Bret Hart Returns
It was supposedly the biggest return in WWE history. Twelve years after the infamous Montreal Screwjob, Bret “Hitman” Hart triumphantly strode onto the Raw stage. The crowd popped when the famous guitar squeal played over the PA. The pyrotecnics were gargantuan. Bret had a new jackete for the occasion. He did his trademark pose before grabbing the mic. Many fans felt goosebumps. I felt nothing.
I wanted to feel something. I wanted to revive the twelve year old mark that still lurks inside of me. But I couldn’t do it. I looked at the 50-something year old man in the ring with a thinning mane of oily hair and felt no emotion. The image of Bret Hart in my mind did not correlate with the person in the ring. I got my hopes up again when Shawn Michaels came out to confront Bret. They stared each other down, but the spark wasn’t there.
TNA began their new era by introducing their audience to a host of new faces like Hulk Hogan, Jeff Hardy, Scott Hall and Sean Waltman. Hall, Nash and X-Pac reformed the nWo. Sting was spotted in the rafters. Mick Foley kept trying to get in the building. We’ve seen it all before.
The opening segment of Impact featured Bubba the Love Sponge asking fans why they preferred TNA to the WWE. They said they were tired of the WWE’s cartoonish direction and wanted old fashioned wrestling. In the first hour of the show, the fans were treated to a whopping fifteen minutes of bell to bell action. There was nothing old school about it, unless you were talking about the age of the roster.
Both promotions are banking on the past to sell their product. Unfortunately the average modern wrestling fan has no use for the history of the sport. The Montreal Screwjob doesn’t mean anything to an eight year old kid, just as Bruno Sammartino meant nothing to me. I have an appreciation for his work now, but that’s because I expanded my knowledge as an adult. I was lucky enough to grow up with a group of wrestlers that taught me to appreciate the art of pro wrestling. I soaked up ring psychology and storytelling without even realizing it. Both promotions have talented young workers on the roster, but they are being pushed aside in favor of the old guard. This cannot continue.
I don’t want fifteen minute promos, unsympathetic babyfaces, meaningless titles or mindless gimmick matches. I want a good guy against a bad guy wrestling for a title that doesn’t really exist. Is that really too much to ask?
