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Among the biggest surprises at the Royal Rumble last Sunday were the WWE returns of two long-gone wrestling legends: Kevin Nash and Booker T. The tv stands were rocking when both men entered the Rumble last Sunday, and while Booker T is generally less surprising, the WWE mending fences with Nash was an earth-shaker.

Booker T, it has been revealed, will become the new color commentator on Smackdown on SyFy. Nash’s role is, as yet, undetermined. Still, high marks to WWE for pulling out the stops to send shockwaves through the industry and make Royal Rumble seem like an special event once again!

Bret Hart will get a chance to once again wear WWE gold next week on Raw; he will be facing current US champ, The Miz. My tv stands are still shaking from shock and surprise.

Hart famously left WWE around 1997 to join the competition, WCW, and exited the company angry when he felt Vince McMahon welched on a promise to allow him to leave WWE undefeated as champ. A vacated title was his preferred way to exit.

When Vinnie Mac booked Shawn Michaels to win instead, in front of a pro-Hart Montreal audience, the incident became known as the Montreal Screw-Job. The event festered well over a decade and was only healed 12 years later, in 2009, when McMahon successfully negotiated to bring Bret back in a limited role, in a storyline that involved him getting retribution on McMahon for perceived wrongs.

It made for good TV and good ratings; but now Hart has apparently earned a title shot by being a good company man in his return to WWE. While it’s unlikely a title change will occur, it’s definitely decent of Hart to willingly give “the rub” to a young turk like The Miz. Classy move, Bret!

Everyone in WWE tv stands to get some praise for how WWE Raw has been performing this summer. According to a recent USA Network press release, Raw averaged a 5.72 Nielsen during this summer, which would make this the highest-rated summer in WWE Raw history since 2001, just shortly after WWE acquired WCW.

These numbers reflect a multi-year rebuilding period from that time; with a fresh injection of young talent and second- and third-generation superstars now nearing their prime, WWE has completed its rebuilding period that began at the end of the Attitude era, when Stone Cold Steve Austin and The Rock both scaled back their involvement and eased into retirement; Austin left due to accumulated injuries while Dwayne Johnson left to become a legit Hollywood action star.