Owen came close to jumping from WWE to WCW in the wake of the Montreal Screwjob. He made some calls to Eric Bischoff and asked Vince McMahon to release him from his contract (something that Vince had done for Jim Neidhart and British Bulldog) but Bischoff wasn't willing to match what he was being paid and Vince flat-out refused to grant him a release. So he had to stick with the WWE, with his family working for the opposition. He had to answer every day to a man who had publicly screwed his big brother. He disappeared for a couple of weeks and then returned to attack HBK. Was Owen about to be placated with a run on top and a programme with the WWE Champion? Not exactly, no. He had one shot against Michaels which ended in a disqualification when Triple H interfered. Really, Owen versus Michaels could have run a lot longer. 'The Black Heart' (as he was now dubbing himself) had plenty of real reason to want to hurt Michaels and the fans would have bought into it. He had the promo ability, the in-ring chops and now the character but there was no stopping the Steve Austin train. The Texas Rattlesnake was the priority and everything else was just a distraction. Owen hovered around the upper-midcard for the next year before finding himself in a go-nowhere tag team with Jeff Jarrett and then, tragically, back in the ridiculous Blue Blazer costume.
