Hart, Hogan headline Monday night battle

The war is on. How long it will last is anyone’s guess.

TNA’s experiment with live Monday night wrestling begins this week when the supposedly “new and improved” Hulk Hogan-led company goes head to head with Vince McMahon, WWE and its flagship Monday Night Raw franchise.

Raw has long owned the Monday night time slot on cable TV, while TNA is taking a bold step, venturing outside of its regular Thursday night slot on Spike TV, offering a live, three-hour Impact broadcast (8-11 p.m.) in which two of those hours will vie with what will almost assuredly be a loaded WWE show.

Decent ratings for TNA could move the company to a permanent Monday night spot that could conceivably recreate the legendary WWE-WCW rivalry of the ‘90s.

While McMahon may claim to not be worried about the opposition, it appears that he’s not taking any chances.

The WWE boss has pulled out all the stops for Monday night with a real coup that he and company officials have been working on for months — if not years.

Monday night’s special guest host on Raw will be Bret Hart. Yes, that Bret Hart, the former WWE superstar and Canadian hero who slugged McMahon for real more than 12 years ago in the wake of one of the most controversial finishes in wrestling history.

The company lauded Hart’s return as one of the biggest announcements in company history.

“Hell must be frostbitten and winged hogs must have been spotted overhead. On Jan., 4, 2010, Bret Hart returns to WWE,” the company Web site proclaimed.

It may come down to Bret Hart vs. Hulk Hogan for ratings dominance.

It’s a most unlikely scenario, but then again, pro wrestling thrives on the unexpected. Had one suggested a few years ago the possibility of Bret Hart on a WWE show going up against a TNA show featuring Hulk Hogan, few would have taken the bait.

But Hogan landed the first blow when he signed with TNA in late November. He will make his official debut with the company Monday night.

Hart reportedly has signed what is being characterized as a short-term “Wrestlemania contract” that will run Jan. 1-April 10. His last appearance is scheduled for the second Raw following this year’s Wrestlemania in Phoenix.

Hart is a catch McMahon has been trying to land since the popular wrestler left the company in late 1997 after being victimized in one of the most famous double-crosses in wrestling history. More commonly known as the “Montreal screwjob,” the finish to Hart’s match with Shawn Michaels that night in the main event of the Survivor Series pay-per-view became angle material for the next decade for WWE. For Hart, it represented an extreme betrayal of trust, and the end of a long relationship with WWE and its owner.

Hart vowed never to return to WWE after the very public fallout with McMahon, and didn’t come back until 2006 to accept induction into the WWE Hall of Fame, claiming he did so in order to have creative input in a Bret Hart DVD the company was producing.

The possible scenarios leading up to Wrestlemania are intriguing. One of them involves Hart possibly teaming with The Undertaker to face adversaries McMahon and Michaels.

One shouldn’t look for Hart or Hogan to exhibit much prowess inside the ring over the next few months. Hart, 52, suffered a major stroke while riding his bicycle in 2002. Despite making a remarkable recovery, it would be unfair to expect the “Excellence of Execution” to be able to wow fans as he did for so many years. Hogan, 56, has suffered numerous health problems over the years, and struggled in a series of matches with Ric Flair last month in Australia.

But the mere involvement of the two on rival shows should at least generate considerable curiosity and a spike in ratings.

That curiosity abounds in the case of Hart. Fences have never been mended with Michaels, who was in on the double-cross with McMahon, and whom Hart has publicly criticized over the years.

The now infamous Montreal show in which Hart unwittingly dropped his world title to Michaels has become part of wrestling folklore, yet the memory of what happened that fateful night still lingers and has taken on a life of its own.

Concerned that Hart was going to leave to then-rival WCW while still holding the WWE title, and with Michaels refusing to do the job in Montreal, McMahon orchestrated the secret plan to recapture the belt.

In the wrestling business, Michaels said later, it was the equivalent of a Mafia hit, and he was Jack Ruby pulling the trigger.

