OWEN HART (from the Raw tribute show):On May 24, 1999, the night after Over The Edge 1999, Monday Night Raw was a special tribute show in honor of Owen Hart who died the night before after a fall from the rafters. Many of the WWF Superstars stepped out of character that night long enough to share their memories of Owen. Following is a transcript of what Hunter had to say about the King of Harts...
"In a business where uh...you often see the worst of everything, you see the worst of everybody's personalities, we're like a family. We're around everybody at their best, and we're around each other at their worst. Owen was always one that was at his best. He was always up; he was never a piece of trash. Owen was always there for everybody; to make you laugh, to make you mad. He'd rib you in the ring and make you so mad you'd want to choke him. He's the only guy that had the balls enough ever to, on a live Pay-Per-View, at the Royal Rumble, to school-boy me and back-slide me and not let me out. We had a laugh. He made me laugh more than anybody in the room but him. He loved his family. Talked about 'em all the time. He's one of the guys that you really felt was true about that. Lived for his kids and his wife. Um...Owen will always have a place here (points to his heart) for me; with me. You'll always be my friend, and I love you. I'll never forget you." SHAWN MICAHELS (from the February 2005 HBK Magazine):"If you'd have to pick the No. 1 and No. 2 wrestlers of this generation, it would be me and Shawn. We've had the greatest battles ever. We'll disagree about who's No. 1 and No. 2, but he's right there."

RIC FLAIR (About Flair's book): "Ric Flair has been so great to work with. He's been in the business for 30 years, and I learn something from him every day. Personally, aside from how I feel about him in a working relationship, Ric's a great guy. We traveltogether, we have a good time - all we do is laugh."
"From a business standpoint, I couldn't possible have any more respect for anybody in the business. He's done it all. When Ric first came here, working for WCW had kind of beaten him down and destroyed his confidence in his ability. I really wanted to re-establish that Ric Flair should be what Ric Flair is, and that's one of there greatest ever in this business. He should always be presented that way. There could never be another Ric Flair, as far as I'm concerned. He always has been and always will be The Man."
"One of the reasons why I wanted Ric in Evolution has to do with the fact that right now there's no place for new guys in our business to work five, six years before they hit the big time to learn how to work. They need to learn under fire, right away. Batista has got to be able to go, Randy Orton has got to be able to go, righ toff thebat. How you learn that is being around guys more experienced than you, and Ric has a wealth of knowledge that's unbeatable. For guys like Dave and Randy, to be around a guy like Ric puts them on the fast track."

RIC FLAIR (About the Ulitmate Ric Flair DVD set): I’m fairly electronically stupid. Like, I heard there are a lot of surprise things on there that you’ve got to hunt for. I don’t even know how to do it. Even if you’re not a Ric Flair fan, but you’re just a fan of the business, it’s an unbelievable thing that we’ve put out on Ric. It shows his career in some many different lights. It shows him at his best when he was younger. It’s really great.
Most of it was stuff that I’d seen before, but it was so long ago. Some of the stuff with him and Harley fighting for the title, I had never seen all of that (footage), because most of that aired in the South. So some of the promos I had never seen before. I was such a huge fan of all that stuff – the Horsemen and Ric – and to go back and see things that I had forgotten about, it’s like reliving your childhood in a way. To go back and see all that stuff, it just reminds me of how good he really is.

STEVE AUSTIN: Steve Austin made himself. Yes, the office then took the ball and ran with it. But when Steve came in and he was the Ringmaster, and nobody gave a crap about him, Steve changed his persona, Steve changed his attitude. Before the office was ever doing anything with him, before he was doing the stuff with Bret Hart, Steve was creating a persona that the fans were getting behind. I know because I was working with him every now and then, and he was one of the most over guys, even though he was basically a bottom-of-the-card guy. He was working a program with Savio Vega, and at the bottom of the card, but he was getting one of the biggest reactions on the show. And he had all the tools there to do it...Steve is still a young guy, and he should still kind of be in his prime. Unfortunately, injuries ended it way too soon. I feel bad for that. At the same point in time, Steve had one hell of a run. That was one hell of a ride for him. He should never feel badly about his career, because he did it all. He did more than almost anybody ever in the business. He's always going to be remembered as one of the greats of all time in the business. I'd rather have a brief career the way he did, than have a 30-year career that basically amounted to nothing.

GOLDBERG: I think Bill's a big star. He's got a big name. And hopefully he can add. But WWE is a different beast altogether. It's going to be a real sharp learning curve, I think, for Bill. Hopefully he can do it. We don't have a 300-guy-deep talent roster to feed him 200 wins. He's going to have to get over in a different way -- not that he's not already over, but to stay over. I think he'll adapt, and adapt well. I look forward to getting in the ring with him.

