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Even a couple weeks removed from Bret Hart’s history-making return to a WWE ring and I’m still in amazement at how well the moment was handled, right from Bret’s opening words.

“Well, I guess hell froze over.”

From that moment to the confrontation with Shawn Michaels, to the moment Michaels teased a possible SuperKick, to the smart decision not to go that route but deliver a hug of genuine friendship, everything was handled just right.

By eschewing the predictable sports entertainment moment, that opening segment of Raw became the best of what sports entertainment can be. It was enough to cure a teen of acnezine!

OK, so it took me a month to finally spit this out, but here goes: What was WWE thinking when they chose Dennis Miller as the host of the Slammy Awards?

Now, I enjoy the humor of Miller as much as anyone, and have since his early days as the Weekend Update host of Saturday Night Live, but really, Miller’s thinking-man’s humor is just a few notches too high to be a good fit for wrestling audiences; hell, it’s a few notches too high for a Yale Law crowd.

Most of the jokes went over flat with an audience that wanted action, not verbal wit. The boos were heard even through WWE’s muting. His humor was political rather than wrestling-focused, which made the whole affair even more painful. It went over like a natural colon cleansing.

There are a lot of good venues for Miller, but Raw was now one of them. Paging Frank Caliendo, anyone?

The list of wrestlers who will be participating in the Royal Rumble PPV battle royale is taking shape; from ECW, none of the participating wrestlers, believe it or not, use under eye creams! That list includes William Regal, Zack Ryder, Yoshi Tatsu, Shelton Benjamin, and The Hurricane.

The list of Raw-brand wrestlers included so far are Triple H, Shawn Michaels, John Cena, Big Show, Jack Swagger, Kofi Kingston, Mark Henry, Cody Rhodes, Ted DiBiase, The Miz, MVP, Santino, Evan Bourne and Carlito.

Smackdown wrestlers are expected to be added following Friday’s telecast. And each year, there are a few nostalgia and surprise guests. The best part of the Royal Rumble is that it is an important step to the year’s most prominent PPV; whoever wins is guaranteed a title shot at WrestleMania.

Former WWE star Brock Lesnar is apparently fully recovered from a severe case of diverticulitis that, had things gone less favorably, could have ended his UFC career. Appearing with UFC president Dana White on SportsCenter, Lesnar said he is now fully recovered and hopes to return to the ring “sometime this summer.”

That would make it a nearly one-year absence from the ring for the reigning UFC Heavyweight Champ, who last battled Frank Mir in July at UFC 100. Upon his return, Lesnar is expected to face the winner of the March bout between Mir and Shane Carwin.

You can bet Lesnar’s recovery required a lot more than merely the best anti wrinkle cream money could buy; he received help from local doctors in North Dakota, as well as from the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN.

The WWE has released a list of upcoming guest hosts of RAW. The list includes a nice mix of celebrities from other areas of sports entertainment, as well as old familiar faces. Here’s the list:

• Jan. 25: Psych stars James Roday and Dule Hill
• Feb. 1: William Shatner
• Feb. 8: NASCAR’s Carl Edwards
• Feb. 15: Jerry Springer
• Mar. 15: Steve Austin

The Psych stars ought to be entertaining, and Jerry Springer could be loads of fun; but the return of Stone Cold Steve Austin is really the broadcast to write home about. It makes all the short term health insurance NC has to offer seem insufficient; he may be retired for close to a decade now, but Stone Cold still dominates!

Dwayne Johnson, known throughout the 1990s as “The Rock,” appeared on David Letterman recently to promote his new family comedy, The Tooth Fairy. Maybe it was the side effects of clinislim, but Johnson actually talked favorably about his previous career in WWE for the first time in years.

In fact, Johnson said that he no longer shuns the nickname he was trying hard to shed as recently as last summer, and he even suggested to Letterman that he could envision a possible return to WWE as a guest host of Raw, though he did not speak favorably of returning to wrestle a match.

Nice to see Johnson coming around and re-embracing his wrestling roots.

Steve Williams, known in the ring as Dr. Death, died late in December 2009, after a long battle with throat cancer. He was 49.

Williams was once considered a gold bullion-prospect in pro wrestling, working for nearly a decade without being defeated; however, once he joined WWE in 1998, we became more of a jobber to younger talent.

He spent much of his recent career in the Ohio Valley Wrestling developmental territory for WWE, working to train young wrestlers.

