Rambling about Wrestling #3
Being the youngest sibling to an older brother is a never ending nightmare.
Characters Discussed: Owen Hart, Bret Hart, Shawn Michaels, The Quebecers (tag team), Johnny Polo (currently Raven)
Brief Mentions: Koko B. Ware, Jerry "The King" Lawler, Bobby Hennan, Ted DiBiase, The King's Knights, Lex Luger, Yokozuna, Rowdy Roddy Piper, Scott Hall (Razor Ramone), Macho Man Randy Savage, Various members of the Hart Family.
You're 10. You're at your grandmother's house after school using her iPad. She never touches it but you use it to watch YouTube videos. It started with Minecraft YouTubers and devolved into creepypastas and, eventually, a top ten list of deaths caught on tape. You're not an athletic kid; having a physical disability as well as a mental one destroyed that immediately. You never even considered watching sports. You didn't know who The Blue Blazer was, but you felt bad for him.
One day in March 2022, the now 19-year-old you decides to watch wrestling starting around 1987, and then you get to the early 90's. It's great, they're building up to a more cohesive method of storytelling, and due to being the youngest sibling to an older brother, you immediately get attached to Owen Hart.
He's honestly endearing, a bright-eyed energetic guy in his mid 20's paired with the equally energetic Koko B. Ware and Frankie, the macaw. It's a gimmick team, High Energy. They're both "high fliers" who bounce around the ring like nobody's business while wearing the worst outfits I've ever seen. But the definitive marker is the acknowledgment of familial relations. One day, instead of being "The Rocket," the announcers start using his full name and emphasizing Hart. Things like,
"Bret Hart's younger brother Owen Hart."
"Youngest of the 11 other Hart siblings, Owen Hart."
"The Shadow, Owen Hart."
And Owen switches to the pink and black of the Harts and others affiliated with them. Like most heel turns, it starts off simple. There had been a growing dissent in the Hart character ranks, and the announcers only amplified that by turning those acknowledging comments into more disheartening ones. Again, it's the way he looks during his matches. The character is desperate for crumbs. Facing off against second-tier jobbers in the mid-'90s was like fighting sand inside an hourglass. It didn't matter, yet he performed his best stunts and cheered each time he successfully landed a complex move. With an earnest glint in his eyes, he'd smile when he won, and the crowds gabbed about the following names on the card. The announcers; If you want specifics, it's the more antagonistic announcers; Bobby Heenan, Ted Dibiase, and Jerry "The King" Lawler would poke at his character through the mic. "The Rocket" became "The Shadow," and lastly, became "The Nugget." But the big introduction to his descent was,
Survivor Series 1993
This was the rumbling of the massive volcano, which eventually became the Montreal Screwjob, and like everything, it started with the character of Shawn Michaels. Of course, Shawn and Bret were starting to go at each other's throat, and Shawn, with the King's (Jerry Lawler's) support, challenged Bret to a 4v4 using the "knights" (or as cool kids like to say, "jobbers") and Bret gets Owen as well as two other Hart brothers (Keith and Bruce, good luck telling the difference) as well as the dad.
At the climax, it's a 4v1. The knights are all gone, and Shawn is left in the hands of the Harts. Of course, Bret and Shawn go at it, but Shawn gets him right in the eyes. A disorientated Bret wanders off to the opposite side of the ring while Owen goes on the offensive. Bret stumbles onto the ring apron and Owen bounces into the ropes knocking Bret knee-first into the guard rail, causing the other two brothers to go off and help their brother. Shawn rolls up Owen for the three counts and gets it, which angers Owen. He kicks the rope and flat-out yells at them.
"What are you doing?!"
He looked down from the apron and screamed at all 3 of them crowding over Bret and checking on him. I loved how none of them looked up at him, which was a great touch.
Owen sulks off to the jeers of floor seat children, but in the end, the 3 Harts successfully beat Shawn. But Owen re-enters and pulls Bret down by the singlet, and starts badgering him.
