Bret Hart Comments on His WWE RAW Return Appearance at This Past Monday’s WWE RAW Show in Calgary
This past Monday’s WWE RAW show in Calgary, Alberta, Canada featured WWE Hall of Famer Bret “The Hitman” Hart making a special appearance.
WWE recently released a digital exclusive backstage interview with Hart featuring Hart discussing his thoughts about his recent WWE return appearance in front of his hometown crowd in Canada.
“I didn’t just assume or take for granted that they were going to invite me down tonight. You know, any time I get a chance to be in front of the Calgary fans — because I think Calgary fans go back the farthest for me. They go back to when I was 18, 19 years old wrestling. So, I mean, it’s a very special, powerful building for me to walk in. A lot of memories here. A lot of great memories. A lot of title matches. A lot of — even in the old Stampede Wrestling days, I had a lot of memories here.
It’s kind of a funny feeling to walk down to the ring slowly and kind of pull yourself back into the ring and just find yourself standing at the center of it talking to the fans. But, I mean, I don’t know if I looked a little nervous, because I’m not sure that I was. But I think standing in the middle of the ring there for a few seconds, this transformation takes place. I mean, I think I transformed back into Bret ‘The Hitman’ Hart for a minute for everyone. And it was fun for me to do that, and it was something that was magical that was brought out by the love of the fans.”
Hart also gave his thoughts about his backstage interaction with WWE CCO Paul “Triple H” Levesque at the show.
“There’s not that many from my generation that are around anymore, so running into Triple H is always a pleasure.”
Transcript h/t: F4WOnline.com
Batista Comments on He Could Never Do a WWE Retirement Tour Like John Cena
A recent episode of the Insight with Chris Van Vliet podcast featured Dave Bautista, former Batista in WWE, as the guest. One of the topics discussed included Bautista’s thoughts about him not being interested in doing a retirement tour for his wrestling career similar to John Cena’s upcoming WWE retirement tour.
“I get along with John (Cena). I respect John a lot. A lot more than people think I do. I think the internet and I think fans have built this rivalry between us which it really isn’t. But this is how we’re different. I would never do this. I wouldn’t, I couldn’t. It would feel disingenuine to me to go around and — but I see his point where he wants to go around and he wants to personally thank all the fans. But there’s just something in me where I just couldn’t do it. It wouldn’t feel comfortable to me. Accolades feel uncomfortable to me. I could never be the type of babyface who is saying good stuff because I wanted to get the crowd to cheer for me. I couldn’t be that guy. I love and respect what he’s doing with his whole tour to say thank you to the fans. But we’re just different that way. I couldn’t do it. I went out the way I wanted out. I retired the way I wanted. I didn’t wanna make a big deal out of it. I announced my retirement on Instagram and I knew I was gonna do it. I just didn’t wanna tell anybody I was gonna do it because I didn’t want anybody to say, nah! Nah! You gotta come and you gotta give a speech! With fans and you know, I don’t know. It’s just something about it just would have felt false to me. I couldn’t do it.”
Bautista also gave his thoughts about if he feels that his wrestling career was worthy enough of him being inducted into WWE’s Hall of Fame.
“No (I don’t think I made it to the top of wrestling). I think if I had stayed longer, I might have. There’s a part of me that always thinks, you know, right guy, right time. I don’t know what I would have achieved if I would have been like a John Cena or a Randy Orton. Been there 13, 14 — 20-time World Champion. I don’t know. But I think what I did in the short period of time that I was actually there, kind of my run between 2005 and 2010, I’m proud of. I can say that I’m proud of it. I’ve had the conversation with Hunter about going into the Hall of Fame and it was always a part of me that makes me feel like my career’s not worthy of going into the Hall of Fame, and he said this to me and it makes sense, and he said, ‘With what you accomplished, you know –’ he said, ‘You accomplished a lot in a short period of time you were there. I think it’s worthy.’ He said, ‘But if you don’t feel like it’s worthy, look at it this way, what you’ve accomplished outside of the company makes you a Hall of Fame WWE wrestler,’ and I would tend to agree with that. I think I’ve accomplished a lot and I’ve never turned my back on my roots. I’ve always been very proud of it, been very open about being a WWE superstar. I think I’m a good ambassador for the company and I think on those merits, if they wanna put me on the Hall of Fame, I’d be proud to accept.”
