Owen Hart Tribute Thread
03-22-2014
, 12:53 AM
Survivor Series '95 - Wildcard Match: Team Michaels (HBK, Ahmed Johnson, Sid, British Bulldog) vs. Team Yokozuna (Yokozuna, Owen Hart, Razor Ramon, Dean Douglas)
Date: November 19, 1995
Link: http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x19...?search_algo=2
Background: Gorilla Monsoon, president/commish/GM at the time, decided to book a wildcard match of random participants where faces and heels would be mixed and matched onto teams together. So HBK's team had two faces and two heels, and Yoko's team had three heels and one face.
The Match: Owen gets the first sequence with HBK, with a couple of nice spots including Michaels skinning the cat and then pulling Owen over the top with a headscissors on the way backup, and also a great belly-to-belly by Owen. Ever since I wrote about him maybe not doing that move enough, watching these matches actually indicates to me that Owen did that move in roughly every match ever. He tags out before long and the first elimination is made when Michaels pins Douglas.
Unfortunately he doesn't really get a meaningful stint with anyone else before jobbing out to Ahmed Johnson's Pearl River Plunge. Michaels, Ahmed and the Bulldog end up as the survivors on the match. For purposes of an Owen retrospective, stuff like Royal Rumbles and Survivor matches are less fun than everything else because they only tangentially involve him.
Result: Michaels, Ahmed, Bulldog survive (27:24)
Rating: For Owen stuff it's not much, overall it was a unique concept and somewhat fun but nothing particularly special. 2 stars of 5.
Date: November 19, 1995
Link: http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x19...?search_algo=2
Background: Gorilla Monsoon, president/commish/GM at the time, decided to book a wildcard match of random participants where faces and heels would be mixed and matched onto teams together. So HBK's team had two faces and two heels, and Yoko's team had three heels and one face.
The Match: Owen gets the first sequence with HBK, with a couple of nice spots including Michaels skinning the cat and then pulling Owen over the top with a headscissors on the way backup, and also a great belly-to-belly by Owen. Ever since I wrote about him maybe not doing that move enough, watching these matches actually indicates to me that Owen did that move in roughly every match ever. He tags out before long and the first elimination is made when Michaels pins Douglas.
Unfortunately he doesn't really get a meaningful stint with anyone else before jobbing out to Ahmed Johnson's Pearl River Plunge. Michaels, Ahmed and the Bulldog end up as the survivors on the match. For purposes of an Owen retrospective, stuff like Royal Rumbles and Survivor matches are less fun than everything else because they only tangentially involve him.
Result: Michaels, Ahmed, Bulldog survive (27:24)
Rating: For Owen stuff it's not much, overall it was a unique concept and somewhat fun but nothing particularly special. 2 stars of 5.
Last edited by LKJ; 03-22-2014 at 12:58 AM.
03-22-2014
, 03:13 AM
03-22-2014
, 03:26 AM
03-22-2014
, 04:08 AM
Raw: Owen Hart vs. Shawn Michaels
Date: November 20, 1995
Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ds7QSjJ5Oyg
Background: No particular background, except that they had been on opposing teams the night before at Survivor Series. This was just announced as the main event, and in an era when Raws were taped four weeks at a time, this was the live show.
The Match: I notice that Mr. Fuji still accompanies Owen to the ring at this point even though Yokozuna isn't there. And he waves a Japanese flag outside the ring the whole time despite Owen not being Japanese. Seems legit.
Lots of good action here, and a good pace without very much resting. These two had chemistry together in their mat chain wrestling and also performed all of their various spots effectively. Probably my favorite few spots of the match were a nice frankensteiner spot and an elbow drop off the top rope by Michaels (who I had forgotten did that move quite well also…don't know why it was so far beyond CM Punk's abilities), and a great german suplex pinning combo by Owen. There was more than just those things, but that was what stood out as I watched.
