The Bell To Bell News Report 12.20.09

Posted by Randy Harrison on 12.20.2009

The Bell To Bell is back this week with Christmas wishes, a potentially HUGE return to the WWE, a new WWE Champion, more Hogan/TNA talk and an announcement on the future of The Bell To Bell itself! This is the biggest edition ever and you don't want to miss it!




Boy oh boy, what I wouldn't give for something interesting to have happened in the last seven days. Wait, WHO won the WWE Championship at Tables, Ladders and Chairs? Oh wow. Well I guess that's interesting, but outside of that one thing, what else is there really to tal....I'm sorry, but HE might really be coming back to Monday Night Raw on January 4th? Geez, it looks liks I've got some big stuff to cover this week. Forget what I said about not having anything interesting happen.

Yes folks, after a few weeks of having to struggle to find things to write about or touch on in the news section and feeling somewhat like I was writing the same thing about some of the weekly shows as they continued their slow stagnation, two of the biggest stories of the year (and two contenders for the four-part Story of the Year deal that I'm running as a lead-in to the 50th Bell to Bell) happened in the past seven days. While those two huge stories will be getting a fair amount of attention this week, rest assured that I won't be missing the boat on anything else as I'll be covering everything else that's gone on including a surprising role for a former ECW and WCW employee, the latest on JR's contract situation with the WWE, whether Booker T may actually be making his return to the WWE as he claims and a ton more news.

Before we get into that though, this is the last chance I'll have to address the readers of this fine site and this not so fine column before Christmas and I'd just like to take the chance to wish everyone out there a Merry Christmas, Happy Hannukah, Happy Kwanzaa or whatever holiday you decide to celebrate during the season of giving, sharing and happiness. I've made it no secret that Christmas is one of my favorite times of the year and I have to admit that even though I'm in my late-20's, I'm still excited about the prospect of Christmas morning, albeit for different reasons now. Sure, it's always fun to get some cool stuff from people who care about you, but to me, I'm more excited to see what people do when they open their presents from me. I put a lot into what I choose to get for people and seeing them freak out over a perfect present is the best part of the holidays for me, just beating out the cookies and the booze. Anyhow, I could talk about Christmas all column, but I'm pretty sure the boss man would go all Grinch on my ass and can me, so let's get to the wrestling, shall we?



You know the drill...





Ding Ding....








WWE Tables, Ladders and Chairs Results:

ECW Championship Ladder Match: Shelton Benjamin vs. Christian (C) - Winner: Christian (belt retrieval)
WWE Intercontinental Championship: Drew McIntyre vs. John Morrison (C) - Winner: Drew McIntyre (pinfall, Kobashi DDT)
WWE Women's Championship: Mickie James vs. Michelle McCool (C) - Winner: Michelle McCool (pinfall, big boot)
WWE Championship Tables Match: Sheamus vs. John Cena (C) - Winner: Sheamus (pushes Cena off the top rope through a table)
World Heayweight Championship Chairs Match: Batista vs. The Undertaker (C) - Winner: The Undertaker (pinfall, Tombstone piledriver)
Randy Orton vs. Kofi Kingston - Winner: Randy Orton (pinfall, RKO)
Unified Tag Team Championship TLC Match: D-Generation X vs. Chris Jericho and The Big Show (C) - Winners: D-Generation X (belt retreival)


For the past few years, the December WWE pay-per-view has been a bit of a throwaway as nothing interesting really came to play until the Royal Rumble and the official start of the mythical Road to WrestleMania. This year, it seems as though conventional wisdom took a holiday as the TLC pay-per-view offered up some shocking results and surprisingly entertaining action to give us possibly the best December pay-per-view in a long, long time.

There's a lot to touch on here, so we'll just cover things somewhat briefly. First up was the ECW Championship ladder match, a match that shockingly went more than about three minutes, which is the usual time alotted for an ECW title bout. Christian and Shelton Benjamin tried to tear the roof down with their athletic displays in the opener and gave us not only a great match, but the one of the only examples of a great ECW Championship match on PPV. Christian retained after about twenty minutes of great action and inventive spots and while I get that there would have been a bit of an issue in putting the belt on Shelton that may have spoiled the later surprise in the WWE Title bout, Christian is starting to run out of challengers in ECW. There's not a lot left at the top of the card that Christian hasn't beat and it's time for him to either drop the belt and go another way or for ECW to bring a heel up fast to challenge because without a credible challenger, Christian runs the risk of becoming a stale champion.

The Intercontinental Championship match saw young Drew McIntyre earn his first taste of WWE gold by defeating John Morrison with his Kobashi DDT finisher. While I can totally get behind the WWE pushing new guys, I just haven't seen enough of McIntyre yet to decide on him one way or the other. I'm not completely shutting him down just yet, but I'm going to wait and see how this one plays out before laying down any final verdicts on the Scot's future. That being said, they found a perfect way to give him the belt by having him cheat to win because having the new guy beat the established star clean as a sheet kind of eliminates the need for a rematch or a continuation of the feud, which isn't something I can see the WWE doing just yet with these two.

