[1993-11-27-WWF-Superstars] Update: Owen Hart interview

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

Owen Hart is on the phone to be interviewed by Gorilla Monsoon. Owen takes exception to Gorilla referring to him as "the brother of Bret 'The Hitman' Hart". They show photos that clearly aren't from Survivor Series of Bret and Owen arguing. Did something else happen on another show?

[Frankensteiner]

Owen Hart is on the phone to be interviewed by Gorilla Monsoon. Owen takes exception to Gorilla referring to him as "the brother of Bret 'The Hitman' Hart". They show photos that clearly aren't from Survivor Series of Bret and Owen arguing. Did something else happen on another show?

I think it's from the Survivor Series Showdown match between Bret/Yokozuna. Owen came down to ringside and, although he was ultimately trying to help against Fuji's interference, caused Bret to get disqualified. The Bret/Owen post-match argument never aired, however. Maybe they thought it would make Bret look like kind of an asshole to argue with his baby brother who was just trying to help.

[Kevin Ridge]

Owen gives a low key phone interview with Gorilla. I like that they did not go full speed into the Owen turn. He makes some good points. He is a wrestler himself in the WWF for a couple years so should not need to be introduced as Bret's brother. Owen also questions Bret's leadership at Survivor Series.

[PeteF3]

Monsoon announces a tournament for the new WWF Women's Championship--I can never remember if this actually took place in Memphis as Gorilla said or not (prowrestlinghistory says it was just a final).

 

I found an answer to that Bret/Owen screen shot question somewhere, either Cawthon's old board or on KFM: Owen vs. Lawler was taped for the same Survivor Series Showdown, and it ended with Bret running into save Owen when Lawler had him tied in the ropes, and that got Owen upset. Obviously it never made it to air.

 

Gorilla tries to browbeat Owen while Owen tries to talk low-key. His request not to be called "the brother of the Hitman" sounds perfectly reasonable to me. Monsoon talking into a phone seems like an unnecessary visual, too. This is played beautifully by Owen, coming off as a whiner and passive-aggressive at the same time he's raising reasonable points in a realistic way.

[garretta]

If what Pete says is true about this all starting with Owen-Lawler at Survivor Series Showdown (and I don't doubt it), it may have actually helped the Bret-Owen feud that that particular match never aired. Vince obviously wanted everyone to be on Bret's side, so for Owen to be so clearly in the right, even at the very beginning of the feud, wouldn't have helped matters at all.

 

I thought this may have been Gino's best performance on ​Update. ​He needed to hold Owen's feet to the fire a little in order to bring out his (Owen's) whiny side, but he didn't hog the whole thing or badger Owen to the point where the viewers might have taken his side before Bret ever had a chance to defend himself. I thought Owen was very good too; we all know he has gripes now, some of which may be legitimate. Now it's time for Bret to defend himself, then see how Owen reacts to that defense, This turn is being very slowly and subtly laid out, at least by Vince's standards; maybe that's why this is one of the last pre-Attitude Era feuds that actually resonated with the fans on any sort of level.

 

With the USWA and the WWF still (ostensibly) working together, I'm sure Dave would have given any WWF Women's Championship tournament that may have taken place in Memphis at least a little bit of hype, even if Lawler had to be taken off the card due to his legal troubles. In other words, I'm betting that this tournament (except for the final, which we saw) was a fake.

[soup23]

The phone interview with Owen was really good. The angle from here to Mania is really one of my favorite angles that WWF has ever done and has the right tenor of brother vs brother under the service resentment.