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Post by Dawnbr3ak3r on Mar 13, 2021 11:38:40 GMT
I've not watched an Owen Hart match for 20+ years until tonight. I totally forgot how good he was. I've seen thousands of takes calling the Hart family some of the worst wrestlers in the history of the business and I just roll my eyes. Those people that say they "Can't work. Can't talk, etc." Especially when they consider HBK a god amongst mortals - I hate that shit. There's a reason Owen snd Bret are in my Top 10 favorites and HBK doesn't come close to Top 50 for me. But yeah - Owen, much like Eddie, is a one of a kind talent that I didn't come to really love until after he passed. I was a dumb kid back then and my tastes have changed greatly since. |
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Post by gotchism4life on Mar 13, 2021 13:40:36 GMT
When Owen and Bret feuded, I honestly rooted for Owen. I thought he was great, and I also liked his theme music he was using at the time. When I would play WWF RAW on the SNES, I would let the theme music for Owen play for a bit before selecting him.
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Post by Lord Worm on Mar 14, 2021 2:59:38 GMT
I've not watched an Owen Hart match for 20+ years until tonight. I totally forgot how good he was. I've seen thousands of takes calling the Hart family some of the worst wrestlers in the history of the business and I just roll my eyes. Those people that say they "Can't work. Can't talk, etc." Especially when they consider HBK a god amongst mortals - I hate that shit. There's a reason Owen snd Bret are in my Top 10 favorites and HBK doesn't come close to Top 50 for me. But yeah - Owen, much like Eddie, is a one of a kind talent that I didn't come to really love until after he passed. I was a dumb kid back then and my tastes have changed greatly since. Did we just become best friends? This narrative that hbk is the be all end all bothers me to no end. I didn't care for him when he was in the rockers, didn't care for him when he was a stripper and definitely didn't care for him when he was in dx. And people say Bret was boring don't know shit. |
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Post by jameshilliv on Mar 14, 2021 5:38:20 GMT
I liked the jealous brother character Owen played. They did put on some exciting matches together. I'm not a huge fan of HBK's character, but let's be realistic, he is a talented wrestler. Even Bret Hart has admitted that much. If nothing else he gave us one of the most entertaining matches against Hogan when he oversold every move Hogan hit him with.
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Post by BakFu on Mar 14, 2021 13:35:53 GMT
I always liked Owen best of all of the Harts, it was fun watching Bret because he could have a great, competitive match with anyone and they always felt like a fight or a struggle from start to finish, but Owen did the same thing with some life and character. Whether he was the white meat baby face bleeding and struggling to get out from under the heel’s cheating and underhanded ways, or he was perpetrating the heel shit and taunting the crowd, he could dazzle you with his in ring technical competency and ability to fly all while getting heat from the crowd. He somehow made it all look effortless.
Owen always OPERATED in Bret’s shadow, but somehow figured out a way not to live in it. They did angles together, but I feel his existence and career did not rely solely on the fact he was Bret’s brother, but that he was Owen. I remember seeing him for the first time in Old stampede stuff that was being replayed WAAAY back, and recordings my grandfather had, the ring was dingy white and the crowd was close, lots of beer shirts and hats, and lots of plodding, big man brawler matches between veterans was the usual fare. Bret was already being established as a top guy getting ground up by the best hands that Stu could rotate through the territory. Then in comes this young, bright blond, dynamic guy who it turns out is the baby of the hart family doing some flashy new shit, Owen. Dynamite Kid was in and out by that point, so this new guy was blowing things up (Benoit was in there after a bit as well). I got excited to watch grandpas old stuff again! It was awesome seeing all of them do well in pro wrestling. I wish I could have seen a retirement match between Owen and Bret instead of what happened, but that’s life. Owen is easily top ten, if not five, of all time for me!
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Post by BakFu on Mar 14, 2021 13:50:36 GMT
A couple of gooders (I’m a big Hase fan, too)! 🙂
I love seeing young Takada at the start of this one!
Ed Whalen is a LEGEND in Alberta, especially Calgary, he was the voice of stampede wrestling and did the Calgary flames play by play for ages, too.
