What If: Owen Hart went to WCW in 97'?

[C.K.O.]

What if after the 1997 infamous Montreal screw job Owen Hart followed his brother Bret to WCW?

Would Owen have reached WCW/WWE World Championship status?
Would Owen still be wrestling today?
Would Bret Hart not have suffered the career ending stroke from the hands of Goldberg?

If only..

Where would Owen Hart have been in his career after 1997 and to this day?

 

[kronikfish666]

If he did leave he would of had a short run in WCW may a TV title or something. But I don't think he'd still be wrestling, from what I understood is that he wanted to retire and spend time with his family. He had the money to do it too, saved almost as much as he earned.

 

[The_Untouchable_RPJ]

I love What if questions .. But the dude above pretty sum it up real good short run My reason thought is that wcw wouldn't know what to do him him like the other hart memebers and also heard the samething bout him retiring early but most of all Yea i think he still be here on earth with us.

 

[MancMark]

They probably would have misused him in WCW, like so many others. He could have had some great matches over there though with the likes of Benoit, Jericho and Malenko to name a few. I imagine he'd still be with us today because I can't see that he would have been doing that stunt in WCW and seeing as though Sting did it there, you couldn't see it going wrong. Barring some other freak incident I reckon he'd be alive now and probably happily retired.

 

[Jacjac]

Excellent question.
Had Owen been ALLOWED to leave WWE for WCW he would have never been made to pay penance for the rest of his family. He would have never been forced to be "the Blazer" and he would damn sure be alive. Owen's blood is 97% on the hands of The McMahon family. The other 3% is on Owen for paying with his life for not wanting to rock the boat.

 

[EastCoastFan]

If Owen had been able to go to WCW with the others, they might have made the Harts a faction unto themselves. Most likely, Owen would have gotten lost in the shuffle with the many others that WCW signed. They would have given him a run with one of the lower titles (TV or tag team), but he wasn't going to be world champ.

Assuming Owen got a 3-year deal like Bret did, he probably would have walked away after his contract was up, especially after the way Bret was released. Once WCW went kablooey and Vince bought them, he might have made Owen an offer to be part of the Invasion.

Actually, I'm kind of surprised Vince didn't offer to let Owen out of his contract after "the screwjob". In his book, HHH said that Vince offered to let him out of his contract after "the MSG incident" and go to WCW with Hall and Nash, but he declined.

 

[Nate DaMac]

You know, if Shawn wasn't such a selfish cunt back in those days, it probably would have been avoided anyway. Owen should have been the one to face Shawn at the Royal Rumble after the Montreal incident.

Well on to the original question. The main thing is, Owen could quite possibly still be here today, but I'm afraid he would be irrelevant to the wrestling world by now. He may have been able to hold the WCW Title but dude, Jeff Jarrett held that title. It meant nothing. If his death didn't happen, he could have been a World Champion in the WWE. If he went to WCW, he would have been so misused, it would have been disastrous to his career.

 

[Decarow]

I firmly believe he would have had a short WCW World Championship run. You know how gimmicky WCW was. They would have turned Owen heel and win it from Bret, probably do some play on the Screwjob.

But what ifs are just that... what ifs. Hard to answer. Owen died in a freak accident. Nobody's fault he died. He didn't have a heart attack. Vince didn't shoot him. What happened happened, let's move on.

 

[brood_ric9]

He'd still be alive, his term at WCW would have been fast due to the mismanagement at WCW and he'd be retired soon after, hopefully making appearances from time to time.

ahahahah no no u know what u meant, hell i scrolled down to say it..but anyway since u partially said it..haha well yes he'd probably still be alive. and not dead cuz of a stupid accident lol..talk about wrong place wrong time haha damn...

 

[Yarrie]

Wow there are some sad bitter people on this site. Vince didn't kill Owen it was an accident, Owen had some great stories with WWE after Bret and before he died. And Shawn Michaels had issues back them but cunt is a strong word, seems more fitting to the poster than HBK...im just saying....now to answer the thread, I would like to think after WCW went down the gurgler then Owen would come back worked for a bit and retired happy, but WCW bomber for a reason they didn't use there talent, i only watch WCW for Bret but in the end it was too painful to sit through waiting for him, they would have taken a great talent like Owens and wasted it.

 

[Bad2891]

I think everyone got it pretty good witha short WCW run and probably retired soon after. But just think of what they could have done with the return of brett story if Owen was still around.

 

[Tech N9ne]

I definitely think there would have been a Hart's Faction. There is no doubt in my mind about that. I think instead of Bret joining the NWO, the Hart's would have been Face and eventually Owen would have turned Heel and joined The NWO.

