Owen Hart

Professional wrestling career

Early career (1983–1987) Hart first gained wrestling experience in the amateur wrestling division at high school, through which he met his wife, Martha. Hart continued amateur wrestling for the Dinos at the University of Calgary. He placed 4th at the 1984 Canada West championships in the 76 kg weight class. Wrestling was not Hart's first choice for a career; as Martha explained in her book Broken Harts, Owen tried numerous times to find a profitable living outside of wrestling. Owen is quoted as saying, in the WWE Home Video "Owen Hart of Gold" that "during his time in the University, he wrestled incognito (under a mask) as the original British Bulldog. Then, after he graduated from the University, he wrestled as "Bronco" Owen Hart at Royal Albert Hall in London, England. As those attempts were unsuccessful, Hart was trained in his father's Hart Dungeon and worked for his father's federation, Stampede Wrestling and wrestled in England for Max Crabtree's Joint Promotions in matches that got broadcast on ITV's World of Sport and the later standalone wrestling program including a 1987 loss to former champion Marty Jones for the vacant World Mid-Heavyweight Championship.

In August 1986, Hart teamed with his brother-in-law, Ben Bassarab, to win his first title, the Stampede Wrestling International Tag Team Championship, from the Masters of Disaster (Duke Myers and Kerry Brown). They held the titles until October 1986, when they lost to the Viet Cong Express. In October 1986, Hart defeated Les Thornton for the British Commonwealth Mid-Heavyweight Championship. In January 1987, Hart briefly became a double champion by defeating Makhan Singh for the Stampede Wrestling North American Heavyweight Championship; he lost the title back to Singh later that month. In April 1987, Hart won the title back from Singh; he lost it back to Singh the following month. In August 1987, Hart lost his British Commonwealth Mid-Heavyweight Championship to Gama Singh. Hart' received Pro Wrestling Illustrateds Rookie of the Year Award for 1987.

New Japan Pro-Wrestling (1987–1988) Hart had worked with Japanese wrestler Hiroshi Hase during Hase's foray to Stampede Wrestling in 1986-1987, leading to Hart receiving publicity from the Japan wrestling media. He continued to wrestle in the midcard, defeating enhancement talent but often falling short against other name talent; he lost to Ted DiBiase on the March 11, 1989 Saturday Night's Main Event XX and was defeated by Mr. Perfect at WrestleMania V.

Hart left the WWF in June 1989.

Stampede Wrestling (1989) Hart returned to Stampede Wrestling in July 1989, swiftly beginning a feud with Stampede Wrestling North American Heavyweight Champion Larry Cameron and vying with opponents including Dynamite Kid, Gama Singh, and Johnny Smith. He remained with the promotion until it closed down in December 1989. Neidhart left the WWF in February 1992.

In February 1992, Hart was paired with Koko B. Ware (whom he had previously partnered while wrestling as the Blue Blazer) to form the tag team known as "High Energy". The duo went on to continue the New Foundation's feud with the Beverly Brothers. At WrestleMania VIII in April 1992, Hart defeated Skinner. Following WrestleMania, High Energy had a series of matches against the Nasty Boys. In June 1992, they challenged WWF Tag Team Champions Money Inc. on WWF Prime Time Wrestling, winning by count out. In October 1992, while under contract to the WWF, Hart wrestled four matches for Wrestle and Romance in Japan, including losing to Último Dragón in the Nakajima Sports Center. In November 1992, High Energy began a feud with the Headshrinkers, who defeated them at Survivor Series. After the act, an infuriated Owen accused his brother of being selfish and holding him down. Owen admitted that it felt good to take out his brother. Later that evening, Hart entered the Royal Rumble match, but was swiftly eliminated by Diesel. The two brothers faced off for the first time at WrestleMania X, where Owen cleanly pinned his older brother. Later in the evening, Bret won the WWF Championship against Yokozuna while Owen stood by and watched in anger and jealousy as Bret celebrated in the ring. In June 1994, Owen won the 1994 King of the Ring tournament turning back Razor Ramon in the finals with an elbow drop to the back and with an assist from Jim Neidhart. After the victory, Owen dropped "The Rocket" nickname and took the nickname "The King of Harts."

