Owen Hart Tribute Thread
03-27-2014
, 10:02 PM
Quote:
In Your House 16 (Canadian Stampede): The Hart Foundation (Bret, Owen, Bulldog, Anvil, and Pillman) vs. Steve Austin, Ken Shamrock, Goldust, and the Legion of Doom
Date: July 6, 1997
Link: http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x12...?search_algo=2
Background: This was the summer culmination of the Hart Foundation angle, as it was held in the Harts' home city of Calgary, Alberta, Canada, and they came into this match as conquering heroes in front of the home crowd to face off against the evil Americans (who were babyfaces in America). I went to a house show in Vancouver, BC during this period of time, and I had actually forgotten what dynamic I was stepping into of flipped babyfaces and heels until Owen and Davey came out for their first match to a massive pop. It was a pretty surreal and awesome atmosphere they had going.
The Match: This seriously feels like trying to do a review of The Godfather or something. No this isn't the greatest technical match in history, but for a fan of the Harts this is basically the pinnacle of everything, a match that just had me grinning from ear to ear well after it went off the air. I'll try my best to do it justice.
The Americans give a backstage promo that sells the gravity of the scene they're up against. Out to the ring and Farmer's Daughter (a Canadian singing group I guess) performs O Canada. Howard Finkel goes out of his way to introduce Stu and Helen Hart, who are sitting ringside. The crowd gives them a nice pop.
Goldust, Shamrock, and LOD all get separate introductions, and they mostly get an apathetic response that ranges from mild booing to polite applause. Steve Austin gets a noticeable negative reaction even though some of the crowd is cheering him; the crowd will really make their feelings known about him once the match gets going. Each member of the Hart Foundation gets their own entrance to the top of the ramp, with each of them getting a nice pop until Bret Hart is introduced and the roof blows off the building. The atmosphere is just off the ****ing charts here.
The match starts right off with Bret vs. Austin, and they get into a fistfight in the corner. As Bret wails away on Austin, the crowd goes out of their minds to the point that Lawler comments, "The ring is shaking!" Austin reverses positions with Bret, hammers away, and the crowd turns to thunderous boos. Stone Cold goes ahead and embraces his heel status for the purposes of this show and gets away with a blatant low blow early that incenses the crowd. Since both teams were essentially tweeners, I'm definitely glad that Austin was playing to fire up the live crowd.
I didn't notice Owen's entrance pop being particularly big, but the place comes unglued when he first tags into the match and the crowd instantly breaks into an "Owen" chant. Big pop when he hits an enziguiri on Goldust. This crowd was giving finisher-level reactions to trademark transitional moves. The Harts collectively destroy Goldust in their corner and take control of the match.
The tables turn when Owen charges Goldust in the corner, comes up empty, and gets a shoulder full of post. Goldust tags out, Animal tags in, and Owen's hurracanrana attempt is blocked in favor of a powerbomb. LOD connects on a Doomsday Device and it requires Anvil to break up the pinning attempt. The match devolves into 5-on-5 in the ring at this point, when Austin sends Owen down into the corner, slides out of the ring, wraps Owen's leg around the post and hits it (well, let's be real, misses it completely but pretends to hit it) with a steel chair. Bruce Hart at his ringside seat tries to reach out and get at Austin. Owen is kayfabe injured here, and a couple of the Hart Foundation drag him to the corner so he can tag out. Austin gets big heat for incapacitating Owen, as Owen seems to be getting taken to the back because of his injury.
Austin hits Pillman with a Stunner, but is too close to the Hart corner and isn't able to make a pin. Bret attacks, drags Austin into a corner, busts Austin's leg against the post, hits it with a fire extinguisher, then applies a figure-four hanging off the post, clearly trying to answer tit-for-tat for what Austin just did to Owen. As the match re-establishes with Hawk and Bulldog as the two legal men, the Americans attend to the injured Austin on the outside. Austin shrugs off any help, but does limp toward the back due to his injury. The sides are evened up again at 4-4.
The match continues toward more and more dirty tactics, with Bulldog taking cheap shots at Shamrock and then Shamrock escaping peril with a low blow of his own. The ramp-up from the start of the match and the climax it builds toward is just brilliant story-telling, the kind rarely seen. Bulldog hits a superplex on Goldust, one of the Road Warriors makes the save on a pinning attempt, and as he does Austin limps back to the ring to rejoin the match.
Stone Cold tags in, and so does the Hitman. They have a great back and forth, culminating in Bret applying the sharpshooter, but Animal is in quickly for the save (and to taunt the booing crowd after he gets back to the apron). Austin promptly takes advantage of his new position and applies the sharpshooter to Bret. Owen returns to the ring from the back and breaks this up.
Bret tags Owen in, who gets the worst of an exchange with Austin when he gets clotheslined over the top. Stone Cold heads to the outside, beats on Owen some more, and then as he throws Owen back into the ring Bruce Hart throws his drink or something at Austin. Infuriated, Austin turns around and actually violently picks Stu Hart out of his chair and looks ready to clobber him when Bruce and another one of the Hart boys attack. Bruce and the other Hart come over the barricade to start to have a go at Austin when Bret throws Austin in. As Austin is still distracted on the outside, Owen rolls up Austin from behind with a hand full of tights and gets the 1-2-3 for the win.
The teams continue to brawl after the bell as if the match didn't end, but the non-wrestling Hart brothers who just got involved make their way into the ring, officials pour in, and the Americans (I keep calling them that because they're not really babyfaces or heels) all get forced out of the ring and eventually concede the battle and head to the back. The Harts are declared the winners, and the celebration is on until Austin returns into the ring by himself with a chair in hand and ready to attack again. He ends up at the bottom of a dogpile, security swarms him and actually handcuffs him as seemingly their only way to get him under control. Even handcuffed, Austin bends over a few times on the way up the ramp to flip the bird at fans on either side of him. Just some great heat-seeking work throughout this whole night by Austin.
The Harts help Stu and Helen into the ring, other Hart family descends on the ring, and the whole thing fills up with the Hart family celebrating the win. Again, if you were a fan of the Hart family, this is basically the coolest thing ever.
Result: Hart Foundation via pinfall after Owen pins Austin (24:31)
Rating: ****ing fantastic. A+ build, A+ crowd, A+ storytelling, A+ psychology. The wrestling was fine too, even if pretty unspectacular, but it hardly felt like it mattered. Just wildly entertaining from bell to bell and then even after the final bell. Like I said, was just left grinning from ear to ear even after the PPV went off the air. Truly a masterpiece. 5 stars out of 5.
Date: July 6, 1997
Link: http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x12...?search_algo=2
Background: This was the summer culmination of the Hart Foundation angle, as it was held in the Harts' home city of Calgary, Alberta, Canada, and they came into this match as conquering heroes in front of the home crowd to face off against the evil Americans (who were babyfaces in America). I went to a house show in Vancouver, BC during this period of time, and I had actually forgotten what dynamic I was stepping into of flipped babyfaces and heels until Owen and Davey came out for their first match to a massive pop. It was a pretty surreal and awesome atmosphere they had going.
The Match: This seriously feels like trying to do a review of The Godfather or something. No this isn't the greatest technical match in history, but for a fan of the Harts this is basically the pinnacle of everything, a match that just had me grinning from ear to ear well after it went off the air. I'll try my best to do it justice.
The Americans give a backstage promo that sells the gravity of the scene they're up against. Out to the ring and Farmer's Daughter (a Canadian singing group I guess) performs O Canada. Howard Finkel goes out of his way to introduce Stu and Helen Hart, who are sitting ringside. The crowd gives them a nice pop.
Goldust, Shamrock, and LOD all get separate introductions, and they mostly get an apathetic response that ranges from mild booing to polite applause. Steve Austin gets a noticeable negative reaction even though some of the crowd is cheering him; the crowd will really make their feelings known about him once the match gets going. Each member of the Hart Foundation gets their own entrance to the top of the ramp, with each of them getting a nice pop until Bret Hart is introduced and the roof blows off the building. The atmosphere is just off the ****ing charts here.
The match starts right off with Bret vs. Austin, and they get into a fistfight in the corner. As Bret wails away on Austin, the crowd goes out of their minds to the point that Lawler comments, "The ring is shaking!" Austin reverses positions with Bret, hammers away, and the crowd turns to thunderous boos. Stone Cold goes ahead and embraces his heel status for the purposes of this show and gets away with a blatant low blow early that incenses the crowd. Since both teams were essentially tweeners, I'm definitely glad that Austin was playing to fire up the live crowd.
I didn't notice Owen's entrance pop being particularly big, but the place comes unglued when he first tags into the match and the crowd instantly breaks into an "Owen" chant. Big pop when he hits an enziguiri on Goldust. This crowd was giving finisher-level reactions to trademark transitional moves. The Harts collectively destroy Goldust in their corner and take control of the match.
The tables turn when Owen charges Goldust in the corner, comes up empty, and gets a shoulder full of post. Goldust tags out, Animal tags in, and Owen's hurracanrana attempt is blocked in favor of a powerbomb. LOD connects on a Doomsday Device and it requires Anvil to break up the pinning attempt. The match devolves into 5-on-5 in the ring at this point, when Austin sends Owen down into the corner, slides out of the ring, wraps Owen's leg around the post and hits it (well, let's be real, misses it completely but pretends to hit it) with a steel chair. Bruce Hart at his ringside seat tries to reach out and get at Austin. Owen is kayfabe injured here, and a couple of the Hart Foundation drag him to the corner so he can tag out. Austin gets big heat for incapacitating Owen, as Owen seems to be getting taken to the back because of his injury.
Austin hits Pillman with a Stunner, but is too close to the Hart corner and isn't able to make a pin. Bret attacks, drags Austin into a corner, busts Austin's leg against the post, hits it with a fire extinguisher, then applies a figure-four hanging off the post, clearly trying to answer tit-for-tat for what Austin just did to Owen. As the match re-establishes with Hawk and Bulldog as the two legal men, the Americans attend to the injured Austin on the outside. Austin shrugs off any help, but does limp toward the back due to his injury. The sides are evened up again at 4-4.
