Last week on Monday Night RAW (the flagship show of WWE), superstar The Miz challenged WWE Legend and Hall of Famer Bret Hart to a match to take place on the May 17th edition of RAW with the United States Championship on the line. Prior to Wrestlemania 26 in late March of this year, Bret Hart had been retired from wrestling after suffering a career ending concussion a decade ago which later was the cause of a stroke. At Wrestlemania 26, Bret Hart returned to give Vince McMahon a beating one last time, a sort of payback for screwing him over in a well publicized Survivor Series match back in 1997 in Montreal.
Many individuals, including myself, thought that last night’s match would involve some sort of bait-and-switch, with Bret Hart picking a suitable replacement to wrestle for him. We thought it would be Bryan Danielson, the competitor who used the name Daniel Bryan during his recent run as The Miz’s rookie on (WWE’s Tuesday Night show) NXT.
It wasn’t Bryan Danielson.
It was Bret Hart himself who wrestled The Miz.
Prior to the match, it was determined that the match would be no disqualifications.
The Miz said he expected Bret Hart to have asked The Hart Dynasty (his nephew David Hart Smith, niece Natalya Neidhart and friend of the family Tyson Kidd) to get involved, so he employed the services of William Regal, Vladamir Kozlov and Chris Jericho to have his back.
All the aforementioned individuals got involved, and in the end it looked as though The Miz was going to make good on his promise to make Bret Hart tap out to his own signature move, but with the help of a beautifully executed springboard dropkick from Tyson Kidd, The Miz found himself on the back, prone and ready for Bret Hart – who excellently executed the Sharpshooter submission hold.
The Sharpshooter
And now we have a new United States Champion, and his name is Bret Hart.
The Celebration
I don’t know whether the WWE will retire the US Championship (that’s the route I would take), or whether they will vacate it when Bret “The Hitman” Hart doesn’t defend it within 30 days, or if Bret will have yet another match, putting the belt on someone else in the process. Time will tell, but it made for a very memorable night on RAW.
Pictures from WWE.com
