Remembering Owen Hart
Owen Hart is
someone who will never be forgotten, below is a memorial to the "King of
Harts".
Name : Owen
Hart
Born : 07 May 1965
Height : 5'11"
Weight : 227lbs
Hometown : Calgary, Alberta, Canada
Finishing Move : The Sharpshooter
Wrestling Aliases : The Blue Blazer, "The Rocket" Owen Hart, "The Slammy
Award-Winning" Owen Hart, "King of Harts" Owen Hart, "The Black Hart" Owen Hart.
Family : Son of the legendary Stu Hart and Helen Hart (RIP). Brother of
former WWF & WCW wrestler Bret "Hitman" Hart. Brothers-in-law are former WWF
wrestlers "Davey" Boy Smith and Jim "The Anvil" Neidhart. Survived by his wife
Martha and their two young kids, Oje, 8, and Athena, 4.
EARLY
CAREER: CALGARY AND JAPAN
Owen, the youngest
son of the legendary Hart wrestling family, was probably destined to be a pro
wrestler from the start.... born in 1965, Owen began training to wrestle shortly
after completing high school. He was trained in the Dungeon by his father, Stu,
and made his pro wrestling debut in 1986 in Stu's Stampede Wrestling territory.
However, by 1986,
Stampede Wrestling was a dying territory. Owen only had about a year or so to
shine in Stampede (where he feuded memorably with Mike Shaw and Makhan Singh),
winning titles during his rookie year and impressing everyone with his
high-flying skill and techical prowess. Owen would hold the International Tag
Titles (with Ben Bassarab), the British Commonwealth Midheavyweight Title, and
the North American Heavyweight Title (twice) during his first year or so in the
sport.
But with the
Stampede territory in its last legs, it was Owen's tours of Japan that
eventually brought him to the attention of wrestling fans worldwide. Fitting
into the fast-paced and high-flying style of the New Japan lightweights, Owen
wowed the Japanese fans, and became the first North American wrestler to hold
the prestigious IWGP Junior Heavyweight title in May 1988. He held the title for
about a month.
To this day,
matches from Owen's Japanese tours are a hot commodity among tape traders, as
they are widely considered to be among the best ever matches featuring a North
American wrestler.
OWEN'S
BIG BREAK
When that 1988
Japanese tour was up, Owen returned to North America to find that the WWF had
grown interested in his immense in-ring skills. In an era when the WWF was
dominated by super-heavyweights and often oafish bodybuilders, Owen was brought
in as a masked lightweight with incredible moves. His name: the Blue Blazer.
The Blue Blazer
displayed a style of wrestling that was totally unique and innovative to 1988
WWF fans, and didn't really catch on with a crowd that was more interested in
the bulk and physiques of the existing WWF heros. Blazer quickly became a
mid-carder, and disappeared from the WWF in late 1989. At no point during that
initial tenure was it revealed that the Blue Blazer was the brother of current
WWF superstar Bret Hart...
Owen spent the
next two years bouncing between many organizations -- again with much of his
success coming in Japan. Owen was also briefly a part of World Championship
Wrestling, though his brief TV tenure was in no way memorable.
In October, 1991,
Owen finally caught the break that would make him a superstar: the WWF decided
to bring him back, this time without the mask and using his real name. Owen was
acknolwedged as the brother of then-InterContinental-champ Bret Hart, and was
presented in storylines as coming to the WWF to aid his brother-in-law Jim "the
Anvil" Neidhart after Neidhart was brutalized by Ric Flair.
Because Neidhart
and Bret Hart had been hugely successful as the Hart Foundation, the new Owen/Neidhart
team was dubbed the New Foundation. However, they never really got off the
ground -- in part because Neidhart left the WWF in early 1992. Owen, now
nicknamed "the Rocket," was still a prized commodity as far as the WWF was
concerned, and was given a singles win at WrestleMania 8.
Owen was quickly
placed back into a tag team situation, however, as he was paired off with Ko Ko
B. Ware to form High Energy. This team didn't last much long than the New
Foundation did... by early 1993, the duo was pretty well dissolved as Ko Ko
evaporated from the WWF scene.
Owen was being
positioned to work as a singles wrestler in mid-1993 -- he was sent down to
Jerry Lawler's USWA in Memphis, and had a run as USWA champ, as a means of
getting seasoned for a WWF run -- but once again, circumstances prevented Owen
from breaking through just yet. A serious knee injury sidelined Owen for several
months.
However, when Owen
returned to WWF, all the pieces were in place for the ultra-talented youngest
Hart to finally make a huge impact on the business.
FAMILY
FEUD
At Survivor Series
'93, Bret Hart assembled a team of his brothers to face Shawn Michaels and his
masked "Knights" (originally, the storyline called for Jerry Lawler and his
knights to face the Harts)... in addition to dragging Keith and Bruce Hart out
of retirement, Bret reserved a spot on the Hart team for Owen. During the course
of the match, Owen accidently collided with Bret, and was eliminated from the
match by Michaels. Owen would be the only member of the Hart team eliminated,
and returned to the ring after the match to confront his brother for
contributing to his elimination.