The match continues toward more and more dirty tactics, with Bulldog taking cheap shots at Shamrock and then Shamrock escaping peril with a low blow of his own. The ramp-up from the start of the match and the climax it builds toward is just brilliant story-telling, the kind rarely seen. Bulldog hits a superplex on Goldust, one of the Road Warriors makes the save on a pinning attempt, and as he does Austin limps back to the ring to rejoin the match.
Stone Cold tags in, and so does the Hitman. They have a great back and forth, culminating in Bret applying the sharpshooter, but Animal is in quickly for the save (and to taunt the booing crowd after he gets back to the apron). Austin promptly takes advantage of his new position and applies the sharpshooter to Bret. Owen returns to the ring from the back and breaks this up.
Bret tags Owen in, who gets the worst of an exchange with Austin when he gets clotheslined over the top. Stone Cold heads to the outside, beats on Owen some more, and then as he throws Owen back into the ring Bruce Hart throws his drink or something at Austin. Infuriated, Austin turns around and actually violently picks Stu Hart out of his chair and looks ready to clobber him when Bruce and another one of the Hart boys attack. Bruce and the other Hart come over the barricade to start to have a go at Austin when Bret throws Austin in. As Austin is still distracted on the outside, Owen rolls up Austin from behind with a hand full of tights and gets the 1-2-3 for the win.
The teams continue to brawl after the bell as if the match didn't end, but the non-wrestling Hart brothers who just got involved make their way into the ring, officials pour in, and the Americans (I keep calling them that because they're not really babyfaces or heels) all get forced out of the ring and eventually concede the battle and head to the back. The Harts are declared the winners, and the celebration is on until Austin returns into the ring by himself with a chair in hand and ready to attack again. He ends up at the bottom of a dogpile, security swarms him and actually handcuffs him as seemingly their only way to get him under control. Even handcuffed, Austin bends over a few times on the way up the ramp to flip the bird at fans on either side of him. Just some great heat-seeking work throughout this whole night by Austin.
The Harts help Stu and Helen into the ring, other Hart family descends on the ring, and the whole thing fills up with the Hart family celebrating the win. Again, if you were a fan of the Hart family, this is basically the coolest thing ever.
Result: Hart Foundation via pinfall after Owen pins Austin (24:31)
Rating: ****ing fantastic. A+ build, A+ crowd, A+ storytelling, A+ psychology. The wrestling was fine too, even if pretty unspectacular, but it hardly felt like it mattered. Just wildly entertaining from bell to bell and then even after the final bell. Like I said, was just left grinning from ear to ear even after the PPV went off the air. Truly a masterpiece. 5 stars out of 5.
We all know that generally Canadian wrestling crowds (especially Montreal and Toronto) are amongst the best in the world. There is a reason the Wrestlemania match between Hogan and Rock worked so well, and its because the crowd played its part perfectly.
There is also a misnomer about Canadians being polite, saying 'sorry' a whole lot and generally not being as patriotic as Americans. This is generally true, but when you make something Canada vs. America, Canadians become the most patriotic people on the planet. We LOVE beating the Americans. At anything. So combine patriotism with Canadians already great wrestling fans and you get atmospheres like that.
Plus this match had 3 legitimately great workers (Owen, Bret, Austin) and everyone else was serviceable at the very least (even LoD when the can be hidden in a 5v5 match). There is just so much to love about this match, even the commentary is great - King yelling 'The Building is shaking' is so, so good.
Fun fact, Meltzer named In Your House 16: Canadian Stampede as the Best Major Show of 1997.
Anyway, loving the series, I haven't seen much of Owen, outside of his 'famous' matches, so its been great to follow his career along.
03-28-2014
, 09:53 AM
Raw - Title vs. Title: Owen Hart (IC Champion) vs. Shawn Michaels (European Champion)
Date: October 20, 1997
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eYV1Z1hEGvI
Background: None to speak of; this mostly came about because the feud between Shawn and Bret had rekindled on-screen.
The Match: Owen had started coming to the ring at this point saying "Owen 3:16" and the back of the shirt saying "I just broke your neck." I loved this both as a great heel move and as confirmation that Austin was obviously going to be just fine. Owen came out and challenged Shawn to a title vs. title match (Shawn was European Champion here) on the condition that DX stay away from ringside. The promo he cut in making this challenge sounded like a babyface talking, but we were in America and the fans weren't having it.
HHH, Chyna, and Rick Rude come out. Rude ignores Owen's champion vs. champion proposal and just introduces Michaels. HBK shakes hands with his DX mates and appears to instruct them to stay behind. That seems to be an implicit acceptance, as Vince says that both titles are up for grabs.
Owen opens the match with a great flurry of offense, but after Michaels sidesteps a baseball slide, he sends Owen back-first into a nice steel stair bump. They cut to commercial, but upon coming back show us Shawn Michaels executing a pretty solid piledriver on Owen on the floor. Back to the live action: Owen is in control, sends HBK into the turnbuckle to do his flip-to-the-top-rope corner sell, after which Owen executes his belly-to-belly.
JR makes it very clear that this is heel vs. heel when he says, "Well I think that Shawn is an even bigger ass than Owen!" Unlike a lot of heel vs. heel matches, the crowd still seems to be into this without particularly taking sides, as they at least seem to pop somewhat for the various high spots by both men.
Owen hits the enziguiri on Shawn and seems to have him knocked out when Austin runs in, stuns the referee and knocks him out, allowing Shawn the recovery time to get up and superkick Owen. Since there is no conscious referee in the ring anymore, Bret runs in to beat up Shawn, DX runs in for the save, and a good match ends in a schmozz.
Result: No contest due to outside interference (9:35)
Rating: Good stuff, though aside from that piledriver on the outside that stupidly fell into a commercial break there wasn't a lot to separate it from other Owen-HBK matches. 3 stars out of 5.
Date: October 20, 1997
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eYV1Z1hEGvI
Background: None to speak of; this mostly came about because the feud between Shawn and Bret had rekindled on-screen.
The Match: Owen had started coming to the ring at this point saying "Owen 3:16" and the back of the shirt saying "I just broke your neck." I loved this both as a great heel move and as confirmation that Austin was obviously going to be just fine. Owen came out and challenged Shawn to a title vs. title match (Shawn was European Champion here) on the condition that DX stay away from ringside. The promo he cut in making this challenge sounded like a babyface talking, but we were in America and the fans weren't having it.
HHH, Chyna, and Rick Rude come out. Rude ignores Owen's champion vs. champion proposal and just introduces Michaels. HBK shakes hands with his DX mates and appears to instruct them to stay behind. That seems to be an implicit acceptance, as Vince says that both titles are up for grabs.
Owen opens the match with a great flurry of offense, but after Michaels sidesteps a baseball slide, he sends Owen back-first into a nice steel stair bump. They cut to commercial, but upon coming back show us Shawn Michaels executing a pretty solid piledriver on Owen on the floor. Back to the live action: Owen is in control, sends HBK into the turnbuckle to do his flip-to-the-top-rope corner sell, after which Owen executes his belly-to-belly.
JR makes it very clear that this is heel vs. heel when he says, "Well I think that Shawn is an even bigger ass than Owen!" Unlike a lot of heel vs. heel matches, the crowd still seems to be into this without particularly taking sides, as they at least seem to pop somewhat for the various high spots by both men.
Owen hits the enziguiri on Shawn and seems to have him knocked out when Austin runs in, stuns the referee and knocks him out, allowing Shawn the recovery time to get up and superkick Owen. Since there is no conscious referee in the ring anymore, Bret runs in to beat up Shawn, DX runs in for the save, and a good match ends in a schmozz.
Result: No contest due to outside interference (9:35)
Rating: Good stuff, though aside from that piledriver on the outside that stupidly fell into a commercial break there wasn't a lot to separate it from other Owen-HBK matches. 3 stars out of 5.
03-28-2014
, 12:12 PM
Survivor Series '97 - Intercontinental Title: Owen Hart (c) vs. Steve Austin
Date: November 9, 1997
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDGRtwE1pEg
Background: Feud started when Owen pinned Austin at Canadian Stampede. Then Owen damn near broke Steve's neck at SummerSlam in an unfortunate botch. Since then, Steve Austin had been going out of his way to make sure that Owen Hart made it to Survivor Series as IC Champion, because he wanted to make sure that was who he took the belt back from.
The Match: We're in Montreal for this show (this, in fact, is the match right before the Montreal Screwjob match), so the crowd is obviously a lot closer to pro-Owen than you would find stateside. Owen is accompanied to the ring by not only Bulldog, but by their old rivals Doug Furnas and Philip Lafon. Huh; gotta say, I don't really remember this alliance at all. I remember Furnas and Lafon going heel for a short time, but I don't actually remember them joining forces with Owen and Davey. This is only a year removed from them debuting against Owen and Davey by beating them.
The Anvil attempts to sneak up behind Austin and jump him before the match, but Austin senses him and turns around in time to deliver the Stunner to him. Owen still takes advantage of this moment of distraction and attacks Austin while he's getting back up. The bell rings and here we go. Small but noticeable "break his neck" chant from the crowd. Yikes. Sure enough, when Owen attempts to set up a piledriver, the crowd pops, but Austin blocks and executes a backdrop instead.
After some more offense from Austin, Owen goes for a walk and threatens to get deliberately counted out, but Austin forces him back toward the ring. The two men brawl on the outside, with Owen actually wrapping a cord around Austin's throat and strangling him with it as referee Mike Chioda admonishes him. JR comments on how Owen is clearly trying to get disqualified to get a cheap way out. Owen pretty much confirms that a moment later after he finishes strangling Austin and walks over and rings the bell himself (which obviously doesn't count).
The ending is pretty abrupt. Owen is sent into the ropes, and makes the same move escape that he made at SummerSlam before executing the ill-fated tombstone, and it looks like they try to tease the exact same spot here, but Austin immediately steps back, kicks Owen in the gut, flips him off and stuns him for the 1-2-3. Despite the undercurrent of Owen support in the crowd, Austin gets a big pop upon winning.
Result: Steve Austin via pinfall, new IC Champion (4:03)
Rating: Austin was really limited and maybe shouldn't have been back yet, but I imagine that they felt pressure to get him on the next major PPV, and certainly they would have needed to get this belt off of Owen before they screw his brother in the main event of this card. All of these things added up to a severely abbreviated match that isn't really worth much. 1 out of 5 stars.