The thing with these two is that they were on the polar opposite spectrum when it came to acting. Owen could genuinely act. He knew how to make anything feel believable. Bret... has never really been able to do that, but we appreciate him nonetheless. But you can tell this is good stuff; Owen looks pissed as he argues with a confused and still aloof-looking Bret and the others. He shoves him, pushing off the reassuring pats on the arm and back. The brothers leave the ring to talk to their dad, yet Owen stays. He stands on the corner post of the ring and looks to the crowd, only to receive more boos.
Royal Rumble 1994
The two actively avoided each other throughout November and December, but Owen is desperate to fight Bret after his fumble at Survivor Series. Their avoidance of each other allowed Bret's character to be built up a little more, as interviews would show an annoyed Owen before cutting to Bret. Physically, the guy looked confused, wide-eyed, and honestly sad at even considering fighting his little brother. So he outright refuses, making Owen even more frustrated, as shown through his singles RAW matches. Yet they quickly make up around Christmas because why not?
It had been hinted by the announcers yet again that someone was whispering in Owen's ear, actively turning him against his brother. And the Rumble is where it all went downhill, in a good way. It was a tag team match between Owen and Bret and that stupid team with the Canadian Mounties and the guy who played Raven for some reason. It's a bare fight, the good team against the team that cheats (they have a "nightstick" they "beat" people with, but that's not the point.) It was supposed to bring the two brothers together, but you'll never guess what happens to Bret.
His knee gets hurt.
Bret's knee honestly became a running gag after this. It also becomes a plot point for some reason. The character of Bret Hart is an aloof, strong, and for the most part, silent jock, other than the genuine moments of anger he would show later in his career. But his knee gave him a weak point for every other character to see. And good old Johnny Polo pulled back the rope during a stunt and caused him to once again crash knee-first into the floor.
The Mounties go to town at the behest of Owen, and the strangely authoritative referee holds him back as the Mounties deliberately go for the bum leg. Owen desperately tries to help guard his brother and scare off the opposing, but the Mounties hit hard. Unable to do anything else, Owen more or less throws the feeble Bret back into the ring for the awaiting Mountie(s), who, of course, go back to town. In the end, Bret attempts a sharpshooter but falls forward out of exhaustion, ending the match.
You can see Owen extending and shaking his hand toward Bret while he gets double-teamed. The central part you must understand is that he did not have to do the sharpshooter. He could have gone to tag Owen to finish the match. Owen argues with the referee as the out-of-tune fit for the era theme for The Quebecers plays in the background until he and Bret are left alone in the ring. (Imagine having to keep your cool and sell yourself as a character while that plays in the background.)
Bret is struggling and panting as he desperately tries to stand, and Owen looms over him again, kicking the ropes out of anger. He motions that they would have won if Bret had just tagged him. Bret gets to his feet to console his brother, but Owen sweeps his bad leg out from under him.
Bret crumples to the floor, and he walks. Looking into the camera, he yells;
"All he had to do was tag me, but he's too selfish to worry about me! He just worries about himself. He's trying to be a hero! And fight the whole match by himself!"
His yell softens slightly toward the end,
"Why didn't he just tag me? Just tag me Bret. Because you're too damn selfish..."
My favorite part of his character is the childishness. This guy is the youngest brother of 11 other people, not to mention the plethora of brothers-in-law. But the character made a name for himself outside of that. Through years of unique talent and training, he became an individual who kept the fans' attention. And yet there he was, screaming and fumbling*(I'm cutting him some slack here) his words like a little brother. During the interview after the match, he yelled at the camera red-faced as Bret was carried off on a gurney.
"The biggest opportunity of my life, I had a chance Bret. And you stripped it away from me, you took it away from me Bret! Because you're too selfish, all you had to do was just tag me. My hand was there; just tag me!"
