Owen Hart-King of Harts

When your brother is Bret Hart and your father is Stu Hart, you know that you are gonna have to wrestle to the best of your ability and then some. It means you’re gonna have to go through severe training until you can pull off every move to perfection, Stu Hart is a harsh teacher, teaching many names such as Lance Storm, Chris Jericho,Edge,Christian and of course Chris Benoit, all of these wrestlers are known for their in ring skills, not one of them can be called green in the ring. Owen was one of 14 children 7 of the 8 brothers became wrestlers, the other became a referee.
Hart started his wrestling career through his fathers wrestling promotion Stampede wrestling, like many of Stu Harts students had done, Owen was reluctant to get in to wrestling and actually wanted to find a good job outside the ring, but being a Hart made that practically impossible. During his stint with Stampede he won the tag titles, beat Shane Douglas to PWI rookie of the year and had a feud with the legendary Dynamite kid, by 1988 Owen was leaving Stampede for Japan, however from his time in Stampede you could already tell the talent that Owen had and the potential to where he could actually get in the business
Whilst in Japan Owen adopted the Jushin Linger gimmick and won the IWGP Junior heavyweight title in the New Japan Pro wrestling promotion, the fact he was only the second Canadian to hold the title after Chris Benoit showed the faith that the bookers at New Japan had in Owens skills, as you can see even early in his career Owen was building up a positive reputation as a talented rookie. The talents of Owen Hart didn’t go unnoticed and soon the WWF came knocking at his door, here Owen debuted the Blue Blazer gimmick, during this period with the WWF he didn’t really see much popularity never rising above the Upper card the WWF had in place. Owen Hart was defeated by Mr Perfect at Wrestlemania and he then left to go work the independants, he lost the Blue Blazers mask on his tour of the indepedants basically saying goodbye to that gimmick.
Owen Hart then popped up in WCW but was never really recognised, it was when the WWF came knocking again that would see Owens career take off, he formed the new Hart Foundation with brother in law Jim Neidhart, after Neidhart left the WWF Owen set out on a singles run which was pretty much uneventful minus at match at Wrestlemania vs Skinner. Owen began to team with Koko.B.Ware, they were never pushed towards the tag titles, the team quiety faded away and Owen begun to help his brother Bret in his feud with Jerry Lawler, this feud mainly took place off WWF television. Owen would be injured in the summer of 1993 and would not be back until the fall. Tension began to rise between Bret and Owen as they crashed in to each other leading to Owen being the only Hart eliminated.
Finally the writers started to do something with Owen after making him team with Bret for a while and raising the tension between them Owen finally snapped and this begun one of his and Brets most remembered feuds. The feud saw Owen go over Bret cleanly at Wrestlemania, showing that big things were in store for him. Albeit Bret won the WWF title later the same night, it shows that Owen had the potential to be in the main event. Owen actually won the title from Bret on an occasion but the result was overturned and Bret retained. Owen rebounded from his loss to Bret by winning the tag titles with Yokozuna, Owens first taste of WWF gold, and a belt he would win many more times during his career. After he finished teaming with Yokozuna Owen began teaming with the Bulldog and again won the tag titles. Tension began to rise between Owen and the Bulldog and they faced each other in the finals for the European title, which the Bulldog won. The two would continue to feud until Bret formed the Hart foundation again.
Owen went on to beat the Rock for the intercontinental title, his first taste of single gold, it seemed that Owen had got stuck at the mid card level and would be in the shadown of his brother for a while yet. Owen and Bulldog lost their titles to Austin and Michaels, Hard and Austin started a feud that ended when Hart botched a piledriver, the botch hurt Austins neck and he never fully recovered, Austin was tripped of the intercontental title and Hart won it back during a tournament beating Faarooq.
Owen again started to feud with Austin and lost the title back to him, he then went on to watch the Monteal screwjob at the same time, this seemed to end any hopes of Hart ever reaching main event status in the WWF, although they released Bulldog and Neidhart after the screwjob but refused to release Owen showing maybe they had big plans for him. Owen was kept off t.v for a while, when he came back he went after Michaels and Triple H, and he began to feud with Triple H for the European title, Owen would go on to win the title. Owen los tthe title back to Triple H a few weeks later and he later joined the nation of domination to feud with DX. After the feud with Dx had finished, OWen briefly feuded with Shamrock who wa sout for revenge after Owen injured him, Hart then went on to form the popular tag team of him and Jeff Jarrett, during this tag team Owen revived the blue blazer gimmick, this would lead to his death, the storyline was hillarious with Owen having ‘retired’ trying to prove neither he or Jarrett were the Blue Blazer, with both showing up next to the Blue Blazer to prove their innocence.
Owen was scheduled to beat the Godfather for the intercontinental title at the over the edge ppv, the plan was for Owen to be lowered in for his entrance from the rafters, like Sting did in WCW, however Owen was released to early and fell 78 feet to his death landing dead on the turnbuckles. Just like that one of the most under rated wrestlers was dead, no world title reign no major main event feud, one of the most talented wrestlers was a legend at mid card level, i have no doubt in my mind that if Owen were still alive today he’d be a world champion by now, he should of been a world champion back then, he was without a doubt one of the best wrestlers and deserved to be above mid card level.
I know most people reading this will think whats the point of this blog, it doesn’t tell me anything that wikipedia couldn’t, well im about to give you something wikipedia doesn’t have, my opinion. If Owen hadn’t died when he did, it hink there is little doubt that with his talent he could have gone on to be WWF champion before he retired, however the only thing that might have been in his way would have been Vince, maybe he would have been to bitter to give the title to Hart after the Montreal screwjob in fear of Owen defecting with the belt at some point, we all know how paranoid Vince gets, the only thing holidng back Owen would of been backstage politics because based on talent he should have been a multi time world champion before he retired if it weren’t for his death. So heres to the king of Harts a respectable man who didn’t want to do Vinces crappy love storylines (who does) who only wanted to spend time with his family, he didn’t even really wanna be in the business, but being a Hart he could escape it, he was under used and unfortunatly the world lost a great person that day a great wrestler, friend and family man

