Sunday, May 1st, marked the return of WWE Hall of Famer Bret Hart, in a WWE arena to help his niece Natalya win the WWE Women’s champion from Charlotte and thereby neutralize the dirty games from her father, Ric Flair.
Bret Hart just overcame prostate cancer for which he had to undergo surgery just days prior to the event. He even did not wish to appear at the event but considering standing by Nattie’s side he showed up at the event. The essence of Execution not only did appear but also managed to deliver a good old fashioned beat-down to the Nature Boy Ric Flair, to the much delight of the crowd.
The match ended in somewhat controversial fashion as it mirrored the events of the infamous “Montreal Screwjob”. The referee for the contest was Charles Robinson, who made a career by acting as Ric Flair’s personal referee back in the 90’s and earned the name “Li’l Naitch.”
The ending saw Charlotte trapping Natalya in her own submission move of Sharpshooter and Robinson calling for the bell immediately even though Nattie did not bother to tap and handed the championship to Charlotte, bringing back the infamous memory of “Montreal Screw-job” in front of Bret Hart. Bret recently talked to wrestlezone.com mentioning that the match saw a weak finish and can be improved.
Bret said, “I mostly just dealt with Vince on it. That was Vince’s concept, I guess. I thought it was pretty flat, to be honest. I told him that,” Bret said. “Initially, the idea was that, at the end, I was just going to stand with my hands on my hips or something in the middle of the aisle way and block Ric Flair from leaving the ring. I remember going, ‘that’s pretty lame’.”
He suggested, “It was my suggestion that I could give Ric a couple shots, knock him down and put him in the Sharpshooter. Maybe Nattie could do a Sharpshooter at the same time and we could end on that note. So, I’ll take full credit for the better pop of the match.”
Though Nattie failed to reclaim the title, hopefully, the presence of Bret will include new heights to the feud and help her win the title at the next PPV.