“Enough is enough and it’s time for a change!”

# 16. Owen Hart

238 points (15 out of 43 lists)
Highest Rating: Marky Mark at #2

Real Name: Owen James Hart
(In)Famous Gimmicks: The Blue Blazer

Owen Hart’s wrestling career has been overshadowed by his untimely death, and that’s a shame. While there’s no doubt his shocking death made him more prominent in the wrestling world, his accomplishments and body of work easily stand on their own.

Owen Hart had talent right from the get-go. The youngest of the Hart children, he was destined to be a performer right from the start. As is detailed in countless other places, Owen wanted to be anything but a wrestler when he was younger. Unfortunately, he couldn’t find anything profitable outside of the business and finally turned to wrestling.

In 1986, he started in Stampede Wrestling and immediately became a fan-favourite. His high-flying skills were so different from nearly everything else being done in North America at the time that he picked up PWI’s Best Rookie for 1987. Stampede was on its last legs at this point, and Owen took off for Japan.

Over in the Orient, Owen Hart garnered global attention. He was amazingly crisp, smooth, and technical despite his young age. The Japanese fans loved Owen and so did the management in New Japan. He meshed extremely well with the other wrestlers out east, and was rewarded with the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Title in May of 1988. He was the first ever North American to win the coveted strap.

As a result of his amazing work in Japan, Owen Hart was signed by the WWF. However, it was during a time that Vince McMahon was still transfixed on big muscular guys (have things changed?). Right from the start, you knew that Owen didn’t quite have the confidence of the WWF bookers as they tossed him in a mask and gave him a cape. He was called The Blue Blazer and no mention was made of his Hart name.

Owen though, made the most of his new opportunity. He continued with his high-flying ways and had some very innovative moves for the time. He would never catch on with the fans though, and was never given any kind of a push what-so-ever. He jobbed to Mr. Perfect at WrestleMania V and then left back to Japan.

Owen would hop around the Far East and the North American indy circuit for a couple of years, and then would be given a second chance by the WWF in 1991. This time, he got to keep his real name and there were plenty of mentions of his Hart Heritage. Owen made the most of the opportunity.

At first though, he had to pay his dues once again. He was initially teamed with Jim Neidhart to form the New Foundation. They were given baggy, bright, goofy looking ring attire and were largely a jobber to the stars tag team. When they broke up, Owen was given a brief singles push and picked up a win over Skinner at WrestleMania VII. However, the singles run was short, as he was then teamed with Koko B. Ware of all people.

The High Energy team didn’t last long, and it was a good thing for Owen. The team split apart and Owen went to Jerry Lawler’s USWA for the middle of 1993 to get ready for his big push. He returned in the fall of ’93 and joined Bret Hart in his feud with Jerry Lawler. At a Survivor Series match between the Hart Brothers and Shawn Michaels and the Knights (originally Lawler’s), Owen was the only Hart to be eliminated. While he put on a brave face, it was the start of one of the greatest angles of the 90s.

Over the months, you could see the tension between Owen and Bret building. Bret was the heroic champion and Owen was the jealous younger sibling. The angle built at a beautiful pace, as every time trouble brewed, things would be smoothed over. However, at the 1993 Royal Rumble, Owen snapped and attacked Bret during their Tag Title match with the Quebecers. Owen kicked an injured Bret and left him to lose the match. After the match, Owen gave an interview that is memorable for his goofy line, “That’s why I kicked the leg out of your leg!” Despite that, for the first time in his career, Owen Hart was a heel.

Owen would score one of the biggest upsets in wrestling history over Bret in the opening match at WrestleMania X that year. It was a match that Bret said he never wanted, and was a match that Owen excelled in. From a technical standpoint, it’s one of the best of the decade and really made you take Owen seriously. The brothers would continue their feud over the next couple months, but Bret didn’t want to fight Owen again.

So what did Owen do? He went out and won the 1994 King of the Ring. Jim Neidhart turned heel to join him, and it basically meant that Bret had to give him a World Title shot. This was at Summerslam in a Steel Cage Match. It was another classic between the brothers, and is one of the best cage matches you’ll ever see that doesn’t involved blood and gore.

A couple months later, Bret was defending the World Title against Bob Backlund at Survivor Series. Owen cost Bret the World Title by forcing their mother to throw in the towel. He played on his family’s emotions and just when you though he was turning face… he became even more evil. It was such a dickish, conniving move that you really hated Owen. How could someone do that to their own brother? Or their own mother? Right at that moment, Owen was easily one of the top two hottest heels in the business. Arguably, it would be his highest ever point in the wrestling business.

After briefly renewing his feud with Bret, Owen Hart then split from the family battled and joined forces with Jim Cornette’s camp in early 1995. He had a Tag Title Match against the Smoking Guns at WrestleMania XI, which ended up having him team with Yokozuna (who was a “mystery partner”). The Owen/Yoko duo won the Tag Titles and Owen’s expression after the match is one of pure evil joy. It’s just great stuff.

Owen’s next big moment came later that year, as he had a brief run as a singles star again. Playing off a real life incident, Owen knocked Shawn Michaels out-cold in the middle of the ring on Raw with an enziguiri. A while earlier, Shawn was involved in a parking lot brawl that saw him get a legit concussion. It was played off like Owen caused a relapse.

