Owen Hart
Owen Hart is that wrestler you might remember hearing about who fell off the roof and died. He is the brother of 12-time heavyweight whinging and whining world champion Bret Hart, and the brother in-law of the British Bulldog. He wrestled under the name Owen Hart and also was known as other ring names such as "The Rocket," "King of Harts," "The Blue Blazer," and "The Road Sign."
Early life[edit]
Owen was born in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. It wasn't long before Owen could speak his own mind. In fact, his mother Helen Hart recalled many stories where a little baby Owen would waddle into the room with a dirty diaper on, and yell out to her, "Well enough is enough, and it's time for a change"
Owen would follow in the family tradition of professional wrestling. His father Stew Hart was a well-known wrestler in Canada. Stew founded the Calgary Stampede Wrestling show (CSW). The promotion showcased all the male sons and cousins of Stew Hart, and also many legends of wrestling as well. However, unlike other wrestling promotions of the time, to wrestle for the CSW, you were only awarded Stew's daughters as payment, instead of money.
Professional wrestling[edit]
Owen worked breifly for his father, before he sold the company to WWF owner Vince McMahon under the condition he employed all the Hart family wrestlers. Vince agreed to these terms and in the early 1980's, the Hart Foundation tag-team was formed by Bret Hart & Jim Heidhart, with Jimmy "The Mouth That Goes South" Hart as their manager. With the success story of Bret's career, it wasn't long before Owen was pissed off at Bret for hogging all the spotlight. Owen would become a well known heel in the company after he kicked his injured brother Brett on live TV over a matter of who should get the last chicken nugget left that un-thankfull Thanksgiving day.
Bret said he would not fight his own brother, but Owen insisted Bret take him on in the ring, and Owen would show the world that nobody steals the last chicken nugget from Owen Hart and gets away with it. Bret would refuse for a few weeks despite Owen's ongoing taunts. However, Owen crossed the line when he called Bret a "Doody head" and the fight was on. Bret faced Owen several times int he ring, to which Bret would often prevail, and nickname his brother "The Nugget," which in 1994 was pretty harsh words in the WWF.
Tag time[edit]
Owen would ask one of Bret's arch nemeses to tag with him, and Jumbo agreed. Owen & Jumbo would become a premier tag team, with Owen's high-flying acrobatic skills and excellence in submission wrestling worked nicely along with Jumbo who merely had to turn around and swing some of the fat from his belly to TKO the opposition.
The tag team would come apart when Bret would call out Owen and the rest of the Hart Foundation to call a truce and team up to help fight the bigger issues of corporate America trying to hold them down as the #1 man because they demanded that Canada have a flusher installed so the toilet bowl of America could have it's crap sent down the drain... which would be stupid, as it would only flush into Mexico and the Hart's didn't hate Mexico... Whatever, I dunno, Bret wasn't the best at making speeches, but it re-formed the Hart Foundation in a time the WWF needed ratings and opponents for DX.
Death[edit]
In 1998, headlines crossed the world about a wrestler who had fallen to his death. Owen was dressed as the Blue Blazer and intended to be lowered from the balcony to the ring by a harness, but the stunt went wrong as Owen tried to tie the cape around his neck and accidentally pulled the release cord instead, falling several feet to his death.
Owen would be praised for his wrestling skills, and fair-welled in a respectful manner, he even won the biggest botch of the ye.... no, bad taste, again sorry... well, Owen's name was chanted through the WWF arenas as fans yelled for "ONE MORE MATCH".... SORRY, SORRY SORRY, bad taste, forgive me... his name was chanted out of respect by fans during the Owen Hart Memorial show on the following episode of RAW after his death. His memory would live on forever... or at least until Eddie Guerrero stole the... cough.. i mean, ummm... Owen will forever be missed, and may he rest in peace knowing he was one of the all time greats of Pro Wrestling.