Date: November 9, 1997
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDGRtwE1pEg
Background: Feud started when Owen pinned Austin at Canadian Stampede. Then Owen damn near broke Steve's neck at SummerSlam in an unfortunate botch. Since then, Steve Austin had been going out of his way to make sure that Owen Hart made it to Survivor Series as IC Champion, because he wanted to make sure that was who he took the belt back from.
The Match: We're in Montreal for this show (this, in fact, is the match right before the Montreal Screwjob match), so the crowd is obviously a lot closer to pro-Owen than you would find stateside. Owen is accompanied to the ring by not only Bulldog, but by their old rivals Doug Furnas and Philip Lafon. Huh; gotta say, I don't really remember this alliance at all. I remember Furnas and Lafon going heel for a short time, but I don't actually remember them joining forces with Owen and Davey. This is only a year removed from them debuting against Owen and Davey by beating them.
The Anvil attempts to sneak up behind Austin and jump him before the match, but Austin senses him and turns around in time to deliver the Stunner to him. Owen still takes advantage of this moment of distraction and attacks Austin while he's getting back up. The bell rings and here we go. Small but noticeable "break his neck" chant from the crowd. Yikes. Sure enough, when Owen attempts to set up a piledriver, the crowd pops, but Austin blocks and executes a backdrop instead.
After some more offense from Austin, Owen goes for a walk and threatens to get deliberately counted out, but Austin forces him back toward the ring. The two men brawl on the outside, with Owen actually wrapping a cord around Austin's throat and strangling him with it as referee Mike Chioda admonishes him. JR comments on how Owen is clearly trying to get disqualified to get a cheap way out. Owen pretty much confirms that a moment later after he finishes strangling Austin and walks over and rings the bell himself (which obviously doesn't count).
The ending is pretty abrupt. Owen is sent into the ropes, and makes the same move escape that he made at SummerSlam before executing the ill-fated tombstone, and it looks like they try to tease the exact same spot here, but Austin immediately steps back, kicks Owen in the gut, flips him off and stuns him for the 1-2-3. Despite the undercurrent of Owen support in the crowd, Austin gets a big pop upon winning.
Result: Steve Austin via pinfall, new IC Champion (4:03)
Rating: Austin was really limited and maybe shouldn't have been back yet, but I imagine that they felt pressure to get him on the next major PPV, and certainly they would have needed to get this belt off of Owen before they screw his brother in the main event of this card. All of these things added up to a severely abbreviated match that isn't really worth much. 1 out of 5 stars.
03-28-2014
, 12:26 PM
Brief Hiatus, Then Return as the Black Hart
Owen walked out with Bret, Davey and Neidhart after the Montreal Screwjob, but unlike Davey and Neidhart Vince would not let Owen out of his contract to go work for WCW. He was thought to be gone, but one month later at the final In Your House, he staged a run-in at the end of the show and brutally attacked Shawn Michaels after the match was over before leaving through the crowd.
Link: http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x5a...ews&start=1743
Owen then turned up on Raw eight days later and cut this awesome scathing promo that seemed to prime him for a top babyface run. One of the best promos I remember Owen cutting during his career.
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z7JdKfqNbPc#t=0m18s
If you are to believe Jim Cornette, the story here is that instead of just trapping Owen in his contract and having him collect paychecks from home, Vince did offer him a significant raise and a promise of a main event program with Shawn Michaels to feud over the WWF Title. Unfortunately Michaels and HHH pulled their usual politics, blocked this feud from ever even making it to PPV, and promises of main event status were thrown out the window. It obviously didn't help Owen that Steve Austin allegedly didn't want to work with him after their previous accident, so there wasn't much place with him in the main event scene anyway.
It really is a shame that they didn't at least have Michaels vs. Owen as the main event of Royal Rumble '98 though; it certainly looks like it's what they were setting up, and it could have been fantastic. I recommend watching the promo above anyway, because it did a great job of marking Owen's character shift around this time.
Owen walked out with Bret, Davey and Neidhart after the Montreal Screwjob, but unlike Davey and Neidhart Vince would not let Owen out of his contract to go work for WCW. He was thought to be gone, but one month later at the final In Your House, he staged a run-in at the end of the show and brutally attacked Shawn Michaels after the match was over before leaving through the crowd.
Link: http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x5a...ews&start=1743
Owen then turned up on Raw eight days later and cut this awesome scathing promo that seemed to prime him for a top babyface run. One of the best promos I remember Owen cutting during his career.
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z7JdKfqNbPc#t=0m18s
If you are to believe Jim Cornette, the story here is that instead of just trapping Owen in his contract and having him collect paychecks from home, Vince did offer him a significant raise and a promise of a main event program with Shawn Michaels to feud over the WWF Title. Unfortunately Michaels and HHH pulled their usual politics, blocked this feud from ever even making it to PPV, and promises of main event status were thrown out the window. It obviously didn't help Owen that Steve Austin allegedly didn't want to work with him after their previous accident, so there wasn't much place with him in the main event scene anyway.
It really is a shame that they didn't at least have Michaels vs. Owen as the main event of Royal Rumble '98 though; it certainly looks like it's what they were setting up, and it could have been fantastic. I recommend watching the promo above anyway, because it did a great job of marking Owen's character shift around this time.
03-28-2014
, 12:57 PM
Raw - WWF Title: Shawn Michaels (c) vs. Owen Hart
Date: December 29, 1997
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wB-l7Bl-fJI
Background: Shawn benefited from (and participated in) the Montreal Screwjob. Owen returned to the company vowing revenge and to make Shawn's life a living hell. And then somehow they just jump straight to a WWF Title match on Raw within two weeks and that's the last time they ever wrestled.
The Match: Owen runs to the outside and attacks Michaels before he gets to the ring, wailing away on him on the floor. Nice tone-setter to start. Owen battles Shawn up the ramp and then delivers a suplex on the steel ramp followed by a facebuster on the ramp. He finally takes HBK into the ring and continues the assault; he gets approximately 100% of the offense in before the first commercial break.
Back from break, Owen is still in control as they're brawling outside the ring. After starting to get back in, some Chynaference distracts Owen long enough for Shawn to knock Owen off the apron and into the guardrail. Shawn back in the ring now, he takes command and hits squarely with a piledriver in the middle of the ring. It only warrants a two-count. He follows with a DDT; again, two-count. He locks Owen into the sleeper, and Owen begins to fade but summons enough energy to back Michaels into the corner. Michaels quickly reapplies the hold - Owen escapes - Michaels reapplies again - Owen finally breaks it for good by executing a back suplex.
Owen gets a couple of near-falls following a spinning heel kick and a belly-to-belly, but can't quite put it away. He connects with the enziguiri, then quickly moves to slap on the sharpshooter. He gets it locked in, but HHH hits Owen in the head with his crutch and that causes a DQ to save the belt. And…that moment was the closest that Owen ever came again to winning the world title, as again these two never even rematched.
Result: Owen Hart via disqualification after HHH attacked him (10:14)
Rating: Match was very good until the cheap ending, I thought; better than their match a couple of months earlier. In the large picture this match just serves to annoy me because it obviously should have led to more, but grading this one in a vacuum I'll throw it a rating of 3.25 stars out of 5.
Date: December 29, 1997
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wB-l7Bl-fJI
Background: Shawn benefited from (and participated in) the Montreal Screwjob. Owen returned to the company vowing revenge and to make Shawn's life a living hell. And then somehow they just jump straight to a WWF Title match on Raw within two weeks and that's the last time they ever wrestled.
The Match: Owen runs to the outside and attacks Michaels before he gets to the ring, wailing away on him on the floor. Nice tone-setter to start. Owen battles Shawn up the ramp and then delivers a suplex on the steel ramp followed by a facebuster on the ramp. He finally takes HBK into the ring and continues the assault; he gets approximately 100% of the offense in before the first commercial break.
Back from break, Owen is still in control as they're brawling outside the ring. After starting to get back in, some Chynaference distracts Owen long enough for Shawn to knock Owen off the apron and into the guardrail. Shawn back in the ring now, he takes command and hits squarely with a piledriver in the middle of the ring. It only warrants a two-count. He follows with a DDT; again, two-count. He locks Owen into the sleeper, and Owen begins to fade but summons enough energy to back Michaels into the corner. Michaels quickly reapplies the hold - Owen escapes - Michaels reapplies again - Owen finally breaks it for good by executing a back suplex.
Owen gets a couple of near-falls following a spinning heel kick and a belly-to-belly, but can't quite put it away. He connects with the enziguiri, then quickly moves to slap on the sharpshooter. He gets it locked in, but HHH hits Owen in the head with his crutch and that causes a DQ to save the belt. And…that moment was the closest that Owen ever came again to winning the world title, as again these two never even rematched.
Result: Owen Hart via disqualification after HHH attacked him (10:14)
Rating: Match was very good until the cheap ending, I thought; better than their match a couple of months earlier. In the large picture this match just serves to annoy me because it obviously should have led to more, but grading this one in a vacuum I'll throw it a rating of 3.25 stars out of 5.
03-28-2014
, 05:05 PM
Raw - European Championship: "HHH" (Goldust) (c) vs. Owen Hart
Date: January 26, 1998
Link: http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xyo...ort&start=1521
Background: Triple H had screwed Owen out of his WWF Title match against Shawn Michaels, then had screwed Owen out of the Royal Rumble. He had since become European Champion by pinning Michaels in basically a fingerpoke of doom scenario, and here we were. HHH was injured (I don't know how legitimately), so when it came time for his entrance, Goldust dressed up as Hunter came down to the ring.
The Match: The crowd is pretty disgruntled from the word go since it seemed they were getting a payoff match on a feud that had been built well to this point, and they're not happy with the bull**** they replaced it with. Goldust brings the European Title to the ring, but to hear JR talk about it, it doesn't sound like it's actually being contested here.
Owen batters Goldust in the corner, then connects on an enziguiri before connecting with a missile dropkick off the top in a nice sequence. His roll gets stopped when Luna Vachon (dressed as Chyna) hits him with a crutch as he comes off the ropes. Goldust sets up for what looks like will be his version of the pedigree (he actually does a good job of modeling HHH's usual move set during the match), but Owen escapes, executes a double-leg takedown on Goldust and then locks in the sharpshooter for the win.
