Stampede Wrestling (1986-1987)
Hart entered wrestling by working for his father's Stampede Wrestling. Wrestling, however, was not his first choice for a career; as his widow Martha explained in her book Broken Harts, Owen tried numerous times to find a profitable living outside of wrestling.[1] As those attempts were unsuccessful, he decided to give wrestling a chance and see where it took him. Hart was trained in his father's legendary Hart Dungeon and made his professional debut in 1986 for his father’s federation, Stampede Wrestling. He remained with Stampede for the next couple of years while honing his skills. During 1986, Hart teamed with Ben Bassarab and won the Stampede Wrestling International Tag Team Championship.[2] The success of the team and Hart's in ring skills earned him the prestigious Pro Wrestling Illustrated Rookie of the Year Award in 1987 (coming out ahead of Ray Traylor and Shane Douglas in the fan voting). After he & Bassarab lost the tag-team titles,[2] he feuded with the likes of Johnny Smith and Dynamite Kid.
[edit] New Japan Pro Wrestling (1988)
In 1988, Owen Hart branched out to Japan where he wrestled for New Japan Pro Wrestling on several tours. In NJPW, he wrestled Keiichi Yamada both unmasked,[3] and he adopted the legendary Jushin Liger gimmick. On May 27, 1988, Owen Hart defeated Hiroshi Hase for the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship.[2] Owen became the first westerner to hold that coveted title. He was also the first of only two Canadians to hold that title (the other being Chris Benoit). Despite holding the title just under a month, the fact that he held it at all was a testament to how much faith NJPW had in him and his ring skills.
[edit] World Wrestling Federation (1988-1989)
Owen’s success in Japan and Stampede’s working relationship with the World Wrestling Federation lead to Owen Hart signing with the company in the fall of 1988. Instead of promoting Owen as Bret Hart’s younger brother, the WWF decided to create a masked “Super Hero" type gimmick for Owen Hart known as The Blue Blazer. The Blazer caught the attention of fans with his unique look and exciting aerial maneuvers, but he didn't achieve much success against upper-card talent, being eliminated at Survivor Series 1988,[4] losing to Ted DiBiase on the March 11, 1989 airing of Saturday Night's Main Event and being defeated by Mr. Perfect at WrestleMania V.[5][6]
[edit] Independent circuit (1989-1991)
Shortly after WrestleMania V, Owen left the WWF to tour the world both with and without the Blue Blazer gimmick. In 1991, Owen lost the Blue Blazer mask in a mascara contra mascara match against Mexican icon Canek, thus bidding farewell to the Blue Blazer gimmick.[7]
[edit] World Championship Wrestling (1991)
In 1991, Owen Hart appeared sporadically on World Championship Wrestling shows, usually without that much fanfare and no mentions of his WWF connections.[8]
[edit] World Wrestling Federation (1991-1999)
[edit] 1991-1993
Owen had been engaged in contract discussions with WCW but the deal was never struck, as Owen was not willing to move himself and his family to the company's headquarters in Atlanta.[1] Instead, Owen signed with the WWF for a second time. In the WWF the popular Hart Foundation, comprised of his brother Bret and real-life brother-in-law Jim Neidhart, had split up; Bret set out on a singles career while Neidhart was used sparingly. Jim Neidhart was “injured" (kayfabe) by the Beverly Brothers and put out of action for a while. When Neidhart returned from his "injury" he joined Owen Hart to form a team known as The New Foundation, who became instantly recognizable for their bizarre attire - baggy pants and bright jackets.
Owen and Neidhart first feuded with the Beverly Brothers and had only one PPV match at the 1992 Royal Rumble where they beat The Orient Express.[9] Jim Neidhart left the WWF shortly after the PPV, and Owen set out on a a very short run as a singles wrestler, including a match at WrestleMania VIII against Skinner.[10] Shortly after WrestleMania, Owen was teamed up with Koko B. Ware to form the duo known as High Energy. To show team unity, Koko also adopted the trademark brightly colored baggy pants and they’d add checkermarked suspenders to make the look even more distinct. While the team was exciting and certainly “kid friendly", it was never pushed as a serious threat to the tag team titles. This was illustrated by the fact that they had only one PPV as a team, at the 1992 Survivor Series where they lost to The Headshrinkers.[11] The team was quietly dropped at the start of 1993 with Owen Hart starting a singles career, ditching the baggy pants look.
