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Owen Hart infamously became the first (and thankfully, only) WWE Superstar to pass away during a live event. Just before his match at the Over The Edge pay-per-view, Hart was supposed to descend to the ring in his Blue Blazer persona.
Rumour had it that Hart was only asked to portray the character once more as a punishment. Hart was supposed to turn face and split from his tag team with Jeff Jarrett when it was revealed that he was having an affair with Jarrett's manager, Debra. Hart did not want to do the story line because he thought it would upset his wife and children. This is when the Blue Blazer returned as a buffoon. However, insiders insist that the gimmick was a genuine attempt to push Hart as a main-event tier babyface.
Hart accidentally hit the release mechanism on his harness, causing him to plummet to the ring. Hart hit one of the ring posts and died in the ring. As a video package aired during the fall, Vince McMahon ordered all cameras to be kept off the ring until Hart was assisted out of the arena. His match was understandably called off, however, the rest of the show continued. The WWE insists to this day that this is what Hart would have wanted, while Hart's closest friends and family insist the opposite.
It is not known whether or not Hart was due to win the Intercontinental Championship from Godfather that night. Management and writers at the time insist that he was going to. Close personal friend Jeff Jarrett would win the title the next night during the tribute to him.
Note:Vince Russo's comments should be taken with a pinch of salt, as I shall explain at the end.
<div class='spoiler_toggle'>Match Referee Jimmy Korderas</div><div class="spoiler" style="display:none;">
I heard screaming. I didn't hear exactly what the screaming was...I was told later that it was [Owen yelling at me to move out of the way]. I will say I'm not 100% sure... but it would not have been out of character at all for Owen to do that. Meaning, I was very close to becoming a more tragic part of that story than people realize...
...
Being so close to it ... it was something that I had to deal with and it took me a long time to come to grips with it. But at the same time, it's still there. I still think about it to this day... It's unfortunately something that's ... I don't want to say 'haunt', because that's not the right word ... It's just something that's going to live with me forever. It just puts everything into perspective, you know? You do so much for the business and you try to do your best...but some things are more important than the business..."
...
It's easy for us to say afterward, 'Well the show should have stopped...' I was kind of on the fence with that. I kind of liken it a little bit to a Nascar race, where the race continues even after a tragic accident. Again, it's a tough call...I'm just glad I'm not the one who had to make that call..."
</div>
<div class='spoiler_toggle'>Vince Russo - The writer who came up with the stunt</div><div class="spoiler" style="display:none;">
The whole idea just started so innocently... We had brought back Owen's old gimmick, The Blue Blazer. He was meant to be like a superhero, but a spoof on a superhero - to really get over the comedic genius of Owen Hart. It was probably the Friday before the show, the show's already written - I get a call from Steve Taylor [WWF V.P of operations]. He goes, 'Look, I just got a call from the people who propel Sting from the rafters [in rival WCW]. They said they're gonna be at our pay-per-view...they wanna know if there is anything they may be able to do for the WWE...' So while he's telling me this I'm looking through the show...and I see Owen. And I'm saying, 'Well, that'd really elevate Owen's character, that'd be something really special and cool for Owen...what if we propelled The Blue Blazer?"
...
So now during the day [of the PPV] Owen comes up to me and what he said was, 'I rehearsed propelling from the ceiling...but when I propel down, it takes me awhile to get my harness off. If [Owen's opponent] the Godfather is in the ring first and then I propel and I gotta take this harness off, the Godfather could pummel me...' See, everyone [at that time] was thinking, 'Real, real, real; reality', so he said, 'Could my entrance come first...THEN have The Godfather come out? I said, 'Owen, no problem - I'll make the changes, no problem...' And that was it. That was the extent of our conversation."
[*Owen had already performed a version of the stunt at an earlier date. With the standard (safer) full harness and slow release clip the stunt took too long to disengage and made for 'bad television'. For the PPV 'Over The Edge' it was decided that the stunt would be done using a 'nautical clip' which was "designed expressly for the quick release of a sailboat mast." It is alleged that several stunt coordinators were asked to test it, but all but one refused, declaring it "crazy."]
