Bowing Down To The King Of Harts

Can you believe it’s been 20 years since Owen Hart died?

On May 23, 1999, WWE presented Over The Edge from the Kemper Arena in Kansas City, MO. Early in the show, Owen, as the Blue Blazer, was set to face off against The Godfather for the Intercontinental Championship. Set to make a grand entrance from the ceiling, Owen was attached to a harness to be lowered to the ring. Unfortunately, the harness malfunctioned and Owen fell an estimated 70 feet down to the ring.

The pay-per-view came to a standstill while paramedics worked on Owen. The crowd stood in disbelief of what had occurred, while the TV audience was left with shots of the stunned crowd and Jim Ross stressing that “this is not part of the entertainment for the evening, this is as real life as real life can get.” Jerry Lawler, who had jumped into the ring to assist the paramedics, would come back to the ringside area and say that things didn’t look good. Medical personnel would begin emergency CPR to revive him, but Owen would pass away en route to the hospital. About an hour later, JR announced to fans at home that Owen had passed away from the incident.

It remains the biggest tragedy to ever happen in a WWE ring. While these days such an incident would certainly cancel the rest of the show, Vince McMahon decided to keep things moving that night, a controversial decision to say the least. It was clear in the demeanor of the wrestlers, especially Jeff Jarrett, Debra Steve Austin and even McMahon himself, that they were completely thrown off by everything that had happened. Over The Edge would never be released for home entertainment distribution. As a matter of fact, the show would never see the light of day again until the launch of the WWE Network in 2014. A graphic of Owen is shown in the beginning that says that the show is in “Memory of Owen Hart, who accidentally passed away during this broadcast.” Everything in regards to Owen was edited out of the WWE Network broadcast.

Raw was completely rewritten the next night to serve as a tribute to Owen. The entire roster filed out onto the ramp, tears flowing as Howard Finkel called for a 10-bell salute. A tribute video followed with McMahon calling Owen a legendary performer and great prankster. In what would become standard fare for sudden wrestling deaths, WWE would play various videos of wrestlers paying their respects and sharing their favorite memories of their fallen colleague. The show ended with Steve Austin do his usual beer catching in the ring before turning straight to the Titantron with the Owen graphic. Austin would hold two beers in his hand, cheersing them together before putting the beers down in the middle of the ring. “One last cheers for you Owen and we will never forget you,” Jim Ross said as the show ended.

The circumstances of Owen’s death illustrated the drastic change in WWE since he first appeared in the company 11 years prior. The stories always told were that his older brother Bret put in a word with Vince, showing him video of his brother’s athleticism. Owen joined WWE in 1988 as the Blue Blazer, a masked superhero whose high-flying agility and technical proficiency was a stark contrast to the status quo at the time. He left the company shortly after WrestleMania V to compete around the world, returning in 1991 to team with Jim Neidhart and then Koko B. Ware. Sadly, High Energy never took off and The New Hart Foundation could never replicate the original incarnation of Bret and Anvil.

Owen wouldn’t become a fixture of WWE TV until 1993, when he and his other brothers supported Bret in his feud with Jerry Lawler. Heading into Survivor Series, Bret would recruit Owen, Bruce and Smith to join him in battle against Lawler and the masked King’s Men. The Hart Family would win the match over Shawn Michaels (who replaced Lawler at the last minute due to criminal charges pressed against the King). However, Owen would be the only member of the Hart Family eliminated in the match after Bret collided into Owen, leading to a roll up. Owen would shove Bret post-match, as his jealousy began to surface.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=woBe_Fpr4hI&t=3s

Over the holidays, Owen and Bret would reconcile, setting their sights on the WWF Tag Team Championships. During their title shot at Royal Rumble 1994, Bret would suffer a leg injury, but refused to stop the match and especially refused to tag in Owen. Instead of finding an opening to tag his brother, The Hitman tried to lock in the Sharpshooter for the win. However, his knee would buckle under the pressure and the referee stopped the match, awarding the Quebecers the victory. Owen berated Bret for being selfish before finally helping him up, only to as Owen would later say in an infamous promo, “kick his leg out of his leg.”

Owen’s jealousy reached its peak, as the bitter younger brother completed his heel turn, seeking years of revenge against his brother. This would come on the biggest night of the company’s history (to that point): WrestleMania X. Bret and Owen would put on an instant classic in Madison Square Garden. This match would be considered by some in the short list of greatest WrestleMania matches alongside Steamboat vs. Savage and Undertaker vs Shawn Michaels. It’s easily the greatest opening match in WrestleMania history and possibly WWE PPV history. Owen would win the match clean over Bret and then flip him off immediately afterwards. Of course, Bret would get the last laugh at the end of the evening, held high on the shoulders of the WWF roster as the new WWF Champion. Owen stood in the aisle way looking on in a jealous rage. The stage was immediately set for a rematch and Owen’s shot at immortality, but he had one more stop to make.

