The Piledriver Report 05.13.09: Remembering Owen Hart - Ten Years Later

Posted by Ronny Sarnecky on 05.13.2009

May 23rd will mark the 10th Anniversary of the passing of Owen Hart. This week’s Piledriver Report takes a look at the life and tragic death of the “King of Hearts” Owen Hart.

This past Saturday night, I attended the latest Ring of Honor show in Edison, NJ. While the show was good, but not great, something caught my eye while I was there. During intermission, I walked over to their merchandise table. The table was littered with several dozens of different Ring of Honor DVDs, as well as numerous other wrestling DVDs. There was one DVD in particular that I quickly noticed. It was the 10th Anniversary edition of "Hitman Hart: Wrestling With Shadows" DVD. Since I always wanted "Wrestling With Shadows" on DVD, this was an easy purchase. The 10th Anniversary edition happens to include a bonus DVD titled "The Life and Death of Owen Hart."

After quickly doing the math, I realized that the 10th Anniversary of Owen Hart's tragic death is a mere ten days away. My columns recently have taken on an "I remember when…" vibe. Without any previous agenda planned, this article wraps up my trip down memory lane.

I can't believe that it's already been ten years since Owen Hart fell from the rafters. Watching the Owen Hart DVD, I couldn't help but think of how things may have been different if the WWF didn't include the "Sting stunt" during that pay per view in May 1999.

The first time I heard of Owen Hart was through the Apter magazines, like "Pro Wrestling Illustrated," "Inside Wrestling," and "The Wrestler." All I knew about him was that he was Bret's little brother, and from what the articles mentioned, he was a pretty good worker. When I heard Owen had signed with the WWF, I was pretty excited to see what he brought to the table.

Unfortunately, the WWF did what they normally did when wrestlers came into their company. Instead of letting Owen Hart work as Owen Hart, Vince McMahon had to give him a gimmick. I hated when the WWF would do this. Especially, when they would do this with wrestlers that had established names. Instead of taking advantage of the wrestler's brand, they had to "WWF" these men. Sometimes, in cases like Ted DiBiase and Curt Henning, it worked. "The Million Dollar Man," and "Mr. Perfect" are classic WWF characters. Other times, the WWF totally dropped the ball with their ideas of gimmicks. They turned Ric Flair wannabe, Terry Taylor, into a rooster. They gave Dusty Rhodes polka dots. Despite having a built-in storyline with Bret and Owen, the WWF decided to bring in the youngest Hart member as the masked wrestler called the "Blue Blazer." While Owen showed that he could work, and work really well, the Blazer gimmick showed that Owen would never be more then an underneath talent, as long as he wore the mask of the Blazer. He left the WWF in early 1989, after realizing that he would be nothing more then enhancement talent. However, before he left, Owen as the Blue Blazer fought Mr. Perfect in one of my favorite matches from WrestleMania V.

Following his departure from the WWF, Owen worked the indies, and an occasion spot in WCW. In 1991, Owen resigned with the WWF. This time, the Blue Blazer gimmick was left behind. He started out working as part of the New Foundation team with Jim Neidhart. This made perfect sense. Bret was now working singles, and Neidhart needed something to do. What better way to utilize the "Anvil" then to team him with Bret's younger brother? The New Foundation team was also a nice way for Owen to get his feet wet as a WWF performer, while no longer hiding behind a mask.

Unfortunately, the team couldn't live up to the standards that the original Hart Foundation had set. Following the duo's only pay per view contest as a team, at the loaded 1992 Royal Rumble, Neidhart left the WWF. With no partner to team with, Owen Hart became a singles competitor for a few months. At WrestleMania VIII, the same card where brother Bret captured his second Intercontinental championship, Owen competed in a singles match against Skinner. This was probably Owen's most important match of his career up to this point. While the match only lasted one minute and eleven second, it was put on just before the main event, and Owen was given the victory.

Shortly after WrestleMania VIII, the WWF decided to put Owen Hart back into the tag team ranks. This time, he teamed with Koko B. Ware as part of the high-flying duo "High Energy." Their job was basically acting as a kid friendly mid-level tag team. While they worked well together, the duo was never viewed as a championship level team.

