Blue Angel (Owen Hart) vs Barry Horowitz - WWF LA 8/13/88

 

Owen Hart in a Super Calo like mask is the Blue Angel. Owen is already technically more proficient than 95% of the WWF roster at this point and blows Gorilla and Superstar's mind within a minute with his moves. His outfit looks wicked bush league and Blue Blazer was definitely a big upgrade. Owen looked freaking awesome here. Superstar makes a great point saying he is doing cool moves, but is delivering the pain too. I love how he is always maintaining wrist control throughout all his cool, flashy chaining sequences. The shine is a really good one that really showcases Owen. Horowitz' best contribution is that funny pat on the back taunt. He hits a superkick on a criss cross to take over. At first, he is a pretty good heel, getting nasty going for the throat, choking. Then as Superstar and Gorilla speculate runs out of moves and hits the chinlock, which is pretty funny because it is probably true and exactly what I was thinking. Horowitz falls in love with a variety of cradles, which is oddly babyface of him. He goes up top and Owen kips up and saves us from this. Owen chucks him off and takes him to school. Big time missile dropkick, "Suplex City coming up" - Gorilla, backbreaker and then a moonsault do Horowitz in. Definitely sign that man! Owen looked impressive in this. As a match, I think it is fun as a novelty and exhibition of where Owen is at the time and how good he was at this point, but Horowitz just does not have enough on top to make this more than good. ***1/4

Just watching this LA card randomly and Gorilla is super critical on commentary during this match. I kinda dig the Gorilla-Graham announce duo though.

 

This match was a bit weird and disjointed. Owen trying to make a name for himself but the pacing was all off for me, maybe Horowitz just couldn’t be carried to something decent but it was all a bit spotty. Can imagine it caused a buzz in 88.