One thing that has always bothered me about the screw job, was the fact that Bret said he didn't want to lose the title in Canada, but he was willing to drop it the next night on Raw. The only problem with that is the next Raw was also in Canada. So I can't see how he was willing to drop it on Raw, if he wasn't willing to drop it at Survivor series
That is one of the inconsistencies in the story over the years.
But despite Bret's claims that was why he didn't want to drop the belt in Montreal, if you read his book, you can see that originally, that wasn't an issue at all.
When first told that he would be facing Michaels at Survivor Series, he didn't have a problem with it, and in fact went to Michaels in the dressing room and told him that despite everything that had happened between them, Shawn could trust Bret to be professional in the ring, that he was safe and that he would drop the belt to him and put the torch in his hand. Michaels response was 'I appreciate that, but just know that I'm not willing to do the same for you'.
That was the point where Bret decided he couldn't drop the belt to Michaels.
Later he also felt that with how their angle was playing out, with HBK taking shots at Canada every chance he got, sticking the flag up his nose and so forth, that it made no sense for the Canadian hero to lose the match... especially in Canada. I agree with that, but this was Vince being Vince, and already tearing down Hart on his way out, as he'd done with countless others before.
Even though he's stated that he thought it would kill him off to drop the belt in Canada which is why he refused, if you look deeper into his comments, and not just take them at face value, you can see it was less an issue with losing in Canada, and more how he was losing as it related to his storyline with the guy he was losing to.
Bret was actually willing to lose to anyone else on the roster. He even once suggested dropping the belt to Steve Lombardi at MSG the following week (Lombardi had won a battle royal that gave him a shot there the month before). He even would have dropped to Michaels if Shawn could have just kept his mouth shut.
There's so many layers to this story which is why it still gets talked about today. McMahon clearly had the money to pay Bret, as proved by what he paid Tyson a few months later, but I think the WWF had just become too small for both Hart and Michaels to co-exist, and McMahon simply decided to side with Shawn instead of Bret... possibly because he had been getting beat bad by the NWO concept at that time, and siding with Bret would have meant Shawn going to put the NWO over even more, and likely killing his business.
Even though he could have handled it better, I do think McMahon made the right decision at the time, although it's ironic that only a few months later, he'd lose HBK anyways. Ironic, although after hearing about how upset the Undertaker was at the screwjob, how close he was with Bret, and how he didn't like Michaels either at the time, I've always wondered if it wasn't just an accident when HBK hurt himself in that casket match...
but that's another story for another time.