Owen Hart, as his seven older brothers had before him, trained for a career in professional wrestling at the infamous Dungeon that was run by his father Stu Hart. However, according to Owen’s wife Martha, in her book Broken Harts, professional wrestling was not Owen’s first choice for a career. Owen tried several other ways to make money and after experiencing limited success, decided to give wrestling a try.

As the other Harts had, Owen made his professional wrestling debut with Hart family patriarch Stu in Stu’s Stampede Wrestling organization in Canada. Owen had much success in Canada and even though Pro Wrestling Illustrated primarily covered the United States in 1986 and 1987, Owen’s achievements received enough press that the fans of PWI voted Owen the 1987 Rookie of the Year, beating out future champions Ray “Bubba Rogers”, “Big Bossman” Traylor and Shane Douglas.

Owen would take the skills that he learned from his father and brothers and would travel to Japan where he would compete for the New Japan Pro Wrestling organization. One of the crowning moments of Owen’s time there was the fact that he would wrestle Jushin Liger both masked and unmasked. Owen would also defeat future Japanese legend Hiroshi Hase to win the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship. Owen’s victory would make him the first of only two Canadians and the first wrestler from the Western Hemisphere to wear the prestigious belt. The only other Canadian to win the belt was the Pegasus Kid, who would go on to win several world titles as Chris Benoit.

Owen’s success was beginning to spread throughout the wrestling world, and his success in Canada & Japan caught the eye of World Wrestling Federation Chairman Vince McMahon. In the fall of 1988, Owen would make his debut in the WWF. By this time, older brother Bret was in his fifth year as one of the top performers in the WWF. Bret and brother-in-law Jim Neidhart had already held the WWF Tag Team Titles on one occasion and were one of the top attractions of the federation, with manager Jimmy Hart by their side. Not wanting to present Owen as Bret’s brother, Owen debuted in the WWF as the Blue Angel before having his name changed to the Blue Blazer. The Blue Blazer was a combination superhero and Mexican Luchador gimmick. The Blazer’s initial run, though it netted him a match at Wrestlemania V, was not much of a success as he would serve mostly as enhancement talent for stars like Ted DiBiase and Curt Hennig.

Owen would leave the WWF after Wrestlemania V and would travel the world wrestling both as Owen Hart and as the Blue Blazer. Owen would compete in a mask versus mask match in Mexico against the legendary El Canek, but Owen would lose the match and thus would be force to unmask, signaling the end of the Blue Blazer gimmick. Owen would sign with the WWF’s chief rival, World Championship Wrestling, and would team with former Dungeon alumnus Brian Pillman, but Owen was never able to elevate above the bottom of the WCW roster, and Owen was unwilling to move his family to Atlanta, Georgia, so he would leave WCW and would return to the WWF.

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