31 years ago on this day, WWE executed its first screw job – No, it wasn’t in Montreal, but at Madison Square Garden and the dispute would be over the Women’s title, held by Wendi Richter.
Oddly enough, the two protagonists from the most famous screw job – Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels - would also have a match on the same day, in the year Survivor Series was made ‘Perfect’.
Read on to see how Hart, Michaels, Richter, The Fabulous Moolah and Curt Hennig made November 25 memorable in pro wrestling history.
#1 Mr Perfect steps into the main event at Survivor Series – 25th November 1992
Survivor Series 1992 would be one of the messiest PPVs ever produced by the WWE.
The advertised main event was the Ultimate Warrior and Randy Savage against Razor Ramon and Ric Flair. However, Warrior would leave the company before the PPV, and the WWE was forced to turn heel ‘Mr Perfect’ Curt Hennig, face, to fill in for Warrior.
The move would not affect the match negatively as Mr Perfect more than made up for the Warrior’s absence and would receive a solid push in the company. This would culminate in a loser leaves town match, against his former ally, Ric Flair, who was leaving for WCW. Perfect would win the match and Flair wouldn’t return to the company for 18 years.
#2 Shawn Michaels vs. Bret Hart I – 25th November 1992
Survivor Series ‘92 would also feature a WWE Championship match between the Champion Bret Hart and the Intercontinental Champion Shawn Michaels, in what would be their first PPV meeting.
WWE management decided to put the IC title on Michaels after the British Bulldog was released, due to steroid troubles and the planned IC title match at the event between the Bulldog and the Mountie was cancelled.
Shawn’s IC title was not on the line in this match, and Hart would retain his WWE Championship, after forcing Michaels to tap out to the Sharpshooter. Hart would continue his reign till Wrestlemania, where he would be beaten for the title by Yokozuna.
#3 The original screw job – 25th November 1985
Wendi Richter was the WWE Women’s champion going into a Madison Square Garden title match, against the masked Spider Lady. Even though she was immensely popular, Richter wasn’t paid proportionately, and her contract talks with the WWE had stalled.
The contract situation hadn’t been finalised when the 24-year-old came to the ring at an MSG house show on 25 November 1985. The bout with the Spider Lady would end very quickly with the challenger rolling up the champion and the referee Dick Kroll, calling for the bell despite Richter clearly kicking out.
An enraged Richter would proceed to rip the mask off her challenger, revealing the opponent to be none other than the 62-year-old Fabulous Moolah. Richter would knock Moolah’s lights out with a shot with the Women’s title. She would storm out of the WWE that night, vowing never to return.
Richter would later be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame.
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