Owen hits an enziguiri to the back of HBK's head late in the match, after which the two guys continue as normal for a moment. But then Michaels clotheslines Owen over the top rope, throwing himself over in the process but skinning the cat and returning to the ring to pose. After getting out of the pose, Michaels staggers, holds his head, and collapses. The announcers go quiet, Owen looks on with genuine concern, and they go to commercial as Vince goes into the ring to check up. Raw eventually goes off the air with first responders attending to Michaels, with nobody saying anything from the announce table.
This was all a work, set up to allow Michaels a triumphant return to win the Royal Rumble and also to set up a match between the two in between the Rumble and WrestleMania, but it was done very convincingly and very well and certainly made young me at least wonder if it was a shoot. The cover was obviously blown the following week on Raw when Owen cut a promo bragging about putting Michaels out.
Result: No contest
Rating: Good action but no real ending, I think it was on its way to being a 3 star match at least but the ending (or the non-ending, rather) is really what stands out. I guess I'll give it 3 stars out of 5 anyway, but I do remember their PPV battle a few months later being significantly better.
Date: November 20, 1995
Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ds7QSjJ5Oyg
Background: No particular background, except that they had been on opposing teams the night before at Survivor Series. This was just announced as the main event, and in an era when Raws were taped four weeks at a time, this was the live show.
The Match: I notice that Mr. Fuji still accompanies Owen to the ring at this point even though Yokozuna isn't there. And he waves a Japanese flag outside the ring the whole time despite Owen not being Japanese. Seems legit.
Lots of good action here, and a good pace without very much resting. These two had chemistry together in their mat chain wrestling and also performed all of their various spots effectively. Probably my favorite few spots of the match were a nice frankensteiner spot and an elbow drop off the top rope by Michaels (who I had forgotten did that move quite well also…don't know why it was so far beyond CM Punk's abilities), and a great german suplex pinning combo by Owen. There was more than just those things, but that was what stood out as I watched.
Owen hits an enziguiri to the back of HBK's head late in the match, after which the two guys continue as normal for a moment. But then Michaels clotheslines Owen over the top rope, throwing himself over in the process but skinning the cat and returning to the ring to pose. After getting out of the pose, Michaels staggers, holds his head, and collapses. The announcers go quiet, Owen looks on with genuine concern, and they go to commercial as Vince goes into the ring to check up. Raw eventually goes off the air with first responders attending to Michaels, with nobody saying anything from the announce table.
This was all a work, set up to allow Michaels a triumphant return to win the Royal Rumble and also to set up a match between the two in between the Rumble and WrestleMania, but it was done very convincingly and very well and certainly made young me at least wonder if it was a shoot. The cover was obviously blown the following week on Raw when Owen cut a promo bragging about putting Michaels out.
Result: No contest
Rating: Good action but no real ending, I think it was on its way to being a 3 star match at least but the ending (or the non-ending, rather) is really what stands out. I guess I'll give it 3 stars out of 5 anyway, but I do remember their PPV battle a few months later being significantly better.
03-22-2014
, 10:16 AM
In Your House 5 (Season's Beatings): Owen Hart vs. Diesel
Date: December 17, 1995
Link: N/A
Background: Diesel had sort of turned tweener in the aftermath of the 1995 Survivor Series, when he attacked Bret Hart and some officials after the match. He seemingly maintained the friendship to Shawn Michaels though, and this match was built as his way of going back at Owen Hart for putting Shawn Michaels out of action.
The Match: This never really gets any time to get out of the gates, but it was sort of an interesting watch because Owen didn't have many big vs. little matches in his career; all of his notable feuds and matches were against wrestlers around his size. Diesel gets most of the offense in this match, which is the right booking decision as Owen does a great job of selling and bumping, and Owen can't perform a lot of his offense on someone this big.
Diesel jackknifes Owen, stands on him for the pin, but takes the foot off at 2 on the referee's count. He picks Owen up again as the referee reprimands him for not just pinning the man, at which point he gets mad and attacks the referee before delivering another jackknife. He gets disqualified for hitting the official. This match is mostly one to help Diesel on one last push, and it definitely makes Owen look weak. Meh; they never really pushed him out of the spotlight entirely, so it's whatever.