Things were
smoothed over, however, and Bret and Owen decided to dedicate themselves to
winning the tag team titles, together. Their shot came at the 1994 Royal Rumble,
where the Harts faced the Quebecers. The story in that match was that Bret's
knee was seriously injured; Bret had the opportunity to tag out to Owen, but
instead tried to apply a Sharpshooter. In applying the move, his knee buckled,
and the ref decided to stop the match due to Bret's injury. Owen, incensed that
his brother decided to "steal the glory" for himself rather than tag out to the
uninjured member of the team, turned on brother Bret, attacking the already
injured knee, and becoming a top heel in the process.
Owen and Bret
faced off in the opening match of the WrestleMania 10 PPV... it was a classic
20-plus minute bout, possibly Owen's best from his 10 year WWF career. Owen
shocked the world by pinning his brother with a victory-roll-type manuever. Bret
went on to win the WWF Title later on the PPV, setting up a brother vs. brother
title feud.
However, Bret did
not want to cause any further trauma to his family by fighting Owen.... so to
earn a SummerSlam '94 title shot, Owen had to battle through the 1994 King of
the Ring tournament. Owen beat Adam Bomb (now "Wrath" in WCW), Tatanka, the
1-2-3 Kid (X-Pac), and Razor Ramon (Scott Hall) to win the tournament, and get
his title shot. The 1994 King of the Ring was Owen's first WWF title.
At SummerSlam,
Owen and Bret had a memorable title match, with many dramatic near-escapes.
Finally, with Owen's legs trapped in the steel cage, Bret was able to escape
first to retain his title. In the crowd, Davey Boy Smith and Jim Neidhart were
at ringside to watch their brothers-in-law do battle; following Bret's wins,
Smith began celebrating, but Neidhart attacked him. Owen and the Anvil formed an
alliance following the event, and feuded briefly with Bret and Bulldog.
Owen's quest to
relieve his brother Bret of the WWF Title eventually led to Owen allying himself
with Bob Backlund. At Survivor Series '94, Backlund and Bret battled in a
submissions-only match... with Bret locked in a painful cross-face chicken wing,
Owen seemed to have a change of heart, showing compassion for his brother. With
tears in his eyes as his brother struggled in the submission hold, Owen begged
his mother to throw in the towel for Bret. Helen Hart finally relented, and
submitted on Bret's behalf. Owen's demeanor immediately changed, as he
celebrated his effective ruse and took pleasure in seeing Bret dethroned.
With the family
feud finally starting to lose steam, Owen found himself aligned with Jim
Cornette's heel stable as 1995 began. At WrestleMania 11, Owen teamed up with
Yokozuna to defeat the Smoking Gunns for the WWF Tag Team titles. Owen and Yoko
were unstoppable for much of 1995, until a controversial match against Shawn
Michaels and Diesel on PPV... because of the British Bulldog's involvement in
the match, Owen and Yoko were forced to defend the titles again, the next night
on RAW. Spent from the previous night's PPV main event, Owen and Yoko lost the
titles to the Smoking Gunns.
Owen once again
embarked upon a solo stint, this time stealing headlines following one of Monday
Night RAW's most memorable moments: playing off a real-life incident in which
Shawn Michaels received a concussion in a parking lot brawl, Owen blasted
Michaels in the back of the head with his trademark enziguiri; Michaels
collapsed in the ring, as many initially thought Owen's kick caused a relapse.
It was merely an incredibly well-worked angle.
In 1996, Owen was
awarded a pair of Slammy awards (he won another in 1997), and also found himself
back in the thick of the tag team title chase, this time with his other
brother-in-law, the British Bulldog. Under the management of Jim Cornette, the
Owen/Bulldog duo quickly won the tag straps. Despite a change of management --
as Clarence Mason took over those duties from Cornette -- Owen and Bulldog
continued strong into 1997.
However,
dissension began to seep in as miscommunications between the two grew, and the
brothers-in-law were forced to do battle in a tournament final to crown the
first WWF European Champion. Owen lost the tourney final to Bulldog, and the
seeds appeared to be sown for a violent break-up of the tag champs.
Owen and Bulldog
were doing battle again on an edition of RAW in spring '97, when Bret Hart came
out and asked the two to stop and listen to him. Bret finalized his heel status
here, asked Owen and Bulldog to join him in reforming a more-powerful-than-ever
Hart Foundation. Their goals would be to vanquish foes like Steve Austin and to
show that American Wrestling Fans who real heros acted. The group soon added Jim
Neidhart and Brian Pillman, and became the most hated stable of wrestlers in the
United States while remaining HUGELY popular in Canada and Europe.
