20 years later: 5 reasons why some believe the Montreal Screwjob was a work

#3 All the backstage cameras were conveniently left on

Very unlike Vince.

One of the reasons why people feel so passionately about the Montreal Screwjob is that at the time, we all felt like we were a part of it. For fans of a certain age, the screwjob was one of the defining moments of our childhood and our early relationship with professional wrestling.

Part of the reason was that all fans were conveniently given instant access, not just to the screwjob itself, but the entire aftermath that went down backstage. Barely a year had passed after Survivor Series 97 when the Wrestling with Shadows documentary was released. This was a film specifically about Bret Hart's life and career, a fly on the wall operation following the Hitman's every move.

The fact that everything from Bret's interrogation of Shawn to Vince stumbling out of his office after being punched by the "Hitman" was all caught on camera again makes the screwjob feel far too convenient to be a shooting incident.

You might argue that the Wrestling with Shadows documentary was about Bret, not the WWF, so it was just fortunate timing that it happened to be in operation around this time. But it strikes many people as hard to believe that Vince would allow a separate media company to film backstage so freely, especially in such a volatile and potentially embarrassing situation.

Again, one of the most reasonable assumptions here is that Vince allowed the cameras to keep rolling because this was all his own doing from the get-go, and this way he would be able to showcase his masterplan to the world.