...
Owen NEVER said to me he was concerned about doing it. He never said to me he was afraid. He never said to me he had trepidations about this...
But then...there's that other side...you start thinking about the wrestler side of Owen...was Owen afraid to say he was uncomfortable with this because three weeks ago he'd told us he was uncomfortable with [another storyline] and the old wrestler mentality [kicked in]...Would he have been afraid to lose his spot..?
</div>
<div class='spoiler_toggle'>Sting - Who regularly did the stunt for his WCW appearances and entrances</div><div class="spoiler" style="display:none;">
I was on my way to LAX and I was flying [to Greenville, SC]. We were doing a Monday Nitro...and I was scheduled to come out of the ceiling that night. My wife called me and told me. She said, 'Somebody died, and I think it was Owen Hart. And you're not gonna believe this, but he died coming out of the ceiling on a cable.' [I said] 'You've got to be kidding me...'
...
I know what it's like to be up there when you have 10-to-20,000 fans screaming at a fevered pitch. Music, lasers, lights, and you need to go down on your cue and all... Man, there's a lot of chaos all at one time, and you can't even hear yourself think...
...
I ended up landing wherever it was we were doing the show, and it was confirmed. Owen had died. I saw the guys that do my set-up and I said, 'Guys, you won't be setting up anything for me tonight. I will not be doing that...two different reasons: number one, it would be completely disrespectful. Number two, I was too shaken to do something like that...'
</div>
<div class='spoiler_toggle'>Owen's Wife Martha Hart</div><div class="spoiler" style="display:none;">
He was hooked up to a make-shift contraption which included a quick-release snap shackle clip meant for the sole purpose of rigging sail boats.
The hook that was practically the equivalent of a paper clip released [prematurely]...and Owen fell...
...
As [Owen] lay dying in the ring, he struggled to live for me and our children...and after he lost his fight for life they just scooped him up and ordered the next match out. Where's the humanity? Owen was a man of many faces but I knew the true Owen...I felt I was the only one who really knew him, so believe me when I say I would know exactly what he would and wouldn't want. Would he have wanted the show to go on? Absolutely not."
</div>
<div class='spoiler_toggle'>Vince McMahon</div><div class="spoiler" style="display:none;">
Earlier that day, my son Shane and I were out by the ring, walking through a physical bit we had to do that night, and I was shocked and surprised by Owen. He was descending to the ring in typical Owen fashion, yelling and raising hell. He was one of the biggest ribbers - as we call them in the business - a practical joker, a prankster. One time he and Davey Boy Smith put goats in my office, and they made sure those goats were well fed beforehand. You can imagining how it stunk. But that's how it is in the WWF, and how it was with Owen. So many jokes..."
...
I was backstage in my office when I heard. It happened when the arena was dark, so nobody saw the fall...
...
Knowing Owen as the performer he was...it's my belief that he would have wanted the show to go on. I didn't know if it was the right decision...I just guessed that it was what Owen would want...
</div>
<div class='spoiler_toggle'>Owen's close friend The Rock</div><div class="spoiler" style="display:none;">
I was backstage in the dressing room, going over the details of my match with Triple H and Chyna. We were talking, moving around, trying to figure out how to make the match memorable, when Sergeant Slaughter walked into the room and said, 'Owen is hurt...' I looked at Hunter, then looked at Sarge and said, 'Oh, come on. Are you serious or are you ribbing?' Owen was known for his pranks, and I thought maybe this was just another example of his twisted sense of humor. 'No,' Sarge said. 'It looks pretty bad. They're working on him in the middle of the ring...'
...
I went straight to the curtain...as I reached the gorilla position, where everyone was gathered, I could see the shock on their faces, the disbelief. People were crying, hugging. And then it hit me: This is real. I walked up to the curtain and looked out. the eMTs were working on Owen in the middle of the ring, giving him CPR. The crowd was on its feet, absolutely silent...'
...
