Roundtable: Remembering Owen Hart

What’s your first memory of Owen Hart?

Steven Jackson: Looking back, sadly my first memory of Owen Hart was hearing of his untimely death. I knew Bret had a large family, but I never had the chance to see Owen wrestle when he was alive, which still upsets me to this day. On a lighter note, my first memory of watching an Owen Hart match was against Bret at WrestleMania X.

David Gibb: Owen’s push was in-and-out during my formative years, as was my viewership of the show due to the fact that my parents hated wrestling. With that said, I’ll never forget renting WWF Attitude for the first time and seeing the dedication to him at the beginning of the game. Wrestling and video games are both less-than-authentic views on life, but, for me, there’s something really affecting about that screen to this day.

John Corrigan: Owen Hart was one of the first wrestling action figures I ever had. He came in a package with Triple H, so I’m guessing it was in 1998. At the time, I didn’t even know who he was, but it was the start of a massive collection.

Chad Gelfand: My first memory of Owen Hart was him in the Nation. He was always entertaining even in a role where it didn’t seem like he fit into.

Neal Wagner: He was a special commentator for King of the Ring 1996 so he could be in the corner of British Bulldog for the WWF Title match main event. He was excellent throughout the three hours and showed just how great he was across the board.

Jack Goodwillie: Legends of Wrestling II. Owen was an unlockable character, and I always just knew him as Bret Hart’s brother. Interestingly, I thought for months that the LoW series featured some real-life likenesses (IE Hulk Hogan, Eddie Guerrero, etc.) with an entirely fictional roster, until a friend of my mom’s brought over some of her old PWI issues from the early ‘90s. Imagine my surprise to find that Bret and Owen Hart were actually real people.

What’s your favorite Owen Hart match?

Jackson: Owen had so many amazing matches. But the match which always stands out to me was the steel cage from SummerSlam 1994 against Bret for the WWF Championship. Such a wonderfully constructed match with brilliant psychology and a nail-biting finish that still excites to this day.

Gibb: Honestly, the SummerSlam ‘97 Intercontinental Title match against Steve Austin is incredible, until they get to the piledriver.

Corrigan: WWE Tag Team Champions and brothers-in-law collided in Berlin, Germany, as Owen and Bulldog faced off in the finals of the European Championship tournament in 1997. After both men held the ropes open for the other to re-enter the ring, Owen eventually ditched the sportsmanship and feigned a knee injury, luring Bulldog into a sneak attack. This is a technical wrestling masterpiece as the partners exchange counter for counter, knowing each other’s next move.

Wagner: You can’t touch his match with Bret at Mania 10. It is a two-match show, but this started the night and it was hard to follow.

Goodwillie: The thing about Owen Hart matches is that while he was really underrated in the ring and could have a very good match with a subpar opponent, only a few of his matches were truly great. The best one? It has to be either the WrestleMania X or SummerSlam ’94 against his brother Bret. Whether it’s the WrestleMania match that has him going over, or the SummerSlam match that takes place in the infamous blue steel cage, you can’t really miss.

What’s your favorite Owen Hart moment?

Jackson: My favorite Owen Hart moment came during the 1994 Royal Rumble when he turned on Bret and decided that he was going to “kick [Bret’s] leg out of his leg”! A wonderful heel turn that propelled Owen into the spotlight.

Gibb: Turning on Ken Shamrock and joining the Nation. It may be the best and most quintessential Vince Russo heel turn.

Corrigan: Owen’s victory speech at the 1997 Slammy Awards. The fact that he carried those trophies around for years is hilarious.

Gelfand: When I started watching wrestling, it was towards the end of Owen Hart’s career, so I didn’t get to experience him in his prime. But going back and watching some videos on YouTube, I always get a kick out of Owen Hart’s antics at the Slammys.

Wagner: To take home his victory over Bret at WM 10, he very quickly gave a celebratory middle finger to Bret in the ring. It was the perfect FU to his brother to prove that he was better at that time. Just little things like that tell so much in a long story.