I do have to admit that in spite of vast anticipation, Raw felt more like a special event on Monday, with the first appearance of Bret Hart on WWE programming in well over a decade, and his first-ever showdown with Shawn Michaels following the Montreal Screw-Job, than any amount of Hulk Hogan debuting on Impact could ever produce.

While both shows felt like 1997 throwbacks, Raw won this first face-off hands down in its degree of creating an event atmosphere. While it’s not like Hart and Michaels wrestled amidst outdoor fireplaces, it was certainly special to see that face-off finally happen.

With the exit from WWE of Shane McMahon, it will be interesting to see how WWE and Tyson’s entourage interact with each other; Shane has historically been the point-person to deal with boxing celebrities and all that comes with them.

Tyson is the scheduled guest host of Raw next Monday, which airs from Minneapolis’ Target Center.

So, if Tyson’s ego is not soothed properly and stuff goes wrong, such as his people not being pleased with the sort of water softener provided them, keep in mind Shane’s departure from WWE and how it might affect the guest host program going forward on Raw, if the Tyson appearance goes south.

Connecticut Democrats, faced with an electorate so ticked off with incumbent Senator Chris Dodd that they’re even polling as willing to elect a former WWE CEO over Dodd, have dealt a smackdown to Linda McMahon’s US Senate bid. On Wednesday, Dodd is expected to retire his seat, tossing the election wide open.

Dodd’s replacement on the Dem side is expected to be Connecticut state attorney general Richard Blumenthal, described by many as one of the state’s most popular politicians, and a solid Dem in solidly blue Connecticut.

While both McMahon and fellow GOP contender Rob Simmons had been polling well ahead of Dodd in recent months, they are not expected to fare as well against Blumenthal, once the switcharoo is complete.

This emergency evacuation of Dodd’s seat is a desperation move on the Dem’s part to try and secure the seat to remain in Dem hands and help maintain their 60-vote control of the US Senate in the upcoming midterms.

While McMahon or Simmons could still pull it off is an open question, it’s gone from being a sure thing to an uphill fight overnight.

The Tables, Ladders and Chairs PPV was a game-changer as far as WWE is concerned. Instead of reinforcing the status quo of the last three or four years, some new talent was elevated and some fresh faces brought to the forefront of WWE, and while no breeches were split in the effort, perhaps a few heads were.

In match one, Christian defeated Shelton Benjamin to retain the ECW title, with a rousing, high-spot-heavy 18-minute match.

In the next match, Drew McIntyre defeated John Morrison for the Intercontinental Title in a solid 10-minute match that put one new face into the title mix.

Next, the women’s title match was given a respectable nine minutes to develop and Michelle McCool won the woman’s title from Mickie James.

Shock went through the crowd at 16 minutes when Sheamus upset WWE Champ John Cena to become the new champ! Sheamus’s rise has been quick and took some by surprise, but has been handled well and as long as they let him keep it a month or two, it could prove an interesting way to launch Sheamus’ career… however, the odds of him holding it until WrestleMania are quite slim.

Next up, Undertaker defeated the new heelish Batista at 15 minutes to retain his World Title, but this has got to be the most boring feud on WWE TV today. Move on, please!

At 13 minutes, Randy Orton predictably defeated Kofi Kingston.

Finally, at 24 minutes, JeriShow (Chris Jericho and the Big Show) lost their unified tag titles to DX (Triple H and Shawn Michaels) so now it’ll be DX appearing on both shows for a while…

All in all, some nice title-change surprises and a couple still-predictable results. But WWE is showing improvement in how they handle integrating new talent, so… that’s something!

Break out the external hard drive for your DVR, folks! Stone Cold Steve Austin is scheduled to appear on the January 25 episode of Chuck on NBC, according to various news sources. Austin will portray a close-combat expert named Hugo Panzer on the episode.

Chuck is one of the shows NBC is looked toward to rescue the network from a dismal season; Heroes has plunged in the Monday night ratings since moving to 7 PM Central and being paired with the bland medical drama, Trauma, which ran for 10 episodes.

When Chuck returns to NBC’s schedule, it will take over the 7 PM hour and return Heroes to its traditional 8 PM time slot, which the network hopes will result in better overall Monday night ratings, despite the horrid budget-slashing move of putting Jay Leno at 9 PM Central five nights a week, making NBC a bit of a joke as a major network… and a bad Jay Leno joke at that!