The team lasted until the beginning of 1993. At that time, the WWF decided to put Owen back in the singles ranks. In the middle of 1993, Bret Hart started to feud with Jerry Lawler. This feud ran across two promotions. Not only did Bret and Lawler feud in the WWF, but they also went to war in the Lawler owned United States Wrestling Association. It was during the USWA portion of the feud where Owen Hart would join his brother in fighting to defend their family's honor. What amazes me is that it took Jerry Lawler to put the two Hart brothers together, when the WWF, their home promotion still didn't consider that linking the brothers as a group would be an option. During the WWF vs. USWA feud in Memphis, Owen Hart captured the USWA Unified Heavyweight championship. While his title reign would only last two weeks, his involvement in the biggest angle of his career (up to this point) would also be short lived, as Owen would suffer a knee injury that would put him out of action for a few months.

When Owen returned to the WWF following his knee injury, he was about to shoot from an after thought in the WWF's plans, and blossom into one of their top performers. At the time, Bret was still involved in a feud with Jerry Lawler. The WWF put together an elimination match for the 1993 Survivor Series. Jerry Lawler was to captain a team featuring the "King" and his three "knights" against Bret, Owen, Keith, and Bruce Hart. This match was supposed to be the climax to the Hart/Lawler feud, and set the seeds to a new, more interesting feud. Due to outside legal issues, mainly Jerry Lawler being falsely accused of statutory rape by a girl who was actually trying to make her boyfriend jealous, Lawler was removed from WWF programming to take care of this matter. The WWF inserted the returning, off suspension, Shawn Michaels into Lawler's spot. During the key point in the match, Owen and Bret accidentally bumped into each other, causing Owen to be eliminated from the match. Owen returned to the ring following the match to confront his brother. While Owen was heated, Keith, Bruce, and father Stu tried to calm him down. Owen stormed off to a chorus of boos.

At this point, Owen rid his normal wrestling attire for Bret's pink and black. He also wore Bret's signature sunglasses to the ring, and adopted the sharpshooter as his finishing maneuver. For the next month, Owen would talk about escaping from the shadow of brother Bret. He wanted to prove to the world that he was a better man then Bret. Of course, Bret declined. Over the Christmas holidays, it appeared the two Hart brothers had made up with each other, and decided to team up against the WWF World Tag Team champions the Quebecers at the 1994 Royal Rumble.

During the match, Bret "hurt" his knee and was unable to tag Owen in for a long period of time. When the referee stopped the match due to Bret's damaged knee, Owen snapped. The youngest Hart kicked his brother in the knee and then walked off. After the attack, an infuriated Owen accused his brother of being selfish and holding him back. One of the greatest feuds of the 1990s was born.

It's amazing to look back at Owen's heel turn. In numerous interviews, Bret has mentioned that Vince wanted one of the other Harts to feud with Bret. However, Bret suggested Owen. After all, Owen was on the active WWF roster full-time. Plus, it would give Owen the biggest push of his career. Vince had his doubts, because he didn't think Owen could pull off the role of the heel. It's incredible how wrong Vince was. Owen was awesome in his role as a heel wrestler, especially during his feud with Bret.

Owen fought Bret for the first time at WrestleMania X. I was in attendance that night. The Bret/Owen match is probably one of the forgotten classics in the history of WrestleMania. The only reason why this match fails to get the respect of the other great WrestleMania matches is because Bret vs. Owen happened to take place on the same card as the Shawn Michaels vs. Razor Ramon ladder match. While Owen's promos leading up to the match were gold, his WrestleMania victory over Bret cemented him as one of the main players in the WWF. Watching the match, you knew that you were watching something special. Without a doubt, the Owen vs. Bret match was the best opening match in WrestleMania history.

I can't say that I was an Owen mark throughout his early career. However, once he turned heel, I became a huge Owen Hart fan. Once Owen turned heel, something inside of himself clicked on. He went from above average worker, to WWF Superstar in a blink of an eye. Despite also being a Bret fan, I was pleasantly surprised to see them give Owen the win. This match would be Owen's biggest victory of his career.

Later that night, Bret Hart went on to win the WWF World title. After the match, Owen Hart walked halfway down the aisle to look at his brother celebrating. Having third row seats for the event, I made my way to the railing, and am seen on TV coaxing Owen to go into the ring. While he didn't move, it was so cool seeing myself on TV, inches away from Owen, trying to convince him to attack Bret.

That spring and summer, I went to several house shows that featured Bret vs. Owen on the top of the marquee. For me, the highlight of their feud came at a house show on July 8th, 1994 in the East Rutherford, NJ Meadowlands Arena. The two fought each other in a sixty minute Iron Man match. The match was awesome. It blew away the Iron Man match that Bret would have with Shawn Michaels at WrestleMania XII.

