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| Above: Owen Hart not appreciating my humor
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From: Calgary, Canada
Height: 5’ 10"
Weight: 227 pounds
Finishing move: Spinning heel kick
Career Highlights: Current Tag
Team Champion (6-times)
Intercontinental Champion (2),
When I was introduced to Owen Hart I hardly believed he was a wrestler. The guy was only 5'10", 2 and quarter pounds and didn't seem remotely psychotic like some of his colleagues. Research told me he was one of the more deadly athletes in the WWF but for some reason I had to test him.
"Prove it," I said after our introduction, still happy I was finished with the Mark Henry interview. It was exactly at this point or perhaps a second or two later that I realized Owen Hart didn't appreciate my sense of humor. So I dropped the bit for good reason.
Owen Hart has earned the reputation of a highly technical, somewhat dangerous wrestler. He ended Dan "The Beast" Severn's career and nearly crippled Stone Cold Steve when he broke his neck thus raising the question: is he careless, dangerous, malicious or just too good?
Or all of the above.
Speaking to him, I got the sense he was a tactical person. Each question was answered directly and quickly. On the page he may come off as arrogant but in person he just seemed honestly convinced he is a force to be reckoned with. Owen Hart never took his eyes off me throughout the entire time we spoke and never balked at a question. The answer came out of his mouth the second I finished asking.
I guess the best word to describe him, in my eyes anyway, is intense.
Hart began in 1988 under the Blue Blazer moniker, a freakish, flying man-ish bird who worked his sometimes much larger opponents with sheer accuracy. He later went on to win the tag team championship six times with a variety of partners. Then, to further prove his athletic ability, Hart went on to win the Intercontinental Championship, uh, twice.
In case you were wondering the guy was a bad ass.
The Conversation
What's your favorite move?
The Sharp-shooter. I invented it and credit much of my success in the WWF to it.
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| Above: The Artist formerly known as Blue Blazer
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What did you think of Wrestling Secrets Exposed?
I didn't see it but I heard about it and it seems they were way off on a lot of things. I resent people saying it's all fake. Tell that to my body when I try rolling out of bed the day after a match. I don't think they or anyone should discredit wrestling and the athleticism it requires. I challenge any athlete to put his or her body through what we do.
What wrestlers stuff their shorts?
I would have to say Flash Funk, Val Venis and Sable.
How many Big Macs do you think you could eat in one sitting?
Unless I just want to eat and barf, I won't eat McDonalds. It's been 15 years since I've touched that stuff.
If you were to take on Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jackie Chan and Mike Tyson at once who would go down first?
Arnold would go first. He's not really an athlete he's just a steroided up body builder who got lucky in acting. Jackie Chan has some athletic ability but who did he ever beat? Tyson. Hummm. I can't say too much bad about Mike Tyson, he's had enough bad luck as it is. It's a shame one of the greatest boxers of all time is going to go down as one of the biggest criminal athletes of all time. But the Sharp-shooter would put Tyson down in a minute.
What's your most embarrassing WWF moment?
Speaking of the Blue Blazer: I used to trip and get hung up all the time. I think the most embarrassing moment was when I jumped in to do this big high entrance back flip and I landed right on the camera man. The camera flipped and was pointing up at the ceiling.
Sounds like you couldn't have planned it better.
Well I know the wrestlers back stage loved it but I was so embarrassed, when I went to come back through the curtain, at the last second I kind of deviated and went in through the crowd, I was so ashamed I didn't want to face Vince McMahon.
What do you do when you're not beating the hell out of others?
Only practical jokes on wrestlers. I'm not going to go into much detail in case any of those guys read this but some of it involves prank calls. And when I'm not amusing myself by playing jokes on those guys, I'm just being a regular guy, hanging out with my wife an kids. I like being normal and doing normal things. We spend so much time in and around the ring it's nice to just go to the zoo or to the movies or to an amusement park. You know?
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| Owen getting some affection from his fans
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Sure. Are you in touch with your feminine side?
Uh, no.
How did you get into the sports entertainment business?
I wrestled at a University on scholarship then went amateur then pro. Pretty mapped out plan. Of course my father and brothers are all in the business so I just aimlessly followed in their footsteps. My initial aspirations were to become a school teacher, a fireman, anything normal. But 15 years later I'm still in it and loving it.
What's the most serious injury you've suffered?
It's hard to pinpoint one specific injury. I've had three concussions (that I know of) which are serious because I think my recall has been affected by it. But I don't rate being kicked in the head as serious as getting hit in the groin which happened to me in the survivor series in 1988. Greg "the Hammer" Valentine head butted me in the groin, my testicles swelled up, I had to take an emergency flight home to Canada where I was going to have surgery. I didn't have the surgery but I did have about six months of pain. You can imagine.
Who would you most like to face in the ring?
I would have to gun for whoever's the champion. I mean, I've fought and beaten most of these guys as it is and I think I can beat any of them on any given day. If I did end up going against Mankind I certainly wouldn't look forward to going through tables and chairs and stuff like that. That would be a weird mixture because it would be a wrestler against an animal or something.
—John Newlin