That brings us to the WWE Championship match, the one that, much like typing Google INTO Google, nearly brought down the interwebs. In a tables match, Sheamus became the new WWE Champion by shoving John Cena off the top rope through a table. Yep, that Sheamus. Not surprisingly, there's two camps out there after this development. There's the people who think that Sheamus didn't deserve the win because he hasn't been built and there's the people that think that it's someone new in the title mix and we should all be grateful because of it. For me, I fall somewhere in between. I love that there's some new blood in the title picture as it's something that is long overdue, but I have to admit that I would have liked to have seen a little more from Sheamus before he earned the belt.

I was watching the Legends of Wrestling show on 24/7 about Southern Wrestling and JR talked about how guys have to make their own push and while I agree with him on that, I don't think that's necessarily what Sheamus did. For Sheamus, I think that this was an issue of knowing the right people, doing the right things backstage in terms of respecting the business and the people in power and being able to not screw up too much in the ring. Let's face it, he could be the biggest ass-kiss in the world, but if he's terrible in the ring nothing is going to hide that. While his title win does reek of a little bit of backstage politicking rather than earning the top spot because of how you can make the crowd react, there is also something to be said for the other side of the coin, which is the shock factor.

No one EVER cares much about the WWE's pay-per-view before Royal Rumble and with good reason. About the last exciting thing to happen in my opinion was the Shawn Michaels/Triple H three-fall match for the World Heavyweight Championship a few years back. Since then, the show has felt like a placeholder, giving the main event stars one more chance to work the kinks out before moving to WrestleMania. By having Sheamus pull the upset, not only are fans talking about the December PPV, but this lays the groundwork for next year with a bit of a return to the "anything can happen" vibe that permeated nearly every show in the late-90's and early 2000's. If you look at it, it's actually a perfect plan as it puts Cena back into chase mode, where the fans love him, it gives a new guy a break into the main event scene and it raises interest in the build to WrestleMania by breaking from the norm. Time may tell that Sheamus is ultimately a flop as champion, but for now I'm digging it and digging the new direction.

For as exciting as the WWE Title match was, the World Heavyweight Championship match was equally maddening. With the stipulation that chairs were legal, Batista and The Undertaker had the best match they could given their breaking down bodies and while it wasn't up to par with some of their older work, it was still decent. Then the overbooking genies sprinkled a little fairy dust, Batista won the match with a low blow and a chairshot and seemingly regained the World Heavyweight Championship. Not so fast though, as Teddy Long claimed that a match of this magnitude could not end with Batista blatantly breaking the rules with a low blow and restarted the match. One Tombstone later, Taker still reigns. Sigh.

What killed me about this booking was the fact that earlier in the card, another Smackdown title changed hands after the heel poked the babyface square in the eyes to set up his finisher. Where was the outrage then? My guess is that Teddy was in the back, trying to go all Tiger on that Tiffany gal that runs ECW. That's the only explanation for why there would be such a massive logic gap in the span of a couple of hours. Props to them for trying to get a little inventive with the finish of a match we've seen a few times already, but that was a little too cutesy for its own good and ended up being a mess. If there's a silver lining it's that it wasn't some Match of the Year candidate to where the finish could have ruined something special. It was a good match with a terrible finish, no more and no less.

In a bit of a surprise, the Randy Orton vs. Kofi Kingston match got the semi-main event slot and in my opinion Kofi delivered a performance that could really boost his stock within the company, even in a losing effort. I really liked the all-out effort from both guys and for me complaining about the finish in the last match, this one was pretty cool. Yeah, there's the whole "finisher trade-off" that seems to be the usual for most high-profile matches in the WWE these days, but the set-up to that finish with Orton going for the punt and Kofi blocking it with his arm was pretty awesome. I also loved that they let Kofi hit his finish and the only way Orton got out was by using the ropes (subtle heel moves FTW!), which helps Kofi out a lot. It may not happen right away, but big things could be coming in the future for Kofi if he keeps impressing on the PPV stage like this.

Main event time and we saw DX win their first tag titles by unseating Chris Jericho and The Big Show in a TLC match. The match itself was a solid one and probably one of the better matches of the night in terms of flow and in-ring excitement as four veterans built this one nearly to perfection. The only problem was that after all of the gimmick matches and title changes, the crowd seemed to be a little burnt out and took a while to get into things. I loved The Big Show's work in this one, especially his spot where he just destroyed the ladder and ripped it into pieces. I was worried how he would fit in with the three guys that have more experience in ladder matches, but he did nothing to detract from the match and really upped the ante with his intensity. Great stuff from four veterans to close out one of the better WWE PPV's in some time.





