The Wrestling Observer is reporting that Bret Hart has signed a short-term talent contract with WWE that will go into effect on January 1st, 2010, and expire a couple weeks after WrestleMania 26. This makes it very possible that he will be guest hosting the January 4th edition of WWE Raw when it goes head-to-head with TNA Impact. Additionally, Bret could feasibly make further appearances for WWE if his contract is in fact as long as the report indicates.

Additionally, it's being said that Hart's talent deal does not expire until April 10th, 2010, and it is expected that Hart's work with WWE will not be limited to just one appearance as Raw's guest host. In fact, there is talk at this time of Bret possibly wrestling one more match, but that is simply speculation at the moment and nothing has been confirmed.

Cool!!! Do you think there might be a Bret vs. Vince in the future?

The last I knew Bret cannot physically compete anymore after his stroke. He's coming in purely for on air purposes. I could absolutely see him guest hosting the January 4th RAW (which just makes sense) and then they can find some way to keep him around on air (maybe as SD! GM or as the show runner for whatever ECW would become).

This certainly feels a bit like a "hell froze over" kind of event here.

What's so special about the 4th January event? I've been hearing a lot about it but don't know why it's so special. Is it something to do with TNA? That rings a bit of a bell.

In other news, haven't watched Raw, Smackdown, ECW or Superstars in months but I watch the PPV's every now and then. Last one was Bragging Rights but I'm gonna give TLC a bash today.

It's kind of weird that Bret has seemingly warmed up to the WWE now that TNA is attempting to go head to head with them. I think he's doing it so he can jump ship to TNA at some point and screw Vince over, finally getting revenge! Man that would be cool.

Seriously though, it would be interesting if Bret actually has signed a deal with WWE. How long do you think they would be able to resist until they have a confrontation between HBK and Hart?

At 12/15/09 12:09 PM, SlashFirestorm wrote: Raw kinda sucked, in my opinion. The audience seemed insanely dead most of the time, especially when Dennis Miller tried to make jokes.

Yeah if there's anything that has the children audience cracking up, it's jokes about politics.. hell i'm not a child and even i didn't get half the crap he was talking about.. though i don't really follow US politics seeing as I'm not an american..

And as much as I mark out for DX, the "tag title rematch" thing was pretty lame to me...I'd have loved one last Jericho match on Raw before having the whole kick-his-ass-out thing...

Perhaps it could be even more shit than the "fingerpoint of doom" moment..... nah.. the fingerpoint of doom REALLY sucked..

The low point of the already-low show was when Cena declared that he'd lose EVEN LESS. :-(

lol yeah that made me laugh too..

At 12/17/09 08:37 AM, HeartbreakHoldout wrote: I think [Bret Hart]'s doing it so he can jump ship to TNA at some point and screw Vince over, finally getting revenge! Man that would be cool.

Meh doubt it, Hart mentioned in an interview a while back that he's never been interested in joining TNA.

No panic :)

Thank you

At 12/17/09 08:37 AM, HeartbreakHoldout wrote: It's kind of weird that Bret has seemingly warmed up to the WWE now that TNA is attempting to go head to head with them. I think he's doing it so he can jump ship to TNA at some point and screw Vince over, finally getting revenge! Man that would be cool.

I don't see it happening. I think this is a situation where he perhaps is looking at either the money he can get, or what he can do for family or friends (don't forget his nephew DH is working there regularly, as is his niece Natalya and her boyfriend Tyson Kidd). We'll see, but I do not believe Bret is the type of guy that will come in, and then jump to fuck with Vince, it's just not something I see him being interested in based on his personality.

Seriously though, it would be interesting if Bret actually has signed a deal with WWE. How long do you think they would be able to resist until they have a confrontation between HBK and Hart?