In June of 1994, he would win the second King of the Ring tournament, one year after his brother Bret won. During his coronation ceremony, Owen would officially name himself “The King of Harts.” In August, he collided with Bret in a steel cage match at SummerSlam, an encounter credited by Dave Meltzer with a 5-star rating. The match stole the show once again and cemented Owen as a main event player, when needed. It didn’t matter if you loved him or most likely hated him, you knew that when it was time for him to compete, he would put forth the best effort possible to steal the show.

Owen would begin anew in 1995 by looking to the tag team division. He created his next WrestleMania moment by revealing his mystery partner as Yokozuna; they went on to win the Tag Team Titles. As a result of the new alliance, Jim Cornette now served as Owen’s manager. The King of Harts would stay in the main event scene throughout the rest of 1995. He and Yokozuna would lose the titles after a five-month reign to the “Two Dudes with Attitudes” – Diesel and Shawn Michaels – during an In Your House pay-per-view special. By the end of the year, Owen reunited with his brother-in-law Davey Boy Smith to take out Bret and also bring the WWF Championship to Camp Cornette.

Owen would continue with his wrestling career in 1996, but one night that always stood out to me was when he didn’t even wrestle a match, but was still all over the show. During King of the Ring, he sat ringside the whole evening doing commentary with Vince McMahon and Jim Ross. He was also ringside because the fix was in for Camp Cornette to have Owen distract the defending WWF Champion Shawn Michaels during his match with British Bulldog. The plan didn’t work, though. Regardless, Owen’s commentary and biased opinion was so smooth throughout the night. Mick Foley wrote in his first book about how much he enjoyed Owen that night and felt that everyone learned that Owen Hart was the best in the business because he could do it all, including anything on the microphone. Please go to WWE Network and watch this show. It is a guilty pleasure of mine; I had it on VHS growing up and listening to him is amazing.

Owen and Bulldog would close out the year as Tag Team Champions, and in April of 1997, they reunited with Bret. The trio would join Neidhart and Brian Pillman as the new Hart Foundation, one that was anti-America, all Canadian pride and against everything the WWF stood for. Owen would be Bret’s right-hand man during his feud with “Stone Cold” Steve Austin. After winning the Intercontinetal Championship in May, Owen quickly became Austin’s top target. Their match at SummerSlam was a barn burner until Owen spiked Steve on his head during a sitdown tombstone piledriver that would cause Austin neck issues throughout the remainder of his career. Although the Texas Rattlesnake barely won the match, Owen became the most hated man in the company.

He began wearing an “Owen 3:16” shirt that on the back read “I just broke your neck;” this is as awesome a storyline T-shirt design as you can get. During this time, he would win the vacated Intercontinental Championship in October at Judgment Day after Austin interfered on Owen’s behalf. The Texas Rattlesnake simply wanted revenge on Owen and wanted to be able to take the IC Title off of him in the process. They would blow off their feud during Survivor Series in Montreal with Austin winning in quick fashion. While this was already a bad night for Owen Hart, it would end even worse.

In the aftermath of the Montreal Screwjob, Owen had reportedly, according to multiple stories told throughout the years, asked for his release from the company. McMahon refused to give Owen his release, but increased his pay, promised him time off and when he came back, vowed to give him a main event push. Owen would be out until mid-December when he would attack Shawn Michaels at the end of the D-Generation X pay-per-view. He also had a quick stare down with McMahon before jumping the security railing as the show signed off.

“The Blackheart” Owen Hart was born.

He would have a very brief feud with Michaels that would never involve a match for the WWF Championship (wonder how that happened), but it would lead to a lengthy feud with Triple H over the European Championship. Owen would be buried for roughly four straight PPVs by Triple H and DX. Apparently, storylines were just as nonsensical back then as they are today.

Owen Hart would have several rivalries throughout the summer with Ken Shamrock and X-Pac before joining The Rock and The Nation of Domination. By the end of 1998, he formed a team with Jeff Jarrett and his manager Debra. They would capture the WWF Tag Team Championships shortly after the Royal Rumble in January and hold the titles for two months, including a successful defense at WrestleMania 15 against Test and D’Lo Brown. In April, Kane and X-Pac would beat them for the titles. Weirdly, Owen and Jeff would be engaged in a Blue Blazer storyline throughout their reign. Owen would claim to never be under the mask and would occasionally dress Jeff in the costume when Owen was standing next to the Blazer, as a way to throw off the fans.

From everything that has ever been told or published about Owen, one thing remains constant: Owen Hart was a great man, an entertaining athlete and a role model for not only his family and children, but even his peers. Owen’s legacy in the business will go down as one of the most gifted performers in WWE history. I view him as one of the greatest wrestlers to have never held the World Heavyweight Championship. The King of Harts deserves his spot in the WWE Hall of Fame and it’s a shame that there are obstacles in the way. I hope that one day everything involving this situation can be pushed aside so that he can take his proper place where he belongs.