Owen and Bret feuded throughout the summer of 1994, clashing many times both in singles and later in tag team matches (with Bret joined by the returning British Bulldog). Two prominent matches took place in this feud: first, their steel cage match in the co-main event of SummerSlam for Bret's WWF Championship, which Bret won. This match later received a five-star rating from Dave Meltzer. The second was a lumberjack match on August 17 that Owen initially won and was announced as WWF Champion; Bret won the match after it was ordered to continue due to interference. At the Survivor Series, Owen struck the most damaging blow against his brother as he conned his own mother Helen to throw in the towel for Bret. The ploy cost Bret the WWF Championship to Bob Backlund. At the same event, Hart teamed with Diesel, Jeff Jarrett, Jim Neidhart, and Shawn Michaels as "the Teamsters" in a loss to "the Bad Guys" (Fatu, Razor Ramon, Sione, 1-2-3 Kid, and British Bulldog). Owen also prevented Bret from regaining the WWF Championship at the Royal Rumble in January 1995 when he interfered in the match between Bret and new champion Diesel. Later that evening, he entered the Royal Rumble match, but was eliminated by British Bulldog. In the weeks after the Royal Rumble, Bret and Owen clashed again with Bret soundly defeating his brother, thus putting an end to their feud for the time being.

Camp Cornette; Tag Team Champion (1995–1997)

Owen rebounded from the loss to Bret by winning the WWF Tag Team Championship from The Smoking Gunns at WrestleMania XI. Owen also won a Slammy Award for injuring Shawn Michaels and began using the nickname "Slammy Award Winner" and the "King of Harts," though this nickname was rarely used. Owen was also a color commentator for the 1996 King of the Ring (exhibiting clear partisan support for Vader and Smith) and during this time wore a cast on his right forearm for several months, feigning a nagging injury to subsequently use his cast as a weapon during his matches.

In September 1996, Bulldog and Hart earned a pay-per-view shot at the tag team titles at In Your House 10. Owen and Bulldog left with the gold after defeating the Smoking Gunns. After the Rumble, they had miscommunication in matches against Doug Furnas and Phil LaFon and Bulldog fired Mason after losing a match to Crush who was also managed by Mason, something which did not sit well with Hart. Another bone of contention between the two was the newly created WWF European Championship; both men had fought their way to the finals to crown the first champion with Bulldog coming out as the victor. The match was booked for March 31; on the night, the two went at it with such intensity that many thought the tag team champions had finally gone their separate ways. Then in a shocking moment, the recently turned heel Bret Hart appeared at ringside and stopped the match. Bret appealed to both Owen and Bulldog, talking about the importance of family. They agreed to put their differences aside and join with Bret to form the new Hart Foundation, an anti-American stable that also included Hart in-law Jim Neidhart and Hart family friend Brian Pillman.

Hart Foundation (1997)

After forming the Hart Foundation, Owen quickly gained singles gold of his own as he pinned Rocky Maivia to win his first WWF Intercontinental Championship. Austin won the title from Hart that evening, Later that night, the Montreal Screwjob took place. Bret left the WWF after Survivor Series and both the British Bulldog and Jim Neidhart were granted quick releases from their contracts to jump to WCW. This left Owen as the only Hart family member remaining in the WWF, due to his contractual obligations.

The Black Hart; Nation of Domination (1997–1998)

Hart was not seen or mentioned on WWF programming until he made a surprise appearance after Shawn Michaels retained his title following a disqualification loss to Ken Shamrock at In Your House: D-Generation X where he attacked Shawn Michaels. Now a fan favorite, but with a new edgy, antisocial attitude, Hart became known as "the Lone Hart" and "the Black Hart". Owen had a feud with D-Generation X (DX) and challenged Shawn Michaels for the WWF Championship on the December 29, 1997, episode of Raw Is War: Hart had Michaels locked in the Sharpshooter when Triple H interfered in order to save Michaels' title, giving Hart the victory by disqualification.

