Just as promised, last night on WWE’s flagship Monday Night RAW, a General Manager was announced, and that man is a WWE Hall of Famer.
In fact, so is his father.
To most who saw him wrestle, he is The Best There Is… The Best There Was… and the Best There Ever Will Be…
The RAW GM is Bret “Hitman” Hart.
After years of being estranged from the company who made him a star in the early 1990’s, Bret Hart returned to WWE in a big way in 2010. Not only did he shake hands with Shawn Michaels, letting bygones be bygones, but he also had another Wrestlemania match at Wrestlemania 26, getting a huge measure of revenge against Vince McMahon. Shortly thereafter he helped The Hart Dynasty win the Unified World Tag Team Championships. Last week he won the United States Championship in a match against The Miz. And now he takes the helm as sheriff of the flagship program for WWE.
This is a great move for WWE, as Bret Hart can help add some star-power to the authority figure on RAW without needing to bring in Guest Hosts every week, most of whom are seen as failures anyway. It also allows the younger talent to be mentored by Bret Hart, learning not only some things about in-ring work as he sits back and watches their matches, but also about promo work (not that he’s the best, but he can provide decades of experience in critiquing them) and how to best manage themselves on the road. I’d also like to think that Bret Hart could help the front office and the creative staff determine who has potential to be major players in the future of the business.
I look forward to seeing how it works for Bret Hart to interact with Triple H upon The Game’s return to the business, though I’m sure they’ll both act professionally and it will work out well. The key will be how their backstage influences mix in storylines down the road.
So long as the Unified Tag Team Championships, United States Championship and Intercontinental Championship keep finding themselves as the focus of a feud, I’ll be happy. And I really want to see Bryan Danielson and Bret Hart in the same room together. That will be one of the top moments of my year.