Hart, who retired from the business in 2000, later said his only regret was that he didn’t “knock all of his (Michaels’) teeth, smash his skull into little tiny pieces, and toss his arms and legs out into the audience,” and that he had put faith in a “false friend” (referee Earl Hebner).

As for McMahon, Hart got his pound of flesh, punching him out backstage after the match, and in the process setting the Monday night wrestling wars on a torrid pace.

Michaels, once considered one of the most controversial figures in the industry but now a devout Christian, says he has apologized countless times for his part in the affair.

“I don’t know what to say at this point,” Michaels said in a 2006 interview. “Not just Bret, but a lot of people, including Hulk Hogan, have given me a hard time about my faith. What I can say is this. I am extremely flattered that after years of being a born-again Christian, that everyone expects more out of me and my walk with the Lord than they expect from themselves. But I, too, do the best I can. I’m not Jesus, but I’m doing my best on a daily basis in a secular environment.”

Hart, who has worn the betrayal on his sleeve for the 12 years, later remarked that Michaels was “one Christian they should have fed to the lions.” To which, Michaels half-jokingly noted, “They don’t do that anymore.”

Michaels said at the time that he felt sorry that Hart had “painted himself into a corner all alone.”

‘When I talk about Bret, I can only talk about what has helped me get over this thing. You have to take responsibility for yourself and you have to look at yourself and confess your sins. He needs to confess his part. Vince is at peace with it because he confessed his part. I’m at peace because I’ve confessed and taken responsibility for my part. Bret will never have peace with this until he has the guts to look at me and the wrestling public and do his part. There’s no disgrace in that.”

Michaels added that he would do it again under similar conditions. He wouldn’t, however, lie to Hart.

‘Under the same circumstances, if we were fighting for our lives again, I would. I’ve told everybody. I don’t claim to know everything, but I’ve searched the Scriptures. I would be deemed righteous to do it with the exception of lying to Bret afterwards about it. The only change would be I’d tell him I knew about it.’

Although he believed in his heart that he did the right thing, says Michaels, the incident still troubled him. But at the time he was told by McMahon: “Don’t you say anything. I want to take the heat for this.”

Hogan, already proclaiming himself “the Vince McMahon of TNA,” claims TNA has the best talent in the business, and says he’s going to breathe life into the company’s characters.

It has been rumored that TNA may be setting up an NWO reunion with Kevin Nash, Scott Hall, Sean Waltman and potentially Hogan and Eric Bischoff. The NWO name, though, is property of WWE as part of the WCW sale.

One thing is for certain. The real winners in this Monday night battle will be the fans.

“This Monday night ... win, lose or draw ... I have to give credit to the folks at TNA and Spike,” Bischoff posted last week on a blog. “They could have taken the easy path and put their best foot forward unopposed. That would make the most sense to many people. But by at least getting into the fight, TNA is most likely going to gain the awareness and respect of a completely different audience.”

“Clearly TNA is up against a Wall Street mega-corp bully with a billion dollar bank account and a chairman that thinks only he should have any meaningful market share of the professional wrestling business (even though he’s embarrassed to admit he’s in the professional wrestling business),” Bishoff said of McMahon. “It will be an uphill battle for TNA indeed. The real winner, though, will be the wrestling fans.”

• Mike Tyson will be guest host on the Jan. 11 edition of Raw as WWE attempts to counter a special UFC event headlined by Gray Maynard.

• The wrestling world is mourning the loss of “Dr. Death” Steve Williams, who died last week at the age of 49, six years after beginning a battle with cancer that he fought with as much ferocity as he waged with football players on the gridiron and grapplers on the mat and in the squared circle.

Anyone who knew Doc knew he was a fighter from the word go, and that he relied on his steadfast faith to take him through his final battle.

Jim Ross, whose Oklahoma roots with Williams date back many years, sent along his thoughts on his longtime friend.

