Referee Mike Chioda details original plans for Bret Hart vs. Shawn Michaels in Montreal, Bret was suspicious before the match

This week’s episode of “Mailbag Monday with Mike Chioda” has been posted and he answers questions from his time in WWE. Chioda also does a Watch a long for The Rock vs. Hulk Hogan at WrestleMania 18.

Here are some highlights:

Mike was asked about him being the referee for Rock vs Hogan at WM 18: “Rock came up to me a couple weeks prior to WrestleMania and said, ‘You got my match.’ Talent has a lot to say on who they want for the referee to be in their matches.”

Chioda discussed if this match should have gone on last at WM 18: “All day, Chris Jericho was running around saying, and he told me afterward not too long ago in AEW, that he didn’t think they (Jericho vs HHH) should have gone on last. He kept saying that there was no way they could follow that match. They kept telling that to everybody. Chris was young at the time and an unbelievable worker. He’s from Canada, so he was telling the office and I remember him saying they shouldn’t be on last. He said Rock vs Hogan should be on last. I think HHH didn’t want to give up that title match main event at the end. That energy was taken out of that crowd. I felt bad for that last title match because the energy was sucked out of the crowd. It (Hogan vs Rock) should have been the main event.”

Chioda talked about the Rock’s relationship with HHH back then: “I don’t think it was that good back then. Back then it was more battling for position, not as far as in the company, but as a professional wrestler. They didn’t see eye to eye too many times, that’s for sure.”

Chioda talked about the Montreal screwjob and what he would have done in that situation if he was the ref: “I really don’t know to be honest with you. At that time, I felt I was very good friends with Bret. I had to run down in that match. I was supposed to run down in that match, but it never got to that point. Probably at the beginning of that day, Bret came up to me. Me and Joey Marella were very good friends and he was very good friends with Bret. Me and Joey always had a thing where you swore on your mother that you are telling the truth. Bret came up to me that day because he knew I had a run-in on that match. He was very concerned because he knew something was going down and he felt it. He felt it but he didn’t think they might do it in Montreal because he was in Montreal, in Canada. Bret has always been a good stand up guy and a good family man. Here comes Shawn Michaels with the rise and they seen that Shawn Michaels was going to be at the top of this. But Shawn didn’t want to drop the strap to him at a certain point before this.

Bret came up to me that day and said, ‘Hey Mike, did they ask you to do anything during this match that I’m not aware of.’ I said, ‘Bret, I swear on my mother that nobody asked me anything. I feel like something is going down because nobody is talking to me about a lot of stuff which normally they would talk to me about a match.’ I did see Gerry Brisco on the side talking with Earl Hebner having chit chats in a corner having a secret little meeting at times during the day. So I knew something was going down. I definitely saw that meeting before the match went out there. I knew something was going down and I know Bret asked Earl Hebner the same thing and Earl said, ‘I swear on my kids, they didn’t say anything.’ Bret told me he asked Earl and he swore on his kids and I said I swore on my mother they didn’t say anything to me. I don’t know what I would have done. But, I was supposed to go out, run down, count at least to one, and behind me was Owen Hart who was supposed to slide in, grab me by my shirt and the back of my belt and throw me between the second and third rope, but we never got to that point. I think right after Owen throws me out, Shawn superkicks Owen to get him out of the picture. I would come in and count one, two, and boom, Owen is right behind me and cans me right out of the ring who turns into Shawn Michaels superkick, but it never got to that point. I heard a bell. I was looking through the curtain and Owen was behind me looking at me like, what the f**k just happened. I said, ‘I don’t know.’ I’m looking and Earl is running right out of the arena, right through the crowd. There was a car waiting for him to take him out.”

If you use any portion of the quotes from this article please credit “Mailbag Monday with Mike Chioda on AdFreeShows.com” with a h/t to PWrestling.com for the transcription.