Raw stinks of ass, and Hogan makes one of himself

Tonight was supposed to be the big Kiss My Ass Club induction of Hornswoggle, but instead the show reeked of ass instead. I mean there was nothing of interest except the big six man tag match featuring most of the elimination chamber members, minus Triple H, but plus Snitsky. I know, what a fair trade off. It started off with HBK making a speech about how he was going to win at No Way Out and main event Mania. Of course everybody involved with the match had to come out and interrupt and give their two cents. This of course lead to a big old fracas and William Regal needing to come out and put a stop to all of it by creating a match. And so it would be with HBK, Y2J and Jeff Hardy against JBL, Umanga and everyone’s favorite Snitsky. There was plenty of action in this match as each participant was allowed a brief moment to shine with their finishing move. Of course the good guys won with Hardy pinning Snitsky. I just wonder if there is some type of plan for Snitsky, as he keeps finding himself with the big boys as of late. I’m not sure what, or if anyone would care, but it seems odd that he always is involved with these big matches. Although I did hear he was to feud with Cena for the title some time this year… who knows? Or a tougher question… who cares?

Now onto the rest of the show in descending order of importance and entertainment value. Santino and Carlito are making a good name for themselves and had a decent win over London and Kendrick. Anytime you can have a good match with the electric London/Kendrick duo you know you had a decent nights work. Of course Santino and Carlito now find themselves as the number one contenders for the belts, and made that knowledge after Holly and Rhodes beat the new look Cade and Murdoch. Speaking of which, what the hell were they wearing. Cade looks like he was wearing a shrunken version of Rick Flairs robe, while Murdoch I think found one of Edge’s old trench coats and cut the sleeves off. Not very redneck guys, I think it’s best if you go back to your old look.

Mickie James and Kelly Kelly had a big win over Beth Phoenix and Victoria. This one was a good morale booster for James as she gets a win finally on Raw. To bad if was not with a pin over adversary Phoenix, but there was plenty of taunting at the end of the match. Will James get her shot at the title, especially now with Candice coming back? This should be interesting as all three ladies are great competitors in the ring. Though I think you have to go with James for now as she has the momentum on her side. And yes readers just in case you thought I forgot, still nothing from Maria on our attempts to get her in Playboy.

