Just S’pose 11.09.07

Eight years? Yikes. My very first column would now be in second grade.

A quick update, fan-wise: in West Virginia high school football, Brooke finished the regular season at 7-3, one game better than last year. This weekend, in the first round, they will play against St. Albans, and hopefully will not have a similar result to last year’s playoff game, when they lost to Martinsburg by 56-7, or something outrageous like that.

Pitt is now 4-5, and they need to fire Dave Wannstedt about two seasons ago. But, they won’t.

As for the Pittsburgh Steelers, they are 6-2 at the halfway point of the season, and have given up only 98 points this season. Of those 98, 31 came in a loss to Denver, and 21 in a loss to Arizona. Add 16 points in a win against San Francisco, and they have given up 30 points in five wins against Cleveland, Cincinnati, Baltimore, Buffalo, and Seattle. Let me just say, if you thought Indianapolis gave New England a tough game this past week, wait until the first weekend of December, when Da Stillers go to Foxboro.

Anyway, I have promised this column since I first introduced “Just S’pose” under my own name. So, let’s get to it, shall we?

THE BEST “JUST S’POSE” THERE IS, THE BEST “JUST S’POSE” THERE WAS, AND THE BEST “JUST S’POSE” THERE EVER WILL BE

Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels fought back and forth for about twenty minutes, in and out of the ring. In their battle, Earl Hebner was hit, and he fell down in the corner of the ring. He struggled to get up, but slumped back down to the canvas.

Michaels knocked Hart down, grabbed his legs, and put the Sharpshooter, Hart’s own finishing move, on its best-known proponent. Hart struggled to reach the ropes or reverse the move, knowing those were the only ways he could avoid losing in as embarrassing manner as possible. After struggling over a minute, he finally managed to force Michaels down on the mat, and began to stand, hoping to entangle Michaels’ legs in the same move. However, both men fell out of the ring, and began brawling toward the back. Hebner stood, saw both men out of the ring, and began counting. Hart saw the referee counting and tried to run to the ring, but he was prevented by Michaels. Hebner reached ten, and called for the bell to ring. The match was declared a double countout.

In the world we know, officially, Shawn Michaels won the World Wrestling Federation title by defeating Bret Hart at Survivor Series on November 9, 1997, in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. In truth, there was so much more to that title change than can be conveyed in a simple sentence, paragraph, or even story. But, Just S’pose Bret Hart wasn’t screwed at Survivor Series 1997. What might have happened?

The next night, in Ottawa, Ontario, Raw began with Vince McMahon in the ring, holding a microphone. He announced Bret Hart, who walked to the ring, carrying the WWF World title. He told Vince that he had come that night to announce he was relinquishing the World title. He told the crowd that night he was there that night to tell his fellow Canadians he was glad of all they had accomplished together. Furthermore, he hoped a member of the Hart Foundation – his brothers-in-law, Jim Neidhart and Davey Boy Smith, or his brother, Owen – would get a chance to win the belt. He left Ottawa that night a hero to Canadians everywhere.

Or so he had hoped. Instead, many in the crowd felt that he was running from a fight. After all, besides Michaels, he also had Steve Austin, Ken Shamrock, Hunter Hearst-Helmsley, and Kane as future challengers, with many younger men on the horizon. Instead of winning his final match with the company and beating back his hated rival, he was counted out of the ring, taking the air out of his final WWF title reign, and the crowd in Ottawa. They had no idea what to think of the opening segment, and now that one of the most recognizable Canadians in the world had simply walked away from his appointed station….

Three weeks later, Bret reappeared on the national wrestling scene, on WCW Monday Nitro. Hulk Hogan and Sting were preparing for their main event at Starrcade, when Hart came to the ring and appointed himself a special enforcer, to prevent any members of Hogan’s NWO from interfering. For the next three weeks, Bret appeared at different times on Nitro, telling both challenger Sting and champion Hogan that he would make sure there was no interference, and that there would be a definite winner. After all, this would be the culmination of Sting’s “Cold War with the NWO, his first match in almost fifteen months after hanging out in the rafters. Hart was also named special referee for a match between Larry Zbyszko and Eric Bischoff, in which a Bischoff win would give Nitro over to the NWO.

