Owen Hart - owen hart death video
Owen James Hart (May 7, 1965 – May 23, 1999) was a Canadian professional wrestler and entertainer. He competed under the ringname Owen Hart and had many nicknames such as The Rocket, The King of Harts, The Black Hart, and The Blue Blazer. He was born in Calgary, Alberta, the youngest of 12 children, all of whom were involved with wrestling in some way; the most famous of his brothers being Bret Hart. His father was legendary wrestling promoter Stu Hart. Owen attended Ernest Manning High School in Calgary from 1980-1983. Owen also held American citizenship, since his mother was born in New York.
Wrestling career
Owen entered wrestling by working for his father's Stampede Wrestling. Wrestling however was not Owen's first choice for a career; as Martha Hart, his widow, would explain in her book Broken Harts, Owen tried numerous times to find a profitable living outside of wrestling. Those attempts were unsuccessful, and Owen began his WWF stay as The Blue Blazer in 1988. The Blue Blazer was at that time a generic masked wrestler gimmick who was a high flying technician. The most notable match for Owen as the Blazer came at Wrestlemania 5, when he was narrowly defeated by Mr. Perfect. In 1991, Blue Blazer lost the mask versus the mexican wrestler Canek in a mask duel. Around this time, Owen wrestled briefly for WCW, and was in the process of contract discussions, but was not willing to move to Atlanta, the company's headquarters. This would be Owen's one and only run in WCW. Following the breakup of The Hart Foundation, Owen formed a team with Jim Neidhart known as the New Foundation. Owen would later team alongside Koko B. Ware in the early 1990s as High Energy. Eventually he was pushed as a singles competitor and feuded with his brother Bret. They competed at WrestleMania X and later in a Cage Match at SummerSlam 1994. They are both considered two of the greatest matches of the 1990s. Owen combined high flying and technical mat skill for a very sound style; he was also quite adept at playing a sneaky, smarmy heel, as evidenced by his King of Harts gimmick (he took the nickname after winning the 1994 King of the Ring).
Hart's WWF career included Intercontinental, Tag Team and European gold; he teamed with the 600-pound Yokozuna and brother-in-law Davey Boy Smith, the British Bulldog, at various points in his career. He was also infamous at this time for an errant piledriver at SummerSlam 1997 which severely injured "Stone Cold" Steve Austin (though Owen privately suggested to his wife that Austin was faking the injury), and ultimately led to Austin's retirement in 2003. When his brother Bret lost his WWF Title in controversial fashion at the 1997 Survivor Series in Montreal, Smith and Jim Neidhart, another Hart brother-in-law, responded by joining Bret in WCW. Owen tried this as well, but elected to stay put in the WWF when faced with breach of contract issues. This caused friction between the brothers for a brief time, though they would reconcile before Owen's death. This was the start of his Black Hart gimmick which had a great deal of potential; however, Shawn Michaels, the WWF Champion in the wake of Montreal, suffered a career-ending (at the time) back injury and additionally managed to convince WWF owner Vince McMahon not to put that potentially hot feud together. As such Owen floundered for a bit, turning heel again and joining the Nation of Domination, a black militant themed stable. Obviously, this was not a good fit for Owen.
Owen Hart posing.In early 1999, Owen began teaming with Jeff Jarrett and again captured tag team gold; however he was also in a storyline involving the Blue Blazer character; this was rumored as punishment for Owen not wanting to do a storyline which suggested a sexual affair with Debra, the valet for the team. Of course, Owen was a happily married family man and wanted no part of this. Owen was performing as the Blue Blazer at the time of his death.
Death
Hart fell to his death in Kansas City on May 23, 1999, during the WWF's Over the Edge PPV event. He was being lowered into the ring from a catwalk of the Kemper Arena for a match with The Godfather. In keeping with the Blazer's buffoonish character, Owen was to be lowered to just above ring level, at which time he would release himself from the safety harness and then fall flat on his face. Though he had performed the stunt before, Owen was wary about performing the stunt at the Kemper Arena due to the height involved (Owen had a fear of heights). However, Owen performed a practice stunt earlier in the day, the stunt went forward on the show as scheduled. His wife Martha suggests that, by moving around to get comfortable with both the harness and his cape on, Owen triggered an early release and fell 78 feet (24 m) into the ring, smashing his chest on a ring turnbuckle. Viewers at home did not see the incident, as the WWF was transmitting a promotional package for the match. Owen was transported to the Truman Medical Center in Kansas City, where he was pronounced dead on arrival (he actually passed away about six minutes after the fall, while still lying in the ring); the cause was later revealed to be internal bleeding from blunt chest trauma. The WWF chose to continue the event despite the tragedy, which drew a great deal of criticism over the following weeks.