[I thought] 'My god...that's my friend, I have to go out there.' I turned around. Vince McMahon was standing there, watching everything on the monitors. He was in shock, just like the rest of us. 'Vince,' I said, 'I want to go out there - what do you think?' Vince just stared at me, with a look on his face that seemed to say, Rock, that's entirely up to you. After a few moments, though, Vince spoke. 'If you go out there, Rock, those people are really going to react to you...They may think this whole thing is a work...'
...
So I waited anxiously, helplessly by the curtain, until they wheeled Owen through on a stretcher. One of the EMTs was still straddling Owen, pumping his chest, desperately administering CPR. I walked alongside them and said a prayer as I looked at Owen's face. Then I helped them load the stretcher into the ambulance. I climbed into the passenger side of the vehicle and looked in the back, where they were still working furiously on Owen. I kept praying that God would save my friend's life...
...
I felt completely numb. And now, somehow, we had to deal with the task of going out there and performing. Triple H and I talked about the rest of our match, tried to finish putting things together, but it was almost impossible because we were so worried. Two minutes before we were scheduled to hit the stage, we were told that Owen had died...
...
I said a prayer for his family. Then - and I know this sounds strange - I started to think about the performance, the show. I thought...Can I really go out there right now? Not SHOULD I go out there...but CAN I? Am I capable of performing? I could not remember anything about the match we had designed. My mind was blank. Everything seemed...pointless. But as quickly as I asked myself that question - can I go out there now? - the answer came. I envisioned Owen saying, 'D.J, you have to go out there...' I personally felt comfortable with going on because I knew Owen, and I believe Owen would have wanted that...'
...
It was, of course, one of those situations where you're damned if you do, damned if you don't. If you go on with the show, you're going to be criticized by people who think you're being insensitive or disrespectful. And if you cancel the show...well, you've got a packed arena and 500,000 people across the country who have paid forty or fifty bucks for the pay-per-view. And some of those people are going to be pissed. That's just the way it is.
Either way, all of the blame is going to be place on Vince McMahon...
</div>
<div class='spoiler_toggle'>Bret Hart's wife at the time and Owen's former sister-in-law Julie Hart</div><div class="spoiler" style="display:none;">
My boys and I just came back from Ottawa, we were just pulling up to the driveway and my sister called and she said, 'Julie, something happened to Owen - I don't know what’s going on...' I ran into the house called up Stu (Owen's father) and I could tell it was not good because I could hear crying in the background. Helen was too upset to come to the phone. It was like being in a dream...wondering, when am I going to wake up...â€
</div>
<div class='spoiler_toggle'>Owen's brother Bret Hart</div><div class="spoiler" style="display:none;">
I found out on the plane. I was flying to do the Jay Leno show. You don't ever wanna find out about a tragedy on an airplane, trust me on that one. That was really hard...there was nowhere to go...
...
I actually know first-hand from the wrestlers involved that they wheeled my dead brother past...right past all the wrestlers and actually pushed them out the door and said, 'Go...go...go - you're on...' I think that's really insensitive. Really cold...
...
His life was centred around his wife, Martha, his one and only childhood sweetheart, and his two beautiful children, Oje and Athena. I recall, so often, in airports, hotel rooms, dressing rooms, long drives on endless highways, his only dream was to come home to his wife and his two children. So many times, I remember he sprinted from the door of the plane, his two carry-on bags in each hand, at a full run, worn out and weary, just to clear customs, through the sliding doors, to their outstretched arms...
...
Owen would NOT have wanted the show to go on. I think if you look at anyone with any common sense in their family, no one would want the show to go on. And I think if Vince McMahon had dropped [his son] Shane McMahon from the ceiling and he splattered on the mat, I don't think he would have scraped him off the mat and sent the next match out...
...
Over the years, I've come to see it was a horrible accident, and I don't think Vince would want something like that to happen. It wouldn't be advantageous to anyone. We were hurt by that, though. I don't think my dad ever got over what happened with Owen..."
</div>
<div class='spoiler_toggle'>JBL who was wrestling as Bradshaw</div><div class="spoiler" style="display:none;">
Owen dressed with Ron and I that day in KC. It was a small dressing room so we were there during all the discussion about the stunt. I remember going in and telling Undertaker, who was going over his match [with Austin], that Owen was dead...
...
