Jim Ross spoke to Kenny McIntosh at an ITR show in 2018 about the aftermath of Montreal with his job as the head of Talent Relations. Subscribe to the channel for more clips of our live shows and interviews, and don't forget to like and comment too!

One quarter of a century to this day marked a real change in the wrestling area

We're still talking about it 25 years later. Shows how big a deal it was at the time

I remember watching this not knowing Bret was leaving then doing his WCW sign .It really did change Wrestling at that time

I can see why people thought it was a work, bret had been claiming he was being "screwed" for like a year building up to the screw job. Plus he spit in Shawn's face the exact same way he spit I'm Vince. Guess they really blurred the lines

JR is leaving out the fact that the WWE had told him they were going to violate the terms of the contract and not pay him out what was owed. Vince screwed Bret both for the title, and out of alot of money.

I would love to listen to JR share stories i could listen to him forever

Another way of looking at Montreal...Bret and the new Hart Foundation were keeping the new WWF "attitude" in check and that was part of the drama that made '97 such an exciting year. When Bret was forced out, guys like Owen Hart, Ken Shamrock and the Undertaker kind of filled his spot, being the more serious, wrestling focused main eventers. Owen had a kind of false push against DX then got beaten multiple times by HHH, reversing roles to become the heel in the process, another slap in the face to Bret who had been forced to put over Shawn on his way out. Shamrock also got a false push, wrestling Shawn for the belt at Dec. '97 IYH, continually failing to win the IC belt from Rocky "The Rock" Maivia, finally beating Rocky to win the KOTR '98 which led nowhere till he left in mid. '99. Undertaker had a strong start too with his awesome main event casket match with Shawn, he lost, but the way he lost probably made him more popular than Stone Cold, Mr. Attitude himself. I think 'Taker was the last guardian of the pre-attitude, 1996-'97 phase, when he lost clean to Austin in the main event title match at Summerslam '98 the deal was sealed, everyone embraced Austin and "attitude", 'Taker's career became a clown show with the ministry of darkness and in '99 WWF plumbed new depths of stupidity. Based on what's been said, I figure that Vince resented that Canadians and Brits refused to boo Bret after he "beat Steve Austin to a bloody pulp", maybe Vince even took some of Bret's new, highly political heel persona personally, I think Bret has said that not all of what he said was just playing heel. But the more I learn about the situation, the more I think that it wasn't entirely a business decision to force Bret to lose the belt to Shawn, it was a personal thing between Bret and Vince, not just between Bret and Shawn. Bret has talked about getting the WCW contract faxed to him and calling Vince, saying "I don't want to sign it, I don't want to leave, talk me into staying" and then Vince kinda laughing and saying well here's what we'll do with you if you stay, you'll lose to Shawn at Survivor Series. then lose again at Royal Rumble, basically a string of losses to Shawn and then finally a win and Bret is like "this fucker is trying to screw me" which is what it seems like, well I mean it seemed like at that point Vince absolutely wanted Bret out of the company, he didn't want to give him any reason to stay, he wanted to book him to go out losing to Shawn in Canada, because he knew it was one of the worst insults he could give Bret, all the times Bret had respected Shawn and been met with "stick it up your ass" and now the boss is forcing you to drop the belt to him, shitting on Bret and on the Canadian fans at Montreal and at home. I think it could well be an act of malice on Vince's part. Vince got his in the locker room afterwards and from what's been said there was no need to punch out Shawn, he was a sobbing wreck huddled in the corner.

Can't believe that it's been 25 years

JR What a living legend

Disappointed that JR still doesn't get the REAL reason Bret refused to drop the title to Shawn. Sad.

I absolutely love deadpan delivery. The fact that JR's face is so inexpressive due to his disability just makes his jokes so much funnier. I think he would be funny anyway even if you could catch his smile, but I think he's funnier without it.

greatest work in the history of the biz.....

A old addich? I know the phrase please someone tell me how to spell addich I know that’s not right haha

So many podcasts and evenings with .... All talking about the same stuff over and over.

It was a work ffs