I actually think Owen would have been WCW Champion. But not when he came in. Not in the days of 97, 98 and probably 99. But in those later days of 2000. Scott Steiner was able to become WCW Champion. Booker T won many times. So did Kevin Nash and Jeff Jarrett. Ric Flair got a couple reigns. David Arquette and Vince Russo became WCW Champion. The title was just given to various people at different times. Nash, Jarrett, Hogan etc... Nash even gave the title to himself.

Surely Owen Hart could have been one they would have dropped the title on at a random moment. I don't think they would have pushed him through the roof, but I think he would have had his moments because he was well liked. So, I see almost a sympathy reign for him if nothing else at all in the dying days of WCW.

I'll tell you this, it would have been great to get another couple years of Bret and Owen. They worked GREAT together, whether they were on the same side, or if they were feuding. Another run at each other and with each other would have been classic.

Plus... This is something that I think about when I think of Owen. We would have been able to see Owen Hart versus Chris Benoit. I could have seen another version of Team Canada when Storm ended up coming to WCW. Maybe Storm would have been cliqued up with Owen.

There are a lot of options when you are working with "What If's". It sucks it never happened because of Owen's death. His legacy will be filled with "What If's"...

 

[Tripleb2k1]

What if after the 1997 infamous Montreal screw job Owen Hart followed his brother Bret to WCW?


Would Owen have reached WCW/WWE World Championship status?
Would Owen still be wrestling today?

No. He was looking to finish up around 2000

Would Bret Hart not have suffered the career ending stroke from the hands of Goldberg?

First of all, Bret Suffered a Concussion at the hands of a Goldberg kick, secondly, the stroke was from when he was riding his bike and hitting a bump that caused falling off his bike & hitting the back of his head

this part I heard from a tv interview several years ago on Canadian TV from Bret himself

 

[DeathClutch]

Owen COULDN'T go to WCW VINCE wouldn't allow him to go and threatend Bret with legal action if he tried to court Owen to jump ships considering they had a contract that ran until 2002 (I believe it was) and Bret stated that he and Owen had plans on retiring around the same time and enjoy hanging out with each other.

Owen would NEVER be WWE Champion as he didn't like to be on the road all the time and Vince wanted his champion to be very accesable and promoting WWE at every opportunity; Like Miz has been doing for the last year or so, or like Cena did for so long.

Credit goes to Brets autobiography for the above;


As I've said in past posts regarding Owen Hart; I loved his style and his character Bret Hart/Owen Hart SummerSlam 1994 is the reason I'm life long fan, and if WWE ever had any thought of placing the belt on Owen then THAT was the time to do so; if not SummerSlam then Survivor Series which ultimately didn't happen and we all know how 1995 turned out WWE messed up on a huge opportunity. However I believe the problem was Vince wanted a convincing Champion, Owen didn't have many feuds outside of Bret, Bulldog and Razor (who he beat in the KOTR FINALS); Undertaker was feuding with Yoko & Million $ Team and most of the big names were heels so Diesel was an obvious choice to turn face, get a big feud out of it with Shawn and then he could face the bigger guys and Bret could go mid card and help get some people over before jumping back into the title picture later in the year.

Owen was only ever destined to be King of the Ring and mid card titles, but when he won the KOTR he won it when it meant something. I know if I was a wrestler I'd rather win KOTR then the Royal Rumble (always have thought KOTR was better)

 

[CaptainZaltan]

During Bret's time with the title, Owen would likely have been holding or vying for a mid-card strap. He probably would have had a TV title or US title run, feuding with Benoit and eventually Jeff Jarrett. He likely wouldn't have made it to the main event, but there might have been a chance in the last days of WCW, particularly if he had been feuding with Benoit, Booker, or Jarrett previously. More likely, he would have become Goldberg fodder like, well, everyone back in those days. As others have said, he probably wouldn't have stuck around long before walking away in any case.

 

[nwocongo]

Excellent question.
Had Owen been ALLOWED to leave WWE for WCW he would have never been made to pay penance for the rest of his family. He would have never been forced to be "the Blazer" and he would damn sure be alive. Owen's blood is 97% on the hands of The McMahon family. The other 3% is on Owen for paying with his life for not wanting to rock the boat.