It was tough because we knew he had died but no one knew what to do - to wrestle or not to wrestle... Vince was overwhelmed and gave us the option of finishing show or not wrestling...he told everyone that they could do what they wanted - no pressure. He really didn't know what to do...no one did...there wasn't a 'right' decision. We decided to wrestle. We wrestled shortly after Owen died, I don't think right after, I think it was a couple of matches later, I can't remember..."
</div>
<div class='spoiler_toggle'>Stone Cold Steve Austin who was in the main event that night</div><div class="spoiler" style="display:none;">
We were backstage just chilling, waiting to perform, then all of a sudden word comes to the back that Owen is dead. I was like, 'What the hell are you talking about..?' Then it was like, 'Are we gonna work or are we gonna stop..?'
...
Vince made the gutsy call: The show goes on. And he has taken a lot of fire for that, but he would’ve taken a lot of fire if he hadn’t said that. It was a gutsy call on his part. I agree with the call to go on. But it was a very hard night to work. I don’t remember anything about the match [against The Undertaker]. It was probably a stinker. It was extremely hard to work in that ring. My brain was pretty scrambled after receiving news as devastating as that. Everybody loved Owen, including me. It was a tough blow...
</div>
<div class='spoiler_toggle'>Jim Ross who was the play by play announcer when the accident happened</div><div class="spoiler" style="display:none;">
Being at ringside the night he fell [and announcing live on air that he had died] was the toughest thing I ever did. To this day, I've still never seen the tape. I was pretty numb...everyone was in shock that night. I still have nightmares about it. Owen was as warm-hearted as any human being I have ever known. He loved to laugh and he loved to make other people laugh. He had a great spirit, a good soul and a good heart...
</div>
<div class='spoiler_toggle'>Kevin Nash</div><div class="spoiler" style="display:none;">
When he was alive, nobody had a bad word to say about Owen. He didn't run around on his wife. He had beautiful kids. They must have needed a first-class angel up there because they got one...
</div>
<div class='spoiler_toggle'>Owen's sister Diana Smith</div><div class="spoiler" style="display:none;">
Owen and Martha actually did build their dream home...a lovely home that was finally completed and ready for them to start moving into on the day that Owen died. How unfair. I really get upset about that. What a terrible thing to happen. Sometimes life is such a tragedy, and I can only imagine Martha’s grief...
</div>
<div class='spoiler_toggle'>Owen Hart a few months before his death</div><div class="spoiler" style="display:none;">
When my contract is up, I’m out of wrestling. I’ve made plans. I’ve been smart with my fiscal affairs. Financially, I’ll be set. I really want to devote a lot of time to my family... I’ve bought some property on a lake. I plan on doing a lot of boating and fishing. I want to continue to stay in shape. And who knows, I might do ten weeks a year in Japan. Something just to motivate me to keep in shape, keep involved a little bit but not have to deal with the politics, the pressures that are so intense right now... I’ve paid my dues for twelve years now. If I continue for five more, that’s seventeen years working at a pretty hard clip. I think that at that point my family - my wife and kids - have been compromised enough. I need to start focusing on my family and letting go of wrestling. I would like to kind of just disappear, from wrestling fans and stuff. I don't want to forget the fans and what they've done. They've supported me and stuff, but at the same time, I'd like to just ... I don't want to be hanging on like one of these wrestlers who's sixty years old, saying, 'Hey, I'm a wrestler.' Let it go. Make your money out of it and get on. Going out and performing...it's an art. I'd like fans to remember me as a guy who would go out and entertain them, give them quality matches. Not just the same old garbage every week...â€
</div>
Several months later, Vince Russo was working for World Championship Wrestling (WCW) where Owen's brother Bret was working. Russo, who came up with the stunt that Owen died performing, wrote a re-inaction for a WCW event. A stunt double dressed as Sting feel from the ceiling, and actors portraying medics helped him out of the building. The announce them repeated the comments of Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler during Hart's death, word for word.