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Post by BakFu on Mar 14, 2021 14:03:16 GMT
Found an old episode of Stampede Wrestling that has Gary Albright and a bunch of other names people here might recognize. Check out Promotors Corner (lol! The name!) at ~8:45 where Ed Whalen interviews the old bear himself, Stu Hart, at ringside! Classic shit!
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Post by Dawnbr3ak3r on Mar 14, 2021 17:03:35 GMT
Did we just become best friends? This narrative that hbk is the be all end all bothers me to no end. I didn't care for him when he was in the rockers, didn't care for him when he was a stripper and definitely didn't care for him when he was in dx. And people say Bret was boring don't know shit. People can like HBK more if they want, I just think he's way overrated and don't enjoy most of his matches. The Ironman Match at WM12 and the Intercontinental Title Ladder Match against Razer Ramon at WM10 are the only ones I really care about and that's largely for his opponents. |
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Post by OrochiGeese on Mar 25, 2021 9:30:57 GMT
I never got to see HBK in what people consider to be his prime. By like 1993 or so I stopped watching WWF.
Unfortunately, I also missed a ton of Bret and Owen Hart too.
Bret will always be my favorite of all time though. Undisputed #1 for me.
He's also the reason I continued watching wrestling once my initial "let's check this out" period ended for me. The hype of Hogan/Savage got me to start watching wrestling but it was Bret Hart, Curt Hennig, and the other IC Title division guys that kept me watching and truly made me a fan.
And him beating Flair in Saskatoon ("SASKATOON!") is one of my favorite moments ever in wrestling. It's too bad I missed so much of his later Hart Foundation heel run and the majority of Owen Hart's singles run. I saw his heel turn and his win over Bret in the opening match of WM but that's about all I can remember. I never got to see him at his best.
Conversely, I never had to sit through Bret being wasted by WCW. I did see nWo 2000 though 🤔
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Post by Dawnbr3ak3r on Mar 25, 2021 19:02:44 GMT
Don't remind me.
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Post by jameshilliv on Apr 1, 2021 4:19:44 GMT
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Post by BakFu on Apr 10, 2021 14:07:44 GMT
I’ve been watching episodes of Smokey Mountain Wrestling on YouTube over the past week and so far it’s been a lot of fun! Studio format with lots of recognizable faces getting their starts (Hollywood Bob Holly who looks like he stole one of Bret Hart’s extra kit bags! There’s also a certain now Tennessee mayor before the fire that deformed and deranged him into the undertakers big red brother), and vets riding out the ends of their careers (Ivan Koloff, Terry Gordy just showed up, Dirty Dutch Mantell splits colour commentary and in ring duties, and I was going to say Robert Gibson, but apparently he’s still at it). It’s wild to see all of these names I’ve heard over the years but never seen in action, and it’s fun to watch how into it the crowd gets (there are a bunch of kids at ringside trying to touch the wrestlers, women swinging at the heels as they go by, crap like that, it’s pretty funny stuff!). Bob Armstrong as commissioner is priceless (typical old man with pens in his shirt pocket), and the on the fly promos are gold. I totally missed out on territory wrestling (except for some old recorded stampede stuff people around here had) so this has been a lot of fun, especially as a compliment to my read through of Death of the Territories. Check it out, it’s FREE, and hasn't been censored out of existence/ canceled from history by people who don’t even enjoy wrestling at peacock. 🤮 m.youtube.com/watch?v=e9Jk_6_iE6I |
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Post by jameshilliv on Apr 11, 2021 6:28:48 GMT
I would like to see WWE take all these different feds they own and bring back the territories. They would all be under the WWE but they would also be competing against each other. Each one would have their own territory and someone in charge running it. Like Paul E and ECW, NXT and Triple H, WCW and someone like Flair of maybe Arn Anderson. Instead of wrestlers signing with the WWE they would sign with the fed. Each fed would have at least one weekly show that would air on the peacock, but each fed could also make tv deals either local or national. It would also be easier on the wrestlers because instead of traveling across the US they would only have to travel around their territory. A lot of the older wrestlers talk about how the territories were a better learning process than a wrestling school, so maybe it would start making better wrestlers and matches.
