| A Tribute to the late Owen Hart Biography Name: Owen Hart Birthdate: 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. Brother is current WCW and former WWF 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. 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 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. |
| FAMILY FEUD |
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