On January 20, 1998, Hart won the European title from Triple H, although not directly. After the attack on Shamrock, Hart became the co-leader, with The Rock, of the Nation of Domination, claiming that "Enough is enough and it's time for a change". The Nation's first big feud after Hart joined was against D-Generation X. It was during this feud that D-Generation X parodied the Nation of Domination. The imitation was complete with an actor dressing up as Hart and uttering the phrase "I am not a nugget"; this was in response to Shawn Michaels referring to Owen as a nugget of faeces in a toilet bowl that, no matter how many times Michaels flushed, he was unable to get rid of. "Nugget" became a derisive term that followed Hart for the rest of his career. At Over the Edge: In Your House in May 1998, the Nation of Domination (Hart, D'Lo Brown, and Kama Mustafa) defeated[D-Generation X (Billy Gunn, Road Dogg, and Triple H). At King of the Ring in June 1998, Hart lost to D-Generation X member X-Pac.

Hart's participation in the D-Generation X feud was side-tracked when Shamrock returned from injuries set on getting revenge on Hart. The two faced one another in a series of submission matches, during which time Hart quietly left the Nation of Domination. At Fully Loaded: In Your House in July 1998, Hart defeated Shamrock in a "Hart Family Dungeon match". At SummerSlam in August 1998, Shamrock defeated Hart in a Lion's Den match.

Teaming with Jeff Jarrett; return of the Blue Blazer (1998–1999) In late-1998, Hart formed an alliance with Jeff Jarrett. Hart and Jarrett had Jarrett's manager Debra in their corner. During this time a storyline was proposed that Hart was supposed to have an on-screen affair with Debra, something which Owen turned down. Playing off the legitimate injury Hart had inflicted on Austin the year before, the angle blurred the lines between reality and "storyline." Yet as soon as Hart "quit," the Blue Blazer appeared in the WWF claiming to in no way be Hart despite it being very obvious who was under the mask. Unlike the first run of the character, the Blazer was now an overbearing, self-righteous heel who treated the edgy Attitude Era WWF with disdain. Hart and Jarrett ended up making the storyline comical. To prove that Hart was not the Blazer, he showed up beside the Blue Blazer, who was a masked Jarrett. In a later attempt to prove that neither Hart or Jarrett was the Blazer, they both appeared next to a man in the Blue Blazer mask; however, it was obvious that a black man was under the mask (Hart's former tag team partner Koko B. Ware).

On May 28, 2011, Hart was inducted into the Legends Pro Wrestling "Hall of Fame" by Jack Blaze in Wheeling, West Virginia at their "LPW Hart & Soul Tour" event. The award was accepted by his brother-in-law Jim Neidhart, who was also inducted that night.

Death

On May 23, 1999, Hart fell to his death in Kansas City, Missouri, during the Over the Edge pay-per-view event. Hart was in the process of being lowered via harness and grapple line into the ring from the rafters of Kemper Arena for a booked Intercontinental Championship match against The Godfather. In keeping with the Blazer's new "buffoonish superhero" character, he was to begin with a dramatic entrance, being lowered to just above ring level, at which time he would act "entangled", then release himself from the safety harness and fall flat on his face for comedic effect—this necessitated the use of a quick release mechanism. It was an elaboration on a Blue Blazer stunt done previously on the Sunday Night Heat before Survivor Series in 1998.

Hart had performed the stunt a few times before. Hart's widow Martha has suggested that, by moving around to get comfortable with both the harness and his cape on, Hart unintentionally triggered an early release. Television viewers did not see the incident. During the fall, a pre-taped vignette was being shown on the pay-per-view broadcast as well as on the monitors in the darkened arena. Afterward, while Hart was being worked on by medical personnel inside the ring, the live event's broadcast showed only the audience. Meanwhile, WWF television announcer Jim Ross repeatedly told those watching live on pay-per-view that what had just transpired was not a wrestling angle or storyline and that Hart was hurt badly, emphasizing the seriousness of the situation. Hart was transported to Truman Medical Center in Kansas City. While several attempts to revive him were made, he died due to his injuries. The cause of death was later revealed to be internal bleeding from blunt force trauma. The impact severed his aorta, resulting in Hart bleeding to death just minutes later; he was 34 years old.

Aftermath

WWF and Vince McMahon drew controversy when the company chose to continue the pay-per-view event after Jim Ross announced Owen Hart's death on the live broadcast. Over the Edge was never commercially released on WWF Home Video, although it was available on the WWE Network in 2014 for the first time since its original air date. Other than a short memorial that was added before the show began, all footage and mention of Hart was edited out.