Result: Owen Hart via disqualification (4:34)
Rating: Too short, not a clean ending, but not too bad while it lasted. Still, all I can give it is 1.5 stars out of 5.
Date: December 17, 1995
Link: N/A
Background: Diesel had sort of turned tweener in the aftermath of the 1995 Survivor Series, when he attacked Bret Hart and some officials after the match. He seemingly maintained the friendship to Shawn Michaels though, and this match was built as his way of going back at Owen Hart for putting Shawn Michaels out of action.
The Match: This never really gets any time to get out of the gates, but it was sort of an interesting watch because Owen didn't have many big vs. little matches in his career; all of his notable feuds and matches were against wrestlers around his size. Diesel gets most of the offense in this match, which is the right booking decision as Owen does a great job of selling and bumping, and Owen can't perform a lot of his offense on someone this big.
Diesel jackknifes Owen, stands on him for the pin, but takes the foot off at 2 on the referee's count. He picks Owen up again as the referee reprimands him for not just pinning the man, at which point he gets mad and attacks the referee before delivering another jackknife. He gets disqualified for hitting the official. This match is mostly one to help Diesel on one last push, and it definitely makes Owen look weak. Meh; they never really pushed him out of the spotlight entirely, so it's whatever.
Result: Owen Hart via disqualification (4:34)
Rating: Too short, not a clean ending, but not too bad while it lasted. Still, all I can give it is 1.5 stars out of 5.
03-22-2014
, 11:08 AM
Royal Rumble '96 - Rumble Match
Not the most flattering way to be put on a major PPV's poster, but there you go.
Date: January 21, 1996
Link: N/A
Background: Well here's the basic story: the WWE might as well have announced in advance that Shawn Michaels would be winning this Rumble. They just made it super, super obvious. As someone who had grown to hate Michaels's character, the only hope I was putting into the match was that maybe they would put the debuting Vader over? Little did I know how badly they were going to book Vader for his whole run with the company.
The Match: Owen enters at #17, and actually got a fairly strong run this time around, even as little as a decent run in the Rumble match actually helps anybody. He made two eliminations - Barry Horowitz and Hakushi - and lasted over 20 minutes.
He hits Shawn Michaels with an enziguiri, then picks him up and tries to throw him over the top rope, but Diesel comes up from behind as he's doing this and tosses him over instead. The overall Rumble itself ends with HBK eliminating Diesel via superkick over the top rope to win the final two.
Result: Shawn Michaels via most obvious win in Rumble history (58:49)
Rating: N/A, not really rating these. But I consider this match to be worse than most Rumbles due to its sheer predictability.
Not the most flattering way to be put on a major PPV's poster, but there you go.
Date: January 21, 1996
Link: N/A
Background: Well here's the basic story: the WWE might as well have announced in advance that Shawn Michaels would be winning this Rumble. They just made it super, super obvious. As someone who had grown to hate Michaels's character, the only hope I was putting into the match was that maybe they would put the debuting Vader over? Little did I know how badly they were going to book Vader for his whole run with the company.
The Match: Owen enters at #17, and actually got a fairly strong run this time around, even as little as a decent run in the Rumble match actually helps anybody. He made two eliminations - Barry Horowitz and Hakushi - and lasted over 20 minutes.
He hits Shawn Michaels with an enziguiri, then picks him up and tries to throw him over the top rope, but Diesel comes up from behind as he's doing this and tosses him over instead. The overall Rumble itself ends with HBK eliminating Diesel via superkick over the top rope to win the final two.
Result: Shawn Michaels via most obvious win in Rumble history (58:49)
Rating: N/A, not really rating these. But I consider this match to be worse than most Rumbles due to its sheer predictability.