I think it's entirely up to Bret. He's on the record as saying he trusts Hunter and Shawn not at all, so this makes me wonder if maybe this will be a situation where Bret would come in, go directly to Smackdown! (again, that is where his family is) and launch whatever storylines they've got for him I guess. Sure seems like with Shawn throwing out the challenge for Michaels/Taker 2 they may be making it clear that Shawn and Bret will not be interacting with each other.

At 12/17/09 03:37 PM, aviewaskewed wrote: I don't see it happening. I think this is a situation where he perhaps is looking at either the money he can get, or what he can do for family or friends (don't forget his nephew DH is working there regularly, as is his niece Natalya and her boyfriend Tyson Kidd). We'll see, but I do not believe Bret is the type of guy that will come in, and then jump to fuck with Vince, it's just not something I see him being interested in based on his personality.

Yeah, if there's one thing Bret always had, it was the high ground. If he did screw Vince, then Vince could say he was justified in screwing Bret all those years ago. And the WWE would probably (definitely) bury the Hart Dynasty.

Though, I would like to see some sort of conflict between the companies above the usual TNA taking cheap shots at the WWE. It's just like a yappy dog barking at its owners leg. I'd love them to (somehow) become a legitimate threat to the WWE.

I think it's entirely up to Bret. He's on the record as saying he trusts Hunter and Shawn not at all, so this makes me wonder if maybe this will be a situation where Bret would come in, go directly to Smackdown! (again, that is where his family is) and launch whatever storylines they've got for him I guess. Sure seems like with Shawn throwing out the challenge for Michaels/Taker 2 they may be making it clear that Shawn and Bret will not be interacting with each other.

I could see him going to SD! to manage DH and Kidd. If they plan on keeping the guest hosts going on Raw, then there really wouldn't be much room for him as an on air personality.

Correct me if I'm wrong, though, but Bret was never much on the mic. Really, all they gain from having him is the name recognition and people thinking, holy shit, we have to watch Raw to see what he's going to do. Then in a few weeks, when the product hasn't changed, and Bret is just an unimportant secondary character, people will tune straight back out again.

At 12/17/09 05:21 PM, HeartbreakHoldout wrote: Yeah, if there's one thing Bret always had, it was the high ground. If he did screw Vince, then Vince could say he was justified in screwing Bret all those years ago. And the WWE would probably (definitely) bury the Hart Dynasty.

Honestly, I always felt like it was a situation where even though what Vince did wasn't cool, Bret kind of forced his hand when you look at all the factors involved and what both sides will agree are the facts in the case. Bret refused to lose, he had creative control, and he wanted to be put on the honor system that he'd show up the next night on RAW and forfeit the title, instead of going to Nitro and throwing it in the trash or something. He was not under contract after SS 97. That was a pretty shitty thing to do to Vince, especially when you consider Bret always did, and still likes to talk about his legacy and always doing right by the business. I think though where Vince has completely lost the high ground is that he has for the past 12 years kept revisiting it as a way of saying "I'm bigger then Bret Hart, I'm bigger then everybody!" It's one thing to do a nasty bit of business, have some justification, then walk away and not mention it again. It's something very different to do a dirty deed and then parade it around in front of people and say you're proud of it.

Though, I would like to see some sort of conflict between the companies above the usual TNA taking cheap shots at the WWE. It's just like a yappy dog barking at its owners leg. I'd love them to (somehow) become a legitimate threat to the WWE.

It's good for the business if TNA can become competitive, but it seems to me that with they're current creative direction and the already obvious influence of Hogan and Bischoff (I don't believe for one second they weren't in Dixie's office immediately after signing saying 'we need mondays Dixie...we need to go head to head') isn't going to get the job done. They have to be different to WWE. They have some great great wrestlers under contract, so why not focus on that? Focus on bringing in the athletics with some good sensible storylines to compliment it. I really think the way back for wrestling is going to be to dial back the gimmicks and go back more towards what happens in the ring being the primary focus vs. what happens outside of it.