In the middle of 1993, when Bret Hart’s feud with Jerry Lawler ignited, Owen Hart stood by his brother’s side and fought against Jerry Lawler. The fight with Lawler did not take place on WWF television but mainly in the United States Wrestling Association where Bret, Owen, and most of the other WWF talent were considered the heels. Owen Hart won the USWA Unified World Heavyweight Championship from Papa Shango,[2] but it was never acknowledged on WWF television. Owen’s participation in the WWF vs. USWA feud was cut short when he suffered a knee injury in the summer of 1993 and was forced to take some time away from the ring. At the time, rumors circulated that Owen was on the verge of leaving the WWF due to a lack of success. Whether the knee injury was just a way for the WWF to explain his absence or not isn’t quite clear.
Owen returned to the WWF ring in the fall of 1993, at a time when Bret’s feud with Jerry Lawler was temporarily sidetracked. Bret, along with Owen and their brothers Bruce Hart and Keith Hart, were scheduled to face Jerry Lawler and his team at Survivor Series 1993. However, Jerry Lawler was unable to make it to the show, and as a result could not appear on WWF television. Lawler was replaced with Shawn Michaels. During the match Owen and Bret inadvertently crashed into each other, causing Owen to be eliminated from the team (the only Hart family member to be eliminated). While Bret, Keith, and Bruce celebrated, Owen looked on in anger.[12] The kayfabe tension between the two brothers had reared its ugly head for the first time.
[edit] 1994-1995
See also: Owen Hart and Yokozuna
Bret tried to make amends with Owen, teaming with him on a regular basis. Bret even secured the two a shot at the WWF Tag Team Championship. They faced the Quebecers for the titles at the 1994 Royal Rumble. Initially everything was fine between the brothers, but when Bret hurt his knee (kayfabe) and was unable to tag Owen in for a long period of time the younger Hart got frustrated. When the referee stopped the match due to Bret's damaged knee, Owen snapped; he kicked his brother in the injured area and then walked off.[13]
Afterwards, Owen commented rather infamously that he “kicked the leg out of the leg" of Bret Hart because Bret was "selfish." This period began Owen's time as a heel.
The two brothers faced off for the first time at WrestleMania X, where Owen Hart shocked the world by cleanly pinning his older brother. Later in the night, when Bret Hart won the WWF Title, Owen Hart stood by and watched in jealousy as Bret celebrated in the ring.[14] Owen won the King of the Ring Tournament with Jim Neidhart’s help (turning Neidhart heel in the process).[15] After the victory, Owen took the nickname “The King of Harts".
Owen and Bret feuded over the summer of 1994 clashing many times both in singles and later in tag-team matches (with Bret joined by the recently returned British Bulldog). Two matches stand out in this feud: first, their Steel cage match at SummerSlam 1994 which Bret won after a hard fought match.[16] The second was a lumberjack match on August 17, 1994 that Owen Hart initially won and was announced as World champion but then reversed due to interference.[17] At the 1994 Survivor Series, Owen struck the most damaging blow against his brother as he conned his own mother Helen Hart to throw in the towel for Bret. Owen was at his most manipulative and insincere as he pleaded with her to think of his brother's well-being. The ploy cost Bret the world title to Bob Backlund.[18]
Owen also prevented Bret from regaining the title at the 1995 Royal Rumble when he interfered in the match between Bret and new champion Diesel.[19] In the weeks after the Rumble, Bret and Owen clashed again with Bret soundly defeating his brother, thus putting an end to their feud for the time being.
Owen rebounded from the loss to Bret Hart by winning the WWF tag-team titles from The Smokin' Gunns at WrestleMania XI.[2] Owen, who was joined by a "Mystery Partner", had challenged the Gunns to a title match; the partner turned out to be former world champion Yokozuna.[20] After the victory Owen Hart took Jim Cornette as his manager, who already managed Yokozuna. The team defended the tag team titles for 5 months until they lost them back to the Smoking Gunns.[2] Owen Hart and Yokozuna would continue to team off and on until the end of the year.
[edit] 1996-1997
Main article: Owen Hart and British Bulldog
In 1996, Owen had a running feud on WWF TV with interviewer Raymond Rougeau, which was done largely for the Montreal market to promote upcoming house shows there. During one such match, where Rougeau was a guest ring announcer for Owen's match, Hart attacked him after the match. This set up a boxing match between the two at the next show. It was Rougeau's cornerman at the next show, local boxing great George Chuvalo that knocked Hart out.
In 1995, Owen's brother-in-law Davey Boy Smith turned heel and joined Camp Cornette. During the summer of 1996 the two brothers in law started to team up more and more, sometimes alongside Vader who was al