03-22-2014
, 12:10 PM
In Your House 6 - Winner Gets WWF Title Shot at WrestleMania XII: Owen Hart vs. Shawn Michaels
Date: February 18, 1996
Link: N/A
Background: This one built since the Shawn Michaels collapse on Raw in November of '95 during a match with Owen Hart, which Owen took credit for. Michaels returned at the Rumble and won, but Owen and Jim Cornette were able to taunt Michaels into putting his WrestleMania title shot on the line at In Your House in order to get at him.
The Match: Before the match really gets going, Cornette seems to get Michaels's attention from the outside. Michaels then baseball slides to the outside, seemingly to go after Cornette, but then instead…he prances around daintily high-fiving the fans at ringside. What on earth. There can be no question as to why I just ****ing hated what the character of Shawn Michaels had become at this point. HBK circa 1996 was legitimately a significantly worse character than modern-day John Cena.
There is a pretty good chance that Owen and Shawn were the best two workers in the company at this point, with only Bret Hart really adding another voice to the conversation. And it shows that Owen and Michaels were at the top of their craft; as noted in November, they had really solid chemistry in the ring and were able to perform all of their offense and sell each other's offense effectively. I really enjoyed an early spot where both went down early in this match and both performed a kip-up simultaneously to get back into a wrestling position.
Gotta say: there's one spot that I see wrestlers do sometimes that I wish they would drop, because it never looks good from anyone. Shawn is standing on the apron, Owen attempts to suplex him back inside, but HBK blocks and instead suplexes Owen from the apron to the floor. This spot never looks good because you can't just slingshot a guy backwards carelessly, so it always looks super over-the-top obvious that the guy doing the move gently guides the other guy feet-first to the floor. So it doesn't look painful or impressive, it just looks phony. They redeem this spot nicely though, when Shawn goes for a running bodypress off the apron onto Owen on the floor and Owen reverses into a scoop powerslam.
Owen applies the sharpshooter, but Shawn gets to a rope break. Again, submission moves really suck as heel finishers go. After the rope break, Owen hits Shawn with the dreaded enziguiri that kayfabe caused his collapse in November, and it knocks Shawn to the outside where he's seemingly unconscious. It appears that Shawn is out cold and thus will be counted out, so naturally Owen goes full ****** and breaks up the count to go throw him back into the ring so he can pin him, which obviously gets kicked out of.
Final sequence comes when Michaels sets up for the superkick, Owen ducks it and attempts another enziguiri, Michaels ducks that and successfully superkicks his way to the win and locks up his title shot at WrestleMania XII.
Result: Shawn Michaels via pinfall (15:57)
Rating: This was great stuff. In terms of how their respective pushes were going, it was never very believable that Owen really had much of a shot here, but the action is still excellent. Even taking away a quarter-star for having Owen go full ****** and basically give up the win voluntarily in order to try for the pin, I'm giving this match 4.25 stars out of 5. Recommended viewing for sure.
Date: February 18, 1996
Link: N/A
Background: This one built since the Shawn Michaels collapse on Raw in November of '95 during a match with Owen Hart, which Owen took credit for. Michaels returned at the Rumble and won, but Owen and Jim Cornette were able to taunt Michaels into putting his WrestleMania title shot on the line at In Your House in order to get at him.
The Match: Before the match really gets going, Cornette seems to get Michaels's attention from the outside. Michaels then baseball slides to the outside, seemingly to go after Cornette, but then instead…he prances around daintily high-fiving the fans at ringside. What on earth. There can be no question as to why I just ****ing hated what the character of Shawn Michaels had become at this point. HBK circa 1996 was legitimately a significantly worse character than modern-day John Cena.
There is a pretty good chance that Owen and Shawn were the best two workers in the company at this point, with only Bret Hart really adding another voice to the conversation. And it shows that Owen and Michaels were at the top of their craft; as noted in November, they had really solid chemistry in the ring and were able to perform all of their offense and sell each other's offense effectively. I really enjoyed an early spot where both went down early in this match and both performed a kip-up simultaneously to get back into a wrestling position.