I could see him going to SD! to manage DH and Kidd. If they plan on keeping the guest hosts going on Raw, then there really wouldn't be much room for him as an on air personality.

I would think they want him to guest host at least once, and to get some kind of Mania program between he and Vince set up as well. Since Vince can be on whatever show he pleases, Bret could pretty easily be used on both shows, or just one of them. But it does almost seem unavoidable that if he's coming in, he's going to need to coexist with Shawn and Hunter. This of course opens up the question of whether or not Bret is a hypocrite or tarnishing himself by being willing to play ball with WWE after all that he's said against them and their product?

Correct me if I'm wrong, though, but Bret was never much on the mic. Really, all they gain from having him is the name recognition and people thinking, holy shit, we have to watch Raw to see what he's going to do. Then in a few weeks, when the product hasn't changed, and Bret is just an unimportant secondary character, people will tune straight back out again.

On the mic yeah, Bret wasn't that great. He got better as time went on, but was never really known for being an electrifying promo. Of course this doesn't work if WWE debuts him and allows him to become "just another character" on the shows. They really need to come up with some reason for him to be viewed as somewhat "on Vince's level" whether that be saying he's on the board of directors, is CEO, Co-Owner, whatever. The point is it won't work unless he's long term put on Vince's level and adds something new and different to the shows.

I haven't gotten around to watching the last 3 RAWs yet, but from you guys, it sounds like they were all crap anyway.

I saw Chris Jericho on Late Night w/ Jimmy Fallon last night (to promote his new autobio & the annual Tribute to the Troops); it was nice to see him out-of-character for once.

So Teddy pulled another screwjob (to make it up to Taker, I'm sure), eh?

At 12/17/09 12:22 AM, aviewaskewed wrote: The last I knew Bret cannot physically compete anymore after his stroke. He's coming in purely for on air purposes.

He had a stroke? Missed tha part. Damn.

I could absolutely see him guest hosting the January 4th RAW (which just makes sense) and then they can find some way to keep him around on air (maybe as SD! GM or as the show runner for whatever ECW would become).

The SD GM possibility coincides with a prediction I've had for how the Teddy Long angle ends: Teddy gets fed up with Vince & Vickie screwing him over all the time, and he finally manages to prove their conspiracy to the Board of Directors. Vince is forced to end Teddy's probation, and give him ownership of SD. He then, as a final kick-to-Vince's-balls, announces Bret Hart as the new GM, to which The Hart Dynasty is elated to hear.

But that's probably wishful thinking.

At 12/17/09 08:37 AM, HeartbreakHoldout wrote: It's kind of weird that Bret has seemingly warmed up to the WWE now that TNA is attempting to go head to head with them. I think he's doing it so he can jump ship to TNA at some point and screw Vince over, finally getting revenge! Man that would be cool.

Now THAT would be a "FUCK YOU!!!" to Vince, if I ever heard one. Buuuuuut, if he apparently doesn't give a shit about TNA, it'll probably just be something similar to my idea.

Seriously though, it would be interesting if Bret actually has signed a deal with WWE. How long do you think they would be able to resist until they have a confrontation between HBK and Hart?

It won't take very long, I guarantee.

At 12/17/09 02:01 PM, TheD-LucksEdition wrote: Hey guys, long time no speak! Speaking of no speak, I apologise for failing to post my predictions for TLC. My family and I just moved house and I've been without Internet for several weeks...

Yeah, wtf?

Just kidding. :P DOn't worry about it.

At 12/17/09 03:37 PM, aviewaskewed wrote: I don't see it happening. I think this is a situation where he perhaps is looking at either the money he can get, or what he can do for family or friends (don't forget his nephew DH is working there regularly, as is his niece Natalya and her boyfriend Tyson Kidd). We'll see, but I do not believe Bret is the type of guy that will come in, and then jump to fuck with Vince, it's just not something I see him being interested in based on his personality.

