BRET HART CAME BACK
01.05.10
We don’t make it a habit of covering the goings-on of pro wrestling over here, but I feel personally obligated to discuss the return of Bret Hart to WWE last night on “Monday Night Raw.” If you’re not familiar with the Montreal Screwjob or the demise of Bret’s brother Owen as the Blue Blazer, you certainly wouldn’t share the amazement of some that Bret actually came back to the sports entertainment company that coldly kicked him out the door more than 12 years ago. Those names are shorthand for true-to-life events that took place in an incredibly choreographed universe, one that, we thought, would never see Bret Hart’s shadow again.
And so Bret coming back and facing Shawn Michaels–who by most accounts Hart has truly avoided since 1997–was like Joe Theisman walking into Lawrence Taylor’s living room for a lot of people. And while the rest of the WWE show–or that of its newfound rival TNA–didn’t provide anything else mentionable in their programming, we old wrestling fans did have this one, real moment where egos and stars collided. Michaels and Hart publicly reconciled. Whether that was real or not is anyone’s guess.
And then Vince McMahon came out and “kicked” Bret Hart in the balls, reminding most of us why we stopped watching in the first place.
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I always thought Jim “The Anvil” Neidhart carried The Hart Foundation, but seriously Brett must have been desperate to come back to WWE.
I don’t think he’s desperate, at least not in a financial sense. He’s been living in Hawaii with his hot Italian wife for a few years. He just has always felt like he wanted to reconnect with the fans. Maybe that makes him desperate.
P.S. Vince kicking guys in the balls is why I stopped watching, but was also why I originally started watching.
Bret wasn’t “coldly kicked out the door.” He was released from his contract so he could make more money in WCW. Also, Bret was in on the “screwjob.” It was the only way to get the title off of him while letting him save face in front of the Canadian fans.
Vince McMahon will let anyone look good at his expense.
By the way, am I the only one who thinks that Bret now looks like a combination of Ozzy Osbourne and Raven?
For the record, we (meaning me, I guess) never stopped watching. I toggled between Raw, TNA (which, oh my Lord, is terrible and entertaining all at once), the Boise State game, and a Ranger game last night, and felt damn proud of myself for keeping up (with the help of DVR, of course).
You’d have to be a crazy person to miss Bret AND Hulk’s “return” to the ring last night.
Side note: I have ringside/front row tickets to Raw in February, and am fucking pumped about it!
Wow, if I had known about this, I would have not watched wrestling again.
You’ve got it all wrong. The Hitman came back to show everyone his new pair of jorts.
Pretty cool – but when do the Von Erichs come back?
whens brian pillman going to return too?
The aptly named Brian Pillman as it turns out Lebron.
Keeping with the wrestling death thing, I wonder if Chris Benoit took his family out with the Crippler Crossface? /too much?
Bret was in on the screwjob?
That’s the most insiderish thing anyone has ever said, since EVERYONE says the opposite.
Yeah.. Tom Brady and Carson Palmer were in on their season ending knee injuries too.
Bret Hart was not in on the screw job. The agreement was for him to retain the title in Montreal and drop it to HBK the next night on raw. However Vince changed his mind and came up with a plan he has been able to cash in on for the last 12 years which I’m sure he sees as a huge bonus.