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Owen Hart passed away in 1999, leaving a huge hole in the world of professional wrestling. His tragic passing saw WWE shaken up as yet another member of the Hart Family suffered an unfortunate fate.
Since then, the question has been asked a million times — what went wrong at the Over The Edge pay-per-view? How did Owen Hart die?
What was Owen Hart doing in WWE at the time?
WWE brought back Owen Hart's old superhero gimmick, The Blue Blazer. His character was a spoof of a typical superhero. According to Jim Cornette, Owen Hart was not comfortable with the gimmick, but that didn't stop him from accepting it, as he had turned down other gimmicks before:
"Owen wasn’t comfortable with it, but he had already turned down a few things that he wasn’t comfortable with, and he didn’t want to be Negative Nancy and be known as the guy who kept saying ‘no,’ so he went along with it, and it didn’t turn out well."
As a part of the character, Vince Russo talked with the people in WCW who had Sting rappel down from the rafters to attack other wrestlers. They wanted to know if there was anything they could do in WWE, and thus came the idea of having Owen Hart rappel down from the rafters.
How did Owen Hart pass away?
Owen Hart passed away at the Over The Edge pay-per-view in 1999 in front of a live audience. The actual clip of his passing was never broadcast by the company, and they cut to a camera shot of Jim Ross instead, who narrated the unfortunate incident for the audience at home.
Hart had performed the stunt before, and it had taken too long for the harness to disengage when he came down. As a result, they used a nautical clip that would help him with a quick release from the harness on the night.
Unfortunately, when he was being lowered, Hart was moving around to get comfortable with the harness. He accidentally triggered an early release and fell 78 feet from the rafters, landing chest-first on the ropes. When this happened, the arena was darkened and a vignette was being shown on the screen. Television viewers didn't see it while those in the audience didn't see it clearly either, thanks to the darkness.
There were attempts made to revive Owen Hart, but he died due to the injuries he suffered from the fall. At only 34 years of age, he passed away. He died due to internal bleeding from the blunt force trauma of his fall.
What happened after Owen Hart's passing?
When Owen Hart fell, there was utter chaos. However, Vince McMahon decided that despite the tragedy, the pay-per-view would go on and they continued the show.
When talking about it, Vince McMahon said that he believed that Owen Hart would have wanted the show to go on:
"Knowing Owen as the performer he was, it is 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."
Triple H and The Rock were scheduled for their match soon after the incident. Moments before they were to get in the ring, they heard that Owen Hart had passed away.
In the end, the pay-per-view continued on, with the shadow of Owen Hart's passing looming large over the rest of the show. He was well-loved by other wrestlers backstage and known for playing pranks and jokes.
His death remains one of the most horrible tragedies in the history of professional wrestling.