So THAT'S why Tyson is a part of it......ah.

I think it's entirely up to Bret. He's on the record as saying he trusts Hunter and Shawn not at all, so this makes me wonder if maybe this will be a situation where Bret would come in, go directly to Smackdown! (again, that is where his family is) and launch whatever storylines they've got for him I guess. Sure seems like with Shawn throwing out the challenge for Michaels/Taker 2 they may be making it clear that Shawn and Bret will not be interacting with each other.

Or Bret could very well screw Shawn over during said match as revenge.

So Rey is the #1 contender now huh? Talk about a mismatch between him and Taker. If they called Rey an underdog a lot before this, just wait until they start hyping this match.

I didn't see any of SD, I just read the results. From the look for the matches it lookes like a missable show. How was it really?

At 12/16/09 12:32 PM, Evilpumpkinman wrote: Raw is way better than Smackdown,they are all pussys and Raw know how to get it done with superstars like Big show,Triple H,Randy Orton and lots of other awesome peeps.

...Half the people in that picture aren't in wrestling anymore, and most of the rest aren't on RAW anymore. Just sayin'.

Hey, uh...Punk kissed Luke Gallows on the head, now they're hugging...I'm getting scared...

Another good SD, as always. If there's one thing Batista does well, it's looking pissed; for a minute, I thought he was about to burst into flames when he lost.

So what, has Slam Master J just become nothing more than a Shannon Moore replacement? Nice seeing him & Wang in the ring again, for once, but come on.

'Redneck Asian Gangsta'...........oh dear god.........

Beth Phoenix is a tweener now, I guess....not too many tweeners in the Divas section.

The Hart Dynasty has possibly just set the stage for Bret's return; they want revenge on DX for what they've done to their family - which is the perfect opening for a family reunion.

Who else cheered when Escobar took Vickie's mic & walked off with it? :P This guy might just be able to pull this angle off.

Hey guys. I'm goin to Smackdown! tonight. Look for my sign on Friday. It'll say...
CM Punk makes me sad to be straight edge :(
Look for it, and tell me if you've seen it, alright?

At 12/20/09 03:41 PM, MaraquanWocky wrote: Hey guys. I'm goin to Smackdown! tonight. Look for my sign on Friday. It'll say...
CM Punk makes me sad to be straight edge :(
Look for it, and tell me if you've seen it, alright?

We'll all be a-lookin'.

At 12/20/09 11:39 PM, Assi9 wrote: We'll all be a-lookin'.

Yay.
SPOILER ALERT: Stuff that's happening on ECW/SmackDown!/Superstars.
ECW: Shelton Benjamin kills Tyler Reks. Wance Archer or whatever his name is beats Goldust. Yoshi Tatsu doesn't quit and destroys(sort of)Jack Thwagger.
Superstars: Vladimir Kozlov says something I couldn't understand. Has a match with Ezekiel Jackson and loses by double countout.
SmackDown!: I won't spoil that one for you. Okay, one more. DX retains the titles. Woo.

One more thing: Look for my sign directly diagonal of the top right ringpost. I got insanely awesome seats, so you might see my sign on Superstars, ECW, and SD!. OK, bye.

Woo.

RAW sucked. The only good parts were the Hornswoggle parts. I really hope that Jericho puts on makeup and does that Santa-ish voice again. That was funny.
...
Woo.

HornSwaggle is the "official" mascot of DX. I came buckets.

Suck it.

Also, Hart is hosting RAW next week. Not the dead one. The other Hart brother.

At 12/21/09 11:13 PM, MaraquanWocky wrote: RAW sucked. The only good parts were the Hornswoggle parts. I really hope that Jericho puts on makeup and does that Santa-ish voice again. That was funny.