“Doc was the toughest guy I ever met. He had a wonderful spirit and a huge heart. His loss is like losing a member of the family. I’ll never forget him. This business isn’t known for long-standing friendships, but ours never wavered. Thank God Steve’s suffering is over and he’s finally home. He’s the toughest man in heaven and will become one of the most loved. I have taken Steve’s passing hard, but his memory will always be in my heart.”

• Last week’s story on the late Bronko Lubich stirred some memories among readers.

The Warrior (Jim Hellwig), the artist formerly known as The Ultimate Warrior in WWE, remembered Lubich as a mentor to him early in his career.

“I loved that guy,” said Warrior. “He gave me advice while I was in WCCW (World Class Championship Wrestling) that I have never forgotten. Not just about saving my money but wisdom like he gave his daughters ... that their actions would follow them throughout their life. It never left my mind that outside my career my actions would define me as a man. The path I’ve followed in my life has lot to do with the mentoring he, and others with genuine character and integrity, provided. And it is why, today as a man of 50 and father of young children, I am so harsh in my criticism about what is not only going on in sports entertainment but overall in our culture today. There is nothing inspiring, positive, mature or even civilized about it.”

Bronko, recalled Warrior, loved the simple things in life.

“Your article at this time of his birthday reminds me of my own story. Bronco loved pencils. I found some with little graphic images of wrestlers on them around the holiday one time and gave them to him. He was like a little kid. He appreciated them so much. I’ll never forget the look on his face.”

He also credited Lubich with helping him break into WWE.

“He was the first one at WCCW offices to inform me that George Scott (a former WWF employee who worked with Vince to launch Wrestlemanias and came to ‘book’ for a short period of time at WCCW while I was there) had talked to Vince about me and the incredible raw potential I had to be one of the major superstars in pro wrestling. ‘We’ll keep it our secret,’ he told me. I’ll never forget that. It is like it happened yesterday.”

• Tommy Dreamer, who dropped a retirement match to Zack Ryder on last week’s ECW show, appears to be headed to TNA.

• Former WWE champ John Cena told ESPN last week that he plans to continue wrestling indefinitely.

“I’ve wanted to do this all my life,” said Cena, who served as grand marshal of the Fiesta Bowl parade on Saturday. “I can’t imagine doing anything else. Some people as a kid play baseball and basketball and then don’t get to do it for a living. I always wanted to be a wrestler.

“I love my job too much to leave it. I’m going to stay as long as my body allows. My wife understands this. She was there with me when I had no money. Granted, sometimes she has to use a cardboard cutout of me at the movie theater to pretend we’re on a date, but she understands.”

• Former five-time WWE champ Batista said in an interview with the Manila Standard newspaper in the Philippines that he most likely will be retired in five years and “working for WWE behind the scenes.”

He also remarked that he sees himself as part of a “dying breed” of wrestlers.

“We’re dinosaurs in this age of instant gratification,” Batista said. “We are not just athletes, we are also storytellers, and I don’t see that in the newcomers.”

Batista, who is half-Filipino and half-Greek, sports the flag of the Philippines merged with that of Greece tattooed on his left arm. He also is a big fan and supporter of boxer Manny Pacquiao.

• Ted DiBiase Jr., whose movie “The Marine 2” was released on DVD last week, said an MTV interview that he believes WWE should push younger wrestlers to help grow its younger audience.

“You’ve got a whole new generation of young kids coming up. Our product has gone PG and you’ve got families coming to the show. This generation of young kids have to have heroes too,” DiBiase said. “It’s gonna be the new guys: myself, Cody Rhodes, Jack Swagger — all young guys coming up. Very talented individuals.”

DiBiase said it was time for the older superstars to pass the torch.

“I know WWE is really starting to push this younger generation and crop of new talent. Shawn Michaels and Undertaker and even John Cena, these guys have been there for a while. They’ve gotta pass the torch.”

Reach Mike Mooneyham at (843) 937-5517 or [email protected].