Owen Hart pulled a hilarious rib on a young Matt Hardy when the pair first met in WWE.
Matt Hardy was recently a guest on Chris Jericho’s podcast, “Talk Is Jericho,” where he detailed the first time he met the late great Owen Hart. Hart was known as a notorious ribber, and Matt Hardy was on the receiving end during their first encounter.
Hart took Hardy aside before one of their matches and went over a spot with him that put some pain on Hardy’s knees.
The spot was ridiculous and after a few repetitions, Hardy finally asked if Hart was joking, to which Hart admitted he was.
“One of my favorite Owen stories is the first time he ribbed me, so to say,” Hardy said. “Like I didn’t know him, we were just extra.
“This is the fall of 1994, and I’m wrestling Owen in the Stabler Arena in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. So we’re there and he goes, ‘Oh yeah, people really like the Hardy kids.
“They take good bumps for all the guys. I really want to highlight you in the match. I have an idea, but I want to make sure you master it, that you’ve got it down.’ He said, ‘Follow me.’
“We walk out into the concourse, and he has this big tarp like you’d use to cover up something if it’s going to rain. A big plastic tarp.
“It’s laid out… he said, ‘Alright, let’s just get down on all fours in the center. Let’s pretend like this is the ring. Let’s say I take you down.
“I want you to take off like you’re trying to get to the ropes, but then I’ll stop you before you get there.
“Then you’ll go 90 degrees to your left and you try to get to the ropes there, and I’ll stop you again. Then you go 90 degrees to the left, and we’ll go to all four sides.
“It’ll really be like you’re resilient, and you’ll look great at this.’ I do it and we crawl, and he says, ‘That was really good. Let’s do it again.’ I was like, ‘God, this is going to hurt my knees.’ …
“We do it like four or five times, and then on the fifth time he’s asking me to do it, I go, ‘Dude, are you messing with me?’ He says, ‘Yes! What took you so long to catch on?!’”
Both Hardy brothers, Matt and Jeff, were fortunate enough to share the ring with Owen Hart in 1994, just before his untimely passing in 1999.
In fact, Matt Hardy recently shared a clip from their match on his Twitter account.
Hart was involved in a tragic accident during the Over The Edge pay-per-view (PPV) event in Kansas City, Missouri, where he fell from the rafters of the Kemper Arena, into the ring. This was prior to a scheduled match with The Godfather.
The match ultimately never took place due to Hart’s accident, which was briefly addressed by commentator Jim Ross on the live broadcast.
After being transferred to a nearby hospital, Hart was subsequently pronounced dead. Ross made the announcement on the show shortly thereafter, which continued on despite the incident.
The accident resulted in a broken relationship between WWE and Hart’s widow, Martha Hart. While WWE may not be getting Martha Hart’s blessing to go into the WWE Hall Of Fame anytime soon, she has allowed Hart’s name to resurface in professional wrestling.
Recently, All Elite Wrestling (AEW) hosted a men and women’s Owen Hart Foundation Tournament, which was won by Adam Cole and Britt Baker, respectively. Martha Hart made appearances on AEW TV promoting the tournament.
Quotes via Wrestling Inc.
