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AEW President Tony Khan announced the return of the Owen Hart Cup for 2023 following its success the previous year. The first rounds of the tournament were held at Forbidden Door 2023. The next matches are scheduled for AEW Collision. The final round is set for AEW House Rules on July 15, 2023, in Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
Owen Hart is a renowned name in the pro-wrestling industry and hails from the Hart wrestling family. After his passing at WWE’s Over The Edge event in 1999, Martha Hart’s relationship with WWE became tainted. Titanland and Martha were involved in a lawsuit that concluded after an out-of-court settlement in 2013. Since then, Owen's widow has had a strained relationship with the company.
In 2022, Tony Khan took to social media to announce the Owen Hart Cup in an attempt to pay homage to the late wrestling legend. The promotion partnered with the Owen Hart Foundation and his widow, Martha Hart, to bring the tournament to fruition.
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AEW created the tournament to honor Owen's memory. Former WWE Superstar Chris Jericho played a crucial role in ensuring the passion project went through. He worked with Martha Hart and Tony Khan for almost a year and a half to understand how to move forward with the tournament.
The inaugural Owen Hart Cup had a men’s and women’s singles tournament. The tournament finals were added to the match card for the company’s Double or Nothing pay-per-view in May 2022. Dr. Martha Hart was present to hand out the trophies to the respective winners – Adam Cole for the men’s singles tournament and Dr. Britt Baker, D.M.D. for the women's singles tournament.
For 2023, the first round (quarterfinal) of the men’s singles tournament was between CM Punk and Satoshi Kojima at AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door II, where Punk won. The women’s singles round between Anna Jay and Skye Blue was held on June 23, 2023 edition of AEW Rampage, where Blue secured the victory.
Tony Khan revealed the inspiration behind the Owen Hart Cup
The idea for the Owen Hart Cup came to Tony Khan during the pandemic. During an interview with Z100 New York, Khan opened up about the inspiration behind the tournament.
“I had this idea for an Owen Hart Cup. In movies, they have the Oscars, and in TV, the Emmys and so forth, so I thought it’d be really cool if there was ‘The Owen’ in wrestling and that would be a trophy that everybody could win.”
Considering this is the second year for the Owen Hart Cup, it’s safe to say that AEW, Chris Jericho, Martha Hart, and others involved feel strongly about continuing the tournament and keeping Owen Hart’s legacy alive!
