Owen Hart

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Owen Hart

Owen James Hart (May 7, 1965 – May 23, 1999) was a Canadian professional wrestler and entertainer. He competed under the ringname Owen Hart and had many nicknames such as The Rocket, The King of Harts, The Blackhart, and The Blue Blazer. He was born in Calgary, Alberta, the youngest of 12 children, all of whom were involved with wrestling in some way; the most famous of his brothers being Bret Hart. His father was legendary wrestling promoter Stu Hart.

1 Wrestling Career
2 Death
3 In Wrestling
- 3.1 Finishing/Signature moves
- 3.2 Quotes
4 Championships and accomplishments
5 See also

[edit]

Wrestling Career

Owen entered wrestling by working for his father's Stampede Wrestling. Wrestling however was not Owen's first choice for a career; as Martha Hart, his widow, would explain in her book Broken Harts, that Owen tried numerous times to find a profitable living outside of wrestling. Those attempts were unsuccessful, and Owen began his WWF stay as The Blue Blazer in 1987. The Blue Blazer was at that time a generic masked wrestler gimmick who was a high flying technician, but made its return in 1999 to be portrayed as a stereotypical over-the-top superhero; some argue this was done to punish him for refusing to take part in lurid storylines of the WWF Attitude Era. Owen would later team alongside Koko B. Ware in the early 1990s as High Energy. Eventually he was pushed as a singles competitor and feuded with his brother Bret. They competed at WrestleMania X and later in a Cage Match at SummerSlam 1994. They are both considered two of the greatest matches of the 1990s. Owen combined high flying and technical mat skill for a very sound style; he was also quite adept at playing a sneaky, smarmy heel, as evidenced by his King of Harts gimmick (he took the nickname after winning the 1994 King of the Ring).

Owen as a member of The Hart Foundation.

Hart's WWF career included Intercontinental, Tag Team and European gold; he teamed with the 600-pound Yokozuna and his brother-in-law Davey Boy Smith, the British Bulldog, at various points in his career. He was also infamous at this time for the errant piledriver at SummerSlam 1997 which severely injured Stone Cold Steve Austin and ultimately led to Austin's retirement in 2003. When his brother Bret lost his WWF Title in controversial fashion at the 1997 Survivor Series in Montreal, Smith and Jim Neidhart, another Hart brother-in-law, responded by joining Bret in WCW. Owen tried this as well, but elected to stay put in the WWF when faced with breach of contract issues. This was the start of his Blackhart gimmick which had a great deal of potential; however Shawn Michaels, the WWF Champion in the wake of Montreal, suffered a career-ending (at the time) back injury and additionally managed to convince WWF owner Vince McMahon not to put that potentially hot feud together. As such Owen floundered for a bit, turning heel again and joining the Nation of Domination, a black militant themed stable. Obviously, this was not a good fit for Owen.

In early 1999, Owen began teaming with Jeff Jarrett and again captured tag team gold; however he was also in a storyline involving the Blue Blazer character; this, again, was rumored as punishment for Owen not wanting to do a storyline which suggested a sexual affair with Debra, the valet for the team. Of course, Owen was a happily married family man and wanted no part of this. It was the Blue Blazer gimmick which led to his untimely and unfortunate death at the Over the Edge PPV in May 1999.

[edit]

Death

Hart died in Kansas City on May 23, 1999, during the WWF's Over the Edge PPV event. His death occurred while he was being lowered into the ring from a catwalk of the Kemper Arena for a match with The Godfather (a wrestler with a pimp gimmick); later reports revealed that Owen was booked to win the Intercontinental Championship from The Godfather in that match. His entrance was originally planned to be a "comedy stunt" entrance, in keeping with the buffoonish character of the Blue Blazer. Owen, in Blue Blazer regalia, was to be lowered to just above ring level, at which time Owen would release himself from the safety harness, drop to the ring, land on his feet...and then fall flat on his face. Though he had performed the stunt before, Owen had not wanted to perform the stunt at the Kemper Arena due to the height involved (Owen had a fear of heights). He had skipped the practice runs earlier in the day hoping that the WWF would scrap the stunt; however, the stunt went forward as scheduled anyway. For reasons never revealed, the release was triggered early, and Owen fell 78 feet into the ring, smashing his chest on a ring turnbuckle. The viewers at home did not see the incident, as the WWF was transmitting a promotional package for the Blue Blazer/Godfather match. Upon the return to live action, the cameras focused on the crowd and the announcing team (Jim Ross and a visibly shaken Jerry Lawler) as paramedics tried to revive Owen. The crowd, believing that this was "part of the act" (despite Ross stating repeatedly that it was not), cheered with a standing ovation as Owen was carried out. Owen was transported to the Truman Medical Center in Kansas City, where he was pronounced dead on arrival (he passed away about six minutes after the fall, while still lying in the ring); the cause was later revealed to be internal bleeding from blunt chest trauma. Despite the tragedy, the show continued.

The next night on Monday Night Raw, the WWF mounted a two-hour televised tribute to Owen (see RAW is Owen), featuring the company's biggest stars (most of whom were in shock or in tears). On this show, Jeff Jarrett would beat Test using Owen's finisher, the Sharpshooter, as a tribute to Owen. The show concluded with a "beer toast" from Steve Austin; many found this controversial, due to the animosity that existed between Austin and Owen after the 1997 piledriver incident. The Over the Edge event name was retired immediately, and the WWF tried to distance itself from the in-ring events. However, the Hart family (as well as sports radio talk show host Jim Rome) was furious with the WWF for continuing the PPV event, with Bret accusing McMahon of murder.

In the weeks that followed, much attention focused on the harness Owen used that night, especially on the "quick release" trigger and safety latches. When someone is lowered from the rafters in a harness, there are backup latches that must be latched for safety purposes. These backups may take some time to unlatch, which would have made Owen's stunt difficult to perform smoothly. Therefore, it was apparently decided that it was more important not to have the safety backups, because it would be easier for Owen to unlatch himself. In addition to not having safety backups, the harness Owen used was designed for sailboats and required only six pounds of weight to trigger the quick release mechanism; Owen weighed about 227 pounds. Unfortunately, an out-of-court settlement between Owen Hart's family and the WWF has prevented the release of any information about the harness.

Owen left a widow, Martha, and two children, Oje and Athena. His widow now runs a charity called the Owen Hart Foundation with the money gained from her out-of-court settlement with the WWF from a wrongful death lawsuit (as a result of the settlement, what truly happened on May 23, 1999 was never revealed). Martha wrote a book about Owen's life in 2002 called Broken Harts.

Owen's last match was on May 22, 1999 in Chicago. He and Jarrett won a tag team match against Edge and Christian.

His brother Bret and longtime friend Chris Benoit had a tribute match in WCW in Kansas City on October 4, 1999.

[edit]

In Wrestling

[edit]

Finishing/Signature moves

[edit]

Quotes

"Enough is enough, and it's time for a change!"
"Owen 3:16 says 'I just broke your neck'."
"I am not a nugget!"
"I am the King of Harts!"

[edit]

Championships and accomplishments

[edit]

New Japan Pro Wrestling

1-time NJPW IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion

[edit]

Pro Wrestling Illustrated

PWI ranked him # 66 of the 500 best singles wrestlers during the PWI Years in 2003
PWI ranked him # 84 of the best tag teams of the PWI Years with Davey Boy Smith
PWI Rookie of the Year Award (1987)
PWI Feud of the Year Award, versus Bret Hart (1994)
PWI Editor's Award (1999)

[edit]