During the summer of 1994, Owen Hart was entered into the King of the Ring tournament. The year before, Bret Hart captured the crown. This year, Owen won the tournament to keep the crown in the Hart family. Being in attendance for this tournament, I couldn't have been happier. To me, it proved that Owen was more then just Bret's brother in the eyes of the WWF brass. Owen's tournament win was an important part of Owen's career. By giving Owen the crown, Owen went from the youngest Hart to the "King of Harts." The tournament win played a key part his gimmick for most of the rest of Owen's career. If Owen's win over Bret at WrestleMania X made him a main event player, his King of the Ring win allowed the fans to see him as a top guy when he was in the ring with other men that were not his brother. The King of the Ring tournament win became such a big part of the Owen Hart character that when he passed away, many fans wanted the King of the Ring tournament to be renamed the Owen Hart Memorial King of the Ring tournament.

As great as the Bret vs. Owen WrestleMania X match was, the match that was supposed to be their blow off match was even better. That match was a steel cage match at the 1994 SummerSlam pay per view. David Meltzer of the "Wrestling Observer Newsletter" gave that match his highest possible honor; a 5 star rating.

Despite Bret moving on to other opponents, Owen was still around to make his brother's life miserable. First, he teamed with former New Foundation partner, Jim Neidhart, to take on Bret and Davey Boy Smith. When Bret went on to defend his title against Bob Backlund at the Survivor Series, Owen was an instrumental part in Bret dropping the belt to Backlund. When Bret faced the new WWF champion Diesel at the 1995 Royal Rumble, Owen interfered to keep Bret away from the title.

After foiling his brother's plans to regain the WWF belt, Owen Hart turn his attention to getting some gold himself. Owen and a mystery partner were scheduled to face the Smoking Gunns at WrestleMania XI. I remember at the time that one of the rumors in the "Observer" was that the mystery partner may be Chris Benoit. WOW! That would have been an awesome tag team. Instead, his partner wound up being the former WWF World champion Yokozuna.

I was at WrestleMania XI in the Hartford Civic Center. While I was really excited at the prospect of seeing an Owen Hart/Chris Benoit tag team, I was not upset at the Owen/Yokozuna union. One of the main reasons was that I couldn't stand the Smoking Gunns. I knew that an Owen/Yokozuna partnership meant the end of the Smoking Gunns tag title reign.

Their first title reign ended when they faced Shawn Michaels and Diesel in a weird main event at In Your House 3:Triple Header. If Diesel were pinned, he would have lost the WWF World title. If Shawn were pinned, he would have lost the Intercontinental championship. However, if Owen or Yokozuna were pinned, both men would lose the tag team titles to Shawn and Diesel. While Owen was pinned, it proved that by being billed as one of the wrestlers in the main event, there was life after feuding with Bret.

Owen's next major storyline came in 1996 when he started teaming with brother in law, Davey Boy Smith, who had joined Cornette's stable of wrestlers months earlier. The two captured the WWF World Tag Team titles from the Smoking Gunns in September 1996 at In Your House 10.

Despite working well as a team, dissension started to brew between the two. At the Royal Rumble, Owen eliminated Davey Boy Smith from the battle royal. Davey Boy Smith later fired their manager Clarence Mason, against Owen's wishes. However, the straw that appeared to break the camel's back was the creation of the WWF European title. Both men fought their way to the finals, where Davey Boy beat Owen for the title. On the March 24th, 1997 edition of RAW, Owen demanded a rematch at the next RAW telecast. During the rematch on the March 31st RAW, a newly turned heel, Bret Hart interrupted the match, and convinced the two that the fans were turning them against one another. He talked to the two about the importance of their family. A teary eyed Owen hugged Bret, as did Davey Boy Smith. A new Hart Foundation was born. This version of the Hart Foundation featured Bret, Owen, Davey Boy, Jim Neidhart, and Brian Pillman.

The Hart Foundation stable featured one of the most unique storylines in wrestling history. They were heels in the United States, but faces throughout most of the rest of the world, especially in Canada. They were truly a family, either through blood, marriage, or long time friendships. This had to have been a great time for the group to be in wrestling. As great as 1995-96 had to be for the "Clique" in wrestling, as they were having fun in front of, and behind the cameras, most of 1997 had to be a blast for the Hart Foundation members.