At Starrcade, Zbyszko won his match, allowing WCW to retain control of the showcase program. In the main event title match, Hogan won the match when referee Nick Patrick counted the pin, but Hart negated the pin, saying it was a quick count, and demanding the match be restarted. After a couple minutes, Sting got Hogan in the Scorpion Deathlock, but just before Hogan gave up, Hart kicked Sting in the head, breaking the submission and ending the match without a definite result.

The next night, on Nitro, Hart explained why he did it: Sting stole Hart’s Sharpshooter, then went to WCW and tried to claim it as his own. He was tired of people taking things that were his, and he was going to make an example of Sting.

At this point in the segment, the familiar bass riff blared throughout the arena, Hogan and Eric Bischoff came to the ring. They gave Hart his very own black shirt with the NWO logo on it. Bischoff, despite being angry about losing his match when Hart counted the pin, welcomed Bret to the group, and Hogan thanked him for stepping in when Sting cheated and got him in “that move he stole from you.” Hart thanked them for “this nice dishrag,” but he was not interested in joining the NWO; he just wanted to stop Sting from using his Sharpshooter anymore.

At that point, Kevin Nash and Scott Hall came to the ring. They told Hogan and Bischoff it was obvious he wasn’t going to join them; he would instead join Nash and Hall’s new group, The Wolfpack. Hart thanked them as well, but said he wasn’t interested in joining either group.

Hogan gave him an ultimatum; join us, or the wrath of the entire NWO would come crashing down on his head. Hart said he would give both the NWO and The Wolfpack an answer later that night. Before he could leave the ring, Sting descended from the rafters and began fighting Bret, while Hogan, Bischoff, Nash, and Hall watched from inside the ring.

At the end of the night, Hart came to the ring and said he had an answer for everyone. He still wasn’t joining either group; instead, he was starting his own group, the Canadian Stampede. At that point, Chris Benoit, Chris Jericho, Rick Martel, and newcomers Christian Cage and Adam Copeland came to the ring to join their leader. Hart demanded a match against Sting, and then warned both the NWO and The Wolfpack to stay out of his business.

Naturally, both groups came to the ring from opposite directions at the mention of their groups, ready to beat on anyone and everyone not wearing the proper colors. The NWO wore their traditional black and white, The Wolfpack wore their new black and red, and the Canadian Stampede wore red and white. But before anyone could attack, Sting once again descended from the rafters into the ring behind Bret. Before he could do anything, though, Bret turned around and punched him. The entire Canadian group joined in on the attack, before they were also attacked by the other groups. The final ten minutes of Nitro looked like live coverage of a riot.

On Nitro the next week, it was announced that at the first broadcast of the new show, Thunder, that Wednesday, Bret and Sting would have a match, in which the winner would have to force his opponent to submit to the Sharpshooter/Scorpion Deathlock. The match finished in a no-contest when the NWO ran in and jumped both men, then claimed Thunder as an NWO show. If they wanted to figure out who was the true owner of that hold, they would have to have the match either on Nitro or on pay-per-view. The match was signed for Souled Out, and during the match, Hart beat Sting after some surprise outside interference. Just like that, Owen Hart was the latest member of the Canadian Stampede. Also on the card, Chris Benoit beat Dallas Page for the US title, Chris Jericho won the Cruiserweight title from Rey Misterio, Jr, and Christian Cage and Adam Copeland beat Buff Bagwell and Scott Norton.

The Canadian Stampede continued to gain momentum and new members. Chris Benoit’s former tag team partner, Biff Wellington, joined the group, and he and Rick Martel regularly beat teams from the NWO, including several times on NWO Thunder. Lance Storm jumped from ECW to WCW and quickly won the US title after Booker T took it from Benoit.

Throughout the year, all three groups sent members to interfere in matches involving the other two. Occasionally, other members of the WCW locker room would claim belts, with the most noteworthy and longest being the final WCW tag title run for Rick and Scott Steiner, but almost every main event on television would end up being a match between members of the NOW, the Wolfpack, or the Canadian Stampede.

