10 Greatest Canadian Wrestlers Of All Time

Owen Hart is predominantly remembered by casual wrestling fans for two things. First, that he broke Stone Cold Steve Austin’s neck at the 1997 Summerslam with a botched piledriver. This incident became one of the main reasons that the piledriver was essentially eliminated from WWE programing in 2000. The second, and much more tragic, reason Owen is remembered by casual fans is his death. On May 23rd, 1999, Hart fell to his death in Kansas City, Missouri during the Over the Edge pay-per-view event. In an attempt to emphasis his “Blue Blazer” gimmick, Owen was to be lowered to the ring via a harness; however, there was an accidental release causing Hart to fall much further than intended. He died later that night in the hospital.

While Owen Hart’s death was tragic in every sense, it is nonetheless a shame that more fans do not remember his in-ring contributions to wrestling. Owen wrestled in several promotions throughout his life including: Stampede Wrestling, NJPW and the WWF. He even wrestled a whole five matched in WCW, although none are memorable. It was under the WWF banner that Hart did the best work of his wrestling career. After a brief time in the late 1980’s as the “Blue Blazer” Hart would return to WWF in 1991 under his real name, with all the fame it provided. During his time in the promotion, Hart won a combined six titles as well as the King of the Ring in 1994.

While Owen competed in great many matched in his career, his work against brother Bret truly stands among, not only the best of Owens work, but some of the best matches of all-time. The brothers faced off for the first time at Wrestlemania 10 and worked what is wildly regarded as the best opening Wrestlemania match to ever occur. Owen and Bret feuded throughout the summer of 1994, with two prominent matches taking place. First, their steel cage match which was the co-main event of SummerSlam for Bret's WWF World Heavyweight Championship, which Bret won. The match later received a five-star rating from Dave Meltzer. The second was a lumberjack match on August 17th that Owen initially won and was announced as WWF Heavyweight Champion; however Bret won the match after it was ordered to continue due to interference.

Fans may always remember the tragedy surrounding Owen Hart above all else; but it is a disservice to the man not to appreciate what he accomplished between the ropes while he was alive.