Post by Slammywinner on Apr 17, 2009 2:28:14 GMT -5
I was thinking critically about why Owen vs Shawn or Owen vs Vince never happened following Montreal and Owen's herald return. I started this thread to indulge some fantasy booking thoughts:
Owen vs Vince would have been natural, but I see why they skipped it. Mr. McMahon hadn't *really* been born yet. Until his "Oh HELL NO!" promo before WM14, he was still clinging to his traditional role of non-authority as a commentator and wouldn't actually get in the ring until he had to face Austin. If he was physically involved with Owen, heel Vince in the ring would have lost it's shine by the time Austin got to him.
Now HBK on the other hand, had no real reason to be out there with Undertaker. They had both moved on to other feuds: Taker was building up his feud with the recently debuted Kane and HBK was building up to Austin. They swerved back together for the Royal Rumble that year not so much to extend their rivalry, but to keep them apart from their main opponents until Wrestlemania. So they locked it up in the infamous casket match where HBK hurt his back so severely he left wrestling for 5 years. The match concluded with Kane, who had be hinting at aligning with his brother turned on him and locked him in the casket, which he then set on fire.
In addition to the murder of his parents and the desecration of their graves, the WWF writers wanted to add that Kane cost Taker the WWF title and attempted murder by trapping him in said burning casket to add "heat" to their Wrestlemania match. Ultimately, Taker's angle could have been advanced without the PPV title match spent, after all, attempted murder by burning is way more extreme than costing someone the title. In the after math, there was never a promo that end with "You tried to kill me....AND you cost me the title!" The same result could have come from any opponent in a casket match, like Jeff Jarrett or Mankind, who were also feuding with Taker at the time.
With Taker out of the title match, Owen would have been a good choice to face HBK in the main event. Only a month prior on PPV, Owen made his big post-Montreal return by interrupting the Main Event of HBK vs Ken Shamrock (I loved 97-98 WWF btw; lots of variety). So the big return, hot feud stemming from the most notorious event in wrestling history....big money PPV title match right?
Now in fairness, if HBK hadn't hurt himself at that Rumble, we may have seen them lock up in Feb instead of the 8-man tag main event we got at No Way Out of Texas. That PPV saw Triple H, The New Age Outlaws and Savio Vega vs Austin, Owen, Cactus Jacvk and Chainsaw Charlie. HBK was originally supposed to play the part of Savio Vega, but the desicion was made as the show opened that he was being replaced. The tag team main event seems likely to have been designed to protect Shawn for Mania by not having a 1-on-1, though in the end the injury kept him from competing at all.
More likely, I think if HBK had stayed healthy, I think he was looking at the Owen program after dropping the belt to Austin at Mania. It seems like simple booking logic to me; Austin beats HBK knocking him down the ladder for a while; Owen beats HHH, thus beating Shawn's lackey and priming him up to get revenge for his brother. With that build, the HBK vs Owen feud from Mania until Summerslam would be so natural. But HBK was forced to retire due to his injury and had no post0Wrestlemania anything, so plans needed to change. HHH needed to be elevated to replace him at the helm of the DX cash cow, so Owen had to lose at Mania and was really left odd man out.
Owen and HHH did continue to feud after Mania, but it was as two surrogates subbing for the feud we all really wanted instead: Bret and Shawn. While fans seemingly didn't mind Owen in for Bret, the fans didn't want to see both Bret and Shawn substituted - without a bona fide main eventer, where's the money feud, after all? Then DX became faces by virtue of a few catchphrases and double turned with Owen, who was a better suited heel anyways.
To think if they had done Owen vs HBK at RR '98 how different wrestling would be as we know it...no casket match injury for HBK, thus no early retirement/hiatus. No promotion for HHH in DX delaying his Main Event work with The Rock and "marriage" angle with a certain Nipple H, and "Blackhart" Owen Hart would have been a late 90's main event face - probably not champ, but at least a PPV main eventer. And who knows what may have happened after that?
