Former WWE Star Recalls Hilarious Owen Hart Rib
A former WWE Superstar has recalled the rib played on him by Owen Hart that led to him storming into a parking lot, looking for a fan that wasn’t there.
The late, great Owen Hart is still fondly remembered by those that knew him as much for his pranks as he is for his skills inside the wrestling ring.
Speaking on Wrestling Shoot Interviews, former WWE Intercontinental Champion Val Venis recalled being on the wrong side of a rib from The King of Harts and it all began with a keen autograph hunter:
“This one cat had long, dark, stringy hair, kinda greasy looking. Had a stack of Val Venis photos about that thick. And he comes up and he goes ‘hey, Val, would you mind signing all these for me?’ And I go, ‘bro, I’m not gonna sign those for you. We could talk, y’know, that’s some money, we can talk, I’ll sign those for you, but I’m not gonna sit out here and sign all of those for you.'”
“Other kids are coming up ‘hey, can you sign my action figure?’ So he goes, ‘okay’ and walks away, and little did I know that Owen was behind me, and he had heard this.”
“So I continue to stay in line and I’m signing things for kids, I finally get to the front of the line, I get checked in, and go up to my room and I’m dead tired. Just as I’m ready to crash out, my phone rings, and I pick it up and I’m like ‘hello!’ and the guy on the other side of the phone goes ‘hey man when you promise me that you’re gonna come back down and sign my pictures, you should honour that and come back down and sign my pictures.'”
“Now the first guy that pops in my head is that guy with the long, stringy hair, kinda greasy looking guy, and I got angry. And I’m ‘don’t you ever call my room again,’ I went off and got really mad and I hung up the phone. Within seconds, just as I hung up the phone and I was going back to lay back down, it rang again. And I’m like ‘no way he’s called me back that fast’ and when I picked up the phone again I went ‘HELLO!’ and it was the same guy and he goes ‘I’m a big man, you won’t get by me!’ and I’m like ‘STAY DOWN THERE!’ and I slam the phone down.”
Val Venis continues that when he got to the lobby the only people he could see were Owen Hart and Jeff Jarrett who helpfully pointed an irate Venis in the right direction:
“[…] I burst through the bottom floor door and I ran down the hallway towards the lobby and when I ran into the lobby, the lobby was completely empty. All the boys had checked in, all the fans had left. There’s a bar that was closed and there was Jeff Jarrett and Owen Hart there and I’m in the lobby looking around for this guy with the long, greasy hair.”
“I can’t remember if I asked Jeff or Owen but I shouted over ‘hey did you guys see a guy with long, greasy hair?’ and they’re like ‘yeah, he just ran out that door so I go running out the door, now I’m out in the parking lot looking for this guy and there’s nobody. I was so mad. I came back into the hotel and crashed out.”
Venis then explained how he didn’t find out Owen Hart was behind his misfortune until some months later. The Big Valbowski found out the real story from Edge just moments before the two men were about to do a live interview:
“I can’t remember how much time expired, maybe six months and we were at a show called Off The Record with Michael Landsberg in Toronto, Canada. Edge and I were scheduled for that show and while we’re in the studio getting ready to start this interview up and he gets a text from Owen Hart along the lines of ‘hey ok, you can tell Val now.'”
“This is like six months after the fact, Edge leans over and says ‘remember that day in St. Louis, you wanted to kill that guy’ and I’m like ‘yeah,’ he goes ‘yeah, that was Owen.’ It was infuriating.”
If you use any quotes from this article please credit original source and then h/t with a link back to TJRWrestling for the transcription.