Of course we had a good exchange with Orton and Cena to open the show ending in an RKO for Cena, but that arm wrestling gimmick with Mark Henry was horrible. First off guys use the table the right way. The cups are for your elbows and the pads are where you slam the hand down. I will say I’m impressed with the FU on Henry, but Cena has shown his strength in the past by doing this move on Khali, much like tonight, with little or no assistance from the receiver of the move.

We also had a bit of comedy tonight as instead of kissing his Dad’s ass, Hornswoggle ended up biting the posterior of the Chairman. Not sure how much more this gag has left as it’s starting to get old. We at least get one more shot at it next week with Vince taking on Hornswoggle in a no DQ match. Should be interesting to see if Finlay comes to the aid of his little buddy, especially since Vince said he will be fired if he does.

And finally Super Crazy taps out to Kennedy. How could you break our hearts Super Crazy? Oh yeah, no-one cares about Super Crazy… moving off the topic slightly, Terry “Hulk Hogan” Bollea headed up a Mardis Gras this weekend, now what’s wrong with this picture?:

In the above picture you see The Hulkster dressed up as “King of Bacchus” at a Mardi Gras parade yesterday. First off just let me point out how much of an ass he looks like, second problem is the king The Hulkster is portraying is Bacchus the Roman god of wine and intoxication. Maybe not the best idea when your son was just in a terrible drink related car crash? But not to worry Hulk, it’s all about you and your ego right?

Rob 

“Stone Cold” Shark Boy?

 OK, so when your gimmick is that your half man half shark i guess your character is pretty unique to start with, to say the least. I kinda liked the Shark Boy character, it was fun and entertaining. However Shark Boy isn’t that fun loving, cartoon like character anymore. Instead he resembles a famous beer drinking, ass whooping, Texas rattlesnake better known as “Stone Cold” Steve Austin.

    Id read previously that the Shark boy character was getting revamped and this made me curious. I mean how can you add depth to a character that portrays himself as being half shark? Well when watching iMPACT about a week ago i couldn’t believe my eyes when i saw Shark Boy wake from his coma and utter the words “The next time you stick that thermometer up my ass, there’s gonna be hell to pay you son of bitch! And that’s the bottom line, coz Shark boy said so!” So what does this mean for Shark Boy? A push maybe? It seemed to work for Jay Lethal, seemed to work pretty well actually seeing as he was the X division champion. However i cant see this one working. Jay lethal didn’t really have a gimmick to start with and i think he pulls off the Macho Man Style quite well. Shark Boy on the other hand is a gimmick, and a strange on at that. Now not only does he have his Shark Boy gimmick but hes got the “Stone Cold” thing going on as well. Its a very odd combination and something i feel will be entertaining for a while, and then get tedious.

I believe TNA shouldn’t have to use other peoples persona’s to elevate their talent. Jay Lethal i didn’t mind to be honest, it was a one off and i mean it wouldn’t exactly be the first time its happened, but now with this I’m hoping a pattern isn’t occurring. I mean whats next? “Do you smell what the Guru is cooking?” or “Whatcha gonna do brother!? When Peteymania runs wild on you!”

Only time will tell on this one, and like i said I’m hoping this isn’t going to a template for the entire X division. These guys don’t need silly gimmicks to show how good they are. They prove it week in week out with their talent alone. Never know this phase might die out, or are we in for a one hell of a gimmick overdose. I for one, hope not.

Rick

No shame in losing, and look who’s looking for a WWE return!

So I guess a few wrestling fans out there are interested in Brock Lesnar’s UFC debut.

In the end, the victory went to Mir, who posted one of the most remarkable come-from-behind victories in recent UFC history. Former WWE performer and decorated wrestler Brock Lesnar tossed around and battered his opponent. However, on the brink of defeat, Mir grabbed a leg, tripped Lesnar, and secured a knee bar to force the tap-out just 90 seconds into the first round. But don’t cry, Brock, there’s always a contract waiting for you at TNA, right?

In related news, part of Brock Lesnar’s 2003 Survivor Series team is looking for a return to the WWE, Nathan Jones.

