The WWE Women’s Championship match at Payback ended with referee Charles Robinson ringing the bell while Charlotte had Natalya in a Sharpshooter. Natalya hadn’t submitted, but the match ended anyway. I’d say, “if that seemed familiar, it was a callback to the ‘Montreal Screwjob’ at Survivor Series 1997,” but you already know that. It’s the only story WWE seems to remember Bret Hart being a part of.
Bret — who was at ringside to support Natalya during the match, and got involved by beating up Ric Flair when it was over — didn’t like the ending, either. On his Sharpshooter Show, he detailed his original pitched ending for the match, and why he thought what went down was “pretty lame.”
I mostly just dealt with Vince on it. That was Vince’s concept, I guess. I thought it was pretty flat, to be honest. I told him that. Initially the idea was that, at the end, I was just going to stand with my hands on my hips or something in the middle of the aisle way and block Ric Flair from leaving the ring. I remember going, “That’s pretty lame.” I just said, “I think we can do better than that.”
It was my suggestion that I could give Ric a couple shots, knock him down and put him in the Sharpshooter. Maybe Nattie could do a Sharpshooter at the same time and we could end on that note. So, I’ll take full credit for the better pop of the match. As far as the ending, I’ll say now that I thought it was pretty flat and unoriginal. Kind of, been done a lot.
Vince McMahon’s response: ¯_(ツ)_/¯
We wish Natalya the best as she heads to WCW, which we assume is the ending of this story.