Gotta say: there's one spot that I see wrestlers do sometimes that I wish they would drop, because it never looks good from anyone. Shawn is standing on the apron, Owen attempts to suplex him back inside, but HBK blocks and instead suplexes Owen from the apron to the floor. This spot never looks good because you can't just slingshot a guy backwards carelessly, so it always looks super over-the-top obvious that the guy doing the move gently guides the other guy feet-first to the floor. So it doesn't look painful or impressive, it just looks phony. They redeem this spot nicely though, when Shawn goes for a running bodypress off the apron onto Owen on the floor and Owen reverses into a scoop powerslam.
Owen applies the sharpshooter, but Shawn gets to a rope break. Again, submission moves really suck as heel finishers go. After the rope break, Owen hits Shawn with the dreaded enziguiri that kayfabe caused his collapse in November, and it knocks Shawn to the outside where he's seemingly unconscious. It appears that Shawn is out cold and thus will be counted out, so naturally Owen goes full ****** and breaks up the count to go throw him back into the ring so he can pin him, which obviously gets kicked out of.
Final sequence comes when Michaels sets up for the superkick, Owen ducks it and attempts another enziguiri, Michaels ducks that and successfully superkicks his way to the win and locks up his title shot at WrestleMania XII.
Result: Shawn Michaels via pinfall (15:57)
Rating: This was great stuff. In terms of how their respective pushes were going, it was never very believable that Owen really had much of a shot here, but the action is still excellent. Even taking away a quarter-star for having Owen go full ****** and basically give up the win voluntarily in order to try for the pin, I'm giving this match 4.25 stars out of 5. Recommended viewing for sure.
I've never seen that one.
03-22-2014
, 02:45 PM
WrestleMania XII - Vader, Owen Hart, British Bulldog vs. Yokozuna, Ahmed Johnson, Jake Roberts
Date: March 31, 1996
Link: N/A
Background: Yokozuna had made a face turn recently, turning on Jim Cornette after Cornette berated him following a match (so basically a carbon copy of the Heenan/Andre breakup at WrestleMania VI). Vader had entered the company under Cornette's guidance and he and Yoko started a feud at Royal Rumble when they got eliminated together. The others are basically just Cornette's other two guys and two random babyfaces. Owen and the Bulldog, who once had a blood feud, apparently like each other again due to…Bulldog helping Mabel lay a beatdown on Diesel in August, I guess? I don't know. They were both heels and both under Cornette so suddently they're best friends. The stipulation added to this match is that if the babyface team won, Yoko would get five minutes alone in the ring with Jim Cornette afterwards.
The Match: Well…as you can see, all of the good ringwork is confined to the heel side, which limits this match's potential from the word go. To give due credit, Ahmed Johnson did do a nice dive over the top rope early in the match; dude was a legit athlete even if he was just brutally sloppy and dangerous to work with on top of selling moves about as well as John Cena. And Yokozuna lifts Vader and executes a Rock Bottom on him (I don't know the generic name of that move), which is an impressive sight given their respective sizes and looks like it rocks the ring. Okay, well I started off by ripping on the babyfaces but they actually do pull their weight here I guess.
Owen takes a blind tag a bit later and executes a nice missile dropkick off the top on Ahmed in another high spot. Overall, it actually seems like Jake was the only one here who couldn't add anything in the ring anymore, though that's partially mitigated by the fact that he was at least heavily over and added to the crowd reaction the match got.
Sidetrack: Owen puts Jake in a submission hold, and Vince says, "Owen applies a submission hold. Actually looks like a modified stump puller." Wat? Vince, Mr. "What a Maneuver" himself, knows what a stump puller is? He never knew the names of any moves at all, I thought.
The ending sequence is as follows: all six men end up brawling inside and outside the ring, and Jake the Snake DDTs Owen. This causes Cornette to jump into the ring ostensibly to hit Jake with the tennis racket, but Jake gets up and grabs him, threatening to DDT him. Vader gets back into the ring, attacks Jake before he can hurt Cornette, and hits the Vaderbomb for the win. This essentially blew off the Vader/Yoko feud in Vader's favor and Yoko pretty much jobbed out from that point forward since he never really got much heat going as a face.
