During the infamous Montreal Screwjob in 1999, Bret Hart is noted for having punched out Vince McMahon. Now, in the current Netflix docuseries, ‘Mr. McMahon,’ The Hitman emphatically refutes the claim that McMahon willingly granted him a clean hit. Hart expressed his hot denial saying,
“There was not a moment like, ‘Vince will let me take a swing’ I don’t know where they pick up this tale from, it’s pure nonsense. What actually occurred was a clash between Vince and me, it was like we were wrestling. Everyone was prepared to jump on me as soon as we locked horns.”
He further expounded, “I recall thinking, the only way to land a blow, just one, conceivably, is by an uppercut, which I launched right under Vince’s arms. It felt like hitting the bell at funfairs that sends the marker upwards. Vince was knocked out like he was sprawled out like a starfish. It was likely the best thing I ever did. He had that punch coming.”
In another context, ex-WWE NXT Superstar Bobby Steveson (aka Damon Kemp) had a first-of-its-kind Underground match against Eddy Thorpe. He recently made an appearance on the “The Wrestling Classic” podcast where he revisited the match.
Highlights of the discussion are below:
Discussing the match, he said, “It was fantastic. I believe Eddy was also making his ‘NXT’ debut. Our first major feud was together. We are quite well-acquainted… We’ve grown pretty close now. We hang out casually.”
On orchestrating the match, Kemp shared, “When we learned about the Underground match, we also heard it hadn’t been received very well…so, we were under a fair bit of pressure. We felt like test subjects bringing it back…We envisioned a very physical match where one has to get physical. Eddy and I strategized the whole match. Every move was plotted by us. We didn’t get any specific direction, we only knew the time limit…eight minutes.”
On introducing the Underground stipulation to NXT, Steveson/Kemp explained: “Our approach was like, if no more matches are scheduled after this, then we’ve failed. On that day, we had taped two matches. Our match was the last one…everything was against us. We had to wrestle at 11 p.m. We nailed it… Eddy and I take immense pride in reviving NXT Underground.”
Please watch the embedded interview below for more information.
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