One of the most unique matches of the Attitude Era was the “Lion’s Den” match between Ken Shamrock and Owen Hart, which took place inside the Hart Family Dungeon. Speaking on Wrestling Life with Ben Veal, Shamrock recalled how easy Owen was to work with, but how difficult the environment was.
Working With Owen
“Yeah, Owen was easy. He was another one of those guys that you know, you could sit down and talk with them and and put stuff together….He also understood my character and who I needed to be.”
The Lion’s Den
Shamrock praised both Owen Hart and Steve Blackman as opponents who understood submissions, but he noted that their Dungeon match was a completely different animal due to the location.
“And I do not believe other than someone like Steve Blackman or people like that, like Owen, who have the ability to understand submissions and be able to understand lots of different things… I do not believe that there’s too many people that could go into that den and be able to put on a match like we did. There’s no ropes, there’s no turnbuckles, there’s no going outside. I mean, you had to go off the cage and sides of it. There was no bouncy ring, so when you landed, it was stiff.”
“So it was a real not for us, I felt natural for me, but for a lot of people that are in the industry of pro wrestling, to go into a place like that, the den, and be able to put on a match that everybody enjoyed was very, very difficult, but understanding Vince and understanding his mindset, and able to think about stuff like that that he could put together that would be different, but still exciting, and putting the right people together.”
‘Literal Hand To Hand Combat’
Shamrock described just how brutal the setting was, with a low ceiling and a “solid floor” instead of a ring.
“Yeah, like you said, you didn’t have turnbuckles or ropes or any of that stuff. This was a solid floor. This was a ceiling that was probably eight feet high, seven feet high. And I remember getting my head shoved through the ceiling a few times and hit with weights. And so it was a, it was a very, very interesting sight like this, like being in the dungeon. I mean, literally, like going in there, and, and, and actually, like, at the den too, we’re like, just like, you’re just closed off. It’s not a normal setting, and you’ve got to go in there and you’ve got to fight like, it’s not like hip tosses and bounce off the rope and suplex. This is like, literal hand-to-hand combat.”
If you use any portion of the quotes from this article please credit Wrestling Life with Ben Veal with a h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription. You can check out the full interview on YouTube and wherever you get your podcasts.