(Sources: canoe - slamsports, PM in the AM Boston, Calgary Sun, wrestleview.com, kayfabekickout.com, The Last Word/Jim Rome, angelfire.com, The Rock Says... - autobiography, wrestlinginc, Kevin Sullivan books, maineventbdub, Wrestling's Glory Days)
Rumour had it that Hart was only asked to portray the character once more as a punishment. Hart was supposed to turn face and split from his tag team with Jeff Jarrett when it was revealed that he was having an affair with Jarrett's manager, Debra. Hart did not want to do the story line because he thought it would upset his wife and children. This is when the Blue Blazer returned as a buffoon. However, insiders insist that the gimmick was a genuine attempt to push Hart as a main-event tier babyface.
Hart accidentally hit the release mechanism on his harness, causing him to plummet to the ring. Hart hit one of the ring posts and died in the ring. As a video package aired during the fall, Vince McMahon ordered all cameras to be kept off the ring until Hart was assisted out of the arena. His match was understandably called off, however, the rest of the show continued. The WWE insists to this day that this is what Hart would have wanted, while Hart's closest friends and family insist the opposite.
It is not known whether or not Hart was due to win the Intercontinental Championship from Godfather that night. Management and writers at the time insist that he was going to. Close personal friend Jeff Jarrett would win the title the next night during the tribute to him.
Note:Vince Russo's comments should be taken with a pinch of salt, as I shall explain at the end.
<div class='spoiler_toggle'>Match Referee Jimmy Korderas</div><div class="spoiler" style="display:none;">
I heard screaming. I didn't hear exactly what the screaming was...I was told later that it was [Owen yelling at me to move out of the way]. I will say I'm not 100% sure... but it would not have been out of character at all for Owen to do that. Meaning, I was very close to becoming a more tragic part of that story than people realize...
...
Being so close to it ... it was something that I had to deal with and it took me a long time to come to grips with it. But at the same time, it's still there. I still think about it to this day... It's unfortunately something that's ... I don't want to say 'haunt', because that's not the right word ... It's just something that's going to live with me forever. It just puts everything into perspective, you know? You do so much for the business and you try to do your best...but some things are more important than the business..."
...
It's easy for us to say afterward, 'Well the show should have stopped...' I was kind of on the fence with that. I kind of liken it a little bit to a Nascar race, where the race continues even after a tragic accident. Again, it's a tough call...I'm just glad I'm not the one who had to make that call..."
</div>
<div class='spoiler_toggle'>Vince Russo - The writer who came up with the stunt</div><div class="spoiler" style="display:none;">
The whole idea just started so innocently... We had brought back Owen's old gimmick, The Blue Blazer. He was meant to be like a superhero, but a spoof on a superhero - to really get over the comedic genius of Owen Hart. It was probably the Friday before the show, the show's already written - I get a call from Steve Taylor [WWF V.P of operations]. He goes, 'Look, I just got a call from the people who propel Sting from the rafters [in rival WCW]. They said they're gonna be at our pay-per-view...they wanna know if there is anything they may be able to do for the WWE...' So while he's telling me this I'm looking through the show...and I see Owen. And I'm saying, 'Well, that'd really elevate Owen's character, that'd be something really special and cool for Owen...what if we propelled The Blue Blazer?"
...
So now during the day [of the PPV] Owen comes up to me and what he said was, 'I rehearsed propelling from the ceiling...but when I propel down, it takes me awhile to get my harness off. If [Owen's opponent] the Godfather is in the ring first and then I propel and I gotta take this harness off, the Godfather could pummel me...' See, everyone [at that time] was thinking, 'Real, real, real; reality', so he said, 'Could my entrance come first...THEN have The Godfather come out? I said, 'Owen, no problem - I'll make the changes, no problem...' And that was it. That was the extent of our conversation."
[*Owen had already performed a version of the stunt at an earlier date. With the standard (safer) full harness and slow release clip the stunt took too long to disengage and made for 'bad television'. For the PPV 'Over The Edge' it was decided that the stunt would be done using a 'nautical clip' which was "designed expressly for the quick release of a sailboat mast." It is alleged that several stunt coordinators were asked to test it, but all but one refused, declaring it "crazy."]
...
Owen NEVER said to me he was concerned about doing it. He never said to me he was afraid. He never said to me he had trepidations about this...