Result: Vader/Owen/Bulldog via pinfall when Vader pins Jake (12:51)
Rating: Not too bad actually. It ends up dragging a bit toward the last few minutes so it could have stood to be shorter, but I enjoyed this match more than I remembered enjoying it. Let's say 2.75 stars out of 5.
Date: March 31, 1996
Link: N/A
Background: Yokozuna had made a face turn recently, turning on Jim Cornette after Cornette berated him following a match (so basically a carbon copy of the Heenan/Andre breakup at WrestleMania VI). Vader had entered the company under Cornette's guidance and he and Yoko started a feud at Royal Rumble when they got eliminated together. The others are basically just Cornette's other two guys and two random babyfaces. Owen and the Bulldog, who once had a blood feud, apparently like each other again due to…Bulldog helping Mabel lay a beatdown on Diesel in August, I guess? I don't know. They were both heels and both under Cornette so suddently they're best friends. The stipulation added to this match is that if the babyface team won, Yoko would get five minutes alone in the ring with Jim Cornette afterwards.
The Match: Well…as you can see, all of the good ringwork is confined to the heel side, which limits this match's potential from the word go. To give due credit, Ahmed Johnson did do a nice dive over the top rope early in the match; dude was a legit athlete even if he was just brutally sloppy and dangerous to work with on top of selling moves about as well as John Cena. And Yokozuna lifts Vader and executes a Rock Bottom on him (I don't know the generic name of that move), which is an impressive sight given their respective sizes and looks like it rocks the ring. Okay, well I started off by ripping on the babyfaces but they actually do pull their weight here I guess.
Owen takes a blind tag a bit later and executes a nice missile dropkick off the top on Ahmed in another high spot. Overall, it actually seems like Jake was the only one here who couldn't add anything in the ring anymore, though that's partially mitigated by the fact that he was at least heavily over and added to the crowd reaction the match got.
Sidetrack: Owen puts Jake in a submission hold, and Vince says, "Owen applies a submission hold. Actually looks like a modified stump puller." Wat? Vince, Mr. "What a Maneuver" himself, knows what a stump puller is? He never knew the names of any moves at all, I thought.
The ending sequence is as follows: all six men end up brawling inside and outside the ring, and Jake the Snake DDTs Owen. This causes Cornette to jump into the ring ostensibly to hit Jake with the tennis racket, but Jake gets up and grabs him, threatening to DDT him. Vader gets back into the ring, attacks Jake before he can hurt Cornette, and hits the Vaderbomb for the win. This essentially blew off the Vader/Yoko feud in Vader's favor and Yoko pretty much jobbed out from that point forward since he never really got much heat going as a face.
Result: Vader/Owen/Bulldog via pinfall when Vader pins Jake (12:51)
Rating: Not too bad actually. It ends up dragging a bit toward the last few minutes so it could have stood to be shorter, but I enjoyed this match more than I remembered enjoying it. Let's say 2.75 stars out of 5.
03-22-2014
, 03:42 PM
Quote:
Result: Shawn Michaels via most obvious win in Rumble history (58:49)
Thanks for doing this. Really enjoying reading through someone I never really thought much of and seeing how incorrect I was.
03-22-2014
, 03:55 PM
Quote:
As someone that wasn't watching at that time, going to ask a comparison question to get a better handle. Was it really more obvious than the Cena one last year? That seems incredible and awful
Thanks for doing this. Really enjoying reading through someone I never really thought much of and seeing how incorrect I was.
Thanks for doing this. Really enjoying reading through someone I never really thought much of and seeing how incorrect I was.
I would call it more obvious than the Cena one last year just because this was during a time when there was only one belt a wrestler was going for, whereas we saw very well a couple of years ago that they switched from Jericho to Sheamus just to be surprising or whatever since there were two titles to be pursued and it didn't change their overall booking plans for Mania.