Goodwillie: Owen Hart’s greatest moment never happened. Yes, he returned following the Montreal Screwjob to attack Shawn Michaels, but the segment for whatever reason is not all that memorable. I’ve always fantasized about what-if’s in wrestling, and this situation was no different. What if Owen Hart got some of that SCSA fairy dust and Austin assaulted Michaels week after week, forcing Michaels’ hand into demanding he face Owen, only for the younger Hart to get his moment with a WWE Championship that he definitely deserved BEFORE pitting him against Austin for a feud that would have carried a lot of weight. Of course, he would have needed to get over organically for it to not come off as a pity win, a la Rey Mysterio’s World Championship win in ’06. Regardless, Owen should have been a top-5 guy in the company by the time of his death – not doing Blue Blazer matches.

Was Owen Hart’s death the biggest tragedy in WWE history?

Jackson: Comparing tragedies is always a very sore point for me as an individual. I do feel Owen’s death was a big tragedy, but what the biggest tragedy is/was how Vince and the production crew treated the incident after the event happened. It felt very uncomfortable, and on protest, I refuse to have a WWE Network subscription because the catalog includes Over the Edge 1999. But that is another story for another time.

Gibb: In terms of something 100% preventable happening during a wrestling show, yes.

Corrigan: Absolutely. I understand the old adage that the show must go on, but in this instance, it’s unbelievable. Somebody died in the middle of the ring, and Vince McMahon felt the crowd wouldn’t accept the show stopping. We’re not talking the 1970s when fans stabbed heels…we’re talking 1999!

Gelfand: Owen’s death is obviously one of the biggest tragedies in not just wrestling history, but WWE history as well. A man lost his life performing an entirely unnecessary stunt and that’s a tragedy in and of itself. For me, the Benoit murder-suicide is the biggest tragedy because it involved the deaths of two other people as well.

Wagner: It is easily top two alongside Benoit. The whole accident and the fact that it was during a live broadcast of a pay-per-view just makes the whole situation even more horrible, especially for those in attendance that night.

Goodwillie: Yes. It is the only time I can think of where a wrestler died in the ring under WWE’s watch. When you’d have other controversial wrestling deaths, such as Benoit’s, those had more to do with mistakes and poor decision making of the individual, not anything caused by WWE. That’s where Hart’s death is unique among the heaviest wrestler deaths we’ve seen.

If he was still alive, what do you imagine Owen Hart would have done in the 2000s?

Jackson: Owen would have definitely been a huge part of the international scene. Returning to Japan or Europe or even WCW, Owen may have conquered fields outside of WWE. Then again, the story was that Owen wanted to retire from the road and join the fire service, so he may have retired and become a public citizen. Both paths were respectable for the “King of Harts” and his legacy will live forever. Long live Owen Hart!

Gibb: I know this is not going to be a popular answer, but Owen would’ve been another Bob Holly/Val Venis type midcarder in the 2000s. I can see him as a member of Right to Censor or a flunky in JBL’s cabinet, but given his look and the consistent characterization that Owen saw wrestling as a job, not a calling, I just don’t think McMahon ever would’ve booked him as a true main event star.

Corrigan: He would have been a gatekeeper for the next generation of talent, nearly all of which who could have hung with him much better than the Attitude Era guys. Imagine Owen vs. Jericho, Benoit, Guerrero, Angle, Malenko, etc. He would have helped the transition from crash TV to longer matches and improved in-ring storytelling.

Gelfand: Owen would have jumped to WCW, wrestled there a couple of years, then he would mostly have been retired after WCW closed down. From then on, he would make sporadic appearances in TNA as a favor to his friend Jeff Jarrett before eventually making a return to WWE near the 2010s and he would be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame.

Wagner: I would like to think that if he was around still he would be a multi-time world champion. I see him being in the Eddie Guerrero position, in that he would win the title to much fanfare with his hard work and longevity finally paying off.

Goodwillie: Because Owen’s title run did NOT happen as I suggested above, it makes you wonder if it ever would have happened for him. I’d say probably not, but had they given Owen his proper run in ’97-’98, I could have seen him working as a transitional champion up until about… 2006, behaving as a guy the WWE could rely on to get guys ready for the main event (think – Owen in Booker T’s spot at WrestleMania XIX, and a retirement match with Chris Jericho at WrestleMania 25 instead of Jericho vs. Legends). What happens after that is anybody’s guess. You’d have to think he’d have been a great fit in a behind-the-scenes role, but I could also imagine him fading away into a life with his family much like Bret did after Bill Goldberg ended his career.