Over the next year, Owen Hart won a couple of Slammy Awards and would form a very successful tag team with Davey Boy Smith. They won the Tag Titles during this time and were the top heel tag team for the better part of 1996 and the first half of 1997. The brothers-in-law would also feud over the newly created European Title. The strap would nearly break the duo apart, but not before Bret Hart came into the picture and got the entire family together for the red-hot Canada versus U.S.A. feud.

During the Anti-Canada angle, Owen scored a huge win at the Canadian Stampede PPV when he pinned Steve Austin. He would then go on to win the Intercontinental Championship and feud with “Stone Cold” for months. It was at Summerslam 1997 that the two faced off for the IC Title, when Owen accidentally injured Steve Austin’s neck with a botched Tombstone. Austin was legitimately seriously hurt, and it was that move that effectively led to his retirement 5 years ago.

Owen would have an excellent rematch with Austin at the 1997 Survivor Series PPV that was overshadowed by what happened with the Montreal Screwjob in the main event. While the rest of the Hart Family left for WCW immediately after the show, Owen stayed in the WWF. He would be kept off TV for a number of weeks, and then made shocking return at the December PPV by attacking Shawn Michaels.

The pop that Owen receives at the D-Generation X PPV is unreal, as the real life situation that plagued his brother seemed destined to give Owen the biggest face push of his life. He fought off DX for a number of weeks and the smart money would have had a big PPV blow off match between Owen and Shawn. However, Owen was pushed down the card for whatever reason and put into a feud with HHH instead. They battled over the European Title until Owen suffered an ankle injury.

By time Owen returned, DX were becoming faces and there was unfortunately nothing left to do, but turn Owen heel again. He joined the Nation of Domination of all groups and picked up feuding with DX with the roles reversed. The Nation would be disbanded shortly after though, and Owen would go on to have feuds with both Ken Shamrock and Dan Severn… playing off the Hart Dungeon versus mixed-martial arts angle.

At the end of 1998, Owen broke Dan Severn’s neck in storyline, and “retired” from wrestling. Shortly after, the Blue Blazer began popping back up on TV coincidently enough. Steve Blackman would get involved with the Owen/Severn angle, as well as Jeff Jarrett. This led to Owen and Jarrett forming a tag team, with Owen switching between the mask and his own persona many times.

Owen Jarrett would have a nice run as Tag Team Champions at the beginning of 1999, before splitting apart in April. The next month, Owen would start a feud with The Godfather and would once again put on the Blue Blazer outfit. The gimmick was that the overbearing heel Blazer wanted to rid the world of The Godfather’s deplorable prostitution.

At Over the Edge 1999, the two were scheduled to face off. Tragically, during Owen’s descent from the rafter in the Blazer costume, the quick release mechanism was triggered and Owen Hart fell 78 feet to the ring below. He hit the top-rope chest-first and died in the ring from internal bleeding due to chest trauma.

There’s really nothing else to say about the accident other than that… it was an accident. The stunt was performed countless other times in wrestling and even Owen did it in November of 1998. Unfortunately, this time things didn’t go right. Owen’s wife Martha wrote in her book that Owen was afraid of heights and may have been squirming in an effort to get comfortable, thus triggering the release.

Controversially, the show continued with Jim Ross informing the PPV audience that Owen Hart had died from the fall. The live crowd was never told, and the wrestlers had to go out and perform. Having just watched the PPV again prior to writing this, the move to continue the show was obviously not sitting well with the wrestlers. Jeff Jarrett had to give a promo immediately after and was obviously shaken. It had to be extremely difficult for anyone to perform and I’m sure most would agree that the show should have been stopped right there.

The next night, the Owen Hart Tribute Show on Monday Night Raw was truly a unique thing to watch. Wrestlers and other staff members poured their hearts out. There were no angles and no silly promos. It was the first time we as wrestling fans ever experienced something like that, and for those watching in 1999, it was a tough thing to watch. Even today it is difficult to sit through. That said, many did watch it. The Owen Hart Show did a 7.1 television rating… one of the highest rated Monday Night Raws ever.

The interviews that the wrestlers give during that show paint a picture of the Owen Hart us fans never knew. They tell the story of a genuinely funny and caring family man who was arguably the most well-liked guy in the locker room. Mick Foley’s story about Owen being his son’s favourite wrestler is just fascinating stuff.

Unfortunately, Owen Hart will forever be known for his tragic death. The way he died and the resulting lawsuits and controversy will always be attached to his name. It shouldn’t be that way and it isn’t here. Owen Hart is on our list because the people who voted for him are fans of his wrestling work. They enjoyed the man they saw before May 23rd, 1999, and as a result, he’s number 16 on our list.

Video

March 20th, 1995 – Owen Hart vs. Bret Hart (WrestleMania X)

Major Titles

- 2 time WWF Intercontinental Champion
- 1 time WWF European Champion
- 4 time WWF Tag Team Champion (2 w/ Yokozuna, 1 w/ British Bulldog, 1 w/ Jeff Jarrett)
- 1 time IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion

Where Are They Now: As mentioned earlier, Owen Hart died in the ring on May 23rd, 1999.

Did Ya Know: Owen Hart actually appeared on WCW television in 1991 in between his two WWF runs. He teamed with Ricky Morton in a number of matches but was never able to reach a deal with management.