The youngest member of the legendary Hart wrestling family might just have been the most beloved. Owen was a notorious prankster, family man, and great worker who never had a bad word spoken about him backstage. Owen played a sniveling weasel on television but there was no nicer man behind the scenes. Owen started in his family's Stampede Wrestling, flipping around the ring and developing a style that not many had seen outside of Japan. When he signed with the WWF in 1988, Vince McMahon decided to put him under a mask as the Blue Blazer instead of promoting him as Bret Hart's younger brother. The gimmick failed miserably and the WWF stuck him with Bret's former partner Jim Neidhart as the New Foundation. Owen found little success in the early 90s tag ranks and soon Owen was contemplating quitting the business to become a firefighter. Bret talked him out of it and convinced the WWF brass to let him have a main event run with Owen and save his career. Owen Hart ended up defeating his brother Bret in the best opening match in history at Wrestlemania X, triggering a main event program when Bret won the WWF title later that night. The brothers had fantastic matches all over the country, culminating in an all-time classic cage match at Summerslam 1994. Owen transitioned into a very successful tag team with his brother-in-law Davey Boy Smith, capturing the tag titles on multiple occasions. The formation of the Hart Foundation as the dominant heel stable of 1997 also helped Owen's star grow even bigger. The Montreal Screwjob obviously threw a wrench in everything and left Owen as the last Hart family member in the WWF. Instead of immediately programming him against Shawn Michaels, Owen was booked in a feud with lackey Triple H for some reason, shuffling him down to the midcard and cooling whatever heat he had. Owen never really fit in with the new WWF's Attitude Era but did his best as a member of the Nation of Domination and in a tag team with Jeff Jarrett. In May 1999, Owen traveled to Kansas City for a pay-per-view, not knowing it would be his last act. We all know the story by now: Owen Hart was prepared to make an entrance as the Blue Blazer by rappelling down from the roof of the arena, parodying Sting's entrance in WCW. He was supposed to come loose from the harness a few feet above the ring and fall on his face to the delight of the crowd. However, Owen fell almost 80 feet from the roof and landed on the ring rope, landing in the ring where some believe he died. The WWF decided to continue the pay-per-view (with the Undertaker in the main event, no less) and received their fair share of criticism for it. The bottom line was that Owen Hart had died and it was completely preventable. Why did Owen have to enter from the ceiling? Was that kind of dangerous stunt actually necessary in an undercard match that didn't matter in the long run of the promotion anyways? How dare someone like Vince Russo or Vince McMahon send Owen Hart to the rafters to die and then have the balls to continue the show? Some say I'm cynical and I think I can trace it back to the night Owen Hart died. I was 15 years old at the time, the prime of my wrestling fanaticism, and watching one of my favorite wrestlers die on live television was something I never got over. How could something like this happen to someone like Owen Hart? Sure, it was an accident but it was a completely avoidable accident. This was not a botched move or a bad angle, this was a stunt that is to be performed by stuntmen, not a professional wrestler. Shame on the WWF for taking Owen Hart from his family and from the world. This is cruel business but no one deserved what happened to Owen.
