horrorfan_1986

Roughly an hour ago was the nine year anniversary of the death of Owen Hart. It was on the night of the second annual Over The Edge PPV, that Owen fell to his death from high above in the rafters. Although nine years is a long time for someone young (Just under half of my lifetime), I can still remember the events of that night and the aftermath the following night on Raw. For the last six or so months of his life, Hart had been going back under the mask of the Blue Blazer off an on. He had previously even did the exact stunt that he was set to do that night in the Kemper Arena in Kansas City, Kansas. All it took though, was using brand new equipment from a different company to turn a common stunt (WCW especially had done the stunt many times with Sting) to go horribly wrong.

I believe my first memories of Owen was his second run in the WWF starting in 1991/1992. At the time, he was far from the annoying jealous heel character he would be most famous for. A little bit chubbier Owen would wear these large neon MC Hammer checkered pants. He was quickly paired with Jim 'The Anvil' Neidhart as the Hart Foundation. The entire idea of the team was to recapture the magic of the Hart Foundation, but with a different Hart. However, before they could really do anything, Jim went into commentating before leaving the company. Taking Neidhart's place was a fellow face jobber in Koko B Ware. Koko was someone I'd call a known jobber. He was over and even had his own action figure, but he almost always jobbed to the stars. Wearing the same ridiculous outfit, Owen and Koko went by the name of High Energy. With the creation of Monday Night Raw, Owen and Koko saw a little success, but before anything major could happen, Koko got injured. At this point, I've heard from various sources that Owen was on the bubble to be released, which wouldn't have been too surprising. However, in comes older brother Bret to put the idea of the feud that would get Owen Hart over.

Although he had been in the WWE in 1988/1989 and the second run starting in late 1991, in my eyes, Owen's career really began at the 1993 Survivor Series. That night, Owen teamed with brothers Bruce, Keith and Bret to face Jerry Lawler's Knights with Shawn Michaels filling in for Jerry Lawler. With Bret weaken on the apron, Owen was Irish Whipped into the ropes by Michaels which sent Bret flying into the guard rail. With Keith and Bruce tending to Bret, Owen was rolled up and pinned by Michaels. At the end of the match, The Harts won with only Owen being eliminated. The jealousy seeds were planted. It appeared as if their issues were solved quickly though as Bret and Owen formed a short lived tag team. It was during this time that they had one of the best tag matches of the nineties with Rick and Scott Steiner. In January, they were set for their biggest match together as a team, a World Tag Team Title shot against The Quebecers. During the entire match though, Jacques and Pierre worked over Bret's knee. Eventually, Bret was in so much pain that the referee stopped the match, worrying for Bret's safety. Owen would help his brother up, but would kick in Bret's bad leg. The heel turn was complete. The young kid who one year earlier no one paid any attention to, was now one of the most over heels. As luck will have it though, Bret would end up co-winning the Royal Rumble with Lex Luger. President Jack Tunney decided that there would be two world title matches at Wrestlemania. A coin toss would rule who would get the first shot. The loser of it would have to face another opponent before their title match. For Lex Luger, his potential opponent was Crush, Bret was the man said numerous times he never wanted to wrestle, Owen. The stage was set for Owen's biggest match to date.

I'll continue this soon.

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Tommy Platinum

Looking forward to reading the rest of it.

Owen is a guy who I hear so much about, but I was never watching wrestling while he was around. By the time Owen Hart died, I had never even watched a single wrestling show. Since then I have seen a few of his matches, and I have been very impressed, but it is interesting to read this, because to do this day I still don't know a huge amount about his career.

I know what you're thinking: These new fans don't care about the past lol.

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King Steventon

Truth be told I can barely remember much of Owen from the time, mostly just a few backstage segments and even them are pretty vague. That said I've rewatched some of his stuff and he was a great wrestler. Many people say he's the greatest to never hold a world title, and I think thats more to do with the potential he had more than anything. I watched the tribute match between Bret and Benoit a while ago and it was pretty moving. I actually have his best matches (his cage match with Bret and the WM match with Bret) on my comp but havent gotten round to watching them yet :/

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KenTheKiller

I remember his promos so well. His matches I have less memories of, except for the ones I've rewatched however he really brought a unique style to the WWE and was highly entertaining.

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