I still remember that night and just not believing what had happened. The whole Hart Foundation were always some of my favorites. A nice tribute that he deserved.

I remember the coming downstairs for breakfast when my mom told me a wrestler died, and I found out it was Owen Hart, and almost broke down. He was one of the best wrestlers to ever live.

Very athletic. I was always a fan. Same deal with me...my mom told me Owen Hart dies and it was just so ahrd to believe that it was from a stunt accident.

I was watching when it happened.

Did they mention during the broadcast that he died?

That sucks, because as upset as everyone was, they couldn't just stop the event right there. It seems disresepctful, but you really can't blame them.

I think it was a while after it happened (during the broadcast) that they mentioned something about an accident. The announcers seemed really upset.

They announced the accident after it happened. Then, about an hour later, they announced that he died. I was in a state of shock over the whole thing. Owen wasn't one of my favorites, but I always enjoyed his stuff, especially his Blue Blazer gimmick.

Owen vs. Bret remain some of the greatest matches in WWE history.

Did any one else feel like they should of stopped the PPV after this occured? I thought it should of.

I remember the Tuesday after it happened - after the Raw dedication on Monday - I went to school with an OH band made from black electrical tape and white out.

does it make me any less of a man if i get a little teary eyed when i watch this ?

Nope. I got teary-eyed watching this and the same when Guerrero died and Benoit was just pouring his heart/eyes out.

He was scheduled to win the IC belt the night he died. Truth.

Here's a pretty interesting site. It's very surreal to look at these pictures of Owen climbing through the rafters minutes before he fell:

http://homepage.mac.com/knarley/owenhar ... eline.html

A little known fact is that at this time they were trying to pair owen up with midget wrestler Max-Mini in a "Mini-Me" Blue Blazer gimmick. Max was supposed to be strapped in with Owen for this stunt, but Owen refused to take responsibility for another man's life and this inadvertetnly saved the life of Max-Mini.

I also want to add that besdies the fact that the accident itself prevented Owen from dying with any amount of dignity, it was made even worse due to the fact that Owen absolutely hated the Blue Blazer gimmick and despised wearing the stupid costime (especially the cape, which is what most likely caused him to inadvertently trigger the release on the harness). To think that he had lie there in that ring in that rediculous costume while thousands of people watched him take his last breath really upsets me.

Anyway, I, too (as you can probably tell by now ), was heartbroken by Owen's passing. Growing up, he was the guy I always loved to hate. As I gre older and began to appreciate the "art" of wrestling, and especially after I decided to become a wrestler myself (going to train with one of my favourites, Lance Storm, next year w00t!), I really began to admire and respect him as a performer. He was always a gret guy to boot, a loving husband and father and one of the most fan-friendly wrestlers you'd ever see. It's a shame he wasn't able to continue wrestling as I would have loved to see the kinds of matches he could have had with some of the newer talents and wrestlers that were in WCW during his career such as Kurt Angle, Rey Mysterio, Chris Jericho, Paul London, Rob Van Dam, Shelton Benjamin and Chris Benoit (although since Benoit was trained by the Hart family and wrestled in Stampede, their paths may have crossed at the beginning of their respective careers).

If anyone is interested, I recommend the book "Broken Harts by Owen's widow, Martha. It's very biased against WWE/Vince McMahon, but that's understandable. It's a very difficult read because of the subject matter, but it sheds alot of light on Owen's life, death and the aftermath of the fall. All proceeds of the book go to the Owen Hart Foundation, as well.

i'm glad this wasn't posted in sports

Owen Hart was bar none the most interesting, talented, and versatile of the Hart clan. That family emphasized nothing but ring psychology and storytelling, which is, to many, the most important aspect of professional wrestling. Because of his masterful selling and storytelling, Bret gets all of the credit as the best Hart. According to some (including his own.. erm.. humble self), he's the greatest of all-time. I can't agree with this simply because he A.) bored the shit out of my frequently, and B.) drew no money for the F during their slumping, on-the-verge-of-bankruptcy years. Then again, neither did Michaels, Nash, etc. But that's a discussion for another time.

Owen Hart, I feel, went largely unappreciated until after his death. No one of his era (and few people ever) was able to take an opponent and work a believable match the way Owen did, regardless of style. He was the type of person that could work amazingly with fast, high-flyers (as high-flying as people in the F were at that time), yet at the same time pull an incredible match out of any of the worthless, no-talent hacks McMahon had on the roster in the 90s. He was one of the few people that could make anyone seem 100% better than they actually were through his masterful use of both psychology and plain ol' versatility.

The entire concept of professional wrestling is telling a story and selling a match as something bigger than it actually is. His athleticism was unmatched by anyone in his family and he simply had more charisma than any member of the Hart family, even the EXTENDED family and anyone in the Hart Foundation, save maybe Brian Pillman.


Also, about Owen hating the Blue Blazer gimmick, it was essentially a punishment for Owen due to his unwillingness to support and partake in the Attitude era. Only Owen could have gotten that as over as it was.

Work a 5 minute match with Bryan Danielson and then you're allowed to talk.

Although it easily could. It's certainly not a sport in the competitive sense, but I'd like to see any other pro athelete do what these guys do to their bodies for 250 days a year. I remember Lawerence Taylor wrestling a match at WrestleMania 11 and aftereards saying to people that he couldn't possibly do it more than once a year and he was amazed whhen he was told that, aty the time, they wrestler 300+ days a year. It's a hard lifestyle, as well, being away from your friends and family, living between cars and hotels with little more than 5-8 hours sleep a night for most of the year.

Not to mention guys working the indy circuit in the US who put on nightly matches that make the folks in the E seem like slugs and get paid a whopping $500 a pop if they're an indy draw like Christopher Daniels. Otherwise, they get next to nothing.

The vast majority of people in America are ignorant retards when it comes to professional wrestling and associate it with trailer parks and rednecks. In Japan, during a puroresu match, businessmen are in suits watching Pro Wrestling NOAH with their wives like it's an opera. In Mexico it's respected as much as traditional sports.

Very well said. I can see your point about Bret, as well, and I say that as a huge Bret fan. Although drawing was really nobody's fault except McMahon and his creative team for excepting wrestling garbage men and pirates to capture audiences.

For the record, I was reading Michaels' book and he basically said the exact same thing about Owen that you just did. He said, and rightfuly so, that Owen was the most talented Hart and that you could "mix things up, call things on the fly with him" more than anyone else.



Well put, again. Have you seen his match with Storm from Better Than Our Best?



Yeah, that's why I plan on continuing University while I train and work the Indy's. It's only good planning to have other options in the likely case I don't make it to the E or the A.

True. Although to be fair, that's also partly due to the fact that the business is still very protected in those markets, especially Japan and other Asian countries.