Top 7 Owen Hart Moments

I’ve never understood peoples’ outrage over Owen Hart’s family not wanting him in the WWE Hall of Fame.

Their main talking point is that they want to be able to recognize Owen’s legacy. Which is a fine point, but I don’t think they realize one key point: We don’t need WWE to tell us who to honor. Wrestling fans that remember Owen can pay tribute to him just as well as WWE can. Sure, the WWE Hall of Fame is a nice TV show once a year, but we don’t need to wait for them to induct Owen Hart for us to remember him as a true legend.

We can do that on our own. For example, I can write about my seven favorite Owen Hart moments. You may have different choices, and post them down in the comment section, or social media or wherever. I, for one, can’t think of a better way to remember the legacy of Owen Hart.

7. Survivor Series 1994

Let’s be honest, the Bret Hart vs. Bob Backlund submission match wasn’t much to write home about. The highpoint was all due to Owen’s acting on the outside. He was in the corner of Mr. Backlund, holding Bob’s towel that Arnold Skaaland threw into the ring to end his first WWF Championship reign back in 1993. The British Bulldog was holding a Bret Hart towel, but Bulldog happened to be knocked out while Bret was trapped in the dreaded crossface chicken wing.

Stu & Helen Hart were at ringside, and Owen pleaded with them to throw in the towel and end the match. He had obviously had a change of heart during the match, and now felt sorry for his brother while Bob Backlund was trying to rip Bret’s arm out of its socket. Helen finally gave in & threw that towel in, and Owen immediately started celebrating and ran out of the building with the Bret Hart towel. Easily the highlight of that match, along with Backlund’s promo afterward where he claimed he felt like God.

6. SummerSlam 1994

One of the highlights of the Bret/Owen feud was their steel cage match in Chicago at SummerSlam. It’s easily one of the most memorable cage matches of the “big blue cage era”. Owen was hopeful this would finally be the night that he stepped out of Bret’s shadow and became the dominant Hart. Things didn’t happen that way, but Bret & Owen still had a classic.

5. The 1997 Slammy Awards

Owen won a Slammy in 1996. Well, technically, Shawn Michaels collapsing during a match with Owen won the award, but Owen took credit for it and got the Slammy. Shawn was fine, he won like six other ones that year. For a full year, Owen insisted on being introduced as “The Slammy Award Winning Owen Hart”. Bret also won a bunch that year, I think Sunny took a pair, but Owen was especially proud of that award.

So when 1997 rolled around & Owen was short of Slammy approval, he took the Best Bowtie Slammy that he was scheduled to present as his own. I don’t think Mr. Bob Backlund was too happy about it, but Owen sure was! The second-happiest person in the room was Owen’s tag team partner Davey Boy Smith, who couldn’t help but smile while Owen told him “Bulldog, you might have two titles, but now I’ve got two Slammys!”. Owen’s sense of humor was on full display here.

4. Monday Night Raw 2/26/97

Owen & Bulldog were having some issues during early 1997. Although they were Tag Team Champions, there was a dispute over who the dominant force of their team was. They ended up meeting in the finals of the WWF European Championship tournament, which ended up being the highpoint of the European Championship.

I watched this match recently, and it still holds up. A fair fight between two men that were very close and were willing to do anything to make the other guy look good. One of the best matches on Raw in 1997, or in any other year.

3. King of the Ring 1994

Owen was moving up the card in 1994 with a number of big victories. He was targeting his brother’s WWF Championship, and the best way for him to move up the ranks was to win the King of the Ring tournament. Bret had won it the year before, and Owen winning it would be the perfect way to prove that he was just as good, if not better.

Owen also had a little help in the finals from his brother-in-law Jim “The Anvil” Neidhart. Oddly enough, Anvil had appeared alongside his former tag team partner, Bret, who was wrestling Diesel on this evening. Neidhart got Bret disqualified, then disappeared once Bret started catching a beatdown from Diesel & Shawn Michaels. Obviously, Anvil preferred his partner in the New Foundation over his partner in the Hart Foundation. Owen became the King of Harts, and still rates as one of the more successful winners of the KOTR tournament.

2. Canadian Stampede

This night in Calgary was the highlight of the Hart wrestling family. You had Bret, Owen, Bulldog, Anvil & Brian Pillman in a ten-man tag team match in front of a Calgary crowd that was hot all night. Those folks were going to cheer anything the Hart Foundation did, and they never really quieted down the whole night.

Owen temporarily left the match after having his knee injured, but managed to come back & get the pinfall over Steve Austin to the delight of the crowd. The WWF’s RIP graphic for Owen was from that night, with Owen holding the Canadian flag and looking like he was on top of the world.

1. WrestleMania X

The match that made Owen’s career. Up until this point, he hadn’t been taken the least bit seriously during his WWF career. Sure, there were some fun tag teams with Jim Neidhart & Koko B. Ware where they wore Hammer pants. The Blue Blazer had some solid matches. But Owen was so far down the totem pole that he was considering walking away in 1993. Until he got the opportunity to feud with his brother. There was the tiff at Survivor Series, which led to Owen completing the turn at the Royal Rumble, and this match. Still one of the best WrestleMania matches of all time.

It also had a result that I never ever would have expected as a kid just under ten years old. I remember turning on the fuzzy PPV channels back in the day during wrestling events. My parents weren’t going to spring for the show, so I would try & view things through the snow. You could hear some things too, and I remember hearing “Your winner…Owen Hart!”. I was shocked. Owen beat Bret? How could this be? As a Bret fan I was none too pleased. Bret still won the championship at the end of the night, which left Owen standing in the entranceway seething with jealousy. Classic stuff.