Shortly after the formation of the Hart Foundation, Owen Hart beat the man that we would soon call The Rock for the Intercontinental title. Not a bad way to start off a group. Davey Boy held the European title, and one half of the tag titles. Owen held the Intercontinental championship, and the other half of the tag titles. Eventually, the Bulldog and Owen would lose the tag straps to Steve Austin and Shawn Michaels.

While Bret would bring home the WWE World title to the Hart Foundation at Summer Slam 1997, Owen Hart was involved in a match that could have changed the course of wrestling history. Owen Hart defended the WWF Intercontinental title against Steve Austin at the event. I was sitting in the second row for this show, and when Owen hit Steve with a piledriver, it took me all of two seconds to notice that something wasn't right. Steve Austin lost feeling for a few moments before he was able to weakly cover Owen for the pin. It was a moment that could have ruined the WWF forever. Steve Austin was the hottest star in the industry. Austin was on a collision course with becoming the WWF's franchise player. The hot talk was that Steve Austin was being groomed to finally take the WWF World title at WrestleMania XIV. If Austin's neck injury was career threatening, the Stone Cold Era would be over before it began, and the WWF would probably never catch World Championship Wrestling.

Once the WWF realized that Austin would not be out long term, they turned chicken salad out of chicken shit (the loss of Austin for a few months). As a take off on the Austin 3:16 t-shirts, Owen Hart started to sport an Owen 3:16 "I Just Broke Your Neck" t-shirt. It was very clever, and Owen portrayed the heartless heel to perfection. This had to be very hard for him, as reports were that he was pretty depressed by causing the accident. On the documentary, "The Life and Death of Owen Hart," there is a scene backstage after the match where you could see how upset Owen was over the incident.

At the October In Your House pay per view, Owen Hart recaptured the Intercontinental title in the finals of a tournament. However, Owen would go on to lose the title to Austin at the infamous 1997 Survivor Series. The show turned out to feature the most famous match in wrestling history, the Shawn vs. Bret Survivor Series Screwjob.

Following the show, many of the wrestlers on the roster were upset at the way Bret was treated on his final night in the WWF. Both Davey Boy Smith and Owen Hart wanted to leave the WWF with Bret Hart. While Vince allowed Davey Boy, and Jim Neidhart for that matter, to leave the WWF after a $300,000.00 buy out ("The Anvil" didn't have to pay a buyout), he would not allow Owen to leave. Vince even threatened Bret with a lawsuit charging him with tampering.

After being kept off the air for a few weeks, Owen was brought back at the DeGeneration X pay per view, where he attacked Shawn Michaels. This should have been THE moment for Owen Hart. Despite holding his own in the WWF, he was still Bret's brother. With Bret now in WCW, Owen was THE one and only Hart member in the WWF. Due to what happened at the Survivor Series, Owen Hart should have easily been the number two babyface in the company, following "Stone Cold" Steve Austin.

Instead, the WWF dropped the ball. They had Owen feud with Shawn's running mate, Hunter Hearst Helmsley, when he should have feuded with the wrestler that helped "screw" his brother. Worse yet, they had him lose to Hunter via pinfall at WrestleMania. Where is the revenge? The bad guys aren't supposed to win in the end. Just an awful way to kill Owen's momentum.

A month after WrestleMania XIV, Owen Hart turned on Ken Shamrock, and joined The Rock, D-Lo Brown, Mark Henry, and the Godfather in the Nation of Domination. The unit feuded with a now face DX stable, that featured Triple H, X-Pac, the Road Dogg, Billy Gunn, and Chyna as it's members. One of the key angles in the feud was when DX parodied the members of the Nation.

Following the war between the factions, Owen continued his feud with the returning Ken Shamrock. As time wore on, the Nation slowly disbanded with Owen being left with nothing to due. Thankfully, the WWF put him in a team with close friend, and traveling partner, Jeff Jarrett. The two, with Debra McMichael by their side, won the WWF World tag team title. This was in the middle of the WWE Attitude Era, where the more adult-oriented, and "trash-TV" the WWF could offer, the better. According to Bret Hart, the WWF approached Owen Hart about having a storyline where Owen becomes attracted to Debra. Owen turned down the request, because he didn't want to disrespect his wife and children.