Booo..
did anybody else think "jericlaus" sounded like stewie griffin?

but yeah RAW sucked.. didnt see the little peoples court bit, but i bet it wasn't worth watching anyways..
there vince, you finally got to do your little peoples court skit and i bet it sucked.. was it worth it?

i found it quite stupid that king was like "oh my god MAE YOUNG?!" after she made out with what's his name.. (i'm an aussie.. the only thing that's helping me follow baseball is The BIGS 2 on my 360)
but still cmon.. when you see an old horny woman on wwe, who the hell else would you think it is?..

It's undoubtable that Bret Hart will be the special guest GM january 4th..they've mentioned it twice now, and i doubt they're gonna pull the switch on it to "fool the smarks" since TNA (Total Non-stop Anything-but-wrestling) is on the same timeslot as them.. until then we got timberland as next weeks GM... yay..

I hope Swagger gets a push after this match with Cena.. the two work well together, I remember their last matchup during the Draft show was pretty entertaining, this one was good too, very back and forth. Now all we need is to get Dolph Ziggler back on the push track..

A few random thoughts. First raw sucked, the only ok thing was swagger vs cena, and that was just ok. ECW was alright, not amazing but the matches were alright.
Now onto the big thing, TNA. First off, I'd like to say that I've been leaning toward the TNA side for a little bit now, the matches and stories have been better at least in my opinion for the few months that I've been watching. I have to say though, I really don't think going up against raw is such a great idea. The WWE is too big. I thought TNA was fine where it was on Thursdays. Oh well, I hope TNA survives. I guess I'll appreciate all the great wrestling that'll happen in the mean time.

I usually like DX. Maybe I'm just a dork, but I mark out for them damn near every time they're on. I don't care about Trips and his backstage powers, I just close my eyes and pretend they're as awesome as they're supposed to be.

But, uh, Little People's Court? Never before has something been so utterly PAINFUL to watch. I mean, was it supposed to be funny? I'm very rarely the kind of person to care about whether or not something's "offensive", but fuck, when something's this utterly unfunny and stupid...as I said, painful. It loses any right to be offensive when it's this shit. They should have just dropped it. Did they think we'd care if the "court summons" hadn't been followed up on? Really? This is worse than when Hornswoggle was Vince's son. This is almost as bad as when Hornswoggle held gold.

And hell, I'd hate to be a little person trying to watch this crap. I mean, wrestling and little people ain't ever exactly meshed well...but still...you'd like to think the WWE would've matured a little in recent years, especially with the increased targeting of a younger audience. HEY KIDS LOOK ITS MIDGETS LOL. :-/

lol at the idea of Linda running for Senate. I can imagine the opponent's strategy right now---just pay for advertising for Raw and let it take care of itself.

fuck, I just want to see guys hit each other for a few hours a week. Is that so much to ask? Really?

I just got my internet up and running. I just moved so I haven't seen or read anything wrestling related. Can someone fill me in? I saw that everyone said Raw sucked and that the WWE was foolish enough to do the little people's court bit. I'm sure that was as unfunny asn stupid as we all through.

as I was in the hospital monday recovering from surgery on my esophagus I had a choice, RAW or Pawn Stars...everything I've heard about RAW makes me glad I skipped it and didn't let the Johnny Damon factor influence me into watching it.

I guess it's kinda late seeing as how there are already over 800 pages in this club, but count me in! I wish I saw this earlier.
~Ice Master ><>

At 12/23/09 08:52 PM, IceMasterDlux wrote: I guess it's kinda late seeing as how there are already over 800 pages in this club, but count me in! I wish I saw this earlier.
~Ice Master ><>

Its never too late dude. Welcome!

So after reading the results.. yeah I'm kinda glad I missed Raw. Hopefully I'll catch some of SD tomorrow.

A speedy recovery to you Avie!

I didn't even remember ECW was on the other day...Now I have to go and read the results for that too. They are still doing that tournamant right? I wonder how long it will be before Punk shows up on ECW to take part in it.

At 12/24/09 12:33 PM, Outlaw88 wrote: A speedy recovery to you Avie!