He plays the blame game like a kid. Why didn't you help me? All you had to do was let me in, and I could have done it for the both of us? I could have done it and proved it to you, but you're just too selfish. He continues,
"He cost himself the WWF Tag Team Belts. And he cost me, his little brother, a guy that's never had the taste of a WWF belt before. He's done it before, he doesn't care about me!"
And he is the one who calls it out directly. The identity of "The Rocket" is more or less scrubbed from public perception. He's deliberately put himself into the role of the wannabe younger brother.
Wrestlemania 10
Honest to god, this is the best Wrestlemania, in my opinion, exclusively because of the Owen v. Bret fight and the ending of Bret v. Lex Luger v. Yokozuna. I get the Scott Hall v. Shawn ladder match that happened at this Wrestlemania, but that only adds to my enjoyment. Hall is another sack of potatoes that might earn an essay sooner or later.
He walks in first to a chorus of boos; he has started to wear a pair of Bret's sunglasses, and instead of giving them to a child like his brother, he had taken to breaking in front of said child. But I was so sad when I noticed his little heart logo became a broken heart! But their fight is an old-fashioned technician's duel. The two move quickly as they grapple and throw each other into holds, but he got me at the very start. How he looks at Bret and constantly glares at him is just a great touch.
A notable occurrence is when Bret maneuvers Owen back into the hold he initiated, Owen grabs the ropes, and Bret stays on him only for a few seconds. Bret gets up on his own, but Owen screams at him in such a scathingly vicious tone,
"GET HIM OFF!"
That's how it is for most of the match. He screams that he's the best and deliberately looks towards the camera with a smile, only for Bret to catch him while he's off guard. Another mention has to be the "I'll tell mom" seen online, where Owen held Bret by the wrist in a submission maneuver and kicked the side of Bret's head, causing Bret to point at him accusingly. In the end, another example of how childish their feud is is as they pull hair, shove, and slap each other while arguing. Bret throws Owen back into the ring after he tries to wander away, Owen looks at him on his knees, and Bret opens his arms, showing off how the arena full of people cheers his name, and only a few distant shouts cheer for Owen. He beckons Owen to keep going and finish the fight, he smiles, gets up, and shoves him, and Bret slaps him. It's a constant fight of submission holds and outmaneuvering, cheap shots, two counts, and kick outs...
Bret hurts his knee again. Then it gets cheaper. Knee shots in every way imaginable. This is also where it becomes a joke as Owen mockingly holds his knee and hobbles as Bret does.
After a hit to the bean bags because he failed a sharpshooter, Owen gets him off guard and wins. Owen stumbles off, and a disheartened Bret remains in the ring with a strange, distant look. But believe me, it doesn't end just yet.
It's the end of the event. Bret beats Yokozuna and gets the belt; Lex Luger comes into the ring to congratulate him as well as a skinny-jeaned Rowdy Roddy Piper, who served as referee. They embrace him as the baby face peanut gallery, and the various celebrities shuffle into the ring to shake hands and give side hugs. Hall and Luger raise Bret onto their shoulders, and then Owen comes in. He stands outside the ring, and a friendly Macho Man, Randy Savage, opens the ropes and offers him inside to celebrate. He stands there and shakes his head, staring at Bret with wide eyes and a strong brow. They stand their for a moment, and look at each other but Bret turns away. And it ends.
There is more to this; I need you to know that because everything above this paragraph is about 2,200 words, autism be damned, my girl can work the essay portion of the SAT. But overall, his character is childish and the epitome of youngest-sibling madness. He put together the worst aspects of being the youngest just to you, the complaining, the self-assurances, the cheap shots, and the low blows. He doesn't go for the weak point of an opponent. He goes for the spots that would hurt his brother. He knows this man both inside and outside the ring, and they are both on the same level of physical knowledge. But he wasn't this. The guy wanted to be a comedy wrestler, and you can also tell because he was known for playing pranks and having fun. And oh god, I hate it because he made a character that I absolutely adore. He will be one of my favorite wrestlers for the rest of my life because why else would I write all of this?