Owen Hart was born on 5/7/65 in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. He was the youngest of 12 children. His parents were Stu and Helen Hart. He followed his family into wrestling and made his debut in 1986. On 5/23/99, Owen died due to an accident at the Over the Edge PPV event held at the Kemper Arena in Kansas City, MO. He left behind a wife, Martha, and two children, Oje and Athena.
Early WWF Career:
Owen entered the WWF in 1988 and wrestled under a mask as The Blue Blazer. The fact that it was Owen that was wrestling under the mask was one of the worst kept secrets in wrestling. He left the WWF in 1989 and wrestled all over the globe.
Brother of Legendary Bret Hart, Owen had some of his most memorabe matches in a long lasting feud that they tried to keep going off camera as well as on camera. Bret Hart admitted that it was mostly a '"work" and that they tried to avoid seeing each other off camera to make it as realistic as possible.
Hart fell to his death in Kansas City, Missouri on May 23, 1999, during the WWF pay-per-view Over the Edge PPV event. He was being lowered into the ring from the rafters of Kemper Arena for a scheduled Intercontinental Title win over The Godfather.
In keeping with the Blazer's new 'buffoonish superhero' character, Owen was to be lowered to just above ring level, at which time he would release himself from the safety harness and then comically fall flat on his face. He had performed the stunt only a few times before, and was worried about performing the stunt at Kemper Arena due to the height involved (Owen had a fear of heights).
Owen performed a practice stunt earlier in the day, and 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 unintentionally triggered an early release and fell 78 feet (24 m) into the ring, smashing his chest on a padded, but still tough, ring turnbuckle.
TV viewers at home did not see the incident or its aftermath, as the WWF was transmitting a promotional video package for the match, and only showed the audience while Owen was being worked on by medical personnel inside the ring while WWF television announcer Jim Ross repeatedly told those watching live on pay-per-view that what just transpired was not a wrestling angle or storyline and that Hart was hurt badly.
Owen was transported to the Truman Medical Center in Kansas City, where he was pronounced dead on arrival (he actually died 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. He was 34 years old. The WWF chose to continue the event, which drew a great deal of criticism over the following weeks.
The link below is the only website I've found with the complete story behind his death. There are even some pictures there of him in the ring being worked on by paramedics. Nothing is graphic, however and the pictures are from a distance, but it is a great site if you want to know more.
The very next night a special 2 hour tribute show was aired. RAW is Owen. It was broadcast live from the Kiel Center in St. Louis. According to RAW Exposed (a special that aired before the first WWE RAW airing on its return to USA Network on October 3, 2005), WWF management gave all wrestlers on the roster the option of working or not. It was entirely their choice if they felt like it. Nevertheless, ten matches were booked with no kayfabe or storylines.
The show began with all the wrestlers of the WWF standing on the entrance ramp (with the exception of The Undertaker). Vince McMahon, Linda McMahon and Stephanie McMahon were at the front of the ramp. Howard Finkel called for a ten-bell salute. Then a tribute video narrated by Vince was played on the TitanTron.
Throughout the broadcast, personal thoughts on Owen in the form of interviews with various WWF Superstars were played. Before the first commercial break, such thoughts were aired from Mick Foley and Bradshaw. Foley noted that Owen was his son's favorite wrestler and had proudly gotten a haircut like Owen's. Bradshaw talked about how Owen spent much less money on the road than most wrestlers because he wanted to retire early and spend time with his family.