But then...there's that other side...you start thinking about the wrestler side of Owen...was Owen afraid to say he was uncomfortable with this because three weeks ago he'd told us he was uncomfortable with [another storyline] and the old wrestler mentality [kicked in]...Would he have been afraid to lose his spot..?
</div>
<div class='spoiler_toggle'>Sting - Who regularly did the stunt for his WCW appearances and entrances</div><div class="spoiler" style="display:none;">
I was on my way to LAX and I was flying [to Greenville, SC]. We were doing a Monday Nitro...and I was scheduled to come out of the ceiling that night. My wife called me and told me. She said, 'Somebody died, and I think it was Owen Hart. And you're not gonna believe this, but he died coming out of the ceiling on a cable.' [I said] 'You've got to be kidding me...'
...
I know what it's like to be up there when you have 10-to-20,000 fans screaming at a fevered pitch. Music, lasers, lights, and you need to go down on your cue and all... Man, there's a lot of chaos all at one time, and you can't even hear yourself think...
...
I ended up landing wherever it was we were doing the show, and it was confirmed. Owen had died. I saw the guys that do my set-up and I said, 'Guys, you won't be setting up anything for me tonight. I will not be doing that...two different reasons: number one, it would be completely disrespectful. Number two, I was too shaken to do something like that...'
</div>
<div class='spoiler_toggle'>Owen's Wife Martha Hart</div><div class="spoiler" style="display:none;">
He was hooked up to a make-shift contraption which included a quick-release snap shackle clip meant for the sole purpose of rigging sail boats.
The hook that was practically the equivalent of a paper clip released [prematurely]...and Owen fell...
...
As [Owen] lay dying in the ring, he struggled to live for me and our children...and after he lost his fight for life they just scooped him up and ordered the next match out. Where's the humanity? Owen was a man of many faces but I knew the true Owen...I felt I was the only one who really knew him, so believe me when I say I would know exactly what he would and wouldn't want. Would he have wanted the show to go on? Absolutely not."
</div>
<div class='spoiler_toggle'>Vince McMahon</div><div class="spoiler" style="display:none;">
Earlier that day, my son Shane and I were out by the ring, walking through a physical bit we had to do that night, and I was shocked and surprised by Owen. He was descending to the ring in typical Owen fashion, yelling and raising hell. He was one of the biggest ribbers - as we call them in the business - a practical joker, a prankster. One time he and Davey Boy Smith put goats in my office, and they made sure those goats were well fed beforehand. You can imagining how it stunk. But that's how it is in the WWF, and how it was with Owen. So many jokes..."
...
I was backstage in my office when I heard. It happened when the arena was dark, so nobody saw the fall...
...
Knowing Owen as the performer he was...it's my belief that he would have wanted the show to go on. I didn't know if it was the right decision...I just guessed that it was what Owen would want...
</div>
<div class='spoiler_toggle'>Owen's close friend The Rock</div><div class="spoiler" style="display:none;">
I was backstage in the dressing room, going over the details of my match with Triple H and Chyna. We were talking, moving around, trying to figure out how to make the match memorable, when Sergeant Slaughter walked into the room and said, 'Owen is hurt...' I looked at Hunter, then looked at Sarge and said, 'Oh, come on. Are you serious or are you ribbing?' Owen was known for his pranks, and I thought maybe this was just another example of his twisted sense of humor. 'No,' Sarge said. 'It looks pretty bad. They're working on him in the middle of the ring...'
...
I went straight to the curtain...as I reached the gorilla position, where everyone was gathered, I could see the shock on their faces, the disbelief. People were crying, hugging. And then it hit me: This is real. I walked up to the curtain and looked out. the eMTs were working on Owen in the middle of the ring, giving him CPR. The crowd was on its feet, absolutely silent...'
...
[I thought] 'My god...that's my friend, I have to go out there.' I turned around. Vince McMahon was standing there, watching everything on the monitors. He was in shock, just like the rest of us. 'Vince,' I said, 'I want to go out there - what do you think?' Vince just stared at me, with a look on his face that seemed to say, Rock, that's entirely up to you. After a few moments, though, Vince spoke. 'If you go out there, Rock, those people are really going to react to you...They may think this whole thing is a work...'