Transcript h/t: PostWrestling.com
WWE News & Notes
Wednesday’s WWE Speed show on Twitter featured Naomi defeating Blair Davenport in a Quarterfinals round match for the inaugural WWE Speed Women’s Championship tournament. Naomi will be facing off against the IYO SKY in the Semifinal round.
WWE recently released two new videos on their WWE Vault channel on YouTube. The first new video was a Hell in a Cell match between Dean Ambrose and Seth Rollins from WWE Hell in a Cell 2014. The second new video was a Hell in a Cell match between Bray Wyatt and Roman Reigns from WWE Hell in a Cell 2015.
BLCKSMTH Apparel announced on Twitter that WWE did not ask for their permission to use their trademarked logo on a WWE Elite Collection Pete Dunne action figure that the company has been selling.
WWE filed a new trademark for “Saturday Night’s Main Event” on September 9th for merchandise-related purposes to the United States Patent and Trademark Office. WWE is currently expected to announce very soon the return of their classic television series as quarterly specials on NBC.
As noted before, the upcoming Mr. McMahon docuseries based on former WWE Executive Chairman Vince McMahon will be premiering on Netflix on September 25th. Fightful Select reported that those spoken to within WWE held the unanimous feeling of wanting to wash their hands of McMahon, in the wake of a new era for the company. One talent spoken to reportedly stated “I don’t think at this point anyone should care about the life and times of Vince McMahon above the legal situation he’s in.” It was reported that the current belief within WWE is that the sex trafficking lawsuit against McMahon will be addressed within the series and will “take heat off” from those who were interviewed and may have spoken glowingly about McMahon in the series prior to the emergence of the allegations in 2022.
This past Tuesday’s WWE NXT show featured former WWE wrestler Funaki making a surprise appearance. During a backstage segment involving NXT General Manager Ava and Giulia, Funaki was seen standing alongside Giulia and acting as her Japanese language translator.
This past Tuesday’s WWE NXT show also featured Wes Lee challenging TNA talent Zachary Wentz to a Street Fight match at the October 1st NXT show in Chicago, Illinois. Wentz recently responded on Twitter accepting the challenge. Wentz stated “You could have just taken the L and moved on. Instead you hurt my brother… now I have to hurt you. You want a street fight? Bring it, bitch.“
In a recent Goldman Sachs Communacopia & Technology Conference 2024 event, Endeavor President and COO and TKO Group President Mark Shapiro stated that he currently believes that Netflix could prove to be WWE best partner yet. Shapiro stated that Netflix “is the real engine behind Raw and, by the way, much of what we’re doing internationally, and we’re excited. I’ve seen their promotion plans, their marketing plans, the way they’re getting behind us, the way they’re using the NFL holiday games to promote WWE Raw moving to Netflix. They are going to be a battleship when it comes to helping us grow our brand and grow our audience.” (Transcript h/t: PWInsider.com)
This past Monday’s WWE RAW show in Calgary, Alberta, Canada featured Natalya making her surprise return to WWE. Natalya recently reflected on Twitter about her recent return to WWE stating “My very first time in a @wwe ring was in 1997 at the IN YOUR HOUSE Canadian Stampede PPV in Calgary. It was the last time my whole family was together. Last night was a full circle moment, being back in that same building, with @BretHart, The Hart family and my @wwe family. Performing in Calgary means so much to me because it’s where it all began for the Harts. It was a night I’ll cherish forever.“
WWE recently announced four new matches for next week’s NXT show on September 17th:
- Lyra Valkyria & Tatum Paxley vs. Wendy Choo & Rosemary
- Je’Von Evans & Cedric Alexander vs. No Quarter Catch Crew (Tavion Heights & Myles Borne)
- Lola Vice vs. Jacy Jayne
- Tehuti Miles vs. Eddy Thorpe
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WWE RAW Ratings – Nov. 18, 2024 – Down
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