In regards to the dropping the belt on Raw without losing, that WAS ONE of the ideas and Shawn said he and Hunter hatched the plan after hearing that one of Bret's ideas was to relinquish the belt on Raw. Of course Bret's other ideas were to lose to 'Taker, Mankind, a rising Steve Austin or even Ken Shamrock. Bret said he'd lose to Shawn on Raw as long as Shawn would do the favor and lose to Bret first at Survivor Series.
Anyhow, back to Shawn and Hunter saying they started hatching plans as soon as they heard Bret mention the idea of relinquishing the title on RAW without a match and Jim Ross's response right to Shawn's face was, and I quote:
"
That, that wasn't novel. You handed the belt over three times," JR stated
"Hmm mmm," responded Shawn
"
Three titles. All he (Bret) was looking to do, sounds to me, was to relinquish the title" JR stated
"Umm, umm, you can talk to Hunter and I didn't even say much..." Shawn said which was Shawn deflecting everything.
Again, one of the many scenarios thrown out there
Not sure I agree that dictating who you lost to was unheard of back then. Hogan was infamous for doing that during his WWF run and really hurt Perfect, Rude, Jake, Bret, and Macho by.refusing to job to them. Look at the whole WM 9 debacle. Was it the norm? no, but was it unheard of? nope.
Hitman obviously hated HBK, and HBK saying he would never drop the title to Bret, probably didn't help matters. While Bret wasn't in the right, I wouldn't say he was in the wrong either. He did say he would drop the belt to HBK the next night on RAW, but Vince wouldn't budge, and I think December 1995 is the reason why. I really believe Vince would have compromised with Bret if the Alundra Blayze/Madusa incident never happened. Vince was paranoid at that point, and didn't want to viewers to see his Winged Eagle belt disposed of on live TV. I get why Vince did what he did, at the end of the day he made a business decision, and in hindsight, it was the best decision he made. As someone else mentioned, that night was the catalyst for the Mr. McMahon character.
I agree with all you said here except the line in bold. The WWF and WCW were in a lawsuit at the time over WCW throwing the belt in the trash. Bischoff has come out and stated that was never even a thought, he had never even discussed that with Bret and he wouldn't have even thought about it because they were still in a heated lawsuit over the Madusa/belt thing.
Vince and his legal team knew this but this part of that false narrative that Vince and the WWF leaked out in the late 90s, the possibility of Bret showing up on WCW tv with the belt.
Honestly, without the Montreal Screwjob though, I don't think the WWF would've won the Monday Night Wars. Vince honestly thought he'd come out as the hero after Montreal, after Bret "refused" to lose on the way out and punched Bret. The fans turned on Vince and Vince went with it, coming out as the owner of the company and the evil McMahon character was born