...
So I waited anxiously, helplessly by the curtain, until they wheeled Owen through on a stretcher. One of the EMTs was still straddling Owen, pumping his chest, desperately administering CPR. I walked alongside them and said a prayer as I looked at Owen's face. Then I helped them load the stretcher into the ambulance. I climbed into the passenger side of the vehicle and looked in the back, where they were still working furiously on Owen. I kept praying that God would save my friend's life...
...
I felt completely numb. And now, somehow, we had to deal with the task of going out there and performing. Triple H and I talked about the rest of our match, tried to finish putting things together, but it was almost impossible because we were so worried. Two minutes before we were scheduled to hit the stage, we were told that Owen had died...
...
I said a prayer for his family. Then - and I know this sounds strange - I started to think about the performance, the show. I thought...Can I really go out there right now? Not SHOULD I go out there...but CAN I? Am I capable of performing? I could not remember anything about the match we had designed. My mind was blank. Everything seemed...pointless. But as quickly as I asked myself that question - can I go out there now? - the answer came. I envisioned Owen saying, 'D.J, you have to go out there...' I personally felt comfortable with going on because I knew Owen, and I believe Owen would have wanted that...'
...
It was, of course, one of those situations where you're damned if you do, damned if you don't. If you go on with the show, you're going to be criticized by people who think you're being insensitive or disrespectful. And if you cancel the show...well, you've got a packed arena and 500,000 people across the country who have paid forty or fifty bucks for the pay-per-view. And some of those people are going to be pissed. That's just the way it is.
Either way, all of the blame is going to be place on Vince McMahon...
</div>
<div class='spoiler_toggle'>Bret Hart's wife at the time and Owen's former sister-in-law Julie Hart</div><div class="spoiler" style="display:none;">
My boys and I just came back from Ottawa, we were just pulling up to the driveway and my sister called and she said, 'Julie, something happened to Owen - I don't know what’s going on...' I ran into the house called up Stu (Owen's father) and I could tell it was not good because I could hear crying in the background. Helen was too upset to come to the phone. It was like being in a dream...wondering, when am I going to wake up...â€
</div>
<div class='spoiler_toggle'>Owen's brother Bret Hart</div><div class="spoiler" style="display:none;">
I found out on the plane. I was flying to do the Jay Leno show. You don't ever wanna find out about a tragedy on an airplane, trust me on that one. That was really hard...there was nowhere to go...
...
I actually know first-hand from the wrestlers involved that they wheeled my dead brother past...right past all the wrestlers and actually pushed them out the door and said, 'Go...go...go - you're on...' I think that's really insensitive. Really cold...
...
His life was centred around his wife, Martha, his one and only childhood sweetheart, and his two beautiful children, Oje and Athena. I recall, so often, in airports, hotel rooms, dressing rooms, long drives on endless highways, his only dream was to come home to his wife and his two children. So many times, I remember he sprinted from the door of the plane, his two carry-on bags in each hand, at a full run, worn out and weary, just to clear customs, through the sliding doors, to their outstretched arms...
...
Owen would NOT have wanted the show to go on. I think if you look at anyone with any common sense in their family, no one would want the show to go on. And I think if Vince McMahon had dropped [his son] Shane McMahon from the ceiling and he splattered on the mat, I don't think he would have scraped him off the mat and sent the next match out...
...
Over the years, I've come to see it was a horrible accident, and I don't think Vince would want something like that to happen. It wouldn't be advantageous to anyone. We were hurt by that, though. I don't think my dad ever got over what happened with Owen..."
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<div class='spoiler_toggle'>JBL who was wrestling as Bradshaw</div><div class="spoiler" style="display:none;">
Owen dressed with Ron and I that day in KC. It was a small dressing room so we were there during all the discussion about the stunt. I remember going in and telling Undertaker, who was going over his match [with Austin], that Owen was dead...
...
