Posted on by bdamage1
Brian Damage
After the infamous ‘Montreal Screwjob’, Owen Hart took a brief hiatus from the WWE before returning at the final ‘In Your House’ PPV of 1997. When he returned, he became known as the ‘Lone Hart’ or ‘The Black Hart’ as he flew solo without his Hart Foundation comrades. Today we take a look at that run as the ‘The Black Hart’.
After the infamous “Montreal Screw job” at the Survivor Series in 1997, Bret ‘The Hitman’ Hart took his talents to WCW. His other family members were ready to leave the WWF as well but not without paying a price. His brother-in-laws ‘The British Bulldog’ Davey Boy Smith and Jim ‘The Anvil’ Neidhart had to play by Vince McMahon’s rules. Essentially, Smith had to pay his way out of his WWF contract which was believed to be in the range of $100,000. On the other hand, Neidhart had to agree to humiliate himself on WWF TV before by pledging allegiance to Shawn Michaels and DX before his release was granted.
That only left Bret’s youngest brother Owen in the WWF. Owen had apparently requested his own release from the company but Vince McMahon did not grant it. The big question was why? Was McMahon hellbent on torturing Owen Hart to get back at Bret? Did McMahon have big plans for Owen’s career to spite Bret? No matter who you listen to, the answer is somewhere in the middle.
Less than a month after the Survivor Series debacle, at WWF’s In Your House Degeneration X pay per view, Owen returned to television. Hart attacked Shawn Michaels in the main event where HBK was defending his WWF title against Ken Shamrock. In the next couple of weeks that followed, Owen would continue randomly attacking Michaels by jumping out from the crowd of fans.
Having “seen enough,” Vince McMahon called out Owen to confront him live on Monday Night Raw. Owen obliged and, as per usual, walked to the ring through the crowd. While walking to the ring, loud chants of ‘Owen, Owen, Owen’ rang through the arena. Vince began berating Owen for endangering the welfare of ringside fans by continuously jumping the rails. Owen came back by jabbing his finger in McMahon’s chest and cursing saying that he was on a mission to make Vince and DX’s lives a living hell.
‘The Black Hart’ Owen Hart was born that night. No longer was Owen a second or lackey to anyone else. No longer was he a comedic wrestler. He had moved out of the shadows and the spotlight was shining brightly on him and him alone. Owen dressed all in black, facial hair, had a new angry and aggressive attitude.
Owen would challenge Shawn Michaels for the WWF title as 1997 went to a close, but lost via a disqualification after Triple H and Chyna interfered. That would be his first and only shot against Shawn for the title. Owen Hart continued his battle with DX by defeating Triple H for the European title (well, actually it was the Artist formerly known as Goldust impersonating Triple H) but the title change was allowed. Owen would eventually lose the title back to Triple H in a matter of seconds and future attempts to regain the belt were futile.
The feud against DX seemed to fizzle out and before too long, Owen turned heel and joined the Nation of Domination killing whatever momentum Owen Had under the “Black Hart’ gimmick. So what exactly happened? Why did it fail?
According to Jim Cornette, Owen was kept in the WWF and promised a big run potentially winning the WWF title in the process. It made sense considering that would be a way for Vince to stick it to Bret Hart and WCW. It never happened for various reasons, mainly due to backstage politics. Shawn Michaels refused to job to Owen and give him the WWF title. It got to a point that Shawn just didn’t seem to even want to work with Owen, let alone job the title to him.
The same could be said about Shawn’s friend and fellow DX member Triple H. That explains why Goldust jobbing the European belt to Owen instead of Triple H doing it. Owen was always the consummate professional and did what was asked of him. Before we simply crucify DX for the failure of the ‘Black Hart’ gimmick, it should be noted that Owen himself was contemplating an early retirement during this time. Owen was committed to his wife Martha and their children.
Being the WWF champion meant a lot more time on the road doing publicity tours and defending the title all over the world. It was a commitment that quite frankly, Owen seemed hesitant to make at times. Considering what could have been with Owen Hart under his ‘Black Hart’ gimmick, you can’t help but feel it was a sorely missed opportunity and a great idea that simply didn’t last and it was all down to politics.