WWE SmackDown Debut Wrestlers: Where Are They Now?

17. The Blue Blazer

The Blue Blazer was a preachy, self-righteous heel who came to life in 1998. Debuting towards the tail end of the year, Blazer existed to rage against the Attitude Era’s inherent crudeness. He didn’t quite reach the Right To Censor’s authoritarian levels, but he wasn’t far off before aligning with Jeff Jarrett to take the gimmick into full-on comedy territory.

It was Owen Hart under a mask, of course. Part of the gimmick’s charm was that Owen was very obviously beneath the mask, but the Blazer insisted he was someone else, even going so far as to enlist Koko B. Ware to appear under the mask to convince the audience. He and Jarrett eventually became tag team champions by beating Ken Shamrock and the Big Boss Man in January, but lost the belts to Kane & X-Pac later on.

The gimmick dragged-on throughout 1999, with the Blue Blazer defeating Val Venis in a quick two-minute match on SmackDown’s first ever episode. Sadly, we all know the end to Owen Hart’s story, and it happened less than four weeks later. Hart’s zipline malfunctioned during his entrance at May’s Over the Edge pay-per-view, Hart plummeted to his death, and while he lives on as one of the most gifted wrestlers of his generation, the incident remains wrestling’s biggest in-ring tragedy.