Thank you! I think I need to send my surgeon my first born or something because I have no pain at the moment today and that's pretty freakin incredible when you consider I had internal surgery to cut and stretch a major muscle.

I didn't even remember ECW was on the other day...Now I have to go and read the results for that too. They are still doing that tournamant right? I wonder how long it will be before Punk shows up on ECW to take part in it.

They are still doing the tournament and this was actually the first in a long while I watched ECW (again, laid up). I was quite impressed with the wrestling content and felt kind of bad I haven't kept up with it. I wish they'd incorporate some of these ideas into the main shows, like this tournament for a number 1 contender concept because it really makes it seem important when people are willing to wrestle multiple matches and wrestle good decently timed matches to go after the title. But of course then it gets killed when it goes to a PPV or something and it's the 10 minute opener.

Yoshi Tatsu is very impressive to me and I hope if ECW does wind up getting folded or removed or whatever that Yoshi is sent over to the A-Show SD! as I think he could be the kind of performer we've been missing since Tajiri left and it does seem they want us to see him that way. I absolutely loved the match he and Swagger had and it's a shame WWE has basically lost interest in doing anything at all with Swagger. Yes the kid has that speech problem but the boy can go and I think his skill combined with the fact that he's a heel can overcome that...also speech therapy? There's no shame in it Jack, I went through it myself and now you'd never even notice.

Abraham Washington sucks, that show concept sucks, just fucking end it already. I can understand they want it to be a way to introduce new talents, or to get existing storylines or characters over but...just no, this thing is dreck. Go back to video packages or backstage segments or something. This thing is just a waste of air time and made we want to pull the IV out so I had something to throw at the TV.

Glad you're doing ok, avie...............did you say on your ESOPHAGUS? OUCH, what the fuck happened to ya?

So, I guess I should just erase all of these last several RAWs off of my DVR, and just not bother watching them? I do need to get rid of some crap on there.

At 12/24/09 02:54 PM, Assi9 wrote: Glad you're doing ok, avie...............did you say on your ESOPHAGUS? OUCH, what the fuck happened to ya?

So, I guess I should just erase all of these last several RAWs off of my DVR, and just not bother watching them? I do need to get rid of some crap on there.

Nothing of much note happened. Anything important will be covered repeatedly in detail, and there's no matches you should go out of your way to see. I'd save the 5 hours if I was you.

At 12/24/09 02:54 PM, Assi9 wrote: Glad you're doing ok, avie...............did you say on your ESOPHAGUS? OUCH, what the fuck happened to ya?

I got myself a rare condition (probably from birth that worsened over time) where the sphincter muscle, which opens and closes to allow food in almost completely shut down. So I've lost mucho weight, haven't had a decent meal or night's sleep since october, so we just had to get that sucker cut and stretched out. It sounds like a super painful procedure and I honestly thought at this point I wouldn't be able to move much and be crying my eyes out but my surgeon was super skillful (god bless them Philly doctors) and the only thing that gives me some ache are the incisions he made to get in. Even at that a little tylenol lasts just about all day. So I'm just taking it easy at the moment and really I'm functioning pretty much like normal. Although I'm on a special diet for the next few weeks to keep me from doing anything to damage it.

So, I guess I should just erase all of these last several RAWs off of my DVR, and just not bother watching them? I do need to get rid of some crap on there.

I would. RAW has honestly been god awful crap lately and every time I tune in I just get pissed off, it's a waste of time. Only SD! or ECW I think are worth a watch these days because even though they aren't like A+ material, it's still a pretty good show with some solid action and good storylines. Although I'm beginning to fall into the camp that finds Matt Stryker kind of annoying since he keeps saying some really dumb things and has an overly reliance on giving guys like 5 nicknames during a bout. I think he's technically quite sound and he got off to a great start, not sure if now he's just trying too hard, or this is interference from the boss.