After weeks of twists and turns in the Bret Hart-Vince McMahon saga, a singles match between the two at WrestleMania XXVI on March 28 was made official on Raw Monday night.
As expected, McMahon had no intention of allowing Hart to have a proper farewell. The WWE chairman cut a promo on Hart, challenged him to a match at WrestleMania and then kicked his crutch out from under him. After all that, Hart accepted the challenge.It appears that the broken leg that Hart suffered two weeks ago when a car backed into his limousine is legitimate (in the story line) rather than a ruse orchestrated by Hart to get McMahon in the ring – although it still could be revealed that Hart was playing McMahon. Personally, I think the match will work better if WWE goes with the story that Hart is working on a bad leg. It will portray Hart as the underdog and also provide an out as to why Hart isn't able to do more in the ring. I think that's more important than Hart outsmarting McMahon.
McMahon played his role well and the segment was fine, but the Hart-McMahon program just isn't capturing my interest the way the other top WrestleMania programs are.
Other thoughts on Monday's show:
A program that I am into is the one with John Cena and Batista, and it's mainly because of Batista. I know he has his share of detractors in the Internet Wrestling Community, but I think he has been awesome as a heel. What makes it work is that Batista's motivation for disliking Cena – the fact that he feels WWE should have made him the face of the company instead of Cena – is very believable. I also think that Batista in real life carries himself with a certain swagger and aloofness that makes it easy for him to play this character. Batista, who initially was cheered after he turned against Rey Mysterio a few months ago, now is drawing heel heat, while Cena is getting almost a total babyface reaction in this feud. …
Speaking of babyface reactions, Randy Orton was cheered during his match against Ted DiBiase Jr. After Orton fought off a two-on-one attack by DiBiase and Cody Rhodes, it was announced that Orton would face the two of them in a handicap match next week on Raw. My guess is that the match ends up being more of a beat-down of Orton than an actual match, which will lead to Orton vs. DiBiase and Rhodes at WrestleMania. …
In the post-match angle after The Miz and The Big Show retained the WWE unified tag team title over DX, Sheamus hopped the rail and laid out Triple H, presumably setting up a match between them at WrestleMania that very few people will care about – especially with the WWE title not involved. Say what you want about Triple H and politics, but he is not going to be in one of the top four matches at WrestleMania this year…
The opening segment with Triple H giving Shawn Michaels a pep talk was well done. There are rumors that Triple H will be turning heel at some point after WrestleMania (although talk of a Triple H heel turn has been going for a couple years now), but I hope that isn't the case. As I have said before, I find him much more entertaining as a babyface. …
Michael Cole said that Michaels and Triple H have been friends for 15 years (and Michaels said it as well). Yeah, that's pretty much true in real life – although there was a period during Michaels' four-year retirement that the two weren't close – but in the story line they were bitter enemies for several years. …
Jack Swagger and MVP both qualified for the Money in the Bank ladder match at WrestleMania by winning squash matches that lasted about a minute combined. I have no problem with Swagger making quick work of Santino Marella – in fact that's exactly what should have happened. However, Zack Ryder deserves better than doing a quick job to MVP. Don't get me wrong. The right guy won, but the match should have been competitive. Ryder has pushed Christian to the limit on several occasions, so losing that easily made no sense. …
The Cheech and Chong stuff was pretty lame. I never really thought their hippie-stoner act was all that funny 30 years ago much less now when they are senior citizens. The drug humor seemed out of place on a kid-friendly show. I kept waiting for CM Punk to show up and cut a promo on them. ..
I also was a little surprised to see the divas engaging in a pillow fight, as I thought those days were over. They were in pajamas rather than lingerie, however, and it was far less risqué than the bra and panties matches of the Attitude Era. …
Mad Dog Vachon, a big star in the AWA in the 1960s and '70s, was announced as the latest WWE Hall of Fame inductee. Although he was only 5 feet 9, Vachon was very believable as a crazy heel who could do real damage.