Monday Night Raw Results:

William Regal, Vladimir Kozlov and Ezekiel Jackson vs. Christian, Kane and The Great Khali - Winners: Christian, Kane and The Great Khali (pinfall, Khali's brain chop on Kozlov)
Legacy vs. Evan Bourne and Kofi Kingston - Winners: Legacy (pinfall, Cross Rhodes on Bourne)
John Cena vs. CM Punk - Winner: John Cena (submission, STF)
The Undertaker vs. Randy Orton - Winner: Randy Orton (countout, RKO on the floor)
Unified Tag Team Championship: The Big Show and Chris Jericho vs. D-Generation X (C) - Winners: The Big Show and Chris Jericho (disqualification, DX shenanigans)
The Miz, Zack Ryder and Drew McIntyre vs. John Morrison, Yoshi Tatsu and Mark Henry - Winners: John Morrison, Yoshi Tatsu and Mark Henry (pinfall, Tatsu's spin kick on Ryder)
Mickie James, Melina, Kelly Kelly, Gail Kim, Maria, Brie Bella, and Nikki Bella vs. Michelle McCool, Layla, Rosa Mendes, Natalya, Beth Phoenix, Maryse, and Alicia Fox - Winners: Mickie James, Melina, Kelly Kelly, Gail Kim, Maria, Brie Bella, and Nikki Bella (pinfall, Mickie's DDT on Rosa)
Randy Orton vs. John Cena - Winner: John Cena (pinfall, Attitude Adjustment)


Oy vey, what a weird three hours this was. First off, I'm not really going to touch on the Slammys outside of once or twice as they were really just kind of there and not really worth anything. Dennis Miller was the guest host and while I've always enjoyed his brand of comedy, you could tell from the beginning that the monologue was going to be a disaster. From it being old material (I swear that global warming bit is older than Cena's main event push) and a crowd that may be less than plugged in to global environmental issues, Miller twisted in the wind for most of the first segment. Yeah, he brought it together a little bit as the show rolled on, but he was still a little too uncomfortable and wooden compared to some of the other, more successful guest hosts. All that being said, he may have kicked off one of the bigger storylines in recent memory in the WWE, but we'll get to that later.

The Superstar of the Year tournament saw John Cena, CM Punk, Randy Orton and The Undertaker battling to determine the winner of the WWE's biggest Slammy award. The tournament itself was awful as Cena destroyed Punk and Orton barely snuck by The Undertaker to give us a match we haven't seen in...weeks. Going back to the Punk/Cena stuff for a minute, I really think that it was a perfect microcosm for the staleness of the WWE as of late. Punk wins a Slammy and cuts a GREAT heel promo on the crowd, showing the growth of his new (old) character and really being entertaining. Cena comes out, takes him out in less than two minutes with a submission no less, then cuts one of his "inspirational, I'm trying too hard to be Winston Churchill" type promos that bore me to tears. I'm begging them to do something, ANYTHING different with Cena soon because six years of the same character is just WAY too much.

The Match of the Year Slammy acceptance speech by Shawn Michaels for his match with The Undertaker at WrestleMania 25 has seemingly kicked off round two of his recent feud with The Deadman as Michaels challenged The Undertaker for one more go-round on The Biggest Stage of Them All. I like this and I don't like this, all at the same time. It's great because we get the chance to see two of the WWE's legendary figures hook it up again, possibly for the last time, while hopefully taking The Undertaker out of the World Heavyweight Championship picture before WrestleMania. I don't like it because it means that with both of them a year older and Taker in way worse shape, they have to try to out-do what they did last year. The expectations are going to be immense for these two if it goes down and if they can't live up to them, there will surely be a little tarnish on their classic from this past WrestleMania, which would be a shame.

The Unified Tag Championship match may not have been much of a match and frankly was a bit more of a bait and switch than I would like, but it sure as hell was entertaining as DX pulled a fast one to get disqualified and send Chris Jericho back to Smackdown for good. Jericho was tremendous in this segment, much like he was the last time he was fired from Raw back in the day with the John Cena angle. Hilarious stuff from Jericho throughout this one, especially his desperately impassioned pleas of "I want to stay" as he's being shoved out the door. Surely there's going to be more to this and we'll probably be seeing Jericho back on Raw by the end of the year if there's any justice in the world. Yeah, he may not have been in the running for the Superstar of the Year award, but based on how he's carried much of the entertainment value of the company for the past eighteen months, he definitely deserved to be.