As a rumored "punishment" for turning down this and other raunchy storylines, the WWF gave Owen back the gimmick of the "Blue Blazer." However, according to Bret Hart in his autobiography, Owen himself took on the role of the character in an attempt to distance himself from most of WWF's raunchy storylines at the time. Owen and Jeff would end up making the storyline into such a comical fashion that it was turning both of them face in the process.

To prove that Owen was not the Blazer, he showed up besides the Blue Blazer, figuring that'd put an end to it, until someone asked where Jeff Jarrett was (he was under the mask). In a later attempt to prove that neither Owen nor Jeff was the Blazer, they both appeared next to a man in the Blue Blazer mask. This man was Owen's one-time tag team partner Koko B. Ware.

The WWF added a new demension to the Blue Blazer character. The Blazer would be strapped into a harness and come to the ring from the rafters. It was this added part of the gimmick that would lead to Owen's death. On May 23rd, 1999, Owen Hart, as the Blue Blazer, was set to take on The Godfather for the WWF Intercontinental championship. High above the ring, Owen was preparing for his entrance from the rafters above. While hanging 78 feet above the ring on a cord, the quick release mechanism on the harness was released, and Owen Hart plunged to his death.

The next night, the WWF celebrated the life of Owen Hart with a special RAW is Owen telecast. On the show, many of the wrestlers appeared on screen sharing their feelings and stories regarding Owen Hart. The show was very emotional, and was tough for both the wrestlers and the fans to get through.

After the show, and footage of his funeral the next week, the WWF went on like business as usual. Since then, the closest that they have come to mentioning Owen is during the Bret Hart DVD, and during the Bret Hart Hall of Fame ceremony. Now, I'm not saying that the WWE should try to profit on his death, but with the 10th anniversary approaching, the WWE should acknowledge the great person that Owen Hart was. A Hall of Fame induction, and a DVD for the fans to remember Owen (with the proceeds going to Owen's children) by is long over due.

Ever since that tragic May day in 1999, I have read many articles about Owen Hart. Each quote read along the same lines. He cared about his family, first and foremost. He worked in the industry to care for his family. The industry never took priority over his wife and children. Mick Foley said that Owen had his priorities right. Whereas, most people in the industry put their families second to the business. Owen put them first. In the documentary, Bret talks about how Owen wanted to live the dream. He wasn't living for today. He was living for tomorrow. To get there, he did what he did best; professional wrestling. He was almost there.

Owen and his wife, Martha, were building their dream home in the months leading up to his death. The Sunday that he died marked one week before they were going to move into this house. He told Bret that he would only have to wrestle for a couple more years, and then he would be able to live the dream with his wife and children together as one. It's sad when you think how close he came to realizing that dream.

The other part of the documentary that tugs at your heartstrings is seeing the home videos of Owen Hart. These are images of the youngest Hart brother at home, holding his son in his arms, leading his daughter by the hand, and kissing his wife. These powerful images make you realize that simple things we all take for granted each day would never be able to happen for his family.

Martha discusses the day that he left for Kansas City that weekend. He was struggling to grab his suitcase and keys to rush out of the house. Seeing him in a hurry, Martha gave him a quick peck on the cheek. He stopped in his tracks, and gave her a kiss on the lips. She described this as a nice moment, and tearfully said how this was the last time she ever kissed him.

It's been ten years since Owen's death. I still remember Owen like if I just saw him live on the screen yesterday. I have heard many stories of Owen Hart's ribs on others that made me laugh. I've read stories that described Owen as being a great family man, and the nicest man in professional wrestling. Those made me proud to be a wrestling fan. I've attended most of the biggest matches of his career, and always found myself leaving the building knowing that I was entertained.

However, if I had to pick my favorite Owen Hart moment, I would have to go back to WrestleMania XI. That weekend the WWF held a Fan Festival. I had my best wrestling photographs blown up into 8 x 10s for each wrestler to autograph. When I walked into the building that Friday afternoon, the first person that I saw walking around, which I had a picture of was Owen Hart. I walked up to him, and handed him the 8 x 10 of himself to autograph. He asked if I took the picture, and when I confirmed that I did, he said that it was a really good photo. That made me feel like a million bucks. I'll always remember that. He made me feel unbelievable due to that compliment.

Over the last ten years, his family has had to live with life without Owen. Martha had to live without her husband. Oje and Athena had to grow up without their daddy. While the media, and many people may have forgotten about Owen Hart, I have not. Ten years later, I thank you Owen for all of the memories you have left behind. At least for one fan, you will never be forgotten.