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Post by BakFu on Apr 20, 2021 18:18:19 GMT
More SMW, episode six is pretty funny, Rip Rogers pissing off the “hillbilly” crowd with a few pages out of Rick Rude’s playbook, the crowd shots don’t do much to discredit Rogers’ assessment of the local populace. He starts doing squats and says he’ll carry on through the show (crazy thing is they taped two shows in this location, so if he in fact was doing squats, he’d be pretty blown up for his match in ep 7!). Dirty White Boy (what a name!) debuted, I kinda liked his brawler style, it made me realize no one does it (well) anymore. Terry Gordy debuts, what a load that guy is, just a big bruiser, but he’s quick and powerful, he crushed the can he was in the ring with, total squash, quick and dirty, this type of match needs revisiting in current promotions. Nitro Danny Davis looks like he borrowed his ring entrance gear from Aladdin, wtf was he thinking with that vest?! A young but decent looking Jerry Lynn was in a match with Killer Kyle, big size discrepancy, but Lynn made it look like a contest, I popped for jerry, nice surprise! I still can’t get over Bob Holly talking so much shit, his Hollywood gimmick is hilarious! The past few shows have featured Hector Guerrero. I’ve never seen him wrestle before, and it’s crazy how much of Eddie you see in him. The way he moves in the ring, his rope slingshot dive to the outside (every nuance of that move is the same!), you can see the years those guys shared in the ring together in Hector’s work. He has his own style, a little more traditional than Eddie, but he’s fun to watch and makes me miss Eddie and his “class” even more. I’m really diggin SMW, it’s crazy, the matches mean something and they tend to build toward angles. I forgot that these shows used to tell a story that people cared about, and that’s how they got you interested in coming back the next week to see what happens! I’ll put a link to ep 6 at the bottom of this post, it’s worth it just to see Rip Rogers being a prick heel and the crowd reaction! Enjoy! m.youtube.com/watch?v=7OXAJodCDps |
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Post by jameshilliv on Apr 22, 2021 7:38:54 GMT
More SMW, episode six is pretty funny, Rip Rogers pissing off the “hillbilly” crowd with a few pages out of Rick Rude’s playbook, the crowd shots don’t do much to discredit Rogers’ assessment of the local populace. He starts doing squats and says he’ll carry on through the show (crazy thing is they taped two shows in this location, so if he in fact was doing squats, he’d be pretty blown up for his match in ep 7!). Dirty White Boy (what a name!) debuted, I kinda liked his brawler style, it made me realize no one does it (well) anymore. Terry Gordy debuts, what a load that guy is, just a big bruiser, but he’s quick and powerful, he crushed the can he was in the ring with, total squash, quick and dirty, this type of match needs revisiting in current promotions. Nitro Danny Davis looks like he borrowed his ring entrance gear from Aladdin, wtf was he thinking with that vest?! A young but decent looking Jerry Lynn was in a match with Killer Kyle, big size discrepancy, but Lynn made it look like a contest, I popped for jerry, nice surprise! I still can’t get over Bob Holly talking so much shit, his Hollywood gimmick is hilarious! The past few shows have featured Hector Guerrero. I’ve never seen him wrestle before, and it’s crazy how much of Eddie you see in him. The way he moves in the ring, his rope slingshot dive to the outside (every nuance of that move is the same!), you can see the years those guys shared in the ring together in Hector’s work. He has his own style, a little more traditional than Eddie, but he’s fun to watch and makes me miss Eddie and his “class” even more. I’m really diggin SMW, it’s crazy, the matches mean something and they tend to build toward angles. I forgot that these shows used to tell a story that people cared about, and that’s how they got you interested in coming back the next week to see what happens! I’ll put a link to ep 6 at the bottom of this post, it’s worth it just to see Rip Rogers being a prick heel and the crowd reaction! Enjoy! m.youtube.com/watch?v=7OXAJodCDpsYou caught my interest and I started watching. I've noticed on of the differences between then and now is back then they were still selling wrestling as real, that all of the moves are really damaging the wrestlers. So moves like a 2nd rope suplex or knee drop seem devastating enough to end a match. Now days those moves don't mean a lot so wrestlers have to use complex and "flippy" moves to impress the people. I find it funny that Hollywood Bob Holly has a southern accent. I've never seen Rip Rogers before but I really like him, he's entertaining and exciting in the ring. The heels definitely have better characters and are more interesting. |
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