The main event saw the finals of the Superstar of the Year award tournament with match number 4,286,915 between Randy Orton and John Cena, less than two months after their "last match ever" match at Bragging Rights. The match was pretty good as it should be considering how much these guys have seen of each other in the past few years, but it just couldn't get over the fact that we've seen it way too often. Cena picked up the win to get the pity Slammy as Superstar of the Year after losing his title and Sheamus (who was barely on the show at all after the biggest win of his career in an odd choice) certainly let him know it by standing on the stage and taunting him with the title belt. I didn't care too much for the finish and the whole show was pretty uneven with the bright spots being really bright and the lows being rather low. There's one more big development from the show I didn't touch on, but that will come in the top story of the week a little later.





ECW on SyFy Results:

The Hurricane vs. The Ripper - Winner: The Hurricane (pinfall, Shining Wizard)
Vladimir Kozlov vs. Ezekiel Jackson - Winner: Ezekiel Jackson (pinfall, Uranage)
Trent Baretta and Caylen Croft vs. Julio Cruz and Jorge Areas - Winners: Trent Baretta and Caylen Croft (pinfall, neckbreaker/powerbomb combo)
Kane vs. Zack Ryder - Winner: Kane (pinfall, chokeslam)


ECW tried to build off of the momentum of their huge championship match at TLC on Sunday, but judging from how this show went, they definitely failed. The show started with Tiffany announcing the ECW Homecoming, a series of matches with ECW alums coming back to face the current crop of ECW talent with the winner becoming the new number one contender for Christian's ECW Championship. I talked earlier about the lack of contenders for Christian and while this is an original idea and could be a fun concept, it just underscores the problem as they're having to bring in non-ECW talent to try to make the top of the card work. On any other program, I'd be much more excited about the new way of crowning a top challenger, but on ECW it comes off as being a desperation attempt at giving Christian something to do as champion.

In the ring, the show wasn't too much better as an Ezekiel Jackson/Vladimir Kozlov match stunk out the joint and the tag team of Caylen Croft and Trent Baretta continued their squasheriffic ways against another couple of local jobbers. Things were a little better in the opening match between The Hurricane and the masked wrestler known as "The Ripper", but the decent in-ring work was undone by the shame of having Hurricane unmask The Ripper and effectively kill the angle within a couple of weeks of it beginning. This could have been a nice little B or C story for the show for at least another month or two before getting blown off before WrestleMania on some of ECW's bigger shows building to the event, but instead it was a throwaway part of a throwaway match and ends up being a disappointment.

The main event saw the return of Kane as he took on Zack Ryder as part of the ECW Homecoming tournament deal. They tried their best, but this one was pretty much dead on arrival as the match began after the show was already supposed to be off the air and the two of them just didn't agree with each other style-wise in the ring. Not surprisingly, Kane picked up the win and moves on in the undefined format of the challenger tournament, but this one was a bad end to a bad show all around. With all of the rumors swirling around the end of the ECW brand, I'd have to say that it probably wouldn't be the worst idea if this is the kind of television they're going to put on week after week. This deosn't even have the ability to fall into the niche of a show like the old Superstars or Wrestling Challenge style of shows and instead is just becoming worse and worse.





WWE Superstars Results:

Cryme Tyme vs. Mike Knox and Dolph Ziggler - Winners: Cryme Tyme (pinfall, JTG's Shout-Out on Knox)
Vance Archer vs. Tommy Dreamer - Winner: Vance Archer (pinfall, reverse DDT)
MVP vs. Jack Swagger - Winner: MVP (pinfall, Playmaker)


Superstars had the stank of Tuesday's ECW show to deal with and I think they did remarkably well in putting together a good little standalone show that didn't do much to further any angles, but also had quality wrestling and next to nothing that made me want to turn the channel, something that neither Raw or ECW could claim so far. The one spot that I had a bit of an issue with was the Vance Archer/Tommy Dreamer match, but that was mainly because it was yet another extended squash match for Archer, something that is beginning to hurt him rather than help him at this point. Yeah, he'll get a little cred for beating an ECW hero like Dreamer, but he needs to do something soon to avoid falling into the debuting superstar mold that he seems to be heading towards. If he doesn't, I give him three months until he's ECW's new Mike Knox.

Speaking of Mike Knox, he and Dolph Ziggler made one of the more mismatched tag teams in recent memory to take on Cryme Tyme in the opener. The heel team actually had a pretty good chemistry and the match was good. They had about twelve minutes or so and while Cryme Tyme has slipped through the cracks a bit since their challenges of Chris Jericho and The Big Show a while back, they're still plugging away and put on a decent showing here. They picked up the win, but the real winners for me were Knox and Ziggler, who did a great job as a team and helped make the match as entertaining as it was. Knox's dropkick on Shad was perhaps the most impressive part of the match for me and was a surprising bit of athleticism from someone that hasn't had a lot of chances to show it. I'm not sure if they're going to go with Knox and Ziggler as a regular team or if this was just a one-off, but I wouldn't complain if we get to see more of Knox and Ziggler in the upcoming weeks. At least they'd have something to do rather than just some aimless matches as they've had lately.