I remember how much that Blue Blazer gimmick pissed me off, at the time I felt well this guy is one of the only good ring workers they have right now and Vince has him doing this shit cuz he has a grudge with the Harts. I don't know if I'd place that much blame on Vince, it was an accident after all, albeit an accident that wouldn't have happened if Owen could have still been Owen and walked to the ring like the skilled wrestler he was. I think he would deifinitely be retired by now but if not for the unfortunate accident, he could have been one of the main heels in WWE feuding with Austin and HBK. If he had went to WCW he probably wouldn't have been much of a major player, probably would have ended up a flunky in the NWO like the other 80% of WCW. I know thats an exaggeration but after a while it seemed like half of the roster was in the NWO

 

[byrnside]

Well most of the facts have already been covered, but if Owen had gone to WCW, I think he would've floundered in the mid card much like Davey Boy and The Anvil did. Granted Neidhart doesn't come close to comparison to Owen, but I digress.. Maybe he could've had a couple of good matches with Bret or Benoit [drools] but I can't see much higher than a U.S. title run. There could've been all kinds of good matches/programs for Owen ie- Booker T, Eddie Guerrero, Rey Mysterio, Kidman, the list goes on and on, but undoubtedly the people at WCW would've screwed that up. Look at what they did to Bret.

On the other hand, I don't think that Owen's legacy would've been as amazing as some people make it out to be, had it not been for Bret jumping ship. Owen's "Black Hart" gimmick was probably one of my favorites that he had in the WWE. His battles against DX and The Nation were pretty great. In my opinion, I think Bret leaving, although it was really shitty for Bret, might've been Owen's best opportunity in the WWE.

 

[Ruthless-RKO]

I normally don't like what if threads. .but not a bad 1...

Would Owen have reached WCW/WWE World Championship status?
Hmm.. Not in WCW, there were too many big stars!

Would Owen still be wrestling today?
Nope.. He would have probs retired in early 2000's, because he said he was going to retire early so he could spend time with his family.

Would Bret Hart not have suffered the career ending stroke from the hands of Goldberg?
Never noo.. The match would have probably still been booked anyway..

If only..

Where would Owen Hart have been in his career after 1997 and to this day?
A legend! Probably up there with the rest of them..

 

[the king of viper 3:16]

i think Owen would be wcw us champ considering the mid card is where he shined but we will never know what he could've done he had that kind of potential its a shame he was taken away so early

 

[The Idiot]

If Owen Hart, the WWF mid-high carder jumped to WCW in 1997 he would have been jobbed to hell. WCW at the time was so overpopulated with main eventers that eventually the big stars like Hart, Savage, Page and Luger were forced to mid card status to take seats behind Hogan, Goldberg, Sting and Nash.

Owen Hart would never of had a chance...no matter how hard he worked, the big egos would hold him down just like they did to others who could have EASILY main evented in the WWF(E).

 

[Santiman21]

I feel that if Owen Hart had jumped to WCW, yes while he was there maybe he would have been jobbed, but conversely he would have added to the flourishing cruiserweight division, he would have put on some classics with Chris Benoit and Chris Jericho and eventually when the buyout of WCW happened he would have obviously avoided the 1999 over the edge incident and either would have ended up back in WWE in 2001 or would be a mainstay in TNA... OH4L

 

[WWWYKI777]

If Owen had went to WCW in 97.....

Well theres the arguement that people die when their time comes , and that that time may have been the same no matter what. Maybe even on the WCW roster he would have come in from the roof fell and died no matter what

Had he however lived , whether it be in WCW OR WWE , I think he yes of course would have reached world champion status

No , I don't think he would still be wrestling today if he had lived. HBK was around ALOT longer than most from that era and even hes done now so yeah.

Bret Hart career ending stroke at the hands of Goldberg? Wait what? I never heard of that tbh...... any elaboration?

 

[god-soldier]

I like this thread for Owen but I am totally different about this I feel like if Owen would of came with Bret they would have had enough people to start their own faction kind of like the Hart Foundation with a different name with possibly Beniot or Lance Storm or even the Amazing French Canadian's might have joined their stable they might have made team canada. You guys are forgetting how popular the Hart Foundation was especially overseas with WCW experimenting shows in Canada @ that time I think it could of been huge. But this would have only happened if WCW did this correctly even with the nWo around the Canadians could of been a big factor. If Bret still gets injured @ StarrCade 99 and the faction is still hot I can see Owen becoming world champion and leading team Canada and I see him and Beniot either working together of against each other I think keeping them as group makes the possibilities endless. But WCW would have been able to see what they had and use it properly. But I still feel if Owen didn't die in the WWE he would of became the WWE champion if he got that Game gimmick their is no doubt about that in my mind. But I still love and miss Owen and he needs to get his hall of fame nod so his legacy can finally get his highest honor