During his appearance on the Monte & The Pharaoh podcast, Marty Jannetty discussed the long-debated Montreal Screwjob and admitted he has always wondered whether the infamous Survivor Series 1997 incident was actually real or secretly planned.
When asked directly if he believed it could have been a work, Jannetty didn’t dismiss the possibility. “Sometimes I wonder,” he said, immediately pointing to one detail that never sat right with him: “Because Bret happened to have a TV crew there that night.” He said it was for the documentary ‘Wrestling with Shadows’.
Jannetty also shared what some wrestlers backstage had told him about the supposed punch that Bret Hart delivered to Vince McMahon after the match. According to him, several of the boys who were there didn’t believe the punch ever truly connected.
“Some of the guys were in the dressing room when Bret supposedly drilled him,” Jannetty said.
“A couple of them told me, like, ‘Marty, I didn’t hear it. I didn’t hear it.’ If you get somebody, there’s going to be a sound. They were like, ‘I didn’t hear it. I saw Vince getting up, but I didn’t hear it.’ And if you drill somebody upside the jaw, you’d hear it.”
He made it clear he wasn’t personally present for the confrontation, but the reactions from those who were added to his suspicion. “That’s what I was told. I wasn’t there,” he said.
What he did see, however, was Shawn Michaels’ demeanor in the ring when the bell rang early – something Jannetty claims told him everything he needed to know.
“I saw his reaction after that,” he said. “I saw his reaction like… he knew about this. He knew this. He knew this.” Jannetty said he recognized Shawn’s reactions instantly because of how well he knew him from their years together. “We were together for 7 years, 300 days a year. I know him real well.”
According to Jannetty, that look told him that Michaels was aware of the plan from the beginning, a claim Shawn later admitted himself. “He came out later and said he did,” Jannetty said. “They planned it.”