A special episode of Raw Is War that aired on May 24, 1999, the night after Hart's death, was dubbed Raw Is Owen. It was broadcast live from the Kiel Center in St. Louis. The tribute show scored a 7.2 Nielsen rating, making it the highest-rated special episode in Raw history and the third highest-rated episode of Raw overall. The next day, WWF taped the episode of Raw for May 31, 1999. During that show, Jeff Jarrett defeated The Godfather to win the WWF Intercontinental Championship,

On October 4, 1999, five months after Hart's death, Bret Hart faced Chris Benoit on WCW Monday Nitro in a tribute to his brother. The match took place in the same arena in which Hart had fallen to his death.

After a lawsuit that lasted over a year and a half, a settlement was reached on November 2, 2000, which saw WWF pay the estate of Owen Hart US$18 million. Hart’s estate was represented by attorney Pamela Fischer. The manufacturer of the harness system was also a defendant against the Hart family, but they were dismissed from the case after the settlement was reached.

In 2001, Hart's sister Diana released her first book named Under the Mat which discussed the Hart family. The book was written partially in response to Hart's death. Martha Hart pursued legal action, stating that the book was "filled with distortions, misstatements and unjustified slurs that attempt to destroy the reputation of my family and me, and undermine the memory of Owen."

In 2002, Martha wrote a book about Hart's life called Broken Harts: The Life and Death of Owen Hart.

Legacy Fox Sports dubbed Hart a "genius".

Hart was set to be a playable character under his Blue Blazer gimmick in the video game WWF Attitude. The gimmick was subsequently removed from the game, though Hart remained a playable character. The PlayStation and Nintendo 64 versions of the game were also dedicated to him, featuring a tribute screen at the beginning that reads "Dedicated to Owen James Hart 1965 – 1999".

Hart is a playable character in Legends of Wrestling II (2002) and Showdown: Legends of Wrestling (2004), both published by Acclaim.

WWE released Owen: Hart of Gold on DVD and Blu-ray on December 7, 2015 in the United Kingdom, followed by the United States the following day.

Wrestler Kevin Owens named his son after Hart and incorporated the name into his own ring name as tribute to both of them.

On September 20, 2021, All Elite Wrestling (AEW) announced the Owen Hart Cup Tournament, in partnership with the Owen Hart Foundation, complete with a trophy called "The Owen". The company also announced production and distribution of original Owen Hart merchandise, action figures and Hart as a character in AEW's console game, AEW Fight Forever.

Championships and accomplishments Hart won every major championship in the World Wrestling Federation, except for the WWF Championship he is seen holding here; though he did technically win it in a house show in 1994, the result was quickly overturned and the reign was never officially recognized.

George Tragos/Lou Thesz Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame Class of 2018 (Posthumous Inductee) Legends Pro Wrestling LPW Hall of Fame (Class of 2011) Prairie Wrestling Alliance Prairie Wrestling Alliance Hall of Fame (Class of 2010) New Japan Pro-Wrestling IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship (1 time) Pro Wrestling Illustrated Editor's Award (1999) Feud of the Year (1994) Rookie of the Year (1987) Ranked No. 10 of the top 500 singles wrestlers in the PWI 500 in 1994 Ranked No. 66 of the top 500 singles wrestlers of the "PWI Years" in 2003 Ranked No. 84 of the top 100 tag teams of the "PWI Years" in 2003 – with Davey Boy Smith Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame Class of 2019 Pro Wrestling This Week Wrestler of the Week (July 5–11, 1987) Canadian Wrestling Hall of Fame Individually With the Hart family Stampede Wrestling International Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Ben Bassarab Stampede North American Heavyweight Championship (2 times) Stampede Wrestling Hall of Fame (Class of 1995) United States Wrestling Association USWA Unified World Heavyweight Championship (1 time) World Wrestling Federation WWF European Championship (1 time) WWF Intercontinental Championship (2 times) WWF Tag Team Championship (4 times) – with Yokozuna (2), The British Bulldog (1) and Jeff Jarrett (1) King of the Ring (1994) Madison Square Garden Royal Rumble (1994) WWF World Tag Team Championship Tournament (1997) – with The British Bulldog WWF Intercontinental Championship Tournament (1997) Slammy Award (3 times) Biggest Rat (1994) Squared Circle Shocker (1996) Best Bow Tie (1997) Wrestling Observer Newsletter Best Flying Wrestler (1987, 1988) Feud of the Year (1997)