10 Things Learned From Bruce Prichard's Something To Wrestle With Podcast On Owen Hart
1. Owen Thought Wrestling Had Passed Him By In Late 1998
A year removed from signing a new deal that allowed Owen and his wife Martha to begin construction on their dream house, the youngest Hart found himself unhappy with the state of sports-entertainment. We learned that Owen gave an interview in November '98 stating that, similar to brother Bret's sentiments in '97, he no longer understood the direction of the wrestling business. According to Martha, Owen felt that perhaps the industry had passed him by.
While not as big of a stance as Bret's, Owen's comments did seem to mirror the opinion shared by his older brother in that the pro-wrestling industry had changed. Both of them were right.
By 1998, the family-friendly PG environment that the World Wrestling Federation catered to for the past several decades was no more. In a desperate effort to defeat Ted Turner's WCW in the Monday night ratings battle, Vince McMahon made the WWF a more adult-oriented product, complete with TV-14 rating. The storylines now involved more risque content, the matches were much more violent with the big marquee payoffs containing extreme brutality, and the language used was extremely colorful.
A far cry from the industry Bret and Owen had been raised in.