In 2003, WWE had some very big plans for Jones, but his initial push flopped and he was off television within three months. His wrestling skills were so bad that at the last minute, WWE pulled him from his scheduled tag match with Undertaker at WrestleMania XIX. The storyline excuse for this was that he was “injured.” He was taken off television all together a few weeks later. Nathan was then sent to OVW to improve his wrestling skills. It was during this period that Jones appeared in a bit part for the movie Troy. Jones was brought back to the main roster in November 2003 for the Survivor Series. One month later during an international tour when they were in his native Australia, Jones quit the company. The rigor of the WWE lifestyle, compounded by dyslexia, became too much for Nathan, and he quit the company on December 6, 2003.

Since his departure from WWE in 2003, he’s only worked a handful of wrestling matches, instead choosing to concentrate on his acting career. Jones came together with WWE once again in 2006, this time under the WWE Films banner, playing ‘The Russian’ in The Condemned, starring “Stone Cold” Steve Austin.

Rob

Cena? Seen It

As promised loyal readers, my thoughts on the Return of John Cena. Let’s just say I needed a little while to cool off after my reaction to seeing Cena come in and clear the ring 5 minutes after his return. I’m still sticking to my guns here and saying Cena in main event for Mania is a bad idea. I’m not disputing his role as one of the biggest draws for the WWE, it’s just we have seen enough of him as champ, at least for now.

Let me clear something up first. I really do like Cena and feel he brings so much to the ring. He is absolutely is amazing on the mic and can pump up the crowd. His interaction with the fans is fantastic, and you can tell he truly loves them and appreciates them. At a house show in Canton Ohio he went into the crowd and asked for a blow up Cena hand from a young fan to beat up a prone Randy Orton with. Heck this guy even loves the fans who hate his guts. On Raw he almost broke down and cried to the chants of Cena Sucks. This is what we need as a champ. Someone who is loved and hated and loves every minute of it. I will even go on record as saying his win over Triple H at Mania 22 was one of the greatest Mania moments ever. The fans in Chicago were so pissed leaving the event it created the ultimate buzz for the WWE. But that was at a time when the fans wanted Triple H to win.

With that being said, we don’t need this now. He was champ for almost 2 years and that my friends is to long. This is not the Hogan era of champions anymore. There are not just a few pay per views a year and limited network air time. Now we see the champs each and every week and have pay per views every month and half, if not sooner. Seeing the same person win each and every pay per view detracts from the spectacle. Yes I know people will pay to see him lose, but they eventually have to see him lose.

To use another sporting example for this, look at Formula One. Ferrari and Michael Schumacher dominated the sport and won 5 straight championships. Yes they were fantastic and Ferrari has a huge fan base, but ratings dropped as fans got sick of the same results each and every race. It was not till Renault and Fernando Alonso starting winning did people start to care again and ratings went up.

And so it is with Cena. He has his share of fans but also many who can’t stand him. Over this summer I wanted Khali to win the belt from him just so we could have another champ. And I hate Khali with a passion, and would say he does not even deserve to be in the WWE, let alone be its champ in any capacity. But I was so sick of seeing Cena win time and time again that I wanted Khali to carry the gold so bad.

Now we actually have enough guys on Raw who could be or contend for the championship, but to put it right back on Cena and have him go on another run will only cause fans to lose interest. Right now Triple H, HBK, Jericho, Kennedy, Umanga, Orton and even JBL could be considered possible champs, or at least contenders. And what about all the push for Jeff Hardy. After all the great matches he has given over the past few weeks, the WWE just is going to kill his momentum and push him aside. I fear he will end up being forgotten in all the Cena hype. And let me say, he deserves to be at Mania in the main event and should be the next champ.

I really feel the WWE is making a big mistake here. Wow us with something fresh and new. Not the same old story again. Trust me Vince, the fans will become bored very soon with this. It’s just like a new relationship. At first it all fun and exciting, but once it settles in it becomes old hat an the spark dies. That is what is happening now. Yes Cena at 30 at the rumble was exciting, and even the thought of him main eventing at Mania at first seems great. But look at the long haul. Him going back to his dominance of the belt again, especially with all the other possible contenders, will become old and fans may look elsewhere to spend their dollars. As the old saying goes, be careful of what you wish for, for you might get it.

Rob