The main event saw Jack Swagger and MVP lock horns again in their on-again, off-again feud and this was probably one of their best matches at the best of times. They were the featured bout and they acted like it, putting together almost fourteen minutes worth of action that was fitting for two of the guys that were on the WWE's list of rising stars just a few months ago. I'm not sure where either of them went wrong, but both guys proved with this match that they deserve to have titles in their future. Both of these guys feuding over the US Championship after WrestleMania would be more than fine with me and I'm hoping that they decide to go that route because it would go a long way towards having both guys join guys like Kofi Kingston and Sheamus in breaking through to the top of the card.





TNA Impact Results:

Roxxi vs. ODB - Winner: Roxxi (pinfall, roll-up)
Lumberjack Match: Brother Ray vs. Matt Morgan - Winner: Brother Ray (pinfall, DDT)
Hamada and Awesome Kong vs. The Beautiful People vs. Taylor Wilde and Sarita - Winners: Hamada and Awesome Kong (pinfall, Kong's sunset flip reversal on Rayne)
Jay Lethal vs. Tatanka - Winner: Tatanka (pinfall, Samoan Drop)
Desmond Wolfe vs. Daniels - Winner: None (Time limit draw)
AJ Styles, Tomko, Bobby Lashly, Abyss and Kurt Angle vs. Scott Steiner, Dr. Stevie, Raven, Doug Williams and Brutus Magnus - Winners: A.J. Styles, Tomko, Bobby Lashley, Abyss, and Kurt Angle (pinfall, Styles' roll-up on Magnus)


Unfortunately, Impact fell by the wayside this week as I had a late appointment a couple of towns over to try to figure out why I'm still suffering from a pretty bad cough after a couple of months of being sick and was unable to make it back in time to watch the entire show. I've seen some bits and pieces, so I'll talk on those, but there's a lot of the show that I haven't been able to check out yet.

The Daniels/Wolfe match was like some sort of horrible tease from TNA as they were on their way to doing something pretty awesome before they got their legs cut out from under them by the imaginary time limit. I can honestly say that if TNA were to focus on in-ring product and a LOT less on some of the sports entertainment nonsense by pushing matches like this, they'd have a real chance at being an alternative to the WWE if they decide to pursue a new Monday Night War. I really wish that they could have had more time and had a finish and looking at the card, it probably would have been easy enough to cut the three-way Knockouts tag match and have that happen. I'm not saying that the Knockouts should be ignored or anything, but they're not goign to help anchor PPV buys for the company moving forward like Daniels and Wolfe potentially can.

I also had the chance to see the main event tag match and while it did a decent enough job of pushing most of the main angles heading into Final Destination, but it was just too short for so many guys in the ring. Kudos to Raven for showing some superb gross-out psychology by biting on Abyss' leg like a rabid dog, but this one was just a muddled mess for me. Having AJ and Kurt fighting over the belt after the finish with Wolfe and Daniels laying them out is not too shabby as it will hopefully set up a title scene that has AJ, Angle, Daniels and Wolfe all fighting for the gold in long pay-per-view matches that speak to the old-school of championship matches where they weren't warmed up until they were fifteen minutes in. I'll be sure to check back in for the full Impact next week for all of the fallout from Final Resolution as I feel fairly safe in saying I don't have anywhere to be on Christmas Eve.





Friday Night Smackdown Results:

John Morrison, Matt Hardy and R-Truth v. CM Punk, Drew McIntyre and Luke Gallows - Winners: CM Punk, Drew McIntyre and Luke Gallows (pinfall, Punk's Slammy shot on Hardy)
Kane vs. Eric Escobar - Winner: Kane (pinfall, chokeslam)
The Great Khali vs. Chris Jericho - Winner: The Great Khali (countout)
Slam Masta J and Jimmy Wang Yang vs. The Hart Dynasty - Winners: The Hart Dynasty (pinfall, Hart Attack on Slam Masta J)
Maria vs. Beth Phoenix - Winner: Beth Phoenix (pinfall, Glam Slam)
Number One Contender Match: Rey Mysterio vs. Batista - Winner: Rey Mysterio (pinfall, roll-up)


A new number one contender for The Undertaker was crowned on Smackdown, while Batista raged over his inability to win the World Heavyweight Championship at the TLC pay-per-view. Outside of the silliness with Eric Escobar and Vickie Guerrero which still seems like a poor man's recreation of the Vickie/Edge story just fast forwarded by about eight months, the show was pretty strong with a nice six-man tag starting things out in the ring and a nice long main event to finish up.