Lawler says "So what? It doesn't mean anything." DX shows up on the titantron mocking Owen for "falling for that." Not sure what he fell for, but okay. Commissioner Sgt. Slaughter comes down to the ring and grabs a mic. "Well I guess you pulled one over on us again, huh DX? I guess The Artist Formerly Known as Goldust was supposed to be playing the role of you tonight, right Hunter? Well he did a damn good job, maggots. He really had me convinced. In fact, he had me SO convinced that I've decided to make a judgment call here. Since Owen Hart had a sanctioned European Title match here tonight, and since I am your commissioner, not only am I awarding Owen Hart the match here tonight and the victory against you, but I am also awarding him the European Championship!"
DX throws a tantrum as Owen is handed the belt.
Result: Owen Hart via submission, new European Champion (roughly 5:15)
Rating: I mean the action here was alright, but this bait-and-switch nonsense is too stupid to give any credit to, and given the line of booking that follows it just seemed like a way for HHH to not job to Owen. Again though, I don't know if he legitimately couldn't go in the ring at this point or even whether his injury was legit. 1 star out of 5.
Date: January 26, 1998
Link: http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xyo...ort&start=1521
Background: Triple H had screwed Owen out of his WWF Title match against Shawn Michaels, then had screwed Owen out of the Royal Rumble. He had since become European Champion by pinning Michaels in basically a fingerpoke of doom scenario, and here we were. HHH was injured (I don't know how legitimately), so when it came time for his entrance, Goldust dressed up as Hunter came down to the ring.
The Match: The crowd is pretty disgruntled from the word go since it seemed they were getting a payoff match on a feud that had been built well to this point, and they're not happy with the bull**** they replaced it with. Goldust brings the European Title to the ring, but to hear JR talk about it, it doesn't sound like it's actually being contested here.
Owen batters Goldust in the corner, then connects on an enziguiri before connecting with a missile dropkick off the top in a nice sequence. His roll gets stopped when Luna Vachon (dressed as Chyna) hits him with a crutch as he comes off the ropes. Goldust sets up for what looks like will be his version of the pedigree (he actually does a good job of modeling HHH's usual move set during the match), but Owen escapes, executes a double-leg takedown on Goldust and then locks in the sharpshooter for the win.
Lawler says "So what? It doesn't mean anything." DX shows up on the titantron mocking Owen for "falling for that." Not sure what he fell for, but okay. Commissioner Sgt. Slaughter comes down to the ring and grabs a mic. "Well I guess you pulled one over on us again, huh DX? I guess The Artist Formerly Known as Goldust was supposed to be playing the role of you tonight, right Hunter? Well he did a damn good job, maggots. He really had me convinced. In fact, he had me SO convinced that I've decided to make a judgment call here. Since Owen Hart had a sanctioned European Title match here tonight, and since I am your commissioner, not only am I awarding Owen Hart the match here tonight and the victory against you, but I am also awarding him the European Championship!"
DX throws a tantrum as Owen is handed the belt.
Result: Owen Hart via submission, new European Champion (roughly 5:15)
Rating: I mean the action here was alright, but this bait-and-switch nonsense is too stupid to give any credit to, and given the line of booking that follows it just seemed like a way for HHH to not job to Owen. Again though, I don't know if he legitimately couldn't go in the ring at this point or even whether his injury was legit. 1 star out of 5.
03-28-2014
, 06:06 PM
No Way Out '98 - No DQ Street Fight: Steve Austin, Owen Hart, Cactus Jack, & Chainsaw Charlie vs. HHH, Road Dogg, Billy Gunn, and Savio Vega
Date: February 15, 1998
Link: http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xzi...sport&start=69
Background: Owen had been feuding with HHH, the Outlaws had been feuding with Cactus Jack and Chainsaw Charlie, and Steve Austin was on a collision course with Shawn Michaels for WrestleMania XIV. Shawn Michaels was originally booked for this match, but was too injured to go here so they spent the whole card hyping up "WHO WILL BE THE MYSTERY PARTNER??" and then paid it off during match introductions with…Savio Vega. Yeah that's great, WWF. They did bother to acknowledge that it was weird for Owen and Austin to be teaming up so soon after having a blood feud, in that they acknowledged that they hate each other but that they would just stay out of each other's way.
The Match: Owen and the two old guys throw weapons en masse into the ring up on their entrance, which doesn't make a ton of sense since they're basically arming the opposition, but instead the opposition bails out of the ring. Austin is introduced last and obviously gets the pop of the night.
This match is "unsanctioned" by the WWF, so it's all under tornado rules with no real tagging requirement involved. Odd that the company would let one of their referees (Earl Hebner) officiate a match that they're not sanctioning. The match is a big mishmash of weapon shots and no particular structure, but it has its entertainment value. Nice spot when Cactus whips Billy Gunn into Owen, who executes a belly-to-belly that throws Billy through a table.
In his defense, Savio does a nice job in this match in both taking bumps and delivering them; it was just incredibly lame to use such a small name as an OMG mystery partner to replace Shawn Michaels. Okay, after the better part of 10 minutes of tornado rules, people have gone to corners to make this a regular tag match. WTF? Why? With no DQ in effect, why would you ever stand in a corner and respect the rules of tagging? Austin still participates from the corner though, throwing a trash can at Billy Gunn's head from most of the way across the ring, and doing it with remarkable accuracy in a pretty fun spot.
Savio had originally brought barb wire to the ring, and it finally comes into play when Billy holds Cactus Jack up and Savio wraps the barb wire all around him, including putting it in his mouth at one point. As he's wrapped, HHH simultaneously reaches in with chair shots from outside but remains outside so as to respect the tag team nature of the match. I don't get it. As Cactus is being ravaged, he manages to duck a chair shot attempt and Billy Gunn hits the Road Dogg instead. Cactus makes the hot tag to Austin, who proceeds to wreck the heel team, culminating in a Stunner to Road Dogg for the pinfall.
Most of the ring clears out, but Chyna comes in to confront Austin. He tries a couple of times to walk away, but she finally goads him into hitting her with the Stunner before returning to the celebration.
Result: Austin/Owen/Cactus/Chainsaw via pinfall when Owen pins Road Dogg (17:37)
Rating: The hardcore stuff is never as much my thing as it is other people's, but I like it alright in measured doses. I thought this was half-decent, but it's probably nothing I'll necessarily ever bother with again. 2.75 stars out of 5.
Date: February 15, 1998
Link: http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xzi...sport&start=69
Background: Owen had been feuding with HHH, the Outlaws had been feuding with Cactus Jack and Chainsaw Charlie, and Steve Austin was on a collision course with Shawn Michaels for WrestleMania XIV. Shawn Michaels was originally booked for this match, but was too injured to go here so they spent the whole card hyping up "WHO WILL BE THE MYSTERY PARTNER??" and then paid it off during match introductions with…Savio Vega. Yeah that's great, WWF. They did bother to acknowledge that it was weird for Owen and Austin to be teaming up so soon after having a blood feud, in that they acknowledged that they hate each other but that they would just stay out of each other's way.
The Match: Owen and the two old guys throw weapons en masse into the ring up on their entrance, which doesn't make a ton of sense since they're basically arming the opposition, but instead the opposition bails out of the ring. Austin is introduced last and obviously gets the pop of the night.
This match is "unsanctioned" by the WWF, so it's all under tornado rules with no real tagging requirement involved. Odd that the company would let one of their referees (Earl Hebner) officiate a match that they're not sanctioning. The match is a big mishmash of weapon shots and no particular structure, but it has its entertainment value. Nice spot when Cactus whips Billy Gunn into Owen, who executes a belly-to-belly that throws Billy through a table.
In his defense, Savio does a nice job in this match in both taking bumps and delivering them; it was just incredibly lame to use such a small name as an OMG mystery partner to replace Shawn Michaels. Okay, after the better part of 10 minutes of tornado rules, people have gone to corners to make this a regular tag match. WTF? Why? With no DQ in effect, why would you ever stand in a corner and respect the rules of tagging? Austin still participates from the corner though, throwing a trash can at Billy Gunn's head from most of the way across the ring, and doing it with remarkable accuracy in a pretty fun spot.
Savio had originally brought barb wire to the ring, and it finally comes into play when Billy holds Cactus Jack up and Savio wraps the barb wire all around him, including putting it in his mouth at one point. As he's wrapped, HHH simultaneously reaches in with chair shots from outside but remains outside so as to respect the tag team nature of the match. I don't get it. As Cactus is being ravaged, he manages to duck a chair shot attempt and Billy Gunn hits the Road Dogg instead. Cactus makes the hot tag to Austin, who proceeds to wreck the heel team, culminating in a Stunner to Road Dogg for the pinfall.
Most of the ring clears out, but Chyna comes in to confront Austin. He tries a couple of times to walk away, but she finally goads him into hitting her with the Stunner before returning to the celebration.
Result: Austin/Owen/Cactus/Chainsaw via pinfall when Owen pins Road Dogg (17:37)
Rating: The hardcore stuff is never as much my thing as it is other people's, but I like it alright in measured doses. I thought this was half-decent, but it's probably nothing I'll necessarily ever bother with again. 2.75 stars out of 5.
03-28-2014
, 06:42 PM
Raw - European Title: Owen Hart (c) vs. HHH
Date: March 17, 1998
Link: http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xyr...ort&start=1817
Background: This is the newest segment in an ongoing feud between these two. Owen is injured and sitting ringside doing commentary on Raw, at which point HHH comes down to the ring and taunts him, challenging him to a match right then and now. Owen and HHH were scheduled to face off at WrestleMania for this title, but HHH wanted to goad him into this match while he was still injured. Owen says he's not going to fall for it and that he'll wrestle him in 12 days at WrestleMania, but then HHH shoves Owen in the face and Owen gets goaded into accepting.
The Match: Owen isn't in wrestling gear or anything, and he's limping around on a cast, so this isn't really a match. HHH runs Owen into the steel post on the outside, then occupies the referee in the ring while Chyna sneaks up with a baseball bat and whacks Owen's injured leg with it. She rolls Owen into the ring, HHH puts the injured leg in something of an ankle lock, and although Owen doesn't submit, the referee chooses to stop the match.
