"On May 23, 1999, Owen Hart was scheduled to appear at a pay-per-view billed as Over The Edge. Also disillusioned with the raunchy direction in which the WWF had taken, he had refused sleazy storyline after sleazy storyline, and was eventually saddled with an old gimmick, the Blue Blazer. One of the Blazer's functions was to ridicule the stars of the WCW. One of those was Sting, whose trademark was floating from the rafters of the arena into the ring, super-hero fashion. It was decided that Owen would parody this stunt. The difference between Owen and Sting, however, was that Sting had been professionally trained to rappel from great heights, whereas Owen, scared of heights all his life, had no training whatsoever. Even the one rehearsal undertaken earlier in the afternoon had not gone well, and when the time came for Owen to descend from the rafters he still had no proper training with the harness, one that featured a special snap-shackle quick release. The snap shackle required less than 9 pounds of pressure to release - less pressure than it takes to pull the trigger on a gun. Whether Owen accidentally knocked the quick release, or whether the equipment failed in some way remains unclear - whatever the reason, Owen Hart plunged 78 feet to his death in front of 16,000 horrified fans. In an appalling display of mercenary insensitivity, Vince insisted the show carried on after Owens body was wiped off the mat. The fans at the live show were not told he had been killed. Had they been, some of them said, they would have left. They vented their disgust at being kept in the dark so they could not make the choice to walk out. Vince's excuse for keeping the show going was that he thought the fans would riot. To say that wrestling fans would riot because someone got killed is testament to just how warped the priorities of Vince McMahon really are. The real reason was that he did not want to refund the pay-per-view. In the end, as it always has been, it was about money. "
reply
share
youzuhtrikc
18 years ago
It's also weird that he died at a PPV called "Over The Edge", when he did, in fact, plunge over the edge, sort of. Anyone else think that's ironic?
[Youzuhtrikc]
[
reply
share
mattrlz
18 years ago
What an awful article that is, totally biased...
If any of you actually watched the product at the time, you know that the blazer had evolved in the weeks prior to the PPV. He was tripping on the ramp, tripping over the ropes, etc...Being clumsy on purpose for comedic value on his way to the ring before every match.
So after they did the ceiling stunt, and he fell, I asked myself what could have been the "clumsy" stunt he was going to do that night that obviously backfired? I came up with the idea that he was supposed to come down during the vignette that was airing (when he fell), and when they were done we'd see owen dangling from the ceiling over the ring. Like the rope stopped lowering him. I pictured him about 10 feet above the ring, flailing around getting the laugh, then releasing himself and falling to the ring from an acceptable height.
So after the accident, I found it strange that nobody (Davey, Bret, the family) knew what he was doing that night. They just knew he was scared of it. That struck me as odd. I think they knew what the plan was (the intentional fall but not from 78 feet) and that's why they sued. They didn't expose Vince by admitting it was supposed to be a fall because they understand the business, but they weren't going to just let it slide either.
That's how i've always looked at it. I can't believe he was going to NOT do a clumsy entrance when he was doing them every match for the weeks prior, and I think that's the most logical way to be clumsy coming from the ceiling, but it didn't go according to plan.
reply
share