Although this tradition has been in the professional wrestling business for a very long time, the term didn't become a mainstream word among the professional wrestling fans themselves until the Montreal Screw-job at the 1997 Survivor Series. Bret Hart did not want to job to Shawn Michaels, on his way out of the WWE to the WCW. To be fair to Bret, is was not a matter of him simply not wanting to job on his way out the door. He's stated in many interviews that he would have gladly dropped a match to the Undertaker and that he had made it clear that he wanted to put Steve Austin over as he was leaving. Fact of the matter is, in all sense of reality, had it been anyone besides Shawn Michaels, Bret would have gladly dropped the belt in his last WWE match.
It's rather laughable to listen to Shawn complain about Bret and state that Bret should have simply done what he was told to do and done the right thing. Shawn himself for most of his career has been a big baby about doing jobs and hearing him complain about Bret, might be worthy of a Guinness World record for hypocrisy. Shawn has been on both ends of the spectrum. He's been the guy whom the company wanted to put over and he's been the guy who was putting someone else over. Neither time would qualify as doing it the "right way."
When Diesel signed with the WCW and put in his notice with the WWE, the powerful "Kliq" as it was known had so much political pull, that they didn't ask Vince McMahon if they could do something, they told him what they were going to do. Diesel was going to put his good friend Shawn Michaels over, and that was final. That decision in itself was fine as the WWE at the time was making Shawn Michaels the face of the company. Putting over a monster heel who had held the WWE title was huge for Shawn's image. However, the stint at the end of the match, where Shawn and Diesel (along with Razor Ramon and Triple H) broke kayfabe to hug, was a spit in the face to all of the many professional wrestlers over the years who have worked hard to keep it real.
Shawn was always happy to do anything that made him the star and to be fair, there was a time in his life where he was always happy to repay the favor. From 1994 to 1998, however, was not that time. If you go back through Shawn's career during that 4-5 year period, you'll notice something. Shawn didn't like to lose, and hardly did. After Shawn won his second intercontinental championship, he wasn't too keen on losing the title. So they stripped him of it and Razor Ramon won it in a Battle Royal contest final against "The Model" Rick Martel. A few years later, Shawn was more than happy to win the I.C. title again against Jeff Jarrett, but when it came time to drop the title, he once again wasn't up to it. He was too injured to perform after being jumped at a night club in Syracuse, New York and he forfeited his title to Dean Douglas. To further illustrate Shawn's refusal to do jobs for others, when he and Diesel defeated The Headshrinkers for the WWE tag team titles, a refusal to drop the belts to any other tag team eventually lead to a tag team tournament where Bob Holly and the 1-2-3 Kid defeated Tatanka and Bam Bam Bigelow to be crowned the new champions.
After defeating Bret Hart at the 1997 Survivor Series, Shawn was more than happy to publicly criticize Bret, as he carried around the WWE heavyweight championship, with victory after victory over a multitude of WWE talent. Yet, when it came time for him to drop the title to the hottest rising star in the WWE at the time, Shawn was reluctant to do so. Rumor confirmed, Shawn didn't want to go out and drop the title to Stone Cold Steve Austin. It took the persuasion of a promised real life ass-kicking from the Undertaker in order for Shawn to go out and drop the title to Austin. To credit the Heartbreak Kid however, he did sell his ass off for Austin and made Stone Cold look as good as he possibly could have.
Another similar incident to Shawn Vs Stone Cold happened six years earlier at Wrestlemania VIII when Jake Roberts did a job for the Undertaker. Now Jake had nothing against the Undertaker. He was more than happy to go out and take a three count for his friend, but he was not leaving on good terms with the WWE. Unhappy with how he was being used and how the WWE had lied to him, he held the company up for more money. Either they were going to pay him what he was asking for, or he wasn't going to take the tombstone and lose to Taker. WWE agreed to Roberts' demands and Jake gladly took a tombstone as he walked out of the WWE with a good chunk of change into the WCW.
