Stealing the Spotlight - 1997

horrorfan_1986

This will be the first in a series of a few (the amount of threads may increase) threads about about one man and his actions. All of that threads will be tied together to a conclusion where I identify the link in every example. Before I begin, a general disclaimer for all the threads.

*I realize that as a wrestler of the WWE, Triple H, no matter who he's married to, does not have complete power to choice who he goes over and who he faces. Only one man, Vince McMahon, has the power to ultimately give someone a win/feud or not. The purpose of these threads isn't so much to point the finger at Hunter, but rather how he's been booked in such a similar spot so many times.*

At one of the most infamous events of all time, Shawn Michaels wins the WWF World Title from Bret Hart. The Montreal Screwjob, as it will be called later on really led to one of the first times that the lines between work and shoot was fuzzy. That event led to Vince McMahon becoming the most over heel in pro wrestling, while Bret Hart received sympathy from most fans. While Jim Neidhart and Davey Boy Smith would get out of their contracts to head to WCW with Bret, Owen Hart would be forced to stay behind. For the first time since 1993, Owen Hart would find himself being cheered out of people feeling sorry for his brother. This sympathy, opened up a spot for Owen Hart, a lifetime midcarder, to become a temporary main eventer until the sympathy wears off.

The following pay per view, Owen Hart attacked Shawn Michaels after his World Title defense with Ken Shamrock. The fans jumped to their feet, they were going to get their wish of seeing Hart (Not the one they wanted, but any Hart would of been fine by them) to get his hands around Shawn Michaels. Now, by December, it was obvious that the WWF was going in the direction of having Steve Austin being it's top guy. So while March and onward was already planned, they had a couple months wide open for Shawn to hold himself over until the Austin feud could begin. Generally speaking, the time from Survivor Series to No Way Out is time for the champion to look strong leading into Wrestlemania. With Owen Hart's popularity, it would seem natural for a World Title match at the Royal Rumble between Hart and Michaels.

Instead, what happened was that Owen had a match with Michaels on the December 29th edition of Raw. He won by DQ. To the surprise of myself, that was it. That was it because Owen feuded with the man who cost him the World Title, European champion, Triple H. Moving Hart over to a secondary Hunter feud was a bit strange. Sure, he did cost Owen the world title, but it was Shawn Michaels who Owen came back for. It had to be assume that Triple H or Chyna would of did their best to keep Owen from being WWF Champion. While booking was kind of strange, Owen did see some success. He became the European champion when he defeated Triple H. But wait, it wasn't Triple H. Instead, it was Goldust dressed up as Triple H. A month later when Hunter got his rematch, he defeated Owen for the title. This all led to Wrestlemania where once again Owen Hart loses to Triple H with the interference of Chyna. Due to that, the match leads into another title match at the next ppv of Unforgiven. Once again, Triple H defeats Owen Hart.

At this point, Owen Hart looked like a first class loser. He had lost all that momentum and support he had from the sympathy by jobbing so much to Hunter, the guy who he wasn't even coming back to the WWF to feud with! It was around this time, that Owen realized that he needed his own support if he was going to try and contend with DX. Thus, Hart becomes the official moment where The Nation no longer was about black rights. With that support, one would imagine that he will now get the revenge on Triple H, seeing how Shawn Michaels was now in retirement. No, instead his very brief stint in the Nation led him to feuding with Ken Shamrock, the Nation's long time rival. While all this is going on, Triple H is now feuding with The Rock over the IC title. So wait, while Owen Hart so his momentum come to a screeching halt and actually depushed from where he was at last year, Triple H was actually pushed higher up the ranks?

By the end of 1998, Owen Hart was gone from the Nation and was now teaming with Jeff Jarrett off and on. While feuding with the lowcarder, Steve Blackman, Owen slowly began using the Blue Blazer gimmick. With the WWF not doing anything with Jarrett or Owen, they were given the tag titles of a dead tag team division. The division was dead mainly due to the New Age Outlaws begin broken up to compete for singles titles. It was the one year anniversary (the month, not the date) of Owen joining the Nation and seeing his push that could of led him to main event a ppv or two come to an end, that Owen Hart died in Kansas City at the Over the Edge ppv.