The six-man match saw CM Punk and Luke Gallows continue to run roughshod over the midcard faces on the Smackdown brand as Gallows helped Punk's team steal a win from Matt Hardy, R-Truth and John Morrison by handing Punk his Slammy to waffle Hardy with. For being a new pairing, Gallows and Punk are showing some real chemistry to me and I'm really liking what they're doing so far. Punk has been lost in the shuffle a little bit since he lost his title, but that doesn't mean he hasn't been just as entertaining, which hopefully means that he'll be back in the mix of things soon. Another added bonus to the teaming of Punk and Gallows is that Gallows' in-ring work has improved a lot now that he's not saddled with the lame Festus deal. Not main event-level improvement, but he's getting a lot better and that's a good thing.

Chris Jericho made his return as a Smackdown exclusive superstar after being booted from Monday Night Raw earlier in the week and while his match against The Great Khali may not have been a technical marvel, it was still fun for me as Jericho continued to entertain with a great promo before the match, did as much as he could with a stiff like Khali, and ended the match with a great dick heel move by walking away and taking the countout loss rather than getting beaten by the bigger and stronger Khali. It will be interesting to see what they do with Jericho now that he's back on Smackdown full-time, especially with how crowded the title picture seems at the moment, but hopefully he's able to make a big impact with another top-level feud in the near future. Of course, there's always the chance that he can keep crossing over to Raw as the brand extension rules get a little looser on the Road to WrestleMania too, which would be good times.

The main event saw Rey Mysterio get a measure of revenge on Batista for his repeated beatings as Mysterio won the number one contender match with a roll-up to become the new top challenger for The Undertaker. The match was typical Mysterio stuff that he does with a big man with Batista doing a decent job in heeling it up, though it all kind of felt like it's been done before since this has been Rey's style of matches with bigger wrestlers since he's come to the WWE. The one thing that saved this one from being a bit of a disappointment is that they got a ton of time to work with, not only making the fight for the right to challenge The Undertaker seem more important, but giving the match itself time to develop into a good main event encounter. This sets up an interesting match for next week as Mysterio and The Undertaker will meet for the title, a bout that Batista will likely have a hand in as well.







The Hitman Cometh?

-- In the biggest news of the week and a story that could easily be the biggest wrestling story of the year and the decade, it appears that a return to the WWE is in the offing for Bret "The Hitman" Hart, possibly one of the most anticipated returns in the history of the sport. Dave Meltzer has reported that Hart has signed a short-term talent contract that will cover from New Year's Day until two weeks past WrestleMania and that there are plans to have Hart, age 52, compete in the ring for one final match.

This is huge for anyone who has followed the WWE since the burgeoning days of the Attitude era as Hart was the guy that pretty much carried the company through their darkest days and helped keep the company afloat while WCW drained their talent and their audience. Of course, everyone thought that when Hart was last involved with the WWE for the release of his DVD collection and his induction into the WWE Hall of Fame, that would be the last we would see of "The Hitman" based on his incredibly strained relationship with Vince McMahon (if you somehow don't know what I mean, Google "Bret Hart Montreal", I'll wait).

However, time has apparently healed some of the wounds that were opened that night in November of 1997 with the news of Hart's return. There's really only one thing that came to mind when I heard of the strong possibility of Hart coming back to the WWE.



Outside of the frosty conditions WAY down south, there are a few other factors to consider as well when this deal and possible return is looked at from all angles. Many fans are probably feeling a little gun-shy from all of the previous teases of Hart's return, some of them going so far as to have his music and Titantron play only to have their hopes dashed. All of these factors likely played a part in Hart returning, as well as confirming that Hart will indeed return.

1.) There is a new Hart Foundation DVD in the works from the WWE, and much like with the Bret Hart DVD, there is always the chance ( no matter how small) that Vince would take some liberties with the set if Hart wasn't on board. Bret is meticulous when it comes to his legacy including hand-picking all of the matches for his three-disc set, meaning that he would definitely feel the need to be a part of the set that will chronicle the team that made him a national and international star.

2.) The Hart Dynasty has made themselves a strong group when it comes to the future of Smackdown and with Bret on board for a few months, their push should probably take flight into the stratosphere. They've already challenged DX for the Unified Tag Team Championships and we all know how much Hart would love to knock Triple H and Michaels down a peg or two. Doing this would either mean that Bret would have to be a heel, or that DX would have to somehow turn and flip the Hart kids at the same time. It's possible to do it without Hart's involvement with the kids saying that his return has inspired them to take revenge, even without his blessing, but there's definitely a chance for the Hart Dynasty to make out huge, which I'm sure played a role in Bret's decision.

3.) One final act of revenge on Vince McMahon, the man that nearly singlehandedly destroyed Bret's legacy in one swing of his arm and with one utterance of "ring the damn bell". When fans think of Hart now, they usually tend to only dwell on Montreal and his hatred of Vince McMahon, rather than the great career that came before. If Hart is finally able to get Vince into the ring on a grand stage like WrestleMania and exact his ultimate revenge, fans will remember that almost as much as the Montreal incident, hopefully closing the book on one of the longest open-ended feuds in history. That would also hopefully allow fans to remember Hart's legacy of title reigns and classic matches as much or more than the sad end to his time in the WWF.