The next night, WWF taped the episode of RAW for May 31, 1999. During that show, Jeff Jarrett defeated The Godfather to win the WWF Intercontinental Championship, the title Owen was booked to win at Over the Edge for the third time. Jarrett screamed "Owen Hart!" as the belt was handed to him
Titles and Acoomplishments:
I-C Title
4/28/97 – The Rock
10/5/97 Bad Blood – won tournament final over Farooq
European Title
1/22/98 – beat Goldust
Tag Team Title
4/2/95 WrestleMania XI – w/Yokozuna beat The Smokin' Gunns
9/25/95 – w/Yokozuna rewarded titles due to a technicality from their previous title defense
9/22/96 Mind Games – w/The British Bulldog beat The Smokin’ Gunns
1/25/99 – w/Jeff Jarrett beat The Big Bossman & Ken Shamrock
King of the Ring
1994 King of the Ring - beat Razor Ramon in the tournament final
He was also a two time slammy winner and loved to carry his trophies to the ring.
A quote from a superstar:
"I'm not going to get into the details of this accident as I really don't care to know them, all I know is that a friend is gone. Never mind the fact that Owen was a great guy. Never mind the fact that Owen was one of the greatest wrestlers the world has ever seen. Never mind the fact that he was one of the reasons I wanted to become a wrestler. Never mind that I went to the Hart Bros. Pro Wrestling camp, in hopes of meeting and training with him. All that matters is that Owen Hart is gone, never to entertain or make us smile again. This was a terrible senseless accident and it puts everything into perspective. Contract disputes, minor injuries, lack of a push, don't mean squat when you compare them to a family who will never see their father again. God bless you Owen Hart. I know I will always respect and never forget you." -Chris Jericho
A few quotes from Owen:
-Enough is enough and it's time for a change!
-All I had to do was go out and perform. One of the hardest things was doing those back flips, where you had to jump up and land on the top rope. It's precision movement.
-Double J is similar in age, we're similar in experience. I think if we hooked up, we could be a formidable team. We get along well inside the ring and outside the ring.
-I don't want to become one of those watered-down guys, who just walked and talked in the ring. I want them to remember me as a guy who was diverse in his talents, could fight anybody and have a good match, whether it was Undertaker, or Vader.
-I find too often in the wrestling business, you just wrestle, get to the hotel, make your money. Sometimes I have to stop and remind myself to enjoy my life and not just rush through.
-I met with Vince McMahon after his jaw and cheek was all swollen. It was no work. And Bret's knuckles all fat and broken. I don't think anyone realizes how intense that whole situation was. (referring to the Montreal Screwjob)
-I really want to devote a lot of time to my family. Every second that I'm home I spend doing something. Taking my son to hockey practice, my daughter to swimming, ballet or music, little gymboree classes. My son's into piano.
-I see these guys, they throw a guy into the ropes and they do a back flip and then clothesline the guy and it looks stupid. Why don't you just clothesline the guy?
-I think by the time I was born, my parents had pretty well run the gauntlet with their kids. The novelty had kind of worn off by the time the twelfth child was born. I was lucky to get fed and changed, picked up and taken to school.
-If Bret went in there and stunk the place out, then they probably wouldn't have brought the little brother in. So just by being successful himself, it opened the door for me.
-It's good to go out and entertain these people, and you've got them on the edge of their seat, they're standing up. Then you know that you've done your job, you've entertained them. My way of entertaining them is going out and wrestling. Everyone's got their different ways.
-It's kind of beating a dead horse if you're talking about going out and saying wrestling's fake, or this or that. People don't want to hear that. They want to hear, they wanted to find an inside story.
-It's unacceptable to just sit on the couch and say I'm not doing anything. You've got to get out and do everything you can.
-Some guys can do more talking in the ring, other guys do posing, body building, whatever the hell they do in the ring. But I don't have the big body, and I'm not the big smooth talker, but I can get in the ring and wrestle.
-You're under a microscope-you're Bret Hart's little brother, everyone want to see if you're going to make it. I managed to sustain myself, do everything right and keep my feet on the ground, weather the storm.
-Nobody really knows for sure who the Blue Blazer is, but like I said in my interview, there's a little bit of the Blue Blazer in each and every one of us.
Amen Owen. God Bless You.
"It's kind of an art, going out and performing. I'd like fans to remember me as a guy who would go out and entertain them, give them quality matches, and not just the same old garbage every week."