Then the wrestling world has a guy like Vader. A guy who is always more than happy to do anything that makes him look like an unconquerable God, but always seems to pout when told it's time to do the favor for someone else. When Vader first arrived in the WWE, he was coming off a career in WCW that had him hold the heavyweight championship on three occasions. He was a deity in the WCW, and the idea was that he would do the same in the WWE. At first it looked as if he were going to. In one of his first high profile matches, he dominated four time Intercontinental champion Razor Ramon. Even though he won convincingly he still took a fair number of bumps to make Ramon look good in his last PPV match.
Years later Vader realized that he was never going to be the mass superstar in WWE that he had been in WCW. Shawn Michaels who more or less ran the show behind the curtains, didn't care for him and there wasn't much left in WWE for him to do. A title reign was most likely out of the question and higher mid-card status was as good as it was going to get for the behemoth mastodon. Vader put in his notice and was asked to do a job for up and comer Edge.
Now it's understandable that Vader felt insulted by the WWE. Here he was a three time heavyweight champion for a company who was at the time, just as big and just as important as the WWE, and they were wanting him to go out and job to a rookie who had yet to establish himself. It would have made anyone angry. However, if he had that much of a problem with it, then he shouldn't have agreed to do it. Edge was simply a new comer, wanting to go out and do a good job. For Vader to go out and purposely try and hurt Edge, both physically and his image, was uncalled for and selfish. He no sold a majority of Edge's moves and he made Edge's finisher look weak and harmless. Vader was pissed at the disappointing career he had in the WWE, and he took it out on an innocent Edge. Luckily for Edge, the WWE realized that all shortcomings in the pathetic match against Vader, were Vader's fault and Edge went on to have a successful and storied career.
There are a lot of things Ric Flair has done during his illustrious professional wrestling career that many would deem to be shady and selfish. The Nature Boy has been devious and mischievous more than once in the past dang near 50 years. However, he's done a lot of honorable, respectable and admirable things in his career as well, and one of them is the way that he's never been too good to put someone over. After a successful, but short stint in the WWE that had Flair hold the WWE title on two occasions, he saw that it was time to return home and back to WCW. Rather than think he was above WWE and too good to job to anyone, Flair was more than happy to put over up and rising stars on his way out the door. He started by submitting to Bret Hart's sharpshooter in dropping the WWE title to the Hitman at a house show in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. Many felt at the time that losing by submission might bury Flair and felt that he should instead lose with a small package or type situation. Flair, knew he was too strong to be buried and gladly let Hart put the sharpshooter on him. Then not long after, Flair lost cleanly in the middle of the ring, as he was pinned in Mr. Perfect's Perfect plex. Many at the time felt that Flair was burying himself by losing to Perfect in such a manner. Flair knew better. He knew that there was no shame in losing to someone of Perfect's caliber and talent. He went back to WCW and it was only a short amount of time before he became a top star there again, like he had been year's prior.
So are there superstars in professional wrestling who truly honored the "time honored tradition" from both ends of the spectrum. Workers who appreciated the job that another worker was doing for them, and showed that appreciation by making that particular opponent continue to look good despite the loss? Workers who later on found themselves in a position to do a job for someone on the way out the door, who were more than happy to help build someone's career as they were leaving?
The answer to that question is yes, and perhaps there is no better example than Bam Bam Bigelow. When Bam Bam returned to the WWE, one of the first things he was assigned to do was to defeat the Big Bossman at the 1993 Royal Rumble. Having a ton of respect for Bossman and appreciating the job Bossman was doing for him, Bigelow went out of his way to sell enough during the match to keep Bossman looking strong. A short time later, he was asked to do the same thing for Jim Duggan and both Duggan and Bigelow sold tremendously for one another in Duggan's final match and final loss in the WWE at that time.
A couple of years later, Bigelow found himself wanting to test the waters in ECW and he put in his notice. Remembering what Bossman and Duggan had done for him during his career, he was more than happy to pay it forward to put Goldust over at the 1995 Survivor Series in the PPV's most entertaining match. Bigelow understood what the time honored tradition was all about and set an impeccable example for both those doing the job and those who the job is being done for.
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