How could the WWE mess up a wrestler that badly? The Montreal Screwjob was the biggest topic for months and being the only Hart left in the WWE, Owen could of really used that as a stepping stone to be tried out in the main event. I should say that I'm not one of those people who believes that Owen should/would have been a World Champion. But, who knows what would of happened after a couple months of feuding with Shawn and not be jobbing out and humiliated by Triple H for several months. Triple H should have been a supporting character in the feud of Michaels vs Owen, not stepping in the spotlight and take the feud for his own. Jobbing to Triple H did nothing to help Owen Hart and seeing how Triple H was a former IC champion and had been the King of the Ring, beating Owen Hart over and over didn't even do much to help himself. After all, how is a feud supposed to help you when your opponent is continually booked to look like a loser?

The WWE lost out on a special feud that would of held the WWE fans attention while the Road to Wrestlemania began. Owen Hart, overnight became one of the most popular men in the company, but that same company decided to depush and humiliate one more Hart, one last time.

Markus

Yeah that was fucked up the way Vince did Bret that night he wasn't even suppose to lose the title that night man. Vince promised he would drop the title the following night on Raw not at the svs ppv in his home town. I dramed of Bret Hart comming back into a wwe ring and taking apart Vince and Shawn Micheals.

Blitzkrieg

I agree with you about WWE and Owen Hart.. he should have been pushed more than he was.. but would he have been in the Wrestlemania main event? I find that hard to believe.. Stone Cold Steve Austin was the hottest commodity in the WWE at the time, there's no way in my mind that Owen would have taken his spot at Wrestlemania. I'm not sure how Triple H plays into this.. but obviously WWE felt more comfortable with him in a big feud with The Rock that someone else.

horrorfan_1986

Where did I say that he should of taken Austin's place? In fact, I said a couple times that it was obvious that it was Austin's time at the top. The Owen push should of happened in those 2 months before the Michaels/Austin feud.

And the Rock/Hunter feud occurred after the Owen feud. It doesn't even really seem like you read the whole post if you have to ask how Triple H fit into this.

Markus

Owen should have gotten a world title run he would have been a good world champion for the wwe. He was a great talent but wwe for some reason could not realize that.

16-0

Not to mention the fact that he could outwrestle most of the main eventers at the time & had great charisma.

Blitzkrieg

I read it clearly. Unless you are going to have Owen Hart in the main event at Wrestlemania, what would the point be in making him WWF champion in the two months prior to the event? And if your reply is something along the lines of Owen losing the feud to HBK, then that too kind of makes his comeback pointless, does it not?

It was a bad break for Owen with Shawn Michaels retiring because it would have been fitting for Owen to help cost HBK the title to Austin and feud with Shawn afterwards..

My point about Triple H was simple. You're saying there was no reason for him to defeat Owen, but what would the point have been in jobbing him out? He went on to lead D-X in the feud with The Nation which was one of the most important rivalries for WWE over the same time frame..

I don't disagree that they missed the boat with Owen, but what would they have done with Austin? There wasn't room for the both of them to be on top in the babyface role..

I loved Owen more than anyone.. I'm just failing to see how you wanted this to play out. Where would you have gone with the HBK/Owen feud?

Markus

16-0 is right he had better talent at the time then most of the maineventers and had the charisma. He should have gotten one world title run.

Tyler Durden

Well, firstly Bret didn't lose in his hometown, he's not from Montreal, but the point is noted.

As for Owen, I always felt he missed his "era" in the WWE. Had he been alive when Jericho, Benoit, Guerrero, Angle were around he would have had a prime opportunity to showcase what an incredible in-ring performer he was. At the time of his peak years in WWEland, there was nowhere near that level of ability for him to match up with.


Lastly, I thought he was incredibly unluckly with the timing of his return and the politics involved. When Owen returned at the December PPV (Degeneration X PPV?) after Montreal he was on fire he was so hot. But within just a few weeks the potential of a feud with Shawn was thrown away with a one off TV match in which Hunter interfered so the feud became Hunter-Owen when the money was surely Owen-Shawn (at the time). I guess most of the reason was politics, but partly "angle driven" too. WWE desperately wanted to do the Casket Match at the Rumble between Shawn and 'Taker to (a) get in a good buy rate with the Hell in a Cell still fresh in the mind and (b) give another shot in the arm to 'Mania for the big Taker-Kane first match.

Where I think they totally screwed up was that Owen should have won the first match with Hunter at Mania and then (if they wanted) lost the re-match at the next PPV. Having Owen lose twice to Hunter in succession completely killed his momentum post Montreal which, despite some excellent matches with Ken Shamrock, he never really recovered from.

Not to be taken as a joke comment, but Owen's whole career often seemed to be a case of wrong time and wrong place.

wcwrules

owen is one of the most athletic heavyweights i have ever seen, he is one of the most dedicated superstars to his job.