Former WWE Writer Says Shawn Michaels Was "High Out Of His Mind" During Controversial RAW Episode

Shawn Michaels and Bret Hart's on-screen and behind-the-scenes differences in WWE during the late 90s are well documented.

During a May 1997 episode of RAW, Hart challenged Michaels to a match at King of the Ring noting that if Hart couldn’t win in ten minutes he’d never wrestle in the United States again.

Michaels said to Hart:

"You couldn’t go ten minutes in any situation… if you know what I mean. Even though you’ve had some Sunny days." The "Sunny days" reference to Hart's alledged affair with WWE Diva Sunny.

Former WWE creative writer Vince Russo, revealed Shawn Michaels uttered this comment while intoxicated. Russo said on The Wrestling Outlaws:

“He [Shawn Michaels] was high out of his mind. He’d tell you. Obviously he’s a different man today. He was high on whatever, bro, painkillers, whatever these wrestlers take. He was high out of his mind, bro, and he just said it and he didn’t give a cr*p. That line right there led to the [Montreal] Screwjob. Absolutely, without a shadow of a doubt, that line started it all.”
Continuing, Russo noted that he was the producer of the segment in question, but couldn’t do anything about Michaels going off-script as the show was being broadcast live.

“I was there when Shawn cut the promo that set it all off. I was the producer of that. The problem was, Chris [host Dr. Chris Featherstone], it was live and Shawn knew it was live, so I can’t [do anything]. Remember Sid with the do-over? There was no do-over and he said it. Bro, that started everything because Bret was like, ‘Bro, my freaking wife watches this show.’ That really set everything off.”

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