Result: HHH via referee stoppage, new European Champion (0:45)
Rating: Less than a minute, no real wrestling, 0 stars out of 5.
Date: March 17, 1998
Link: http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xyr...ort&start=1817
Background: This is the newest segment in an ongoing feud between these two. Owen is injured and sitting ringside doing commentary on Raw, at which point HHH comes down to the ring and taunts him, challenging him to a match right then and now. Owen and HHH were scheduled to face off at WrestleMania for this title, but HHH wanted to goad him into this match while he was still injured. Owen says he's not going to fall for it and that he'll wrestle him in 12 days at WrestleMania, but then HHH shoves Owen in the face and Owen gets goaded into accepting.
The Match: Owen isn't in wrestling gear or anything, and he's limping around on a cast, so this isn't really a match. HHH runs Owen into the steel post on the outside, then occupies the referee in the ring while Chyna sneaks up with a baseball bat and whacks Owen's injured leg with it. She rolls Owen into the ring, HHH puts the injured leg in something of an ankle lock, and although Owen doesn't submit, the referee chooses to stop the match.
Result: HHH via referee stoppage, new European Champion (0:45)
Rating: Less than a minute, no real wrestling, 0 stars out of 5.
03-28-2014
, 09:50 PM
WrestleMania XIV - European Title: HHH (c) vs. Owen Hart
Date: March 29, 1998
Link: N/A
Background: HHH and Owen had swapped this title back and forth under unique circumstances, with neither title switch featuring a real match between the two. At least at WrestleMania we were finally getting a legitimate match between them.
The Match: HHH has the live band there to play the DX music. Sgt. Slaughter has placed a stipulation on this match where Chyna would have to be handcuffed to him to prevent her from interfering. She resists being cuffed for a while but ultimately Sarge cuffs her when she looks away. Owen enters, beelines straight toward HHH, and executes a double-leg takedown to get the match running right away.
Owen successfully executes a hurracanrana early; super rare in his WWF career, as it almost always got blocked and reversed into a powerbomb when he would attempt it. Hunter gets a face full of barricade as well early after Owen sidesteps his attempt to lunge at him off the apron.
If Owen was actually coming off an injury here (it's just too long ago for me to really find out), it doesn't show, because he pulls out the entirety of his offensive arsenal seamlessly. After an enziguiri by Owen, we get a near-fall that HHH does such a good job of escaping at the last split-second that it's criminal the way they screwed it up on the broadcast; they were focusing half of the camera view on Chyna and Sarge. Even in spite of this, and in spite of knowing how this match ends, I *still* halfway bit on the near-fall, and that was on a move that never really got pinfalls. So anyway, nice work by HHH and by the referee on that one, only to have it ruined.
Owen goes for a second hurracanrana and this time it's the block/powerbomb sequence. C'mon Owen, winning the lottery one time doesn't suddenly mean that you should invest in more tickets. Owen into the turnbuckle, staggers out and into a boot from Helmsley and an attempted pedigree. Owen escapes with a takedown, attempts to lock in the sharpshooter, HHH kicks him into the turnbuckle, and on contact Owen takes a fall face-first that inadvertently headbutts Hunter in the groin. Good stuff.
We get take two on the reverse-reverse stuff when HHH attempts a pedigree, Owen back-bodydrops him, HHH grabs on to turn it into a sunset flip, and Owen escapes and this time successfully locks in the sharpshooter. Helmsley attempts to get a rope break, isn't quite making it, and despite being handcuffed to Sarge, Chyna reaches out and gets Hunter's hand to the ropes for the break. Then, while HHH is distracting the referee, Chyna throws some sort of powder in Slaughter's eyes, then gets halfway up to the apron to hit Owen with a low blow from behind. Sarge, YOU HAD ONE JOB. Holy **** dude. Owen comes out of the low blow, into HHH's pedigree, and Triple H scores the three-count to retain the title.
Result: HHH via pinfall (11:27)
Rating: I wasn't feeling this match early on, but man it really picks up and the last 4-5 minutes are pure greatness even in spite of a result that completely pissed me off at the time (and that still sort of pisses me off 16 years later). This is a good match; Owen is at the top of his game and HHH does a fine job in keeping up his end as well. 3.25 stars out of 5.
Date: March 29, 1998
Link: N/A
Background: HHH and Owen had swapped this title back and forth under unique circumstances, with neither title switch featuring a real match between the two. At least at WrestleMania we were finally getting a legitimate match between them.
The Match: HHH has the live band there to play the DX music. Sgt. Slaughter has placed a stipulation on this match where Chyna would have to be handcuffed to him to prevent her from interfering. She resists being cuffed for a while but ultimately Sarge cuffs her when she looks away. Owen enters, beelines straight toward HHH, and executes a double-leg takedown to get the match running right away.
Owen successfully executes a hurracanrana early; super rare in his WWF career, as it almost always got blocked and reversed into a powerbomb when he would attempt it. Hunter gets a face full of barricade as well early after Owen sidesteps his attempt to lunge at him off the apron.
If Owen was actually coming off an injury here (it's just too long ago for me to really find out), it doesn't show, because he pulls out the entirety of his offensive arsenal seamlessly. After an enziguiri by Owen, we get a near-fall that HHH does such a good job of escaping at the last split-second that it's criminal the way they screwed it up on the broadcast; they were focusing half of the camera view on Chyna and Sarge. Even in spite of this, and in spite of knowing how this match ends, I *still* halfway bit on the near-fall, and that was on a move that never really got pinfalls. So anyway, nice work by HHH and by the referee on that one, only to have it ruined.
Owen goes for a second hurracanrana and this time it's the block/powerbomb sequence. C'mon Owen, winning the lottery one time doesn't suddenly mean that you should invest in more tickets. Owen into the turnbuckle, staggers out and into a boot from Helmsley and an attempted pedigree. Owen escapes with a takedown, attempts to lock in the sharpshooter, HHH kicks him into the turnbuckle, and on contact Owen takes a fall face-first that inadvertently headbutts Hunter in the groin. Good stuff.
We get take two on the reverse-reverse stuff when HHH attempts a pedigree, Owen back-bodydrops him, HHH grabs on to turn it into a sunset flip, and Owen escapes and this time successfully locks in the sharpshooter. Helmsley attempts to get a rope break, isn't quite making it, and despite being handcuffed to Sarge, Chyna reaches out and gets Hunter's hand to the ropes for the break. Then, while HHH is distracting the referee, Chyna throws some sort of powder in Slaughter's eyes, then gets halfway up to the apron to hit Owen with a low blow from behind. Sarge, YOU HAD ONE JOB. Holy **** dude. Owen comes out of the low blow, into HHH's pedigree, and Triple H scores the three-count to retain the title.
Result: HHH via pinfall (11:27)
Rating: I wasn't feeling this match early on, but man it really picks up and the last 4-5 minutes are pure greatness even in spite of a result that completely pissed me off at the time (and that still sort of pisses me off 16 years later). This is a good match; Owen is at the top of his game and HHH does a fine job in keeping up his end as well. 3.25 stars out of 5.
03-29-2014
, 10:34 AM
Unforgiven '98 - European Title: HHH (c) vs. Owen Hart
Date: April 26, 1998
Link: http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1y...itle-mat_sport
Background: Owen can't beat HHH because Chyna keeps interfering and screwing him over. This time they're forcing Chyna to be suspended in a cage above the ring because Sgt. Slaughter isn't man enough to stop her from doing whatever she wants. Surely she can't interfere under these circumstances…
The Match: Chyna tries to resist the stipulation but gets forced to go along. This match is a lot slower-paced than their Mania match. It's a lot of restholds and nothing particularly enthralling happens offensively for a long time. Unless you want me to describe shoulder lunges and knee drops, there's not a lot to write about here; they spend a whole ton of time focusing on "hey what is Chyna doing up above the ring," which is not a remotely compelling story but it's like they didn't want a fast-paced match to distract from it or something.
Owen does finally hit a very nice German suplex pinning combo for a near-fall in what was the only spot in the match I liked at all at like the 10:00 mark. As Chyna begins to physically bend the bars of her cage just by pulling them apart, Owen finally cranks up the offense - enziguiri, spinning heel kick, piledriver, top rope elbow drop - all in one sequence, which does suggest that they were pretty deliberately pacing this thing really badly. As the elbow connects, Chyna has escaped the cage, but she's still too far up in the air to really safely make it down anyway. She tries to climb down, and then is hanging from the bottom of it. Owen goes out to, like, make sure she doesn't fall too far I guess? Creepy that it's Owen dealing with that situation, in retrospect. He eventually goes back into the ring and slaps on the sharpshooter.
As the sharpshooter is locked in, the cage starts to lower to the ground until it's close enough that Chyna can safely jump to the floor. The camera catches the Road Dogg being the one who lowered it. As Chyna gets to the floor, she successfully distracts Owen into releasing the sharpshooter. HHH attempts the pedigree, it gets reversed and then Owen actually successfully executes the pedigree on HHH himself. As the referee is distracted with Chyna on the outside while Owen tries to pin Hunter after the pedigree, X-Pac runs in and hits Owen with a fire extinguisher. Owen is knocked out, HHH covers and gets the three-count.
This whole series was beyond tilting for an Owen Hart fan. He appeared to be set up for a main event run but never even got a main event title match against Shawn Michaels. Instead he was dropped down the hierarchy to HHH so he could inexplicably just lose to him a bunch of times, and truly not ever beat him once in the whole feud (with his only "win" being over Goldust). Babyfaces rarely lose feuds in the WWE and even more rarely just got wafflecrushed for months on end with no redemption, but here we were. Funny how the most infuriating results in WWE over the last 20 years running almost all have to involve HHH.
Michael Cole catches up with Owen for an interview after the match, and he cuts this promo: "You know what I've got to say? Enough is enough. I've had it up to here. This bull**** has gotta stop. Enough is enough. And it's gonna stop. Things are gonna have to change around here." That infamous promo, for which JR apologized since "bull****" didn't get bleeped, foreshadowed the next transition in Owen's career. That took place the next night. Here's the link to this quick promo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h1vzgN_IhoI
Result: HHH via pinfall (12:26)
Rating: The match itself was super slow, then had like two good minutes, then had a ****ty overbooked ending and a dumb result. I can find a bit of redemption in the offensive flurry by Owen late in the match, but I can't go above like 1.25 stars out of 5. Much worse than the WrestleMania match.