It was tough because we knew he had died but no one knew what to do - to wrestle or not to wrestle... Vince was overwhelmed and gave us the option of finishing show or not wrestling...he told everyone that they could do what they wanted - no pressure. He really didn't know what to do...no one did...there wasn't a 'right' decision. We decided to wrestle. We wrestled shortly after Owen died, I don't think right after, I think it was a couple of matches later, I can't remember..."
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<div class='spoiler_toggle'>Stone Cold Steve Austin who was in the main event that night</div><div class="spoiler" style="display:none;">
We were backstage just chilling, waiting to perform, then all of a sudden word comes to the back that Owen is dead. I was like, 'What the hell are you talking about..?' Then it was like, 'Are we gonna work or are we gonna stop..?'
...
Vince made the gutsy call: The show goes on. And he has taken a lot of fire for that, but he would’ve taken a lot of fire if he hadn’t said that. It was a gutsy call on his part. I agree with the call to go on. But it was a very hard night to work. I don’t remember anything about the match [against The Undertaker]. It was probably a stinker. It was extremely hard to work in that ring. My brain was pretty scrambled after receiving news as devastating as that. Everybody loved Owen, including me. It was a tough blow...
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<div class='spoiler_toggle'>Jim Ross who was the play by play announcer when the accident happened</div><div class="spoiler" style="display:none;">
Being at ringside the night he fell [and announcing live on air that he had died] was the toughest thing I ever did. To this day, I've still never seen the tape. I was pretty numb...everyone was in shock that night. I still have nightmares about it. Owen was as warm-hearted as any human being I have ever known. He loved to laugh and he loved to make other people laugh. He had a great spirit, a good soul and a good heart...
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<div class='spoiler_toggle'>Kevin Nash</div><div class="spoiler" style="display:none;">
When he was alive, nobody had a bad word to say about Owen. He didn't run around on his wife. He had beautiful kids. They must have needed a first-class angel up there because they got one...
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<div class='spoiler_toggle'>Owen's sister Diana Smith</div><div class="spoiler" style="display:none;">
Owen and Martha actually did build their dream home...a lovely home that was finally completed and ready for them to start moving into on the day that Owen died. How unfair. I really get upset about that. What a terrible thing to happen. Sometimes life is such a tragedy, and I can only imagine Martha’s grief...
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<div class='spoiler_toggle'>Owen Hart a few months before his death</div><div class="spoiler" style="display:none;">
When my contract is up, I’m out of wrestling. I’ve made plans. I’ve been smart with my fiscal affairs. Financially, I’ll be set. I really want to devote a lot of time to my family... I’ve bought some property on a lake. I plan on doing a lot of boating and fishing. I want to continue to stay in shape. And who knows, I might do ten weeks a year in Japan. Something just to motivate me to keep in shape, keep involved a little bit but not have to deal with the politics, the pressures that are so intense right now... I’ve paid my dues for twelve years now. If I continue for five more, that’s seventeen years working at a pretty hard clip. I think that at that point my family - my wife and kids - have been compromised enough. I need to start focusing on my family and letting go of wrestling. I would like to kind of just disappear, from wrestling fans and stuff. I don't want to forget the fans and what they've done. They've supported me and stuff, but at the same time, I'd like to just ... I don't want to be hanging on like one of these wrestlers who's sixty years old, saying, 'Hey, I'm a wrestler.' Let it go. Make your money out of it and get on. Going out and performing...it's an art. I'd like fans to remember me as a guy who would go out and entertain them, give them quality matches. Not just the same old garbage every week...â€
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Several months later, Vince Russo was working for World Championship Wrestling (WCW) where Owen's brother Bret was working. Russo, who came up with the stunt that Owen died performing, wrote a re-inaction for a WCW event. A stunt double dressed as Sting feel from the ceiling, and actors portraying medics helped him out of the building. The announce them repeated the comments of Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler during Hart's death, word for word.
(Sources: canoe - slamsports, PM in the AM Boston, Calgary Sun, wrestleview.com, kayfabekickout.com, The Last Word/Jim Rome, angelfire.com, The Rock Says... - autobiography, wrestlinginc, Kevin Sullivan books, maineventbdub, Wrestling's Glory Days)
