Owen James Hart
(1965 - 1999)

Nicknamed "Kamikaze" in the Wrestling Observer Newsletter in 1987 for his daring aerial style at the time.

Owen Hart began his assault on the wrestling world in Calgary, Calgary, Alberta Canada training with his father Stu Hart in the now infamous "Hart Family Dungeon".

In 1986 young Owen made his wrestling debut working for "Stampede Wrestling" (operated by his father Stu). As Stampede wrestling began to decline, Owen Hart moved forward with his pro-wrestling career by signing a deal to enter the World Wrestling Federation.

WWF CAREER BEGINS: As "The Blue Blazer" (a high flying super hero) in late 1988. "When Owen Hart broke on to the wrestling scene under the guise of being "The Blue Blazer" he did two things which were unheard of in my opinion. First he wore a mask, which outside of Mexico and Japan typically meant death. And he did high flying aerial Lucha Libre style wrestling antics during his matches which ahd not been seen in United States wrestling in quite some time (discounting what The Great Muta was doing over in WCW.) He combined two aspects of pro-wrestling which had tremendous marketability overseas, and virtually ZERO appeal with American based wrestling fans! It was awesome! I loved it, of course most of the "marks" didn't really appreciate what Owen Hart was doing, but in my estimation he was paving the way for the Rey Misterio's and Juventud Guererra's to get OVER in the 1990's. Maybe he didn't realize what he was doing, and maybe he did not intend to do it, but that is what happened." Said LEWD Editor CJDark about Owen Hart.

OWEN's FIRST WWF PPV: In 1988 in a tradiontal Surivor Series match Owen teamed with Sam Houston, Brutus Beefcake (Ed Leslie), Jim Brunzell, and The Ultimate Warrior (Jim Hellwig) against The Honky Tonk Man (Wayne Farris), Bad News Brown (Allen Coage), Greg "The Hammer" Valentine, "Outlaw" Ron Bass, and "Dangerous" Danny Davis. Interesting history note, Owen Hart ended up putting Valentine over in this match submitting to the dreaded Figure Four Leglock.

BLUE BLAZER MOVES ON UP: WWF Officials were very impressed with the young Hart's abilities and he began working his way up the ladder of the federation, ending up booked against Curt Hennig at "WrestleMania V". Owen Hart once again jobbed at "WrestleMania V" to Curt Hennig and his career was sinking for the first time!

TROUBLE IN PARADISE: American fans did not accept the "super hero" gimmick Owen Hart was being presented with, nor would they accept a masked man as being a legit superstar. For too many years the likes of Dr. X, and other masked jobbers had educated the American based audience to realize masked men simply were not 'real superstars'. All of the ability and all of the talent did not help to put Owen Hart over as a legit superstar in the federation, Hart decided to take a leave from the company and pursue other avenue's of the business.

OWEN HART INTERNATIONALLY: Hart did some work in Canada, Japan, and Mexico under the guise of "Blue Blazer". He lost a "Mask v. Mask" match to El Canek in Mexico City. It was obvious Owen Hart was appreciated overseas and in Mexico, even using the "Blue Blazer" gimmick.

OWEN HART WORKS TRY OUT MATCH FOR WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP WRESTLING!: Owen made an initial appearance in World Championship Wrestling working non televised matches (teaming with a young rookie named Chris Benoit) as a tag team called WINGS. At this time Chris Benoit was working in Japan and Canada as "Pegasus Kid". Not many wrestling fans realize Owen Hart almost got a career break with the rival WCW organization, and WCW could have easily swiped young Owen right out from under the WWF. WCW didn't appreciate the ring style Owen Hart and Chris Benoit used (the inside joke to this day is, it was based on the fact they were too "good" and too "talented" for WCW to use) and Owen Hart was back on the international scene again.

WWF CALLS OWEN BACK: Soon the World Wrestling Federation was knocking on Owen's door again, they wanted him to return to work right away. But they didn't want him to return as "Blue Blazer" they wanted him sans mask. This was probably the break Owen Hart was awaiting ever since he left the federation to pursue other avenue's in the business.

