Marvez: Is Bret Hart coming back to WWE?

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TNA Wrestling isn't the only grappling company that will start a new decade with a blast from the past.

Bret "The Hitman" Hart reportedly has agreed to a World Wrestling Entertainment return. Hart's debut is expected on the January 4 edition of Monday Night Raw, which is airing opposite a TNA special featuring the heavily-hyped premiere of Hulk Hogan.

Hart's personal assistant didn't return an e-mail seeking comment. But according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Hart has signed a WWE short-term contract that will run through Wrestlemania 26 in late March. Hart, 52, also is reportedly amenable to working one final match.

The thought of Hart wrestling - let alone re-joining WWE - seemed inconceivable in 2002 when he suffered a stroke. Two years earlier, Hart was forced into retirement because of concussion-related medical problems. He also was still extremely bitter with WWE for what happened at the 1997 Survivor Series pay-per-view show.

Concerned that he would be leaving to then-rival World Championship Wrestling without dropping the WWE title, company owner Vince McMahon changed the main-event match finish without telling Hart so that Shawn Michaels would win the strap. Hart was so furious afterward that he legitimately floored McMahon with a punch backstage.

The two began burying the hatchet when McMahon called Hart following his stroke. Hart worked with WWE again for a DVD release about his career and 2006 induction into the company's Hall of Fame. Hart, though, had declined other WWE opportunities besides one 2007 Raw cameo for "Mr. McMahon Appreciation Night." In recent years, Hart wrote a well-received autobiography, "Hitman: My Real Life in the Cartoon World of Wrestling," and did autograph signings for independent promoters throughout North America and Europe.

McMahon has already referred to Hart on recent Raw episodes and the two are likely to feud. Hart's presence also should provide a WWE career boost for the Hart Dynasty, which consists of real-life family members David Hart Smith, Tyson Kidd and Natalya Neidhart.

The Hart-McMahon dynamic will add fire to Raw, which has slipped lately because of awful comedy skits and some shaky guests hosts (ahem, Dennis Miller). But it also speaks volumes about the state of the industry when WWE and TNA are both investing heavily in health-addled graybeards like Hart and the 56-year-old Hogan because current performers don't elicit the same passion from today's fans.

The nostalgia doesn't end there, either. Scott Hall, 51, will reportedly appear on the January 4 episode of TNA Impact (8 p.m., Spike TV). Ric Flair, 60, is another TNA possibility. WWE also is using retired boxer Mike Tyson as a guest host on the January 11 edition of Raw. The momentum generated by Tyson's 1998 WWE appearances helped the company surge past WCW and become the world's most successful wrestling company.

The last of the original Extreme Championship Wrestling performers has left WWE as Tommy Dreamer was granted his release. Dreamer (real name Tom Laughlin) began with ECW in 1992 and remained with the company until it was purchased by WWE and shuttered in 2001. Dreamer, 38, signed with WWE and was then shifted to the ECW roster in 2006 when the brand was re-launched. Dreamer was considered a selfless performer who tried to help in the development of young talent ... Apparently concerned about negative publicity, WWE declined to mention the recent death of Eddie "Umaga" Fatu on its telecasts. Fatu, 36, died earlier this month after being found unresponsive in his Houston-area home. He was a major part of the biggest pay-per-view show in WWE history, representing McMahon against Bobby Lashley and Donald Trump in the "Battle of the Billionaires" clash at Wrestlemania 23 in 2007. Fatu was released by WWE in June after refusing to enter drug rehabilitation, but the company reportedly was set to re-sign him in early 2010. WWE's only acknowledgement of Fatu's death came in a brief statement on the company Web site.

Alex Marvez writes a syndicated pro wrestling column for Scripps-Howard News Service. He can be reached at alex1marv(at)aol.com or followed via Twitter at http://twitter.com/alexmarvez.

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