10 Things Learned From Bruce Prichard's Something To Wrestle With Podcast On Owen Hart
8. Owen Was Incorrectly Named The Blue Angel In His Early WWF Days
Highly touted and full of promise, Owen Hart signed with the WWF in the summer of 1988, the same promotion that employed many of Owen's family members. After joining the Federation, one thing became immediately clear - Vince McMahon did not want to acknowledge Owen's association with the Hart family.
According to Prichard, Vince was adamant that Owen be kept separate from the popular Hart Foundation tag team that consisted of Owen's brother Bret and brother-in-law Jim Neidhart. Instead, Vince decided to utilize Owen in a role similar to the cartoon Mighty Mouse (more on that shortly). Owen was given a mask and christened "The Blue Blazer".
During this podcast devoted to Owen, co-host Conrad Thompson brought up an interesting tidbit about Owen's name during his first few weeks with the company. Owen's first in-ring name was thought to have been "The Blue Angel" and not "The Blue Blazer" but that's merely a snafu by the ring announcers. Per Bruce Prichard, the announcers just goofed and called him an angel and not a blazer. Eventually the announcers corrected their mistake, the gimmick went unchanged, and the caped, masked superhero decked out in blue soon flew around the ring like a trapeze artist.