KURT ANGLE: Kurt once again proved how tough he is, and how dedicated he is and how much passion he has for the business. I don't think there was a doubt in most people's minds, but anybody who did have a doubt of that, Kurt surely erased that. My hat's off to him. He put on a hell of a performance, taking one hell of a risk, and not just with his career, but with his life. Screw his career. That's important, but there's a lot more in the world than that. But he took a hell of a risk because of his pride and passion for this business. I can't say enough about that. (in reference to Kurt going ahead with his match at Wrestlemania XIX with a serious neck injury)

SHAWN MICHAELS: “Shawn Michaels proved to the world, to me, tonight, that he’s the greatest worker possibly there’s ever been,” said the Game, his face covered in dried blood, in an interview. “To be able to come back after four years, and look like he never missed a day … ”

ERIC BISCHOFF: I hope he doesn’t run us out of business, too. His stuff was very innovative, right up until the point he went out of business. It’s got people talking. That’s good for business. A lot of people are talking. Believe me, he starts to screw up our product and I’ll be the first one to kick his ass.

RIC FLAIR: My biggest uh, career inspiration was Ric Flair. I've got tapes of him that I've probably watched so many times I've warn 'em out. He was just a large inspiration for me, and a reason for me getting into the business.

STEPH: Stephanie's character on the show is an amazing thing to me. She is so hated that the 'smart marks' of our business, that know everything, hate her. Legitimately hate her.

Mick Foley: He was looking to retire, and be finished. You know, his body couldn't take it anymore. He could have done anything he wanted to on his way out and he chose to do it with me. And that; that was a great honor for me.

UNDERTAKER: You can talk about Hulk Hogan and Ric Flairs. When you mention those names, one of the names you mention right along with them is the Undertaker. I don't have more respect for anybody in our business than I do for him. He's the guy. So it was, for me, to go to Wrestlemania against the Undertaker, that was a thrill for me; it was an honor. At that point and time, we had a helluva match, so it was even better.

HULK HOGAN: I went out there with one of the greatest f**king icons in our business and f**king blew the roof off Kansas City. I'm on top of the world. On top of the world. It's not about who wins and loses; this is about performing. Tonight, I went out there with a guy that is one of the best in the business, of all time, and we did what we do. There's nothing better than that.

NWO: The nWo is a strong force. Do I think they’re a poison? No. I think that a lot of things in our business get blown out of proportion as time goes on. I think that they’ll be good for business in the long run. I think there’s three more big-name guys for us to dance with.

THE CLIQUE: When I was with Kevin Nash, Scott Hall, Shawn Michaels, and X-Pac, we were a clique. We were a bunch of jerks. The one thing that drew me to those guys was their passion for the business. People look back at those times and say, "Oh, they were jerks. They were destructive to the business." Kevin could be a big, grumpy bastard, and a lot of people didn't like him because of it. Shawn can be very moody, and you never knew where he was coming from. X-Pac had a different personality. Scott can be a negative person. But it was their passion for the business that drew me to them. So, all of a sudden this new guy is riding along with these top guys. We would go on a five-hour car ride; that was when we were doing 20 day tours. You would do a 20 day tour, go home for a couple of days, then go back out for another 15 days. That's what we did then. We would ride together for four or five hours in a car, and we'd talk business from the time the door closed until the time the door opened when we go to our destination. We'd come up with angles. We'd talk about matches and anything that had to do with business. That's what drew us all together. Kevin used to go to places and do a routine that he called "Big Grumpy." We'd literally pull up to a place and he'd get out of the car screaming. People would be scared to death of this big, 7-foot grumpy guy. And this was just people that worked with us. He thought it was funny. From a business standpoint, it wasn't funny. But that was the part we were jerks about. I didn't know better so I just sat back and laughed at those guys. It was funny. It bit me in the ass later, but for good reason. I learned a tremendous amount from being in that car. Some of the best stuff in this business will get done when you're just driving along in a car. You have a lot of time to hash out ideas.

THE ROCK: The biggest thing that amazed me about Rock's comeback was, I was watching to see when he got back in the ring. It's one thing to go out there and talk, or to cut a promo in the back, something like that. But the real proof is in the pudding. Rock got in the ring and looked like he never missed a day.I was pretty impressed with that because he's been gone for a quite a while, and he got back in there and it looked like it was just another day for him. It looked like he had not missed a beat. So I gotta take my hat off to The Rock.

RIC FLAIR: He and Flair got in the ring together before he [Triple H] came back to TV, trying to get their feel for the ring back. It was the first time he'd been in a ring with Flair, and it was a thrill for him. He considers Flair to be one of the all-time greats in the business, and it'll be fun to work with him somewhere down the line. He's looking forward to any interaction with Flair; be it in the ring or otherwise. It's like getting the opportunity to work with one of your heroes.

SHAWN MICHAELS: I have the utmost respect for Shawn Michaels. Professionally, he's one of the greatest performers ever in our business. Some of the greatest, most incredible matches I've seen in my life have involved Shawn Michaels and been because of Shawn Michaels. Arguably Shawn is one of the greatest workers of all time. Personally, outside of our business, he's still a close friend to me and always will be. And I personally have the utmost respect for him also.

SHANE MCMAHON: I think that Shane has come a long way in a very short period of time. He has gigantic shoes to fill. There are not many people in the world that could try to step into the shoes of Vince McMahon. Most people wouldn't have the guts or the first inclination of how to do it. But if there's one person I believe could, I'll go with Shane. Shane loves this business. And he's jazzed for this business like nobody else and that goes a long way. And he's willing to do whatever it takes to fill those very big shoes.



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