Yeah yeah, we're not supposed to say anything bad about Owen Hart but......

[#tamale]

He proved to be a fantastic wrestler/performer during his legendary feud with Bret. He even beat Bret in one of the best ever Wrestlemania matches. He continued to develop as must see TV for the next 5 years. He was a mid-carder with a ton more charisma than today's main eventers. He really should have won his first title around the time Triple H did. Owen could have held, just like Triple H, two or three titles without being shit on..

When was that? When he was a lackey for the Nation of Domination? His career had dwindled down, and his high point was the feud with Bret.

I always hoped he had a title coming to him before he tragically died. And being 34 years old when he died meant nothing. Savage won his first WWE world title when he was 35. And he went on to be the greatest wrestler in the history of wrestling. And, no, just because he's dead doesn't mean he is overrated. There are at least 50 WWE wrestlers, present, retired or dead, standing between Savage and Triple H when it comes to best overall entertainer. And Owen Hart would be one of them.

He was a career mid-carder who people remember fondly because of his tragic death. You say Chris Jericho, I say Cody Rhodes.

Owen's piledriver did affect Austin's career. His career was tragically cut short, and Owen never apologized for that move. Don't see what's so wrong about saying that.

 

[Poop Master Flex]

No question it affected his longevity but it may have actually helped his popularity. When the piledriver happened he didn't wrestle for 3 months and that's really when the "Summer of Stunners" started where he was stunning the entire roster which culminated with the stunner on Vince. In a lot of ways his injury forced WWE to get more creative with his character because he had to tone down his in ring style and get over in new and different ways. Granted, he was already perfectly capable of getting over outside of his in ring work and often did before the neck injury but when that happened it forced WWE's hand to think outside the box with Austin.

By Summerslam '97 it was apparent Austin was their next big guy, by that point it wasn't decided Bret was leaving yet so if the injury didn't happen there's a pretty good chances are he would've kept feuding with the Hart Foundation and be more focused on having matches, probably ending with him finally getting that clean victory over Bret and taking down the Hart Foundation which he never got to do because of the injury (by the time he did wrestle again it was Bret's last night with the company after all).

That neck injury definitely didn't help Austin when it came to longevity and health and no question ended his career probably a good 4-5 years before it would've ended but there's a real possibility he wouldn't have hit the heights he did either. Although Austin was on Raw pretty much every week as champ he wrestled maybe every 2-3 weeks on television during that time and there's probably a good chance that had something to do with the injury he sustained. WWE was quite aware of the health concern and did everything they could to protect him because of how valuable he was and although I don't doubt WWE would've come up with some awesome stuff for Austin to do outside the ring with or without the neck injury I can't imagine Austin would've done as much outside of the ring as he did and really that's the stuff that really pushed Austin through the glass ceiling.

 

[Goldie]

It was an accident.... they happen in sports and they happen in wrestling.

However its understandable that Austin was angry about it and vowed to never work with owen again (the piledriver was 2 years before Owens death).

 

[Hollywood Naitch]

It was an accident.... they happen in sports and they happen in wrestling.

However its understandable that Austin was angry about it and vowed to never work with owen again (the piledriver was 2 years before Owens death).

No-one is disputing the fact it was an accident.

The fact is that Austin had requested Owen not to use the sit down piledriver, and Owen went ahead and did it anyway, and never apologised afterwards for the injury. That's why Stone Cold was so angry about the injury.

This isn't a thread to bash Owen, although people are disputing his "legendary" status, but whether the injury caused by Hart shortened Austin's career, which it almost certainly did.

 

[MrMojoRisin]

As odd as this is to say...

the neck injury Owen gave Austin was probably the best thing that ever happened to him.

A lot of why's already been mentioned here. Being forced to change his style to the brawling one that fit his character to a tee. McMahon being forced to get creative with Austin outside of the ring while he was hurt, which ended up adding so much more to his character.

But for me, the big one is just looking at the guy today.

He's healthy. He's happy. He's got a great quality of life. He is so far ahead of the game compared to most other ex-wrestlers of his age.

Does any of that happen if he doesn't retire before he's 40, and then NEVER wrestle again?

Probably not. The guys knees were already bad. If he kept competing on a regular schedule beyond then... he's probably barely mobile today.

He also didn't actually wrestle a lot in his heyday. He'd work TV and PPV's of course, but he had a pretty light road schedule otherwise, and maybe fought half as much as the rest of the roster. All because of being protected over the injury.

If he works a normal schedule like everyone else? Again, he's probably barely mobile today.

Instead, he's healthy. He's happy. He's got absolutely nothing to complain about. He's got a great life. And probably a better life today than he would have if Owen Hart didn't try the sit out piledriver back in 1997.