Date: April 26, 1998
Link: http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1y...itle-mat_sport
Background: Owen can't beat HHH because Chyna keeps interfering and screwing him over. This time they're forcing Chyna to be suspended in a cage above the ring because Sgt. Slaughter isn't man enough to stop her from doing whatever she wants. Surely she can't interfere under these circumstances…
The Match: Chyna tries to resist the stipulation but gets forced to go along. This match is a lot slower-paced than their Mania match. It's a lot of restholds and nothing particularly enthralling happens offensively for a long time. Unless you want me to describe shoulder lunges and knee drops, there's not a lot to write about here; they spend a whole ton of time focusing on "hey what is Chyna doing up above the ring," which is not a remotely compelling story but it's like they didn't want a fast-paced match to distract from it or something.
Owen does finally hit a very nice German suplex pinning combo for a near-fall in what was the only spot in the match I liked at all at like the 10:00 mark. As Chyna begins to physically bend the bars of her cage just by pulling them apart, Owen finally cranks up the offense - enziguiri, spinning heel kick, piledriver, top rope elbow drop - all in one sequence, which does suggest that they were pretty deliberately pacing this thing really badly. As the elbow connects, Chyna has escaped the cage, but she's still too far up in the air to really safely make it down anyway. She tries to climb down, and then is hanging from the bottom of it. Owen goes out to, like, make sure she doesn't fall too far I guess? Creepy that it's Owen dealing with that situation, in retrospect. He eventually goes back into the ring and slaps on the sharpshooter.
As the sharpshooter is locked in, the cage starts to lower to the ground until it's close enough that Chyna can safely jump to the floor. The camera catches the Road Dogg being the one who lowered it. As Chyna gets to the floor, she successfully distracts Owen into releasing the sharpshooter. HHH attempts the pedigree, it gets reversed and then Owen actually successfully executes the pedigree on HHH himself. As the referee is distracted with Chyna on the outside while Owen tries to pin Hunter after the pedigree, X-Pac runs in and hits Owen with a fire extinguisher. Owen is knocked out, HHH covers and gets the three-count.
This whole series was beyond tilting for an Owen Hart fan. He appeared to be set up for a main event run but never even got a main event title match against Shawn Michaels. Instead he was dropped down the hierarchy to HHH so he could inexplicably just lose to him a bunch of times, and truly not ever beat him once in the whole feud (with his only "win" being over Goldust). Babyfaces rarely lose feuds in the WWE and even more rarely just got wafflecrushed for months on end with no redemption, but here we were. Funny how the most infuriating results in WWE over the last 20 years running almost all have to involve HHH.
Michael Cole catches up with Owen for an interview after the match, and he cuts this promo: "You know what I've got to say? Enough is enough. I've had it up to here. This bull**** has gotta stop. Enough is enough. And it's gonna stop. Things are gonna have to change around here." That infamous promo, for which JR apologized since "bull****" didn't get bleeped, foreshadowed the next transition in Owen's career. That took place the next night. Here's the link to this quick promo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h1vzgN_IhoI
Result: HHH via pinfall (12:26)
Rating: The match itself was super slow, then had like two good minutes, then had a ****ty overbooked ending and a dumb result. I can find a bit of redemption in the offensive flurry by Owen late in the match, but I can't go above like 1.25 stars out of 5. Much worse than the WrestleMania match.
03-29-2014
, 11:07 AM
Owen Joins the Nation of Domination
Date: April 27, 1998
Link: http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xys...port&start=354
The night after the 500th consecutive job to HHH, Owen was to team with Ken Shamrock to face off against The Rock and Mark Henry. As you can see from that link, the match doesn't get very far as Owen promptly attacks Shamrock and joins with Rock and Henry to beat the hell out of Shamrock. To drive home his furious anger from the night before, Owen actually dives in and bites Shamrock's ear, coming up with some blood to show it.
Owen and Rocky were then called co-leaders of the Nation, though obviously Rocky elevated to bigger and better things by the end of the year.
New Theme Music Alert
The Nation music was the same for everyone, but Owen's specific theme involved voice-overs from him.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pzHXCLwZ8Mo
Date: April 27, 1998
Link: http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xys...port&start=354
The night after the 500th consecutive job to HHH, Owen was to team with Ken Shamrock to face off against The Rock and Mark Henry. As you can see from that link, the match doesn't get very far as Owen promptly attacks Shamrock and joins with Rock and Henry to beat the hell out of Shamrock. To drive home his furious anger from the night before, Owen actually dives in and bites Shamrock's ear, coming up with some blood to show it.
Owen and Rocky were then called co-leaders of the Nation, though obviously Rocky elevated to bigger and better things by the end of the year.
New Theme Music Alert
The Nation music was the same for everyone, but Owen's specific theme involved voice-overs from him.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pzHXCLwZ8Mo
03-29-2014
, 01:25 PM
Over the Edge '98: Owen Hart, D-Lo Brown, & Kama Mustafa vs. HHH & The New Age Outlaws
Date: May 31, 1998
Link: N/A
Background: After Owen joined the Nation, the Nation vs. DX became a thing. This whole thing was a bit ill-defined on the face/heel continuum at first, but this followed the whole "DX invades WCW" thing that wasn't funny no matter how many people insist that it was, so I guess DX was essentially face at this point.
The Match: Oh God. We get the whole "are you ready?" intro from HHH before also getting the stupid Outlaws intro. I ****ing hate these people. I'm just glad they never came up with something cute and clever for X-Pac to say before every match for years on end too.
Nation comes out and receives a loud "Owen sucks" chant. That's a pretty good endorsement of the heel turn move for Owen; whatever momentum he had going as a face was buried in loss after loss, so at least turning got him his reaction back. We get a dull D-Lo vs. Road Dogg sequence to start before Owen and Billy Gunn tag in. Gunn with the gorilla press slam on Owen is a solid spot.
Unfortunately the solid spots are few and far between in this match. There's an excess of D-Lo and Kama vs. the Outlaws that is just snoozeworthy. Owen hits a nice piledriver on Road Dogg, but quickly tags back out and we get minutes more of a heat segment where the Nation methodically works Road Dogg over. A lot of it is monotonous, but D-Lo hits probably the spot of the match with a nice high-impact sitting powerbomb on Road Dogg that wakes me up. D-Lo partially hits a top rope moonsault on Road Dogg as well, but this segment really lasts forever.
Finally the hot tag to Billy Gunn, HHH follows him into the ring, and all six men fight. HHH's European Title belt has made its way into the ring amidst some chaos, and HHH/Billy execute a spike piledriver on D-Lo, head-first onto the belt. The referee is still elsewhere though. Owen comes in, elbows HHH off of D-Lo, then executes the pedigree on HHH onto the same belt. He sldies it out, the referee finally makes it back in, and Owen pins HHH for the three-count. Well it's about damn time that happened, even if just in a six-man tag.
Result: Nation of Domination via pinfall when Owen pins HHH (18:33)
Rating: This match had no business dragging on for almost 20 minutes. I'm not sure if it had good enough action to justify 10. I'm giving this match 1 star out of 5, and I feel like I'm being a bit generous. Still, I really liked that D-Lo powerbomb so I had to give that something.
Date: May 31, 1998
Link: N/A
Background: After Owen joined the Nation, the Nation vs. DX became a thing. This whole thing was a bit ill-defined on the face/heel continuum at first, but this followed the whole "DX invades WCW" thing that wasn't funny no matter how many people insist that it was, so I guess DX was essentially face at this point.
The Match: Oh God. We get the whole "are you ready?" intro from HHH before also getting the stupid Outlaws intro. I ****ing hate these people. I'm just glad they never came up with something cute and clever for X-Pac to say before every match for years on end too.
Nation comes out and receives a loud "Owen sucks" chant. That's a pretty good endorsement of the heel turn move for Owen; whatever momentum he had going as a face was buried in loss after loss, so at least turning got him his reaction back. We get a dull D-Lo vs. Road Dogg sequence to start before Owen and Billy Gunn tag in. Gunn with the gorilla press slam on Owen is a solid spot.
Unfortunately the solid spots are few and far between in this match. There's an excess of D-Lo and Kama vs. the Outlaws that is just snoozeworthy. Owen hits a nice piledriver on Road Dogg, but quickly tags back out and we get minutes more of a heat segment where the Nation methodically works Road Dogg over. A lot of it is monotonous, but D-Lo hits probably the spot of the match with a nice high-impact sitting powerbomb on Road Dogg that wakes me up. D-Lo partially hits a top rope moonsault on Road Dogg as well, but this segment really lasts forever.
Finally the hot tag to Billy Gunn, HHH follows him into the ring, and all six men fight. HHH's European Title belt has made its way into the ring amidst some chaos, and HHH/Billy execute a spike piledriver on D-Lo, head-first onto the belt. The referee is still elsewhere though. Owen comes in, elbows HHH off of D-Lo, then executes the pedigree on HHH onto the same belt. He sldies it out, the referee finally makes it back in, and Owen pins HHH for the three-count. Well it's about damn time that happened, even if just in a six-man tag.
Result: Nation of Domination via pinfall when Owen pins HHH (18:33)
Rating: This match had no business dragging on for almost 20 minutes. I'm not sure if it had good enough action to justify 10. I'm giving this match 1 star out of 5, and I feel like I'm being a bit generous. Still, I really liked that D-Lo powerbomb so I had to give that something.
03-29-2014
, 03:14 PM
King of the Ring '98 - Owen Hart vs. X-Pac
Date: June 28, 1998
Link: http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x5j...wen-hart_sport
Background: HHH got tired of beating Owen, so in a tradition that would continue years later between HHH and X-Pac, Hunter passed him his sloppy seconds I guess. The immediate build is that Owen had caused X-Pac to be knocked out of the King of the Ring tournament in the first round, so X-Pac returned the favor and caused Owen to be knocked out in round two. (By this time, only the semi-finals and finals were on the PPV, while the rest happened on Raw.)
