Owen Hart vs. The Man They Call Vader

[goodhelmet]

Owen Hart vs. The Man They Call Vader (Sep. 27, 1997, One Night Only)

 

This match is from the UK PPV ?One Night Only?, the show where HBK defeated the British Bulldog for the European belt. Since Bulldog was an overwhelming face in the main event, the other members of the Hart Foundation play face in their matches, as we see Owen shaking hands with the fans and playing face-in-peril throughout the match.

 

Early on, Vader establishes his dominance by tossing Owen around. The announcers play up the speed vs. strength angle that is commonplace in these types of mismatches. Initially, when they give Owen his shine segment, this match shows great promise. Owen strings together a nice sequence of spots that serve to reinforce the notion that he may be smaller than Vader but he is much smarter. He attempts a sunset flip only to avoid a Vader butt-drop. He attempts a hurracanrana after a teased powerbomb spot and Owen drops Vader right on his head. Finally, Owen gets a flying body press from the 2nd rope that gets a 2 count. This initial sequence shows that Owen could go toe-to-toe with Vader by playing to his strengths and keeping Vader off-guard.

 

The next sequence of events shows Owen failing at capitalizing on his initial flurry of offense. He attempts a Sharpshooter only to fail. He fails to hit a suplex on his much bigger opponent as well as another Sharpshooter. Eventually, he tries a crucifix only to get dropped with Vader?s weight on him. Vader?s control segment is decent as he exhibits some nice power offense such as the elbow drop, a big splash from the 2nd rope, a sternum-first Irish whip into the turnbuckle and a short-arm clothesline.

 

At the same time, another theme begins to play into the match. When Owen gets a small window of opportunity, he attempts to bodyslam Vader ala Hulk Hogan at Wrestlemania 3 against Andre the Giant. Like Hogan, Owen fails in the first couple of attempts stretched throughout the match. When he finally pulls it out, you get the feeling that he could really pull out the upset.

 

Unfortunately, after the first bodyslam attempt, the match goes to the mat and it begins to falter. Vader goes for a chinlock, clearly catching a breather as he fails to do anything that resembles working a hold. After a corner splash, Vader applies a Fujiwara armbar and then a knee lock that Jim Ross calls a modified half-Boston crab. In this segment, there is clearly no focus. There is no demonstration of Vader?s brute strength. He doesn?t expand on the leg work or arm work or even the chinlock. All three were used to kill time and it annoyed me throughout the match despite Owen?s best attempts to pull a good match out of the big guy. Later in the match, after another Owen bodyslam attempt, Vader goes back to the knee but it is unclear what his purpose is. Is he trying to keep Owen grounded so he doesn?t use his high-flying arsenal? Was he trying to take advantage of an earlier incident that damaged the leg? Was he setting up his lethal finisher that focuses on the leg? Sadly, the answer to all of these questions is no. I think he just had no idea to fill the time.

 

The ending sequence and babyface comeback is really neat to watch. Owen blocks a Vaderbomb attempt and hits the enziguiri. He locks in the Sharpshooter to a great crowd reaction and follows that up by finally bodyslamming Vader! Owen blocks the corner Vaderbomb by getting the knees up and hits a flying dropkick and a spinning heel-kick to follow-up. This is where the earlier leg work becomes infuriating. Owen just used his legs in several moves and sold no damage from the earlier leg work. This is where it becomes apparent that the matwork was used to kill time. The match ends when Owen goes up to the top and gets caught with a vicious powerslam for the Vader pin.

 

 

Final Thoughts

For the WWF, I don?t know if they had ever attempted a match like this that wasn?t a squash. However, Owen gives the crowd enough hope spots and comebacks to think he has a chance in pulling it off. The opening babyface shine sequence and the end sequence were especially fun to watch. When Vader was dominating the match, it was perfectly acceptable until he took it to the mat. In a mismatch like this, Vader had no business taking it to the ground. HE could have used his brute strength to greater effect or, at the very least, focused on one body part or section. This is the most glaring weakness in a really fun match to watch, if nothing else, for Owen?s performance. As far as monster vs. little guys go, this was perfectly acceptable stuff but I have a feeling it will pale in comparison after I watch Big Show vs. Eddie from Smackdown!

[Loss]

Vader v Owen Hart - WWF One Night Only 09/22/97 PPV

 

In terms of a huge monster going against a smaller babyface, this is one of the better matches I've seen WWE pull off. It compares favorably to matches Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels have had against bigger guys because Owen actually goes out of his way to sell the size difference. He gets thrown to the mat twice at the onset when attempting a collar-and-elbow tie-up and the best moment of that is when Vader catches Owen running off the ropes with a shoulderblock that was sold brilliantly by Owen, as he fell into the ropes and reflexed back up immediately, only to get knocked down again. The spot seems contrived, but all wrestling is contrived - the key is to make it look believable. That was definitely accomplished here.

 

Owen's huracanrana on Vader was an excellent spot, but I feel like it came way too early in the match when had they built to both that and the bodyslam spot the way they did, they would have had even more payoffs. Where this match deserves credit is in its ability to really create suspense over the false finishes. I was sure Vader was going to submit to the sharpshooter, but he didn't, as they built to that as the finish really nicely. Perhaps the match should have ended there though, as things started to fall apart after that, aside from Owen finally getting in the bodyslam he attempted for the entirety of the match, which got an enormous pop because it was teased brilliantly throughout the match. Anyway, Vader seems unsure of where to take the match after countering the sharpshooter -- alternating between various submissions that weren't built up and were totally out of context with the match.

 

Owen made a fantastic Sting here, and what's ultimately disappointing about this match is that Vader didn't really make a fantastic Vader. Owen was certainly motivated to be wrestling as the underdog, and Owen has so much more offense than Sting that they could have done quite a bit. However, this doesn't quite go as far as it could, despite the first half of the match being crafted in very basic, effective fashion. The wrong man went over in this one as well.

 

***

[Guest cawthon777]

Since Bulldog was an overwhelming face in the main event, the other members of the Hart Foundation play face in their matches

Actually, the Harts were babyface everywhere except the US. That was part of their gimmick. Bulldog didn't have to be on the show for them to get that reaction.

[goodhelmet]

I don;t know how true that is so let me ask you this... how many overseas tours did they do prior to One Night Stand where they received overwhelming face reaction at the height of the Harts vs. Austin and/or HBK feud? I know about the Canadian stops but when did they go to England in 1997 besides this particular stop? Since you are a WWF historian, maybe you can shed some light on this.

[Guest cawthon777]

That was their only UK show of the year, hence the One Night Only name, but they did a tour of South Africa a few weeks after WrestleMania 13.

 

Footage from Johannesburg was taped for Raw and it included Bret cutting a babyface in-ring promo on the ills of America and the top "heroes" in the WWF (HBK, Austin).