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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, Two Time Slammy Award Winner, The Black Hart, The Blue Blazer, and Nugget (the last bestowed upon him by Shawn Michaels). 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 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. 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, 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.

In early 1999, Owen began teaming with Jeff Jarrett and again captured the tag team titles, this included involvement in a storyline involving the Blue Blazer character.

Death

Hart fell to his death in Kansas City, Missouri on May 23 1999, during the WWF's Over the Edge PPV event. He was being lowered into the ring from a catwalk of 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 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 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 despite the tragedy, which drew a great deal of criticism over the following weeks.

The next night on Monday Night Raw in St. Louis, Missouri, 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. The WWF, however, decided to ban stunts of a similar nature from this point on to avoid a similar tragedy from occurring.

Owen left a widow, Martha, and two children, Oje Edward 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 Kemper Arena.

In wrestling

Quotes

• "Enough is enough, and it's time for a change!"
• "I am not a nugget! I'm a blackheart, a sole survivor, wooo!"
• "I am the King of Harts!"
• "Owen 3:16 says I just broke your neck!"

Nicknames

• "The Black Hart"
• "The Rocket"
• "The King of Harts"
• "Slammy Award Winner"
• "Nugget" (derisively given by Shawn Michaels)

Finishing and signature moves

• Hart Driver (Reverse Piledriver)
• Sharpshooter
• Enzuigiri
• Spinning heel kick
• Northern Lights Bomb
• Crescent Kick
• Gutwrench suplex
• Missile Dropkick
• Diving elbow drop
• Overhead Belly to Belly suplex

Championships and accomplishments

• New Japan Pro Wrestling

• 1-time 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)

• Rec.sport.pro-wrestling Awards

• 1992 Most Underrated Wrestler

• 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

• 4-time WWF World Tag Team Champion
• 1-time WWF European Champion
• 2-time WWF Intercontinental Champion
• 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)
• 5 Star Match: vs. Bret Hart (WWF SummerSlam 1994, August 29, 1994: Steel Cage match)

Championship succession

Miscellanea

• At his funeral, a large wreath of flowers had been placed next to his casket alongside a "WWF Attitude" logo. Martha Hart immediately asked for it to be removed.

See also

• RAW is Owen

• 1965 births
• 1999 deaths
• Accidental deaths
• Calgarians
• Canadian professional wrestlers
• Dungeon graduates
• Entertainers who died in their 30s
• Hart wrestling family
• Stampede Wrestling alumni
• Professional wrestling deaths before the age of 65