The Match: Speak of those sloppy seconds, X-Pac is accompanied to the ring by Chyna. Owen comes to the ring second, and in a moment that I choose to believe was a totally deliberate call-back to their match four years ago at KOTR '94 when Owen did it to him, X-Pac hits a vicious baseball slide on Owen before Owen can make it to the ring. I love it.
X-Pac controls the early offense, but after a reversal he ends up taking two awesome hard corner bumps in a row when Owen whips him into them. These two have great chemistry; four years apart didn't change that. They're really laying stiffly into each other with chops. Owen busts out a fisherman's suplex pinning attempt, which is the first time I think I've ever seen him do that move even after reviewing his career thoroughly here. It only gets two, and the same goes for his gutwrench suplex that follows.
To the outside, X-Pac bumps pretty hard into the timekeeper's table, then takes a face-first suplex into the Spanish announce table without breaking it. As I watch Owen roll through X-Pac with a somersault pinning attempt, I can't help but think of how fun it must have been for a worker like him to just be able to pull out any move he knows against someone like Sean Waltman with full knowledge that Waltman could physically roll with any and all of it.
X-Pac hits the sit-out facebuster in the middle of the ring, then attempts a spinning heel kick where Owen catches his leg so X-Pac completes the kick by jumping up and hitting him with his other one. Bronco buster…I always hated that move. He slams Owen in the middle, heads to the top rope, but Owen gets up and meets him up there. He knocks X-Pac off, crotching him on the ropes, and X-Pac flails on the way down to knock Owen down as well. As the referee is distracted, Mark Henry runs in and splashes on X-Pac on the outside. He rolls X-Pac into the ring as Chyna gets in his face. While Henry is occupied with Chyna, Vader comes to ringside for some reason and attacks him.
Owen has X-Pac in the sharpshooter and X-Pac is tapping out, but referee Jack Doan is attending to the chaos outside the ring and doesn't see it. Chyna comes in and DDTs Owen to rescue X-Pac. Vader and Henry fight to the back, and the referee returns to the ring. X-Pac struggles but finally gets on top of Owen for the three-count. Kind of a stupid ending to bring down a good match; there was such a delay in between Chyna's DDT and the pinning attempt that in most cases that would just have been a near-fall. Instead it ended it, basically making Chyna's DDT the most powerful move in wrestling history.
Now that Owen had completed the fall down the ladder, to the point that at the six-month mark he was now losing to Shawn's buddy's buddy, I'm happy to report that this finally got him away from HHH and friends and onto something else. Anything else was an upgrade at this point.
Result: X-Pac via pinfall (8:30)
Rating: Mostly loved this match. Was planning on giving it 3.5 stars as it was ongoing, but the ending is stupid enough that I'm inclined to drop it down to 3 stars out of 5. Still very much worth a watch; X-Pac may have had better chemistry with Owen than anyone else that I've seen Owen wrestle.
Date: June 28, 1998
Link: http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x5j...wen-hart_sport
Background: HHH got tired of beating Owen, so in a tradition that would continue years later between HHH and X-Pac, Hunter passed him his sloppy seconds I guess. The immediate build is that Owen had caused X-Pac to be knocked out of the King of the Ring tournament in the first round, so X-Pac returned the favor and caused Owen to be knocked out in round two. (By this time, only the semi-finals and finals were on the PPV, while the rest happened on Raw.)
The Match: Speak of those sloppy seconds, X-Pac is accompanied to the ring by Chyna. Owen comes to the ring second, and in a moment that I choose to believe was a totally deliberate call-back to their match four years ago at KOTR '94 when Owen did it to him, X-Pac hits a vicious baseball slide on Owen before Owen can make it to the ring. I love it.
X-Pac controls the early offense, but after a reversal he ends up taking two awesome hard corner bumps in a row when Owen whips him into them. These two have great chemistry; four years apart didn't change that. They're really laying stiffly into each other with chops. Owen busts out a fisherman's suplex pinning attempt, which is the first time I think I've ever seen him do that move even after reviewing his career thoroughly here. It only gets two, and the same goes for his gutwrench suplex that follows.
To the outside, X-Pac bumps pretty hard into the timekeeper's table, then takes a face-first suplex into the Spanish announce table without breaking it. As I watch Owen roll through X-Pac with a somersault pinning attempt, I can't help but think of how fun it must have been for a worker like him to just be able to pull out any move he knows against someone like Sean Waltman with full knowledge that Waltman could physically roll with any and all of it.
X-Pac hits the sit-out facebuster in the middle of the ring, then attempts a spinning heel kick where Owen catches his leg so X-Pac completes the kick by jumping up and hitting him with his other one. Bronco buster…I always hated that move. He slams Owen in the middle, heads to the top rope, but Owen gets up and meets him up there. He knocks X-Pac off, crotching him on the ropes, and X-Pac flails on the way down to knock Owen down as well. As the referee is distracted, Mark Henry runs in and splashes on X-Pac on the outside. He rolls X-Pac into the ring as Chyna gets in his face. While Henry is occupied with Chyna, Vader comes to ringside for some reason and attacks him.
Owen has X-Pac in the sharpshooter and X-Pac is tapping out, but referee Jack Doan is attending to the chaos outside the ring and doesn't see it. Chyna comes in and DDTs Owen to rescue X-Pac. Vader and Henry fight to the back, and the referee returns to the ring. X-Pac struggles but finally gets on top of Owen for the three-count. Kind of a stupid ending to bring down a good match; there was such a delay in between Chyna's DDT and the pinning attempt that in most cases that would just have been a near-fall. Instead it ended it, basically making Chyna's DDT the most powerful move in wrestling history.
Now that Owen had completed the fall down the ladder, to the point that at the six-month mark he was now losing to Shawn's buddy's buddy, I'm happy to report that this finally got him away from HHH and friends and onto something else. Anything else was an upgrade at this point.
Result: X-Pac via pinfall (8:30)
Rating: Mostly loved this match. Was planning on giving it 3.5 stars as it was ongoing, but the ending is stupid enough that I'm inclined to drop it down to 3 stars out of 5. Still very much worth a watch; X-Pac may have had better chemistry with Owen than anyone else that I've seen Owen wrestle.
03-29-2014
, 03:52 PM
Fully Loaded '98 - Dungeon Match: Owen Hart vs. Ken Shamrock (Special Referee: Dan Severn)
Date: July 26, 1998
Link: http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x71...ungeon-m_sport
Background: A couple of months ago Owen Hart turned on Ken Shamrock for no apparent reason as his mechanism for joining the Nation of Domination. Ken Shamrock was now bent on revenge. I don't have an explanation as to how the gimmick for this match came about, but allegedly this really was held in the legendary Stu Hart dungeon in Calgary.
The Match: Obviously unique right from the start since there's no actual ring in the dungeon and it's just a lightly carpeted room with wooden walls. Owen is waiting along with guest referee Dan Severn, Ken Shamrock descends the stairs and heads in. Here we go.
Owen takes some vicious bumps against the wooden wall, as well as a throw to the floor that just has to hurt. Owen reverses the momentum and slams Shamrock's head into the wall. He executs a German suplex, then releases and pounds away. Lots of fist-fighting here. Owen executes a modified hurracanrana after holding himself up by a pipe on the ceiling until he was able to wrap Shamrock in a headscissor. Shamrock attempts to use this pipe for the same purpose a minute later, but Owen blocks and powerbombs him. He then sends him head-first into that same pipe. Holy **** these bumps all look so painful.
The announcers just now mention that this is being held under submission rules, which I didn't realize. After slamming Shamrock into the pipe, Owen locks in the sharpshooter on Shamrock. Shamrock manages to escape and tries to turn into an anklelock, but Owen slips away before he can get it on. Shamrock attempts a high kick, but Owen ducks and the kick hits Severn. As Severn is down, Owen hits Shamrock with a free dumbbell. He then applies something close to a LeBell lock on an unconscious Shamrock, and as Severn comes back to, Owen is lifting Shamrock's arm up and down to make him tap out. Severn somehow falls for this and declares Owen the winner.
Result: Owen Hart via submission (4:46)
Rating: Well that was a dumb ending. And the match was…well, it was unique and a bit difficult to rate, because it was nothing like any wrestling match you'll see. I cringed repeatedly at the bumps and low absolutely legit they looked, which was the best part about the whole thing. It's a short match, which was necessary given the format and everything, but I'm inclined to give it 3 stars out of 5. Definitely thought both wrestlers executed well and really sold their bodies out for the short time that this went on.
Date: July 26, 1998
Link: http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x71...ungeon-m_sport
Background: A couple of months ago Owen Hart turned on Ken Shamrock for no apparent reason as his mechanism for joining the Nation of Domination. Ken Shamrock was now bent on revenge. I don't have an explanation as to how the gimmick for this match came about, but allegedly this really was held in the legendary Stu Hart dungeon in Calgary.
The Match: Obviously unique right from the start since there's no actual ring in the dungeon and it's just a lightly carpeted room with wooden walls. Owen is waiting along with guest referee Dan Severn, Ken Shamrock descends the stairs and heads in. Here we go.
Owen takes some vicious bumps against the wooden wall, as well as a throw to the floor that just has to hurt. Owen reverses the momentum and slams Shamrock's head into the wall. He executs a German suplex, then releases and pounds away. Lots of fist-fighting here. Owen executes a modified hurracanrana after holding himself up by a pipe on the ceiling until he was able to wrap Shamrock in a headscissor. Shamrock attempts to use this pipe for the same purpose a minute later, but Owen blocks and powerbombs him. He then sends him head-first into that same pipe. Holy **** these bumps all look so painful.
The announcers just now mention that this is being held under submission rules, which I didn't realize. After slamming Shamrock into the pipe, Owen locks in the sharpshooter on Shamrock. Shamrock manages to escape and tries to turn into an anklelock, but Owen slips away before he can get it on. Shamrock attempts a high kick, but Owen ducks and the kick hits Severn. As Severn is down, Owen hits Shamrock with a free dumbbell. He then applies something close to a LeBell lock on an unconscious Shamrock, and as Severn comes back to, Owen is lifting Shamrock's arm up and down to make him tap out. Severn somehow falls for this and declares Owen the winner.
