Owen James Hart was a Canadian-American professional wrestler who worked for several promotions including Stampede Wrestling, New Japan Pro-Wrestling, World Championship Wrestling, and the World Wrestling Federation.
63 Facts About Owen Hart
2.
Owen Hart received most of his success in the WWF, where he wrestled under both his own name and the ring name The Blue Blazer.
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Owen Hart headlined multiple pay-per-view events for the WWF, and was widely regarded as one of the company's best in-ring performers.
4.
Owen Hart died on May 23,1999, during his entrance from the rafters of Kemper Arena in Kansas City, Missouri, United States.
5.
Owen was born on May 7,1965, in Calgary, Alberta into the Hart wrestling family and was the youngest child of Stu and Helen Hart.
6.
Owen Hart grew up in a household with eleven older siblings: Smith, Bruce, Keith, Wayne, Dean, Ellie, Georgia, Bret, Alison, Ross and Diana.
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Owen Hart was of Greek descent through his maternal grandmother and Irish through his maternal grandfather.
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Owen Hart's father was mainly of Scots-Irish descent, but had Scottish and German ancestry.
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Owen Hart first gained wrestling experience in the amateur wrestling division at high school, through which he met his wife, Martha.
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Owen Hart continued amateur wrestling for the Dinos at the University of Calgary.
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Owen Hart placed 4th at the 1984 Canada West championships in the 76 kg weight class.
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Owen Hart remained with Stampede for the next couple of years while honing his skills.
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The success of the team and Owen Hart's in-ring skills earned him Pro Wrestling Illustrateds Rookie of the Year Award in 1987.
14.
In 1987, Owen Hart branched out to Japan where he wrestled for New Japan Pro-Wrestling on several tours.
15.
On May 27,1988, Owen Hart defeated Hiroshi Hase for the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship, becoming the first non-Japanese wrestler to win the title.
16.
Owen Hart broke into the WWF as The Blue Blazer, with his early appearances seeing him defeat the likes of Terry Gibbs, Steve Lombardi and Barry Horowitz.
17.
Shortly after WrestleMania, Owen Hart left the WWF to tour the world both with and without the Blue Blazer gimmick.
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Owen Hart returned to Stampede, until it shut down in December 1989.
19.
In 1991, Owen Hart lost the Blue Blazer mask in a mascara contra mascara match against Mexican wrestler El Canek, and would not utilize the gimmick again until 1998.
20.
Owen Hart debuted in World Championship Wrestling's self-titled TV show on March 16,1991, the first of five TV matches he competed in, all of which were against preliminary talent such as Mark Kyle.
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Hart 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.
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Neidhart left the WWF shortly afterward, and Owen Hart set out on a very short run as a singles wrestler, including a victorious match at WrestleMania VIII when he faced off against Skinner.
23.
Shortly after WrestleMania, Hart was teamed up with Koko B Ware to form the duo known as High Energy.
24.
Owen Hart suffered a knee injury on March 9,1993, in a match taped for Superstars, against Bam Bam Bigelow, which kept him sidelined for nearly two months.
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Owen Hart won the USWA Unified World Heavyweight Championship from Papa Shango.
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Owen Hart returned to the WWF ring in the fall of 1993, at a time when Bret's feud with Lawler was temporarily sidetracked.
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Owen Hart showed up after the match and had a heated confrontation with Bret, while Keith, Bruce and Stu tried to calm things down.
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Bret tried to make amends with Owen Hart, teaming with him on a regular basis.
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Owen Hart admitted that it felt good to take out his brother.
30.
Later in the evening, Bret won the WWF Championship while Owen Hart stood by and watched in jealousy as Bret celebrated in the ring.
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At the Survivor Series, Owen Hart struck the most damaging blow against his brother as he conned his own mother Helen to throw in the towel for Bret.
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Owen Hart prevented Bret from regaining the WWF Championship at the Royal Rumble in 1995 when he interfered in the match between Bret and new champion Diesel.
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Owen Hart rebounded from the loss to Bret by winning the WWF Tag Team Championship from The Smoking Gunns at WrestleMania XI.
34.
Owen Hart, 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.
35.
Owen won a Slammy Award for injuring Shawn Michaels and began using the nickname "Slammy Award Winner" and the "King of Harts" nickname was rarely used, Owen was a color commentator for the 1996 King of the Ring 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.
36.
In September 1996, Bulldog and Owen Hart earned a pay-per-view shot at the tag team titles at In Your House 10.
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One occasion where this was evident was at the Royal Rumble when Owen Hart accidentally eliminated Bulldog.
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An incensed Owen Hart demanded a shot at Bulldog's European title the next week.
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Owen Hart was then entered into a tournament to crown a new champion.
40.
Owen Hart fought his way to the finals of the tournament to crown the next Intercontinental Champion and was set to face Faarooq at Badd Blood: In Your House.
41.
Owen 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.
42.
Owen had a feud with D-Generation X 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.
43.
Owen Hart later won the European title from Triple H, although not directly.
44.
Four weeks after WrestleMania, during a tag team match with Ken Shamrock against Mark Henry and Rocky Maivia, Owen Hart turned on Shamrock, "snapping" his ankle and "biting his ear" in the process, and becoming a heel .
45.
The Nation's first big feud after Owen Hart joined was against DX.
46.
Owen Hart remained with the Nation throughout the year until the stable slowly dissolved.
47.
Yet as soon as Owen Hart "quit", the Blue Blazer appeared in the WWF claiming to in no way be Owen Hart despite it being very obvious who was under the mask.
48.
On May 23,1999, Owen Hart fell to his death in Kansas City, Missouri, during the Over the Edge pay-per-view event.
49.
Owen 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.
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Owen Hart had performed the stunt only a few times before.
51.
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 Owen Hart was hurt badly, emphasizing the seriousness of the situation.
52.
Owen Hart was transported to Truman Medical Center in Kansas City.
53.
The impact severed his aorta, resulting in Owen Hart bleeding to death just minutes later; he was 34 years old.
54.
Foley said that Hart was his son's favourite wrestler and had proudly gotten a haircut like Owen's, although he said his son did not quite understand that "nugget" was not a term of endearment.
55.
Bradshaw talked about how Owen Hart spent less money on the road than most wrestlers because he wanted to retire early and spend time with his family.
56.
The broadcast ended with Stone Cold Steve Austin coming out for a special salute to Hart by climbing the turnbuckle and performing his famous "beer-bash" routine, ending with him giving a toast to Owen and leaving one beer in the ring.
57.
On October 4,1999, five months after Owen's death, Bret Hart faced Chris Benoit on WCW Nitro in a tribute to his brother.
58.
The match took place in the same arena in which Owen Hart had fallen to his death.
59.
Owen Hart was widely regarded as one of the best in-ring performers in the WWE; Fox Sports dubbed him a "genius".
60.
Owen Hart would go on to be considered one of the greatest professional wrestlers of all time by many industry colleagues.
61.
Owen's widow Martha Hart pursued legal action over the work and claimed that Diana made inaccurate and irresponsible statements about her and her family.
62.
WWE wrestler Kevin Owens named his son after Hart and incorporated the name into his own ring name as tribute to both of them.
63.
Owen Hart announced production and distribution of original Owen Hart merchandise and Hart as a character in AEW's upcoming console game, AEW Fight Forever.