At the September pay-per-view, Fall Brawl, the Wolfpack challenged the Canadian Stampede to a five-on-five War Games match, with the losing team being forced to disband. Kevin Nash, Scott Hall, Konnan, Randy Savage, and Sting fought against Bret Hart, Owen Hart, Chris Benoit, Lance Storm, and Adam Copeland for almost thirty minutes before the original NWO invaded the cage, beat down all competitors, and claimed victory over both factions.

At World War III in November, the main event turned into a three-ring battle royal in which each ring held two members of each group. The final three men in the ring, Chris Jericho (Stampede), Lex Luger (Wolfpack), and The Giant (NWO), were the victims of an unexpected turn, when the remaining unaffiliated members of the WCW locker room joined with the Four Horsemen to try to reclaim the ring and the territory for the company whose name was still on the marquee.

At Starrcade 1998, everything came to one final explosion of a match. In what came to be known as the “Cage of Doom Match,” all four factions (NWO, Stampede, WCW, Wolfpack) each sent five members to what was a giant cage, which was twenty feet high, roofed, and surrounded the ring and about five feet of the ringside area. Each team would send one man to the ring at the beginning of the match, and every five minutes, another man from each team would enter the cage. The first team to get someone to submit would win the match and win title matches for each team member for the title of his choice. The losing team would be forced to disband for one year, and the man to submit would have to leave WCW for one year. Ric Flair pinned Eric Bischoff, which led to three things: (1) Bischoff was out of WCW, (2) the NWO was now banned for one year, and (3) Flair, Bill Goldberg, Eddy Guerrero, Dean Malenko, and Dallas Page won title matches for whichever title each wanted to challenge for, at any time, until Starrcade 1999.

But, what about the WWF, where Bret Hart used to call home? Davey Boy Smith met Shawn Michaels in December for the vacant WWF title, which Michaels won. He was challenged by Steve Austin at the Royal Rumble, and Austin won the match and the title when Vince McMahon interfered. He demanded to be called “Mr. McMahon,” admitted on television he was the owner of the company (not just an announcer), and called Austin his “corporate champion.” But, with no impetus for his character to suddenly go from “innocuous announcer” to “evil corporate owner,” it made no sense. The main event at WrestleMania XIV was Austin vs. Michaels with special guest referee Mike Tyson, brought in by McMahon to “protect his investment.” In the end, Tyson turned on McMahon and counted the pin which brought the WWF title back to Shawn Michaels. D-Generation X, as Michaels, Triple H, and Chyna called themselves, now carried the banner for the fans of the company, and took on everyone brought into the company by McMahon. Unfortunately, the WWF, which began the year far behind WCW in the Nielsen ratings race, lost even more ground throughout 1998.

In June 1999, Bret Hart finally won the WCW World title, beating Kevin Nash with lots of interference from both the Stampede and the Wolfpack. Immediately after the match, Bill Goldberg demanded a title match, and won. Bret Hart’s first WCW World title reign lasted fourteen minutes.

At the next pay-per-view, Bash at the Beach, Hart was granted a rematch, and he beat Goldberg to regain the belt. Immediately after the match, Ric Flair demanded his title match, and Hart’s second WCW World title reign lasted twelve minutes.

At Starrcade 1999, Bret Hart wrestled against Jeff Jarrett. Immediately after winning the match, he grabbed the mic, thanked the fans for their support, and retired as an active wrestler. He continued as a manager for the Stampede until January 2001. In his final match in any capacity, he managed his brother Owen to a WCW World title win over Scott Steiner.

Today, Bret Hart appears occasionally on both Nitro and Raw, and is the only wrestler, past or present, who is able to go back and forth between the two companies.

ENOUGH IS ENOUGH, AND IT’S TIME FOR A CHANGE!

And now, for something completely different.

I have talked to Larry. This is my final regular column for 411, in any capacity. I will have one more next week, but it will not be a Just S’pose, or a World According To, or an Explain That?!?, or a political column, or even a Mark-Up (remember that?). Next week, I’ll have some final farewells to say to everyone, and I’ll even explain why I’m doing it.

I have thought about this for a few months, so you can’t talk me out of it. Don’t even try. However, I’ll gladly take any emails about your favorite memories, why you’re glad I’m leaving, or whatever you want to say.

Until next week, homeslices.