typos man.. " Now, for Bret was mad about Bret leaving for WcW,"
huh???? hahah.. "Vince wanted Bret to job to HBK" whaaaaat? lol
Vince made Bret a heel once he knew he was leaving.. and the fact of the matter is Vince gave Bret his word, and then went back on it...
and the whole Canada Vs America thing was all Vince making American fans hate Bret.. Vince is a money making unstoppable guy and he *beep* Bret over, simple as that.
" I intend to live forever......So far, so good."
Shawn Michaels got away with not dropping the belt with the whole "I lost my smile" BS. It wasn't about losing in Canada, it was about Shawn's disrespect to Bret. The champion comes to you and says he'll put you over and you reply I won't do the same for you is BS. Shawn today will admit he was a piece of crap.
The creative control was there because everyone knows when Vince knew you was leaving he'll make you look weak before you go to dampen your brand. Bret didn't want that. I feel like Vince did what he thought was right. Bret tried to maintain some integrity by not dropping the title to someone who was that disrespectful (I mean when Taker doesn't like you, you're a piece of you know what). The end resulted in the screwjob.
I get the impression that Vince was trying to do two things by not suing Bret:
1. He was at that time trying to appear to be the reasonable person, pressing charges would have enraged far to many fans that still care for Bret and are also equally as angry about what happened.
2. He was trying to maintain the fans perception that anything can happen in the WWF. If lawyers were introduced into this large scale event, I think most fans would be let down and think the events coming after this will be toned down as to not lead to more court room battles.
Vince was not in a great position but he tried to at the very least appear reasonable so as to not completely lose all of Bret's fanbase. Though I'm thinking after a few weeks when that clearly failed, he capitalized on the heel image that fans gave him and used it to fight with Stone Cold.