Owen Hart

Owen Hart met Martha Joan Patterson during High School and they both dated for many years before getting married in July 1989. The couple had two children and Martha said in many interviews that he was a warm man, so much in love with his family and profession.

Owen was exhibited in WWF as a perpetual prankster and was known to irritate several of his opponents with his carefully designed elaborate pranks. Even in his interviews, he showed his eccentric persona and that was a big reason for his mammoth fan following.

In 2002, Owen’s widow Martha Hart wrote a biographical book on Owen Hart, titled ‘Broken Harts’, and expressed the pain of losing her loving husband. The book went to become a bestseller and also explored several unheard details of Owen’s life and career.

Owen Hart was born on May 7, 1966 in Alberta, Canada to the Hart wrestling family. His father Stu Hart was a former wrestler and his mother Helen Hart was a house maker. The Hart family was big and Owen grew up with 11 siblings and a few of his brothers went on to make career in wrestling.

The book by Owen’s wife titled ‘Broken Harts’ reveals that Owen wasn’t really keen on making a career in wrestling initially but bent on his father’s wishes and all through the middle and high school, he trained hard to make a career in professional wrestling. His father Stu gave him tips and tricks of succeeding in the ring, this kept Owen going and by the time he was out of High school, he had already transformed into a beast of a wrestler.

Before going for wrestling, Owen tried his hands on several other jobs, but nothing suited him and he gradually accepted his fate and joined Stampede wrestling, which was run by his father.

Owen Hart started with Stampede, which was failing quickly and didn’t get as much respect from the wrestling community as it did before. Owen and other Hart family members tried their best to renew it, but nothing was working. Owen took it as a practice ground and honed his skills in the ring, eventually winning International tag team titles. His other titles in the first couple of years were the British Commonwealth Mid-heavyweight Title and the North American Heavyweight championship title.

His high flying fighting style and the reliance on technique more than the strength worked well for Owen at the New Japan Pro wrestling in 1987. He ended up defeating big names there and in May 1988, became the first non-Japanese wrestler to get his hands on the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship.

In the summer of 1988, Hart grabbed WWF’s attention and got introduced in the ring with moniker the Blue Blazer. This was done by WWF to hide his identity as the younger brother of Kevin Hart (his brother and a prolific wrestler by then).

In his early appearances at WWF, Hart went on to perform good enough, but gradually, his style got in the eyes of his opponents, and he faced several defeats. For the next couple of years or so, Owen divided his time between Japan and the USA for different promotions and eventually in October 1991, WWF re-signed him. He was reintroduced with his real name this time without his mask and entered the ring with new set of skills and techniques, earning himself the name ‘The Rocket’.

His big victory came at Wrestlemania 8 in 1992 when he defeated Skinner and then he went on to form a team with Koko B. Ware. The alliance named High Energy was quickly dismantled following a defeat at the hands of ‘The Headshrinkers’ which compelled Hart to embark on his individual career.

During an Over the Edge pay per view match on 23rd May 1999, where Owen Hart was set to fight ‘The Godfather’ for a title match for the Intercontinental Championship, he was supposed to make a superhero entry into the ring, in resonance with his new ‘superhero persona’, to be exhibited to his fans. The move was under-practiced and Hart fell into the ring followed by severe injury to his neck. He was rushed to a Kansas City hospital where many attempts were made to revive him, but to no success. Owen Hart bid his farewell to the world on 23rd May 1999.