4.) TNA's live Monday night broadcast has seemingly raised no interest at all in the WWE's head offices, but if you believe that, I've got a bridge to sell you. While they may not consider TNA direct competition as of yet, as soon as they end up on Monday nights, they're on the WWE's radar and they're likely going to incite the creative wrath of the biggest wrestling promotion in the world. TNA announcing their live show forced the WWE's hand and with their most marketable star John Cena already booked across the country at a college football bowl game, they had to pull out the big guns. Many felt that The Rock may have returned as a guest host for that night, but the timeframe didn't work out, leaving the WWE with nothing huge to try to crush any momentum TNA could hope to gain. Bringing in Hart will be as big or bigger than an appearance from The Rock and will surely outdraw Hulk Hogan by a large amount, strictly from the standpoint of Hart making only one appearance in the WWE since 1997. TNA may make some waves, but rest assured, if Hart comes back on January 4th, Raw will blow them out of the water.

5.) Last but not least, the reason why beyond all other teases, this one will come through. In the past, there have been attempts to try to bring Hart back into the fold on a short-term basis and while there have been brief mentions of Hart here and there, last Monday night saw the first time that Hart was mentioned in terms of an angle aspect since he left in 1997. With a contract signed and an angle started on television on Monday night, there is hopefully nothing that can stand in the way of Hart making his return and giving the fans one last stand before heading peacefully into retirement or whatever he decides to do afterwards.

Hart wanted to keep his signing quiet and have the return be a surprise, but in this day and age that's next to impossible. While a surprise return would have definitely been a "WTF?" mark-out moment that would have melted the internet, the fact that there is some serious buzz behind the return before it happens means that there is much more of an opportunity for the WWE to pop a huge rating and for Hart's return to be one of those iconic moments in wrestling where nearly every fan is watching. There aren't even words to describe how huge this story could be and I don't think I'm overdosing on hyperbole pills when I say that.

Who said that Dennis Miller hosting Raw wasn't going to bring anything exciting?




-- What would a week of news reports be without another Hulk Hogan interview as he prepares for the huge January 4th live three-hour Impact show that will feature his official TNA debut. Hogan spoke to Montreal's Main Event wrestling radio show and as is usually the case when Hulk is talking about TNA, there were some nice bits in there that need to be discussed, both good and bad.

Hulk Soundbite #1:

"I wasn't going to just to come in as another wrestler and we do half-a-number this week, then after three or four weeks of seeing the shirt ripped off and the leg dropped, then nobody cares anymore. But if it was to really come in and see who can go and who can't - and I'm not coming in with an edge; everyone has something to contribute whether it's Vince Russo, the other writers, all the wrestlers. I want to hear what they have to say because I learn from everybody. And the people who can't pull their own weight, they will be gone. So I'm excited about going there."

This is one of those good and bad things that I was talking about before because it's good that Hulk has realized that it's going to take more than him just joining as an in-ring performer to bring TNA to the level of being close to being considered competition for the WWE. That's a big step up for Hulk in terms of his own ego and his inflated self-image. Back in the day, Hogan would be talking about how him taking the TNA Championship would guarantee 5.0 ratings every week or some other similar nonsense. It's nice to see Hulk apparently has a firmer grip on reality than he has in the past.

The bad thing comes about with Hulk talking about how people that can't pull their weight being gone. Hopefully, he's not just talking about the people that can cozy up to him the most will have job security while people who don't play the politic game get the short shift. There's been a concern from the anti-Hogan crowd that he could find himself caught in the same rut he was in in the 90's in WCW with keeping his own friends on top of things while people who are talented and deserving pushes remain at the bottom of the card. I'm holding out hope that Hogan is going to see that guys like Daniels, Desmond Wolfe and AJ Styles are the future and build around them, but until I see it, I'm not sure if I'll believe it.

Hulk Soundbite #2:

"Brother, I'm not telling you who I'm bringing in. You've been around long enough, you know I'm not gonna tell. But Kevin is talking about bringing the band back together, and you know what he's talking about [the nWo]. I don't need any problems; I just want guys who really want to work hard. We've all matured a lot and we've all learned from our mistakes."

This is one of the good things as from hearing this, it sounds like Hogan may have learned from his previous mistakes in just using friends and the like in positions of power and on top rather than listening to everyone and taking in everybody's opinion. While there's a chance that he could bring back some of those guys for one-off's or shorter angles, it sounds like he's willing to leave the past in the past, which bodes well for the younger guys in TNA's future.

Finally, just for fun, here's Hulk's take on the last-minute change that saw Hogan/Flair switched into two separate singles matches against different opponents at WrestleMania VIII.

