King Jericho
04-20-2004, 12:10 PM
After Dave Youell posted the thread on Owen Hart, containing some pics from a fan present at the Over the Edge PPV, where Owen tragically died, I felt like posting a thread about him in appreciation. So appreciate him, talk about him, say your favourite match involving him etc etc...
Owen was under used and under pushed in my opinion, a very talented worker, that was never used or pushed to his potenial! My favourite match with Owen was at Wrestlemania 10 when he beat Bret in the first match of the night. Obviously the two could work together awesomly but Owen stood out in that match in my opinion.
R.I.P Owen Hart :(
Gone Mad
04-20-2004, 12:57 PM
There could not be enough appreciation threads for Owen. At least IMO. He was the reason I watch wrestling. The first match I saw of his was with his old tag partner Koko B. Ware against some jobbers.That one little match made me a fan for life. Whenever , whether heel or jobber or face, I always cheered for The Rocket because he was that damn good. And yes, as King Jeriko mentioned, he was under-used and under-pushed especially in his last years. I can't pick a fav match but one match I would have loved to see would be Owen Vs. Jeriko. So,to Owen, thank you for all the hours of entertainment, for being so passionate about his job and his family that he dedicated his life to, and just for making me a fan. He is an inspiration. RIP Owen.
Evil Vito
04-21-2004, 01:05 AM
<font color=goldenrod>I sadly remember that tragic night. I just remember seeing the graphic for the upcoming Blue Blazer vs. Godfather match, and JUST before cutting to the video for the match I remember hearing JR break out of character and say, "we've got big problems out here!" and I recall being worried. When I heard that he fell, I was shocked, and when his death was announced, my heart just dropped. In my opinion, one of, if not, the worst night in wrestling history.
Owen is and always will be the greatest wrestler to never be World Champion. He was a class act, both in and out of the ring, and there will never again be anyone like him. Really, I can't say anything that hasn't already been said, except that I miss Owen, and that I hope he's up there in Wrestling Heaven, having a blast with Bulldog, Pillman, Rude, and all of the other wrestlers who have sadly died in the years past.
R.I.P Owen.</font> :wavesad:
blake639raw
04-21-2004, 01:20 AM
http://owenhart.freeservers.com/history.htm
Owen Hart, son of Stu Hart and brother of Bret "Hitman" Hart, was born is a family of wrestlers in 1962. All of his childhood wrestling was around him, so there wasn't much of a question on Owen's future - he was determined to become a wrestler. He made his professional debut in 1986 in the promotion owned by his father, Canadian Stampede Wrestling. He was awesome, and showed so much talent, that was soon most talked-about rookie in Canada and USA. Owen had a great time in Stampede, and had feuds with Mike Shaw and Pegasus Kid, future Bastion Booger and Chris Benoit. After that, Owen competed in many regional federations, shining brightly among others, and won many titles - including British Commonwealth Mid Heavyweight title and North American Heavyweight title. Owen went to Japan for the first time in 1988, and at that time it was his biggest achievement when he won IWFP Junior Heavyweight Champ, and by the way, he was a First Non-Japanese athlete EVER to win that title.
In 1989, when Owen returned to United States, he got a contract with the biggest and most successful promotion ever - WWF. Since Bret was already big in WWF, Owen invented a new gimmick in order not to be in Bret's shadow - he became a masked wrestler, Mexican-style, by the name of Blue Blazer. However, his first stint in WWF was really short, and after a while he was on the road again, travelling in Mexico, Japan, Europe, and his country Canada again.
In 1991, Owen Hart got back where he belonged - in WWF. There he immediately got into a tag team wrestling, first forming a New Hart Foundation with his brother-in-law, Jim "the Anvil" Neidhart, but that was for a really short period of time, because people always compared them to the original Hart Foundation - Jim and Bret, multi-time WWF Tag Team champs. After Jim went to WCW, Owen joined forces with Koko B-Ware and formed another tag team, called High Energy, which didn't last long either. :( All this time Owen was showing his exceptional skills in the ring, combining his unique high-flying and submission wrestling style, but was playing a mid-carder, while his brother Bret, in my opinion, never surpassing Owen in skills, was on the top and was a Champ. In 1993, WWF decided to make an angle out of it.
At the Survivor Series, Owen got eliminated when Bret accidentally hit him (they were on a same team). Owen's team won, but Owen was pissed off. He started to blame Bret for not being given what he's due, and wanted to wrestle him, to show who's the best Hart. But that didn't happen, they reached a mutual agreement and formed a tag team. At Royal Rumble 1994, Bret and Owen had a tag title match against the Quebecers, and they lost it because Bret couldn't continue - his knee was injured. Owen went berserk and attacked him after that, and one of the greatest feuds ever began.
1994 - Wrestlemania X - Brother versus Brother, Bret vs Owen. This match was one of the best matches in history of pro-wrestling ever, and Owen upset all the odds-makers by winning clean. However, this was a non-title match, and later that evening, Bret became a WWF World Champ. Obviously, Owen was upset. As the time went on, Owen wanted to beat Bret again, this time for a title. To get the title shot, he had to win King of the Ring tournament, the task which he accomplished by beating Adam Bomb, Tatanka, 1-2-3 Kid, and Razor Ramon in finals. However, along the way he had received a help from Jim Neidhart, who returned to WWF.