As part of the
Hart Foundation, Owen found his stock on the rise in the WWF. In May 1997, Owen
won the WWF IC Title from Rocky Maivia, and soon found himself feuding with
Steve Austin. In July, at a PPV event held in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, Owen
pinned Austin in a 10-man tag match main event, setting up a SummerSlam IC Title
match between the two stars. The SummerSlam match saw Owen temporarily paralyze
Austin with a botched piledriver; Austin did recover enough to conclude the
match (winning the title from Owen), and would be back at 100% following the
injury by year's end.
Because of his
neck injuries stemming from the piledriver, Austin had to give up the IC belt,
which was rapidly regained by Owen in a tournament final. Austin defeated Owen
for the title in his first match back from injury, at Survivor Series '97. It
was also at that year's Survivor Series that Owen's brother Bret was the subject
of the biggest "screwjob" in wrestling history: with Bret planning to leave the
WWF for WCW, Vince McMahon conspired to "steal" the WWF title from Bret at that
show despite promising Bret that he'd walk out of the PPV as the champ.
BACK OUT
ON HIS OWN
Many were sure
Owen would follow Bret, Bulldog, and Neidhart to WCW following the screwjob....
but instead, Owen came back to the WWF bigger than ever, as a babyface trying to
avenge his brother by going after new WWF Champ Shawn Michaels. Quickly, Owen
found himself shunted into a feud with Michaels' DX partner, Hunter Hearst
Helmsley. Owen won the WWF European Title held by HHH, but lost it back after
about a month, in a pair of bizarre title switches tainted by injuries hobbling
both men.
As DX became
babyfaces by mid-1998, Owen was left with little choice but to return to the
heel status that had served him so well for about 4 years. He "snapped" on a
live edition of RAW, and joined the Nation (led by Rocky Maivia) where he
continued to demand that it's "Time for a change." The Nation would feud with DX
for the Summer months, with Owen playing an important part in storylines.
However, the
Nation was on its last legs. As Rocky Maivia became more popular, it became
apparent that he'd be spun off as a solo babyface. D-Lo Brown and Mark Henry
remained as a tag team, but Owen was now a man without a country. Though there
was no official ceremony that marked the end of the Nation, Owen distanced
himself from the group by moving onto feud with Ken Shamrock and later Dan
Severn.
In an "art
imitates life" twist, the WWF ran a storyline in which Severn's neck was
"broken" following an Owen Hart piledriver. The distraught Owen Hart then
"retired" the next week, saying that he never meant to hurt anyone, and couldn't
live with himself if he crippled anyone again. Despite Owen's retirement speech,
the Blue Blazer made a return to the WWF, and many fans put the pieces together
and realized Owen was exactly serious about retiring.
Unmasking the Blue
Blazer became a favorite past-time of Steve Blackman (who was trying to defend
the honor of fellow "shooter" Severn). Jeff Jarrett got involved in the feud,
often helping make sure the Blazer wasn't unmasked -- and even wrestling as the
Blazer on some occassions to "prove" that Owen wasn't the Blazer. Eventually,
Blackman was able to unmask Jarrett and Owen as Blazers on separate occasions,
and the Blue Blazer faded into the background.
However, the
Owen/Jarrett tag team wasn't fading away anytime soon... as 1999 began, the duo
started teaming up full time, and in January, won the WWF Tag Team titles from
the Big Bossman and Ken Shamrock. This marked the third different partner Owen
held the tag titles with. It appeared as though it might be another long tag
title reign for Owen, as the team was really clicking, and was over with fans.
However, the duo lost the straps in April to the mis-matched team of X-Pac and
Kane.
As Jeff Jarrett
segued into a feud with the Godfather, the Blue Blazer (this time, obviously
protrayed by Owen) returned again, cutting interviews in which he ran down the
"deplorable" state of the WWF, and insisting that we need a superhero to clean
things up. He was scheduled for an InterContinental Title match against his
"arch-enemy" the Godfather on the night he died.
THE
ACCIDENT AND OWEN'S LEGACY
The Blue Blazer
was going to make a "superhero" entrance from the ceiling of the Kemper Arena
Sunday night at the Over the Edge PPV... but whatever harness device Owen was
using to make his descent either was never correctly attached or malfunctioned.
The end result had Owen plunging 50 feet to the ring, where his head impacted a
turnbuckle, causing massive head and neck trauma. Fans in attendence quickly
realized the serious nature of the accident, and stood around in stunned silence
as medics worked on Owen.... Owen was admitted to Truman Medical Center in
critical condition, and was pronounced dead soon thereafter.
Though Owen wasn't
pronounced dead until at the hospital, in fans' minds, this will obviously be an
unshakable memory, as it marks the closest thing to an "in-ring" death at a
televised event that any of us would ever want to see. It guarantees Owen a
certain infamous place in wrestling history... a place that I can't help think
will somehow diminish the remarkable memories we SHOULD all share of Owen Hart's
stupendous career.
As fans, what we
should remember are the great matches, compelling stories, and entertaining
interviews... as caring human beings, we should all remember that among those in
the business, very few are as universally liked and respected as Owen Hart was.
He was a genuine good guy and family man. |
