MONTREAL – Feb. 23, 2003 – It’s been said before and it’ll be said again: Canadian fans never forget.
So there was a lot of talk backstage today about how fans in the Bell Centre would react to Shawn Michaels, who hasn’t been here since November 1997, when he wrestled Bret Hart and won the WWE Championship in the infamous “Montreal screwjob.” These fans still often chant “You screwed Bret!” at the official that night, Earl Hebner. Would they boo or chant at the Heartbreak Kid?
“I haven’t thought about it,” Michaels told WWE.com before the show. “Everybody around here has given it enough thought, I didn’t think I needed to.”
Michaels said he had no control over the fans’ reaction to him, and he tries not to worry about things over which he has no control. “I guess they’ll react the way they react,” he said.
HBK was greeted by a decidedly mixed reaction when he ran to the ring after the Chris Jericho-Jeff Hardy match. Afterward, Michaels said he didn’t hear that much booing.
“They did a little bit at the beginning, but then they didn’t at the end,” he said. He smiled and added, “How do you boo an honest Christian?”