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When we last left off, Owen Hart had just finished his year long feud with brother Bret, and though they would occasionally cross paths afterward, the feud was more or less done. Rather than continuing to feud with Bret, Owen instead chose to focus on winning his first title in the WWF, and he began his quest in January of 1995.
Tag Team Champion
When Shawn Michaels and Diesel, then WWF Tag Team Champions, split up at Survivor Series 1994, the WWF Tag Team Title was vacated and a tournament was held to fill the vacant title. Owen Hart and Jim Neidhart entered the tournament and were considered favorites, but were eliminated in the first round by the Headshrinkers. Neidhart pulled another of his disappearing acts after the loss, and Owen was once again on his own. However, he still had his eye on the Tag Team Title and as Wrestlemania 11 approached, Owen threw out a challenge to the Smoking Gunns, who had ended up with the title, to defend against himself and a mystery partner at Wrestlemania. Nobody had any idea who Owen could be bringing to Wrestlemania, and names such as Jake Roberts and Chris Benoit were thrown around as guesses, but the mystery partner surprisingly turned out to be Yokozuna, whom Owen claimed he had chosen simply because he had done something Owen always wanted to do, which was beat Bret for the WWF Title. However questionable Owen's criteria for picking partners, Yokozuna proved himself a worthy partner, physically dominating the Gunns as Owen and Yoko steamrolled to victory and the WWF Tag Team Title. In true cowardly heel fashion, Owen let Yokozuna hit the Banzai Drop, then tagged himself in to make the cover for the win.
The new champions were a formidable unit, as Owen's skill and wrestling ability perfectly complemented Yokozuna's power and ability to take punishment. They went on a tear, easily defeating every team that challenged them. The Smoking Gunns, Men On A Mission, Razor Ramon and Savio Vega, and even the powerhouse team of Lex Luger and Davey Boy Smith all failed to come up with a winning strategy, and every one of them came up short. By the time Summerslam rolled around, they had beaten everybody and had no challengers for the show. However, as Summerslam was going off the air, WWF President Gorilla Monsoon announced that their next challengers would be Intercontinental Champion Shawn Michaels and WWF Champion Diesel.
The stipulation for the match was unique for its time in that all three WWF titles would be on the line in one match. If Shawn and Diesel beat Owen and Yokozuna, they would win the Tag Team Title. However, if either Diesel or Michaels were defeated, the man who beat them would win their singles title. Owen and Yokozuna both liked the idea of adding a singles title to their collection, while Michaels and Diesel looked at it as a chance to regain the title they had never lost. To add some last minute intrigue, Owen turned up missing the night of the show and Davey Boy Smith, who had by this point turned heel and joined up with Jim Cornette's stable, was substituted into the match as Owen's replacement. Owen did finally show up at the end up the match, but got in just long enough to get powerbombed and pinned by Diesel.
Fortunately for Owen and Yokozuna, technicalities worked to their advantage, as Monsoon ruled that Owen was not a legal participant in the match, and therefore Diesel and Michaels could not legally win the title by pinning him. The decision was overturned after only one day and the title was returned to Owen and Yokozuna. This was an incredibly lucky break for Owen and Yoko, but unfortunately their luck would not last, as just one day after the match with Diesel and Michaels, Owen and Yokozuna lost the title again when they were upset by the Smoking Gunns after Yokozuna accidentally splashed Owen, leaving him easy prey for the pin.
Two title losses in two days was enough to push Owen and Yokozuna out of the title picture, and Owen fell to the background of Camp Cornette for most of the next year, playing second fiddle to Davey Boy Smith and Vader while they got shots at the WWF Title. Owen finally became a Tag Team Champion again when he and Davey Boy defeated the Smoking Gunns almost exactly a year after the Gunns defeated Owen and Yoko. While not as physically imposing as Yokozuna, Davey Boy was more technically sound and complemented Owen well. However, there was dissension between the new champions almost from the beginning. Though they did defeat the Gunns in a rematch and also the fake Diesel and Razor Ramon, they were upset by Doug Furnas and Phil Lafon in non-title situations and also snuck away with the title in several countout and DQ losses to Furnas and Lafon. To make matters worse, Davey became annoyed with Owen always trying to be the star of the team and concentrating more on being a two time Slammy Award winner than defending the title. Owen would fake injuries to get out of tagging into matches, leaving Davey Boy to get double teamed while he hid out on the floor. As if all that weren't bad enough, Davey Boy defeated Owen in the finals of the tournament to crown the first European Champion, and though Owen took the loss in stride there was still tension, and that tension finally boiled over shortly after Wrestlemania 13 when a brawl broke out between them and Owen ended up challenging Davey to a rematch for the European Title. The team seemed to be at an end, but the ending of their rematch took the situation in a totally unexpected direction.