Owen Hart re-entered the World Wrestling Federation in October 1991 under his real name. Owen was immediately put in to a tag team combination with Jim "The Anvil" Neidhart to form the

In 1992 The New Hart Foundation defeated the Orient Express at the "Royal Rumble" (Owen’s 3rd WWF PPV but the first Pay-Per-View using his real name). Owen Hart pinned Pat Tanaka to get the victory for his team.

Three months later the WWF decided Owen was ready to go at it on his own and put him in to a singles feud with Skinner (Steve Keirn) and ended up defeating Skinner at "WrestleMania VIII" (Owen's 2nd WrestleMania event bt the first under his real name).

Late in 1992, Owen was put back in to tag team action forming a team with Koko B. Ware (which wasn't the highlight of Owen's WWF Career by any means). The duo was known as "High Energy" and were considerd a joke, due to the parachute pants they wore during matches. The team did not last too long and in early 1993 was broken up.

Owen was back on the singles trail and had a promising future but suffered a serious ACL tear which kept him out of action for nearly three months.

Owen returned for "Survivor Series" that year but he was seemingly grounded for the first time in his United States wrestling career. The serious threat of blowing his knee out again stopped him from using most of the aerial tactics that had brought him to the dance, and probably was going to lead him to one day winning the WWF Heavyweight Championship. Many experts considered Owen Hart's wrestling days numbered due to this ACL injury. What good was Owen Hart if he couldn't be Owen Hart? All the world knew about Owen Hart was that he could FLY.

"I remember that injury, I remember thinking, geez, what is this guy going to do now? He can't do his leaps, his flips, he bounces off of the ropes anymore, he can't do his moonsaults off the top rope to pop the crowds anymore. Man, he is just ONE OF THE BOYS now. All that promise and it is all going to waisted. But then, the guy could flat out WRESTLE his ass off! And in the days when the WWF was presenting "gimmicks" to create an illusion to get around the fact the athletes didn't know how to wrestle, there was this young kid doing pure classic mat wrestling and working his ass off in every damned match that he worked in! It didn't matter if he was working with wrestlers that meant nothing to the fans, or if he was working with wrestlers that meant everything to the fans, Owen Hart always put on a solid classic wrestling match." remembered CJDark.

"Survivor Series" 1993 Owen Hart finally came in to his own battling his brother Bret Hart. It did not develop for months down the road, but led to a "WrestleMania X" match where Owen Hart had stepped outside of the "shadow" of his brother Bret Hart by scoring a shocking upset victory via clean pinfall over his brother Bret Hart.

1994 Owen Hart won the WWF King Of the Ring. In the tournament Owen defeated Razor Ramon (Scott Hall) in the finals.

The tournament victory led to Owen finally getting his 1st WWF Heavyweight Title match against his brother Bret Hart at "Summerslam 1994" in a steel cage match. Owen Hart did not defeat Bret in that match and that was the closest he ever came to obtaining the elusive WWF Title.

His feud with Bret continued on and in November of 1994 at "Survivor Series", Owen Hart pulled off one of the most memorable performances in federation history when he caused Bret to lose his WWF Heavyweight Title to Bob Backlund by throwing in the towel for his brother Bret (acting as if he was concerned Bret was going to be injured, but later revealing it was all an act to 'screw' Bret).

In 1995 and 1996 Owen Hart worked mostly in tag team action with Yokazuna (managed by James E. Cornette). The duo was arguably one of the most dominant tag teams in WWF history. They won the WWF Tag Team Championships at "WrestleMania XI". Owen Hart also captured the Tag Team Titles that year with his Brother-In-Law Davey Boy Smith at "In Your House: Mind Games".

Owen Hart also won two "Slammy" Awards which he carried with him as "gimmicks" during his matches and used as weapons on his opponents.

