[CaptainCrunch]

7) Own Hart turns on Bret Hart

This has become a bit of a tale of woe due to the untimely death of Owen Hart and the disintegration of the Hart Family. But, at one time this was one of the best rivalries in the WWE. Bret in 1994 was a star in the WWF, considered to be one of the best story tellers in the the wrestling business at the time, Bret had also won tag team Championships, the Intercontinental Championship and the World Heavy Weight Ttile. Bret was the go-to guy for the company. Owen had struggled since he had joined the WWF, a supremely talented wrestler who had re-energized the Stampede Wrestling Territory, he was an amazing ring technician and far exceeded Bret in terms of an arial attack. However, by 1992 it was clear that the WWF didn’t see the potential in Owen. A run as the masked Blue Blazer was followed up by a run with Jim Neidhart as the New Foundation and a ridiculous run in the Zabba Pants wearing High Energy tag team with Koko B. Ware. Owen had moved into Jobber territory.






Bret looked on with some dismay, he knew his brother had talent, he just needed a break, so Bret when asked by Vince McMahon who he wanted to work with, he said “Owen”. The problem was, how do you make Owen a heel? He was as white bread Baby Face as there was and had never been a heel.


But Owen and Bret created a story line that led to 5* matches and a long run as a hated heel in the company.



It all started when Owen returned from a knee injury and Bret bought him in at his side in the feud with Jerry Lawler. After Owen fought a series of matches in Lawler’s USWA, he returned to the Fed in time for the Survivor series where the Hart Family of Bret, Owen, Keith and Bruce would face off against Lawler and his team. Unfortunately, Lawler missed the show and Shawn Michael stepped In, but it didn’t matter. During the match Bret and Owen collided and Owen was eliminated, Owen confronted his big brother while the other Harts cooled things down, but Owen left the ring to boo’s, while Helen Hart cried in the crowd and sold it perfectly, as he played the jaded little brother perfectly.






The next night Owen changed his look, he dawned Pink and Black tights, started wearing Sunglasses and adopted the Sharp Shooter as his finishing move. Owen railed against being in his brother’s shadow, blaming his lack of a career on Bret. He angrily challenged Bret to a match, but Bret declined saying he’d never ever fight his brother.



Over the holiday season as the story goes. Bret and Owen worked things out and were on the same page., Bret would team with Owen regularly, and Bret even got them a title match against the excellently heelish Quebecers at the Royal Rumble.


During the match Bret injured his knee and was unable to tag his brother for a long period of time and took the baby face beatdown while Owen Fumed on the sidelines. Finally the referee concerned about Bret stopped the match, Owen Snapped and kicked Bret’s injured leg out of his leg, and stormed off later berating Bret “All you needed to do was tag me, but you’re too damned Selfish”.








Suddenly Owen had arrived, he became a exceptional heel, they clashed at Wrestlemaina X, where they had a 5 star match where Owen pulled off the upset cleanly pinning his brother. Later in the night Bret won the WWF title, and during the celebration where Bret was carried around the ring by his fellow wrestlers, Owen came out to ring side and glare at his brother, once again Bret had stolen his thunder.








Owen continued to do everything he could do to become a hated heel, he won the King of the Ring Tournament and named himself “The King of the Harts.”


The feud continued through 1994 as they fought in single matches and tag team matches where Owen tagged up with Jim Neidhart, and Bret tagged with Davey Boy Smith. This lead up to the a steel cage match at Summer Slam where Bret beat Owen, that was labelled as another 5 star match. Then a lumber jack match that Owen originally won the world heavy weight title only to have the match restarted due to outside interference.
At the height of the feud though, they didn’t meat in the ring as Owen cost his brother the world heavyweight title during a match with Bob Backlund where Owen tearfully convinced Helen to throw in the towel, then laughed in her face when she did it. The Feud then wrapped up with a blow off match where Bret soundly beat Owen.







But Bret’s original plan was successful, Owen had ascended to the upper card, and had a new heel persona, that fans loved while they boo’d him.
Its important to know that the Hart’s old school belief in Kayfabe was on full display. They never appeared in public together, traveled on different planes, and when they went to family events, they were careful to not be seen together. When they were in Calgary when fans asked about the feud Owen would blast his brother, Bret would act heartbroken.



The brothers wouldn’t reunite until Bret turned heel and built the Hart Foundation.