The era of King of Harts began. At SummerSlam 94, Owen got a title shot against Bret in a steel cage and it was one more hell of a match! British Bulldog was at ringside and so was Jim Neidhart, when Owen and Jim attacked him, and started beating on Bret and Bulldog, thus causing another great family feud. However, after Jim Neidhart left WWF again in 1995, Owen got himself a new manager - Jim Cornette, and at Wrestlemania XI he was supposed to have a match for Tag Team title against Smoking Gunns, but the question everybody asked was - who's Owen's mystery partner?? It all was revealed at that night, when huge sumo Yokozuna came out and team of him and Owen easily beat Smoking Gunns for the title, allowing Owen to get his first taste of gold in World Wrestling Federation. Their title reign lasted for five months, then they lost the title one night after IYH 3 to Smoking Gunns. This was the end for a team of Owen and Yoko. The jobbing time for Owen began. He was used to put over every goddamn "superstar" in WWF and it was a bad time for King of Harts. The only good thing about that time period is that he invented a new move - Insaguri Kick, which he used to knock Shawn Michaels out, and for that thing only he got his first Slammy Award - and changed his name to Slammy Award Winning Owen Hart. After a while, British Bulldog and Owen joined forces and went after Tag Team titles again, which they won by defeating Smoking Gunns with the new manager - Clarence Mason. After a while, tension between Owen and Bulldog started and they startewd arguing, etc, however, they still kept the titles.
When WWF decided to have a new belt - WWF European Championship, a huge toruney was held in Germany, and two of the best wrestlers in WWF - British Bulldog and Owen Hart were in finals. Once again, this was one of the best matches ever, and Bulldog won, and became a first ever WWF European Champ. At Wrestlemania XIII Owen and Bulldog successfully defended their titles, this time against Vader and Mankind. The night after WM, on Raw is War, they had another conteders for their title - Headbangers. In the end of a match, Owen and Bulldog got in a brawl, and Owen demanded a title shot at WWF European title, and Bulldog accepted. The match itself was brutal, and Bulldog was ready to hit Owen with the chair, while suddenly Bret Hart entered the ring and separated them!!!!! He then made a long speech about how wrong they are to fight between family members, and American fans didn't give a @#%# about them, and said he needed their help. This was a birth of a New Hart Foundation.
Brian Pillman and Jim Neidhart, who returned to WWF, joined the new best stable in wrestling, and NHF started to take WWF by storm. Two weeks later, Owen finally won his first singles title - WWF Intercontinental title, from Rocky Maivia!!! Owen had now two titles at the same time - Tag Team and Intercontinental!! That didn't last long, however. Team of Shawn Michaels and Stone Cold Steve Austin defeated Owen and Bulldog for the titles, thus ending their 8-month reign. Owen beat many contenders for his IC title, but finally he lost it to Stone Cold Steve Austin at Summerslam '97. Despite his loss, he injured Austin's neck badly and wore a tee-shirt "Owen 3:16 says i just broke your neck"!!! Austin's injury put him out of action for a while, then a tourney for the title was held, with Owen winning the title again!!!!! This didn't last long either, as Owen lost the title again to Austin at Survivor Series.
After the infamous double-crossing of Bret by Vince McMahon which led to Bret leaving the company which he worked for 14 years, and Vince showing what an asshole he is, Owen was not happy with WWF, however, Vince promised him that he'll never do something like that to him and he would be happy if Owen continued working with WWF. Owen made his return at Degeneration X PPV, after Shawn Michaels was celebrating the victory over Ken Shamrock, Owen attacked him and beat him to the bloody pulp. A new Owen Hart, the Black Hart, the Sole Survivor, the fan favorite was born.
After that Owen alone almost took out the entire DX, however the forces were not equal. DX had three men, and Owen was alone, but Owen kept on attacking them over and over, beating Shawn and Hunter. Owen got his title shot against Shawn Michaels on Raw is War and had Shawn in the Sharpshooter almost tapping out, but HHH stopped the title from changing hands. Then Owen decided to go after HHH, and finally won the European Championship from him, only to lose it to him week before Wrestlemania XIV. Both at WM and at IYH Unforgiven Owen lost the title match to HHH, both times by interference from outside. Then, after losing the match at Unforgiven, he said to the camera - "Enough is enough, this shit gotta stop, things will change!!!!"
Next day, on RIW, things DID change. Owen had a tag team match with Ken Shamrock against Rocky Maivia and Mark Henry. Owen backstabbed Shamrock, broke his ankle with the chair, and bited off a solid piece of Shamrock's ear! Owen was back as a heel, and he aligned himself with the Nation. Next PPV, "Over the Edge", Owen, who became the co-leader of the Nation with Rocky Maivia, the Nation defeated Degeneration X in a great epic battle and Owen pinned HHH!!! The following months, Owen became one of the biggest heels in WWF, feuding with X-pac and Ken Shamrock, and having many great matches. On RIW, September 28, he defeated Dan Severn using his new finisher, Tombstone Piledriver. Severn's neck was injured, and next RIW, Owen came out, saying that he's sorry he injured Dan and he's retiring.
Soon after, however, masked superstar Blue Blazer made his debut by attacking Steve Blackman on many occasions. Everybody thought that it was Owen (see earlier part of this history), but later events showed that Owen is NOT Blazer, since these two were seen together, teaming up. The feud was going for a some more time then, and it faded, but Owen and Jeff with Debra continued to team up and quite successfully, in a short period of time defeating every WWF tag team, and on Raw Is War, Jan 25, the team of Owen and Jeff beat Ken Shamrock and Big Bossman to become WWF tag team champions of the world!!!
From January to April, Owen and Jeff defeated every WWF Tag Team, they faced numerous challenges, and proved that they ARE the best tag team ever! They beat teams such as New Age Outlaws, Legion of Doom, Public Enemy, Brood, Nation, and MANY OTHERS. At Wrestlemania XV, they defeated D-Lo Brown and Test - winners of Battle Royal - to retain tag team belts.
Debra's Boys lost the titles at Raw Is War on April 5th, to Kane and X-pac.
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