Marvez: Bret Hart, Vince McMahon reunited, and it feels so good

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Bret Hart can only imagine what his late parents and brother Owen would think about his World Wrestling Entertainment return.

"They'd say that hell froze over," a chuckling Hart said.

Twelve years ago, the odds of that happening seemed greater than Hart ever working for WWE owner Vince McMahon again. The two had one of the bitterest splits in pro-wrestling history. Concerned the "Hitman" was going to leave for rival World Championship Wrestling while still holding the WWE title, McMahon ordered a surprise match finish that allowed Shawn Michaels to defeat an unknowing Hart via submission when referee Earl Hebner abruptly called for the bell. Hart was so furious that the bout didn't unfold as planned that he legitimately floored McMahon off-camera with a backstage punch.

The hard feelings that stemmed from the 1997 "Survivor Series" were real, but time has healed those wounds. Hart and McMahon gradually rebuilt their relationship to the point that the former suggested a storyline for the two to work together again. Hart and McMahon are now weaving "Survivor Series" fallout into a storyline that will culminate with a March 28 match at "Wrestlemania 26" in Glendale, Ariz.

"I want to move on," Hart said Tuesday night in a telephone interview from his home in Calgary, Alberta. "I made a big fuss out of all that happened. I wrote a book about it. There was a documentary ('Wrestling with Shadows'). I held out (from WWE) for a long time because of my pride. In the end, I think I made my point.

"Some people feel it wasn't the right thing for me to go back. But there's only one person in Bret 'The Hitman' Hart's shoes and it's me ... This is a lot of fun for me. It sure beats shoveling snow."

Hart's return is even more remarkable considering he had a stroke in 2002, two years after suffering a career-ending concussion in WCW. Hart, 52, said he has physical limitations and that the 64-year-old McMahon "isn't exactly Kofi Kingston." But Hart said he can still "move around enough" to get a quality match out of McMahon and participate in limited tussles on "Monday Night Raw" (9 p.m. EST, USA Network).

"I'll never put on the performance I want to have, but I'll be able to do enough to entertain and give a good show," said Hart, one of the industry's top in-ring technicians during his storied 25-year career. "I'm very careful about what I do and allow myself to do and what can be done to me. WWE has gone through great effort to ensure all that and make sure I'm comfortable with everything.

"I don't want to go out there in a wheelchair like (Hulk) Hogan. I know people watching me are saying, 'He's not exactly a cheetah out there.' But at same time I do remember being in a wheelchair when I had my stroke. The thought of doing what I'm doing right now is beyond everything I imagined."

Hart believes Hogan's signing with TNA Wrestling and that company's plan to run head-to-head competition on Monday nights has given McMahon additional motivation to make their angle work.

"Vince is just as focused and involved as I remember him ever being," Hart said. "This whole (storyline) seems to have lit a fire under him. He's very competitive.

"My guess is TNA and Hogan can't be much of a factor, but Vince doesn't like anyone messing around on his turf. He doesn't want this to become any kind of WCW rivalry like before. He wants to be king."

McMahon isn't the only WWE fixture with whom Hart has made amends. He also has reached out to Michaels and Paul "Triple H" Levesque, both of whom had long-standing problems with Hart that were exacerbated by "Survivor Series" and the aftermath. Hart describes his current relationship with Levesque as "very cordial but not overly friendly." There is more of a thaw with Michaels, who publicly buried the hatchet by hugging Hart last month on "Raw."

"When I came back, I didn't know if the whole thing with Shawn would erupt again," Hart said. "The truth is, Shawn has been real good with the whole thing. You can tell this is a weight lifted off his back, my back and I think even Vince to a certain degree. It feels like a new start."

"Survivor Series" will never be completely forgotten. "Wrestling with Shadows" will be re-released this summer along with an accompanying DVD on Owen Hart, who fell to his death in 1999 during a WWE ring entrance gone awry. Hart's 2007 autobiography, "Hitman: My Real Life in the Cartoon World of Wrestling," which chronicles "Survivor Series," also will be released in paperback later this year.

By that time, Hart might not still be working with WWE. Hart's current agreement runs only through "Wrestlemania" and the induction of his late father, Stu, into WWE's Hall of Fame that same weekend (WWE will be releasing a three-disc Hart family DVD in early April).

Hart, though, didn't dismiss the possibility of staying with WWE in some capacity for the long haul.

"I'm trying to turn a negative into a positive," Hart said. "I think this is good for wrestling fans. I know for a lot people this whole thing seems quite real. If I can deliver realism in today's wrestling, I'll think I've done a good job."

For more information on Hart, visit his Web site, www.brethart.com.

(Alex Marvez writes a syndicated pro-wrestling column for Scripps Howard News Service. Contact him at alex1marv(at)aol.com or follow him via Twitter at http://twitter.com/alexmarvez.)