Family Reunion
The rematch went off a week later and, in contrast to the classic wrestling match they had in Germany several months prior, this match broke down into more of a dirty fight. The ref got bumped and a chair found its way into the ring, but before either man had a chance to part the other's hair with it, Bret Hart made a run in and grabbed the chair. Instead of attacking either of them, however, he got between his brother and brother-in-law and yelled at them to stop fighting. Bret grabbed the house mic and told Owen and Davey Boy to take a look at how “they†have had the three of them fighting one another for years. He said they they're a family, something the fans in the US knew nothing about, then said it was time for them to band together and watch one another's back instead of allowing themselves to be manipulated. This led to a tearful reunion and the three men had a group hug in thhe middle of the ring as Bret coldly stared out at the hostile American crowd around him.
Bret, Owen, and Davey were soon joined by Jim Neidhart, making yet another return from obscurity to rejoin his family members, and Brian Pillman, who had trained in the Hart family dungeon and was returning himself from life threatening injuries suffered in a car wreck. The newly reformed and expanded Hart Foundation immediately became the dominant faction in the WWF. In addition to Owen and Davey holding the Tag Team Title and Davey holding the European Title, Owen cleanly defeated Rocky Maivia to win the Intercontinental Title mere weeks after the reunion, and now the only title that the Harts didn't have control of was the WWF Title. This would obviously be saved for Bret, but he was sidelined with injuries suffered in a brawl with Steve Austin and until he healed up, he would not be able to challenge for the title for several months.
In the meantime, Owen and Davey carried most of the weight of the Hart Foundation. Unfortunately, things began unraveling in May when they lost the Tag Team Title to Steve Austin and Shawn Michaels on an episode of Raw. Despite getting several title shots over the next few months, they were never able to regain the title. Things started looking up for the Harts in July at the Canadian Stampede PPV, which was held in the Harts' hometown of Calgary, Alberta, Canada. In front of a hot hometown crowd, the Hart Foundation defeated Steve Austin, Goldust, Ken Shamrock, and the Legion Of Doom when Owen pinned Austin. Following the victory, the entire Hart family poured into the ring for a huge family celebration in what turned out to be the last big moment the Harts would share in a wrestling ring ever again.
Austin wanted another shot at Owen after losing the fall to him at Canadian Stampede, but the only way Owen would put the title on the line would be if Austin agreed to kiss Owen's ass if he lost. In Austin's words, “If I can't kick it, I'll damn sure kiss it.†Unfortunately, things went badly awry when Owen botched a piledriver and broke Austin's neck. The shock of the injury temporarily paralyzed Austin, and though Owen was clearly stunned by what had happened, he had the presence of mind to stall for time and play to the crowd while the extent of the injury was determined. Somehow Austin was able to recover enough to crawl over and very weakly roll Owen up for the pin, but Austin was obviously badly injured, and despite the grudge he held against Owen for the rest of his life, Austin was very lucky he was in there with a ring general who knew how to handle a situation like that.
While Austin recovered, Owen teamed with Davey Boy to try and regain the Tag Team Title, but again came up short in a four way elimination match for the vacant championship at Ground Zero. Owen fared better a month later when he won a tournament for the Intercontinental Title, which had been vacated due to Austin's injury, but then he dropped the title back to Austin a month later at the Survivor Series in Montreal and, as we all know, Bret was screwed in the main event of the very same show and was never seen in the WWF again. At this point, it appeared that Owen had been made to drop the title to make sure he didn't take it with him if he jumped ship with Bret following the doublecross. Though Davey Boy and Neidhart left to follow Bret to WCW, Owen decided to stay with the WWF and try to make his name for the first time without Bret not only not there to take the spotlight, but also take care of Owen politically.
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And that's it for Part 2 of this look back at Owen's career. All feedback can be sent to gregoryhonay@yahoo.com. Thanks for reading, and check back ne xt week when we wrap this up with Part 3 of the career of Owen Hart.