6) Larry Zybszko turns on Bruno Sammartino


People sometimes sleep a little bit on Larry Zybsko remembering him as the horrible announcer on WCW’s Saturday night show. But in his prime Larry was an exceptional heel and exceptional with the mic. The story of this feud is rooted in real life.



Bruno on the other hand it could still be argued is one of the greatest to tie up his boots, over his long career he had played the everyman, immigrant face champion who constantly sold out the Garden.



But Bruno was slowing down, and injuries were taking their toll including a broken next caused by Stan Hansons devastating Lariat.



Because of this Bruno’s schedule was lightened by the then WWWF. This allowed Bruno to pick and choose his opponents, from different territories.
While this was happening Bruno’s former for real student and protégé Larry Zbysko was bought into the WWWF in 1973 thanks to the political connections of his mentor. In real life, Larry had begged Bruno to train him in 1971, and then Bruno who would only train Larry if he got a degree first used his connections to help Larry to avoid the usual hardships that rookie wrestlers have to face in their first years in the business.


Larry originally came in as a baby face and was voted rookie of the year in 1974. But Larry in his promo’s seemed to forget the benefits of Bruno’s mentorship and connections.



Bruno on the other hand acted as an upset teacher dealing with an ungrateful student, and he decided to teach this uppity youngster a lesson in humility.
This was a long burning build as Larry left the WWWF for a time, then returned in 1976, by this time Bruno was a color commentator, but Larry still playing the Baby face said that despite all of his own success, he couldn’t escape from Bruno’s shadow, and people didn’t know his name or referred to him as Bruno’s kid.


At this time the WWWF had transitioned to the WWF, and the Fed was struggling because their champion Bob Backlund was just not drawing. So, the Sammartino v Zybysko was put front and center.



Larry and Bruno continued to clash in interviews, where Bruno refusing Larry’s challenges because he didn’t want to hurt their friendship. Meanwhile Larry swore to quit the business because he couldn’t get out of his mentor’s shadow and get credit for himself.




This led to a final interview, where Bruno stated that he was not going in to hurt Larry, and he wouldn’t give him anything, his student would have to prove himself.



This led to a series of sold-out excellent matches until Larry fully turned heel by bloodying his mentor with a wooden chair, where Bruno was stretched out of the building.


In real life their friendship changed. Bruno was angry because as he claimed Larry didn’t protect him with the chair shots and clobbered him for real.






Remember at this time, there were no PPV blowoffs, TV was used to build house shows, and ticket sales were everything. And this feud boiled over with sold out shows in Boston, Philly, Pittsburgh and New York, but most important there were never definitive winders, the matches would end with DQ’s. Larry’s new heel persona was so successful that he was stabbed by a fan during a show in New York and his car was turned over in Boston.
This led to a rare angry emotional interview by Bruno.


“I’ve created a Frankenstein, and I’m going to destroy that Frankenstein I created. You climbed that mountain using me, the guy who poured his heart out to you. Larry, you’re going to make the biggest splash when you fly off that mountain and hit the bottom. You’re going to make such a big splash that there won’t even be a spot left of you. No one will even remember that such an idiot like Larry Zbyszko existed!"

Larry then responded with one of his best promo’s of all time.


"I don’t know if I can go through another three minutes of Bruno crying to his fans over how bitter he is. What does he have to be bitter about? He came on TV and tried to embarrass me, and it didn’t work. Well, I want to confess to everybody: I have never felt so happy and free in my entire life.
I took myself, by myself, out of that ridiculous little box of a shadow Bruno put me in for the last eight years, and I broke it myself and raised it myself above everybody. Now Larry Zybyszko is on the front page everywhere, and the only thing I lost was the support of Bruno Sammartino, you fans, maybe you (Vince), and some of the wrestlers. And you know what? It doesn’t matter!"



Finally, we came down to the blow off, in front of a sold out Shea Stadium (36,000 fans) the teacher and student faced off in a brutal cage match. Bruno finally dispatched his protégé by escaping the cage, by leaving his student standing Larry retained his heel heat. After leaving the cage Larry confronted Bruno and got punched in the face for his effort, and then in a final cynical move, Larry raised Bruno’s hand in victory with a sneer on his face.





For Bruno his career was winding down, this was one last big payday and historical feud in his long career. For Larry he became one of the most hated heels in the business, In a feud that bled the lines between reality and Kayfabe, more importantly for Larry, he had final escaped the shadow of Bruno Sammartino.