Is it possible if he had feuded with HBK after Mania, would he have and gotten over as the #2 or #3 face? If so, would he never have become the Plan C Blue Blazer...would he still be alive today if the 1998 Royal Rumble title match had been different?
Owen vs Vince would have been natural, but I see why they skipped it. Mr. McMahon hadn't *really* been born yet. Until his "Oh HELL NO!" promo before WM14, he was still clinging to his traditional role of non-authority as a commentator and wouldn't actually get in the ring until he had to face Austin. If he was physically involved with Owen, heel Vince in the ring would have lost it's shine by the time Austin got to him.
Now HBK on the other hand, had no real reason to be out there with Undertaker. They had both moved on to other feuds: Taker was building up his feud with the recently debuted Kane and HBK was building up to Austin. They swerved back together for the Royal Rumble that year not so much to extend their rivalry, but to keep them apart from their main opponents until Wrestlemania. So they locked it up in the infamous casket match where HBK hurt his back so severely he left wrestling for 5 years. The match concluded with Kane, who had be hinting at aligning with his brother turned on him and locked him in the casket, which he then set on fire.
In addition to the murder of his parents and the desecration of their graves, the WWF writers wanted to add that Kane cost Taker the WWF title and attempted murder by trapping him in said burning casket to add "heat" to their Wrestlemania match. Ultimately, Taker's angle could have been advanced without the PPV title match spent, after all, attempted murder by burning is way more extreme than costing someone the title. In the after math, there was never a promo that end with "You tried to kill me....AND you cost me the title!" The same result could have come from any opponent in a casket match, like Jeff Jarrett or Mankind, who were also feuding with Taker at the time.
With Taker out of the title match, Owen would have been a good choice to face HBK in the main event. Only a month prior on PPV, Owen made his big post-Montreal return by interrupting the Main Event of HBK vs Ken Shamrock (I loved 97-98 WWF btw; lots of variety). So the big return, hot feud stemming from the most notorious event in wrestling history....big money PPV title match right?
Now in fairness, if HBK hadn't hurt himself at that Rumble, we may have seen them lock up in Feb instead of the 8-man tag main event we got at No Way Out of Texas. That PPV saw Triple H, The New Age Outlaws and Savio Vega vs Austin, Owen, Cactus Jacvk and Chainsaw Charlie. HBK was originally supposed to play the part of Savio Vega, but the desicion was made as the show opened that he was being replaced. The tag team main event seems likely to have been designed to protect Shawn for Mania by not having a 1-on-1, though in the end the injury kept him from competing at all.
More likely, I think if HBK had stayed healthy, I think he was looking at the Owen program after dropping the belt to Austin at Mania. It seems like simple booking logic to me; Austin beats HBK knocking him down the ladder for a while; Owen beats HHH, thus beating Shawn's lackey and priming him up to get revenge for his brother. With that build, the HBK vs Owen feud from Mania until Summerslam would be so natural. But HBK was forced to retire due to his injury and had no post0Wrestlemania anything, so plans needed to change. HHH needed to be elevated to replace him at the helm of the DX cash cow, so Owen had to lose at Mania and was really left odd man out.
Owen and HHH did continue to feud after Mania, but it was as two surrogates subbing for the feud we all really wanted instead: Bret and Shawn. While fans seemingly didn't mind Owen in for Bret, the fans didn't want to see both Bret and Shawn substituted - without a bona fide main eventer, where's the money feud, after all? Then DX became faces by virtue of a few catchphrases and double turned with Owen, who was a better suited heel anyways.
To think if they had done Owen vs HBK at RR '98 how different wrestling would be as we know it...no casket match injury for HBK, thus no early retirement/hiatus. No promotion for HHH in DX delaying his Main Event work with The Rock and "marriage" angle with a certain Nipple H, and "Blackhart" Owen Hart would have been a late 90's main event face - probably not champ, but at least a PPV main eventer. And who knows what may have happened after that?
Is it possible if he had feuded with HBK after Mania, would he have and gotten over as the #2 or #3 face? If so, would he never have become the Plan C Blue Blazer...would he still be alive today if the 1998 Royal Rumble title match had been different?