In early 1997 Owen Hart and Davey Boy Smith were embroiled in a bitter feud. The American-based Monday Night Wrestling fans were salivating over the chance of seeing Owen and Davey Boy tear each other limb from limb for their entertainment value. However; Bret "Hitman" Hart came out and stopped the match from taking place forming the "Hart Foundation". IN the now infamous Canada versus America angle the WWF ran using Bret Hart as a super heel in the United States and keeping him a Megaface in Canad and overseas. The Hart Foundation dominated the WWF with Brian Pillman, Davey Boy Smith, Bret Hart, and Owen Hart as card carrying members. Later Jim Neidhart was brought in to the fold as part of the stable also which helped them keep their strangle hold on the U.S. wrestling scene. During this domination Owen Hart captured the Intercontinental Heavyweight Championshiop and had finally made a statement as a singles wrestler in the WWF. He lost it twice to Steve Austin (but one it twice as well) during this period.

In November of 1997 Owen Hart's world was turned upside down as Bret Hart refused to lose his WWF Heavyweight Championship in Montreal to Shawn Michaels (which was ordered by Vince McMahon).

Bret as the story goes gave the WWF as list of names of wrestlers he would agree to drop the title too the next night but one of them wasn't Shawn Michaels. To make the situation worse, Bret Hart's contract ended on the night of the PPV in Montreal, and it was common knowledge Bret Hart had already signed an exclusive contract to start working for the rival WCW Company under Eric Bischoff.

"It was certainly horrible news for the WWF, I mean, if Bret was allowed to show on on WCW Nitro with the WWF Title, that may have been THE END of the WWF. Vince had to do it, and he did it." said CJdark about the situation that followed.

Vince McMahon lied to Bret Hart and told him the PPV Title contest would end in a DQ and Bret could show up on Monday Live and hand over the WWF Title and go off to WCW. During the match, Vince McMahon came down to ringside, and as Bret Hart was going for his trademark "Sharpshooter" to lead to the run in DQ by Triple H, HBK quickly reversed the move on Hart and Vince McMahon (at ringside) scramed "ring the fucking bell". The match was over, and so was Bret Hart's career with the WWF. Vince McMahon had "screwed" Bret Hart right in front of the entire world on PPV (Owen had lost his WWF title to Steve Austin on the undercard earlier in the night by the way).

Owen Hart was gone for weeks after this point, and it was figured he wasn't going to come back. Davey Boy Smith and Jim Jim Neidhart also opted to join Bret Hart in WCW. Owen Hart made probably the toughest decision in his entire life and decided to remain with the WWF.

Owen returned and started a feud with HBK and HHH which led to the duo coining the phrase "nugget" which Owen never could shed. Degeneration X was "cool" and "hip" with the young rebel WWF teen age fan base, and Owen Hart simply was looked on as a "boring" canadian.

Owen eventually joined up with "The Nation of Domination" to feud with DX and thius feud lasted the entire summer until the NOD broke a part.

Owen Hart went on with his singles career and in the fall of 1997 he seriously 'injured' "The Beast" Dan Severn (it was an angle injury) and retired because he didn't want to hurt people in the ring anymore.

All of a sudden, "The Blue Blazer" started making WWF TV running in on WWF Matches (rather trying too, he never could make it to the ring because he kept tripping over his own feet, an eerie angle due to what happened at the end).

Steve Blackman eventually forced Owen Hart to return to the ring and battled him at "Rock Bottom" in December of 98.

In 1999, Owen Hart was back in tag team action paired up with Jeff Jarrett, Owen became the first superstar to win the tag team championship with three different partners when he and Jarrett defeated Ken Shamrock and the Big Boss Man for the title on RAW the day after the '99 "Royal Rumble". The duo held on to the championship until after "WrestleMania XV", when they were defeated by X-Pac and Kane on RAW.

Owen Hart went back to singles action and revived "The Blue Blazer" gimmick using humor and the catch phrase of "little Blazers" telling them to "say your prayers, take your vitamins and drink your milk" made the character take off to new heights. And it all came to a crashing end, when Owen Hart fell to his death trying to perform a stunt during a WWF PPV event.

Owen Hart will certainly be missed by this writer, and the reason we have put up this tribute is because we care. And we know that Owen Hart would take pride in everybody reading about his legendary career!