Posted on by bdamage1
Brian Damage
Owen Hart achieved so many things during his WWF career. He was an Intercontinental and European champion, a tag team champion, a Slammy award winner and a King of the Ring winner. For many of Owen’s fans, the one title that alluded him and deserved so richly was the WWF title. For one night in August of 1994, the ‘King of Harts’ unlocked that achievement…even for just a minute or so.
On August 17, 1994…the World Wrestling Federation held a house show in Portland, Maine. This wasn’t just any ordinary house show…TV cameras were present. While cameras at house shows weren’t anything new, it did give an indication that something big might happen for the cameras to film. The real reason for the cameras that night, was to film matches for a WWF Coliseum Home Video release down the road. The main event for that particular show was a lumberjack match pitting brother against brother. The WWF champion Bret ‘The Hitman’ Hart was defending his title against his younger brother Owen.
The match was commentated on by Gorilla Monsoon and had lead ring announcer Howard Finkel present as well. The culmination of the lumberjack match saw Jim ‘the Anvil’ Neidhart interfere on Owen’s behalf leading Owen to roll up Bret and get the pin! As the fans in attendance stood in silence…Howard Finkel made the announcement that the winner of the match….And NEW World Wrestling Federation champion…Owen Hart! As the announcement was made…all of the heel lumberjacks entered the ring and lifted Owen on their shoulders, as Owen held the WWF title above his head.
While Owen was celebrating his huge title victory over his older brother…the babyface lumberjacks were convincing the referee that Neidhart illegally interfered costing Bret the title. The ref decided to scratch the initial decision and instead restart the match, which led Bret to gain the victory and retain his WWF title. Just like that….Owen Hart won and lost the world title i a little over a minute’s time. Since the referee decided to restart the match…Owen was never officially recognized as a WWF champion. It also would have been an historic victory as the WWF title never changed hands in a Lumberjack match.
There were various rumors and reports as to why this momentary title switch happened in the first place. One report had it that Vince McMahon was trying to drum up business for house shows, which according to Dave Meltzer, was suffering with Bret vs Owen at the top of the marquee. Having a shocking title switch, even momentarily would show fans at these house shows that anything can happen at any time. Another rumor had it that Vince was using this match to gauge the fans reaction to Owen becoming WWF champion. If successful, Owen would go into SummerSlam that year and defeat Bret inside a steel cage for the title.
If the trigger was actually pulled and Owen was made WWF champion at Summerslam ’94, it was allegedly only going to be a brief, transitional run. For one, McMahon was supposedly never completely sold on Owen as a main event talent. Secondly, according to Bret….Owen never had much interest in being the top guy in the company. Owen knew that being WWF champion was a huge responsibility that would keep him on the road for a longer period of time. Owen was more of a family man, who wanted to utilize that spare time with his wife and children.
Whatever the real reasons as to why Owen never “won the big one,” this match that is on the WWF home video entitled…”Wham Bam Bodyslam!” is a nice little peek of what could have been for Owen Hart.