Result: Owen Hart via submission (4:46)
Rating: Well that was a dumb ending. And the match was…well, it was unique and a bit difficult to rate, because it was nothing like any wrestling match you'll see. I cringed repeatedly at the bumps and low absolutely legit they looked, which was the best part about the whole thing. It's a short match, which was necessary given the format and everything, but I'm inclined to give it 3 stars out of 5. Definitely thought both wrestlers executed well and really sold their bodies out for the short time that this went on.
Last edited by LKJ; 03-29-2014 at 04:05 PM.
03-29-2014
, 04:40 PM
SummerSlam '98 - Lion's Den Match: Owen Hart vs. Ken Shamrock
Date: August 30, 1998
Link: http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xzw...lam-1998_sport
Background: Last month at Fully Loaded, Owen beat Shamrock in the Dungeon in Calgary, so it was only customary that Owen now have to go to Shamrock's comfort zone for a match. Dan Severn had turned heel and helped Owen against Shamrock during the past month, and was in Owen's corner here.
The Match: This is being held in some alternate theater in MSG, but still has a live crowd. The Lion's Den is a many-sided cage structure that is considerably smaller than a normal wrestling ring. I'm under the impression that a lot of smarks disliked Ken Shamrock, but I thought he was capable enough (outside of his mic work, which was at Ahmed levels).
Owen gets busted open hard-way early and is bleeding from the mouth. Unfortunately this structure doesn't lend itself to optimal camera coverage, and the producer seems to think that the birds-eye view is a brilliant one (it most certainly isn't), so the start of this match is pretty distracted and tough to get into. Shamrock takes one hard bump against one of the support poles in the cage. I imagine it hurt, because Owen tries to guide him into two more of these and he pretty blatantly protects himself from even taking real bumps on those. Owen gives him less of an option on a subsequent spot when he stun guns him into the fencing.
Shamrock attempts a move where he jumps up, plants a foot in the fencing, then launches off at Owen, but Owen reverses it into a powerslam. Shades of that great powerslam reversal he did against Michaels in '96. Owen follows with a belly-to-belly and then attempts a sharpshooter. Shamrock works his way to the cage and latches on, but thankfully no rope break is enforced (referee Jack Doan is perched above the wrestling area instead of being in it). As no rope break is granted, Owen hangs on, but Shamrock slowly crawls his way up the fencing until Owen loses his grip on the hold.
Owen locks in a modified dragon sleeper on Shamrock, but Shamrock walks his way up the cage, backflips behind Owen, takes him down and locks in the anklelock. Severn walks away instead of throwing in the towel (JR says that he's pretty sure Owen wanted him to), so Owen has to tap.
Result: Ken Shamrock via submission (9:16)
Rating: At times I had real difficulty getting into this match. At other times I really appreciated it. I certainly thought that both wrestlers did a good job at pulling this off as well as they could. All in all, I actually posted a rating of 2.75/5, and within the edit period already decided that I was certainly underrating it keeping it under 3. I'll call it 3 stars out of 5 and finally quit thinking about what the correct rating is. For whatever reason that was my toughest rating so far in this thread.
Date: August 30, 1998
Link: http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xzw...lam-1998_sport
Background: Last month at Fully Loaded, Owen beat Shamrock in the Dungeon in Calgary, so it was only customary that Owen now have to go to Shamrock's comfort zone for a match. Dan Severn had turned heel and helped Owen against Shamrock during the past month, and was in Owen's corner here.
The Match: This is being held in some alternate theater in MSG, but still has a live crowd. The Lion's Den is a many-sided cage structure that is considerably smaller than a normal wrestling ring. I'm under the impression that a lot of smarks disliked Ken Shamrock, but I thought he was capable enough (outside of his mic work, which was at Ahmed levels).
Owen gets busted open hard-way early and is bleeding from the mouth. Unfortunately this structure doesn't lend itself to optimal camera coverage, and the producer seems to think that the birds-eye view is a brilliant one (it most certainly isn't), so the start of this match is pretty distracted and tough to get into. Shamrock takes one hard bump against one of the support poles in the cage. I imagine it hurt, because Owen tries to guide him into two more of these and he pretty blatantly protects himself from even taking real bumps on those. Owen gives him less of an option on a subsequent spot when he stun guns him into the fencing.
Shamrock attempts a move where he jumps up, plants a foot in the fencing, then launches off at Owen, but Owen reverses it into a powerslam. Shades of that great powerslam reversal he did against Michaels in '96. Owen follows with a belly-to-belly and then attempts a sharpshooter. Shamrock works his way to the cage and latches on, but thankfully no rope break is enforced (referee Jack Doan is perched above the wrestling area instead of being in it). As no rope break is granted, Owen hangs on, but Shamrock slowly crawls his way up the fencing until Owen loses his grip on the hold.
Owen locks in a modified dragon sleeper on Shamrock, but Shamrock walks his way up the cage, backflips behind Owen, takes him down and locks in the anklelock. Severn walks away instead of throwing in the towel (JR says that he's pretty sure Owen wanted him to), so Owen has to tap.
Result: Ken Shamrock via submission (9:16)
Rating: At times I had real difficulty getting into this match. At other times I really appreciated it. I certainly thought that both wrestlers did a good job at pulling this off as well as they could. All in all, I actually posted a rating of 2.75/5, and within the edit period already decided that I was certainly underrating it keeping it under 3. I'll call it 3 stars out of 5 and finally quit thinking about what the correct rating is. For whatever reason that was my toughest rating so far in this thread.
Last edited by LKJ; 03-29-2014 at 04:53 PM.
03-29-2014
, 05:23 PM
Breakdown '98: Owen Hart vs. Edge
Date: September 27, 1998
Link: http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xa8...wen-hart_sport
Background: I cannot discern an actual background for this one. It did have a purpose, though more so for Edge than for Owen.
The Match: Edge's original theme sounds so lame compared to what his theme became. I had forgotten that he was one of these "through the crowd" enterers like the Shield, but he was. We're in Hamilton, Ontario, and some of the crowd is definitely behind Owen even though he's openly antagonistic toward him. Edge is not only Canadian himself but actually a native to Ontario, so he should really have the hometown crowd advantage anyway.
Edge throws a great high dropkick early, probably the best dropkick I've seen in this series since the last one I saw Doug Furnas throw. He knocks Owen to the outside, and they execute the spot where Owen catches a charging opponent coming off the apron and powerslams them on the floor. I love that ****; I wish it had been a more common spot in Owen matches. The two men make their way back into the ring; missile dropkick off the top nets a two-count. Gutwrench suplex for two more. After a belly-to-belly, Edge does a nice job of selling a near-fall as Owen settles for another two-count.
Owen executes a victory roll off the top for a two-count; Edge sits back as Owen did against Bret in WrestleMania X and gets a two-count of his own. Owen goes up to the top and looked to be setting up for a moonsault, but Edge chases him down at the ropes, gets him on both shoulders, and then plants him with an electric chair drop. Nice.
Lot of good near-fall spots in the match. Edge hits a northern lights suplex for a two-count, then Owen gets two with a German suplex. Owen nearly locks in the sharpshooter, but Edge kicks Owen back into the corner, then as he stumbles out Edge locks him into a small package that almost gets the win.
There is a distraction at ringside as "some fan" appears to have jumped the rail. This fan was Christian in his very first appearance in the WWF. As he distracts Edge, Owen rolls up Edge with the same pinning combination that he used to take the IC Title from Rocky Maivia in '97, and he gets the three-count.
Result: Owen Hart via pinfall (9:16)
Rating: Look, I'm trying to break up this weird streak of calling everything 3 stars, but 3 stars out of 5 is about what this one feels like as well. It lacked the underlying story that all of Owen's other 1998 matches have had, but on a technical level it definitely worked. Also, given how famous of a duo Edge and Christian became, the historical moment of Christian's debut is a cool footnote on the match.
Date: September 27, 1998
Link: http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xa8...wen-hart_sport
Background: I cannot discern an actual background for this one. It did have a purpose, though more so for Edge than for Owen.
The Match: Edge's original theme sounds so lame compared to what his theme became. I had forgotten that he was one of these "through the crowd" enterers like the Shield, but he was. We're in Hamilton, Ontario, and some of the crowd is definitely behind Owen even though he's openly antagonistic toward him. Edge is not only Canadian himself but actually a native to Ontario, so he should really have the hometown crowd advantage anyway.
Edge throws a great high dropkick early, probably the best dropkick I've seen in this series since the last one I saw Doug Furnas throw. He knocks Owen to the outside, and they execute the spot where Owen catches a charging opponent coming off the apron and powerslams them on the floor. I love that ****; I wish it had been a more common spot in Owen matches. The two men make their way back into the ring; missile dropkick off the top nets a two-count. Gutwrench suplex for two more. After a belly-to-belly, Edge does a nice job of selling a near-fall as Owen settles for another two-count.
Owen executes a victory roll off the top for a two-count; Edge sits back as Owen did against Bret in WrestleMania X and gets a two-count of his own. Owen goes up to the top and looked to be setting up for a moonsault, but Edge chases him down at the ropes, gets him on both shoulders, and then plants him with an electric chair drop. Nice.
Lot of good near-fall spots in the match. Edge hits a northern lights suplex for a two-count, then Owen gets two with a German suplex. Owen nearly locks in the sharpshooter, but Edge kicks Owen back into the corner, then as he stumbles out Edge locks him into a small package that almost gets the win.
There is a distraction at ringside as "some fan" appears to have jumped the rail. This fan was Christian in his very first appearance in the WWF. As he distracts Edge, Owen rolls up Edge with the same pinning combination that he used to take the IC Title from Rocky Maivia in '97, and he gets the three-count.
Result: Owen Hart via pinfall (9:16)
Rating: Look, I'm trying to break up this weird streak of calling everything 3 stars, but 3 stars out of 5 is about what this one feels like as well. It lacked the underlying story that all of Owen's other 1998 matches have had, but on a technical level it definitely worked. Also, given how famous of a duo Edge and Christian became, the historical moment of Christian's debut is a cool footnote on the match.
Last edited by LKJ; 03-29-2014 at 05:42 PM.