Richard Wood

Last Saturday night my high school, West Wilkes, won the NCHSAA State 1A Baseball Championship, beating Dixon High School in extra innings in the final game of a best-of-three series. This became especially meaningful because my youngest cousin, Zach (front row, second from left), is a sophomore who plays centerfield for the team. Congrats to Zach and the rest of the Blackhawks for bring the school's second state title home this year (we also won the team wrestling title).

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A Wrestling Rememberance of Things Past

Wed, 19 May 2010 18:33:00 -0700

I must confess, I've recently started watching professional wrestling lately again... at least for a short time. The biggest reason has been the recent return of my favorite wrestler, Bret "Hitman" Hart.

If you did not have the opportunity to witness Bret “Hitman” Hart during his heyday – which includes a 13-year career in the WWF and a few misused years in WCW, then his current stint back in the WWE might seem like an embarrassment. But for anybody that had the pleasure of watching Hart build his legacy as one of the most prolific performers in professional wrestling history, it has been a real privilege and honor to see “The Best There Is, The Best There Was, and The Best There Ever Will Be” grace a WWE ring regardless of what capacity the appearances come in. A career-ending concussion by the foot of Goldberg and an almost life-threatening stroke has severely hindered Hart’s ability to actually wrestle and take bumps. But the very fact that the 52-year old legend has finally shelved his animosity over the Montreal Screwjob in 1997 and was willing to appear again on WWE television 12 years after the incident has been a real treat for his fans, new and old.

At first it was largely believed that Hart’s run with the WWE would start and end with the Montreal Screwjob incident. He made up with Shawn Michaels during his guest hosting gig night on January 4, and then started the build toward his Street Fight at WrestleMania 26 against Vince McMahon. I would have been more excited for the revenge match if Hart's in-ring skills hadn't been diminished by that 2003 stroke, and also if Vince and Bret weren't a combined 116 years old. Throw those two factors out and I'd be nervously pacing the room. After a lot of help from the Hart family and hitting Vince's body with a steel chair for two solid minutes, Bret does his signature sharpshooter (slowly), gets Vince to tap out and keeps it going for another 25 seconds.

A few more weeks beyond that match, and his tenure was expected to be over, but Hart has stayed on longer and managed to help The Hart Dynasty secure the Unified Tag Team Championships in the process. His involvement in that title switch and previous confrontations with the former champs, Show-Miz, landed Hart on The Miz’ radar. So when Tyson Kidd defeated Miz last week and earned a Hart of Miz’ choosing a shot at the United States Title, is should have come as no surprise that Miz picked “The Excellence of Execution” himself as his opponent.

On RAW this past week, Bret initally was going to back out of the match, but after some jawing with Chris Jericho, agreed to a no disqualification match against The Miz. After some interference from Vladimir Kozlov, William Regal, Jericho, and the Hart Dynasty, Bret slapped the sharpshooter on The Miz and won the United States Championship for the fifth time (if you count the four title runs in WCW).

Understandably, I’m sure there will be some fans that don’t appreciate this title switch and don’t look upon Bret getting the United States Championship very fondly. After all, he's been in two matches where the rules were thrown out, has performed a total of three wrestling moves and has tons of help from the Hart family / Dynasty. And for those that fall into this category, how does it feel to know that Michael Cole is the WWE’s representative of your viewpoint? For the rest of us, including myself as a lifelong fan of “The Hitman” who understands that this is strictly a novelty, that these types of matches hide his weaknesses and it was entertaining, which is all you should care about. While we all know he will either forfeit or lose the belt in no time, it’s absolutely awesome to see Bret get a shining moment like that.

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