The next night on Monday Night Raw, the WWF mounted a two-hour televised tribute (see RAW is Owen), in which WWF wrestlers and officials paid tribute to Hart. The Over the Edge event name was retired.
In the weeks that followed, much attention focused on the harness Owen used that night, especially on the "quick release" trigger and safety latches. When someone is lowered from the rafters in a harness, there are backup latches that must be latched for safety purposes. These backups may take some time to unlatch, which would have made Owen's stunt difficult to perform smoothly. Therefore, it was apparently decided that it was more important not to have the safety backups, because it would be easier for Owen to unlatch himself. In addition to not having safety backups, the harness Owen used was designed for sailboats and required only six pounds of weight to trigger the quick release mechanism; Owen weighed about 225 pounds. An out-of-court settlement between Owen Hart's family and the WWF has prevented the release of any information about the harness.
Owen left a widow, Martha, and two children, Oje and Athena. Martha Hart settled her wrongful death lawsuit against the WWF for approximately $19 million; she used the funds to establish the Owen Hart Foundation. Martha wrote a book about Owen's life in 2002 called Broken Harts.
Owen's last match was on May 22, 1999 in Chicago. He and Jarrett won a tag team match against Edge and Christian.
On the October 4, 1999 edition of WCW Nitro, Owen's brother Bret wrestled Chris Benoit in an Owen Hart tribute match at the Kemper Arena.
In wrestling
Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:
Owen Hart
Quotes
"Enough is enough, and it's time for a change!"
"I am not a nugget!"
"I am the King of Harts!"
"Owen 3:16 says I just broke your neck!"
Finishing and signature moves
Sharpshooter
Enzuigiri
Spinning heel kick
Crescent kick (Superkick)
Spike piledriver
Hart Driver (Reverse piledriver)
Gutwrench Suplex
Missile Dropkick
Top Rope Flying Elbow Drop
Overhead Belly to belly suplex
Championships and accomplishments
New Japan Pro Wrestling
1-time NJPW IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion
Pro Wrestling Illustrated
PWI ranked him # 66 of the 500 best singles wrestlers during the PWI Years in 2003
PWI ranked him # 84 of the best tag teams of the PWI Years with Davey Boy Smith
PWI Rookie of the Year Award (1987)
PWI Feud of the Year Award, versus Bret Hart (1994)
PWI Editor's Award (1999)
Stampede Wrestling from Calgary
2-time Stampede Wrestling North American Heavyweight Champion
1-time Stampede Wrestling British Commonwealth Mid-Heavyweight Champion
1-time Stampede Wrestling International Tag Team Champion (with Ben Bassarab)
United States Wrestling Association
1-time USWA Unified World Heavyweight Champion
World Wrestling Federation
2-time WWF Intercontinental Champion
1-time WWF European Heavyweight Champion
4-time WWF World Tag Team Champion (2-time with Yokozuna, 1-time with Davey Boy Smith, 1-time with Jeff Jarrett)
1994 King of the Ring
Wrestling Observer Newsletter
1987 Best Flying Wrestler
1988 Best Flying Wrestler
1997 Feud of the Year (with Bret Hart, Jim Neidhart, Davey-Boy Smith and Brian Pillman vs Steve Austin)
WWF Intercontinental Championship
Preceded by:
Rocky Maivia First Followed by:
"Stone Cold" Steve Austin
Preceded by:
"Stone Cold" Steve Austin Second Followed by:
"Stone Cold" Steve Austin
WWF European Championship
Preceded by:
Hunter Hearst Helmsley First Followed by:
Hunter Hearst Helmsley
WWF World Tag Team Championship
Preceded by:
The Smokin' Gunns First, (with Yokuzuna) Followed by:
Two Dudes with Attitude
Preceded by:
Two Dudes with Attitude Second, (with Yokuzuna) Followed by:
The Smokin' Gunns
Preceded by:
The Smokin' Gunns Third, (with Davey Boy Smith) Followed by:
Steve Austin and Shawn Michaels
Preceded by:
The Big Bossman and Ken Shamrock Fourth, (with Jeff Jarrett) Followed by:
Kane and X-Pac
King of the Ring winners
Preceded by:
Bret Hart First Followed by:
Mabel
USWA Heavyweight Champion
Preceded by:
Papa Shango First Followed by:
Jerry Lawler
IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship
Preceded by:
Hiroshi Hase First Followed by:
Shiro Koshinaka
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