Hulk Soundbite #3:

"As far as Wrestlemania 8 goes, I think the situation was getting out of control. I think that Hogan vs Flair was so big that nothing else on that card mattered. I think that it would have made it out of control. You look at Hogan/Flair and then what do you do with the rest of the card after that? I think Vince saw the momentum of this tidal wave coming at him so he shut it down before it got enough momentum to wipe out the whole world. He put me against Sid Vicious – and I think the switch was at the last minute. Me and Flair just looked at each other and we knew what was up."

Good to see the old Hulk Hogan stick his neck out on occasion. This honestly doesn't sound that much different than a Hulkamania promo from the mid-80's. I mean, he sounds like he's getting ready to head out to the ring to beat down Kamala. After all of this time, I still feel like they saw the somewhat lackluster reaction to Hulk/Flair on the house show circuit and they pulled the trigger on the change.



-- The recent Tiger Woods scandal has managed to make its way into the realm of professional wrestling, albeit somewhat peripherally as former ECW and WCW valet Chastity has signed on to play a role in the X-rated movie spoof of the golfer's marital indiscretions, Tiger's Wood. Chastity is probably best known for her time spent with Raven's Flock in both ECW and WCW, though she was also affiliated with Hardcore Hak (The Sandman) during her WCW stint. Towards the end of her time in Atlanta, an X-rated movie from her past cropped up and she was dropped from the company, retiring from the sport soon after. Makes you wonder how far you could reach out into the legitimate (and illegitimate) entertainment world playing the whole Six Degrees game with professional wrestling and how weird those connections would get.



-- Longtime WWE announcer and former head of talent relations for the promotion, Jim Ross, has announced on his blog that he has signed a contract extension with the company to allow him to fully heal from his latest bout with Bells Palsy. This doesn't appear to be a full contract extension as those negotiations are still ongoing, and it looks as though TNA has been pushing pretty hard to get JR onto their roster, even despite his relapse. Jeremy Borash has spoken on the company trying very seriously to woo JR over to their program, with attempts being unsuccessful up to this point. As I've said a few times, adding someone of JR's gravitas would instantly up the credibility of TNA's announce team, but I just don't see him leaving the WWE at this point in his career. Unless he is really keen on a lighter work schedule and feels like he has enough money salted away to take a bit of a cut to work for TNA, I think he's going to be with the WWE until the end of his career.



-- The WWE announced an adjustment to their Wellness Policy this week through their corporate website, closing a loophole that had allowed talent that had amassed strikes against the policy and left the company to enter back into the company with a clean slate. The change now means that someone like Booker T, who has been rumored to be coming back to the WWE for some time now after his fallout with TNA will have both strikes against him from his last stint in the WWE as opposed to having three fresh chances to screw up. Closing up this particular loophole could be a big key in whether or not Booker even comes back to the WWE as he is going to have to weigh out whether he can survive being just one strike away from termination.



-- Finally this week, a fond farewell to Christy Hemme, who announced her retirement from wrestling this week, just a few months after her return from a serious neck injury. The main reason for her retirement was the fear of re-injuring her neck, which is something I have to commend her for. Most people involved in wrestling tend to try to hang on too long with a variety of injuries that will likely force them into a much diminished capacity of life in later years. Hemme is walking away while she still can with pretty much all of her faculties at 100%, which is a good thing. Hemme, who won the WWE Diva Search and posed for Playboy during her time with that company before moving to TNA, will stay with the company, likely as a replacement for backstage interviewer Lauren Brooks, who is leaving the company to focus more of her attention on her other projects on The Golf Channel.


That does it for this week's Bell To Bell News Report and since this has been the weekend for announcements from wrestling news writers, I figure now is as good a time as any to tell you that beginning next week, The Bell to Bell will now be featured on Saturdays to replace Dustin James' Squared Circle News. Much like myself, Dustin is a quality MMA writer and I hope that I'll be able to hold his audience while bringing over my own to Saturdays. It might mean the odd extra episode of Smackdown needing to be covered later, but it will be fun to take on this new day and I'll attack it with the same quality I've tried to bring to Sundays.

Unfortunately, due to the huge amount of time I spent on TLC and on the Bret Hart developments among other things, I've had to cut some content to keep from running long and having part of my column cut off by the site's length limitations. That means that I'll have to begin the countdown of top stories leading up to my fiftieth column next week as I can't see any other way to squeeze it in. That also means that instead of covering the top four stories of the week, I'll only be counting down the top three, but here's a hint about what story number four would have been. It's happening on January 4th on Spike TV.

With all of that under our belts and with my best wishes for everyone that checks out 411mania, whether they like my work or not, have a safe and Merry Christmas everybody, enjoy the time with your friends and family. In the meantime and in between time, I'll see you back here next time on a new day for the next edition of The Bell to Bell News Report.


If you're a fan of MMA, be sure to check out Nokaut.com for more of my work.