Original subtitles

As a fan of Owen Hart, pioneer of all pioneers, you know, one of the best.

I knew that this guy was going to make it. You can tell.

When I grew up, I wanted to be just like Owen Hart.

He was really the chosen one.

Owen, he just had a very nice aura. He was always just trying to spread the

And he was cast in the role of a lifetime.

Owen Hart was a naturally gifted wrestler.

He was born into a legendary wrestling dynasty.

but he put family above all else.

Despite his success in the ring, he was always searching for a way out of it.

On May 23, 1999, during a live pay -per -view event, Owen Hart's hopes for a

life after wrestling were tragically cut short.

Ladies and gentlemen, when you're doing live television, a lot of things can

happen, and sometimes they are not good.

Is this really real?

Then I remember hearing a gasp from the crowd.

It was shocking. Like, what do you mean Owen fell? He goes, Owen just fell.

There was Owen. He was like laying in the ring, like face up.

I just heard them screaming, saying it's not a fake, get a real EMT back here.

If he fell, he's got to be dead.

Owen Hart fell from the ceiling during an event in Kansas City. Someone doesn't

just fall from the top of an arena.

Something's wrong here.

Her husband flew to Kansas City to go to work and never came home again.

Mere days after Owen's death.

His widow, Martha, vows to uncover what happened that night in Kansas City.

There will be a day of reckoning, and this is my final promise to Owen.

It was out of respect for Owen. I can't let everything that our life was just be

all for nothing.

From the earliest days of professional wrestling, it has been traditionally a

family business.

Few compared to the impact of the Hart family in Calgary,

who has spawned generations of in -ring icons.

Despite being the youngest of 12 siblings, Owen Hart was considered a

prodigy.

But with the circumstances surrounding his death, his legacy has become more

complex. In this episode, his family comes together to share memories of the

husband and father they lost all too soon.

I don't think you can talk about pro wrestling history and not incorporate

heart into that conversation very early.

I'm Jim Ross, 2007 member of the WWE Hall of Fame, the NWA Hall of Fame, and

National Hall of Fame. And one of the athletes that I work with very closely

the late, great Owen Hart, one of the best.

Stu Hart had a dozen kids, and all the boys became wrestlers, and all the girls

grew up to marry wrestlers. So the extended Hart family was almost 20

involved in the professional wrestling industry.

I'm Jim Cornette. For almost 40 years, I've been a promoter, a matchmaker,

announcer, manager, historian, all things related to professional

I also managed Owen Hart.

The Hart family was almost a dynasty in wrestling because of the respect that

Stu Hart had as a promoter and the fact that when the boys got started becoming

wrestlers, they were all good. And the Hart family over a period of time became

one of the royal families of professional wrestling.

It was like a nice Sopranos.

They didn't kill anybody, but they stuck together and they helped each other.

And everybody got a chance to pick the brass ring off the wrestling merry -go

-round. All of his sons...

began to want to follow in his footsteps.

Bret Hart was obviously the biggest star worldwide.

Some of the other sons, Ross and Keith, were stars as well.

And then the son -in -laws, Davey Boy Smith, the British Bulldog, Jim the

Neidhart. So many of them got to be stars. And at one point, there was a

family member in half the territories of wrestling.

Owen was the youngest brother to get involved in wrestling.

But when he started, he was a prodigy instantly.

Owen Hart, as a rookie, he was spectacular.

His acrobatics were amazing. He could flip backwards off the ropes. He could

land on his feet from every direction.

I saw this guy doing all of these things I'd never seen before.

Backflips off of a guy's back. He had blonde hair. It looked cool. It kind of

looked like a bigger version of Johnny from The Karate Kid. I just thought, I

want to do this. I want to do it with that guy.

And I used to draw pictures of me and Owen Hart as the tag team champions in

Stampede. I just really was influenced by him.

You could tell Owen was a natural. You didn't have to teach him. He'd already

picked it up by osmosis.

I'm thinking within hours of him debuting, he's as good as anybody in the

territory. You could see it. Just get him in the game.

He's going to be a star, and he was.

Please, Owen, I'm going to cut the tape.

Hang on.

Why don't you say something to the camera, you egomaniac? I am

Martha Hart. I'm a doctor for the University of Calgary and Alberta

Hospital. I'm the founder of the Owen Hart Foundation, and I'm a mom.

That's my whole title.

I started dating Owen when I was 15.

For me, he was just very striking. You know, he had this...

blonde hair and really well built and i thought he was a bit of a scrapper um

because well first of all he's an amateur wrestler but then as it turned

know he's actually quite a gentle giant underneath he was a really secure

grounded person even though he ended up being a very world famous wrestler he

didn't feed off of that fame

He really wanted to have this very normal life. He wanted to have, you

normal job. He wanted the white picket fence.

Hi, Owen.

Hi, Marcia.

What you doing?

I just walked with my boy, Oge, here.

Owen was an amazing father.

He loved being a dad.

Hi, Oge. Hi. My childhood was phenomenal.

loved every second.

I'm Ochart and I am Owen Hart's son.

My mom's love for my father was unexampled.

They had the love that could only get stronger with time.

I love trains. Trains are my favorite thing on earth, especially toy trains.

Every year a train show would come to Calgary and I only wanted to go with

I remember he said he was going somewhere, like a big trip, but I think

did was he actually rebooked it.

That was him defarming the show and saying, you know, kids come first, and

weekend I cannot miss, and this one's for my son.

But I remember that when he was there, it was us there together, and Mom and

Athena.

Athena, do you like that?

Yeah.

Him taking me to the zoo.

That was like our thing.

And I don't have very many memories, but that's like the one that's always stuck

in.

Yeah, it makes me happy because the short time that we had together, that

favorite.

I went to school where my dad went to school. And so everyone always knew me

like the wrestler's daughter.

Owen loved the wrestling business.

He wasn't a lifer like some of the other guys.

He wanted to save his money, devote it to his family, and get out at an early

age. At the age of 23, Owen signs with the WWF, where his older brother Brett

quickly rising through the ranks as an up -and -coming star.

I remember going to the Winnipeg Arena to see a WWF show, and this guy comes to

the ring wearing, I knew what stampede wrestling tights looked like. They had

lightning bolts to the side and three stars on the ass.

Except for he had a mask.

I'm like, wow, that guy looks like a stampede wrestling guy. Who is it?

And then he did the bum flip, and I was like, that's Owen Hart.

Owen had a great personality, but he didn't have an over -the -top

that translated on television for the style of the WWF at the time.

By 1993, the blue blazer persona is phased out, and Owen enters a storyline

portraying Brett's jealous little brother looking to prove himself.

Selfish person. Your ego is too big. You only worry about yourself, Brett.

Their feud builds towards a highly anticipated match at WrestleMania 10.

There's a lot of great matches I would watch.

One of them would definitely be in the Garden, WrestleMania 10, Owen and Brett.

Because here's the deal. The two brothers from Calgary, two sons of Sue

came into New York City, Madison Square Garden, the world's most famous arena,

and stole the show.

Bottom line.

I think it was a testament to Brett that he went along with it because it was

really designed to help Owen. Owen wasn't over yet. He was getting there.

getting the root.

Brett was a star, arguably the biggest star that we had.

So Brett doing this was really brotherly love. He helped his brother get

recognized and get the spotlight on him.

After his win at WrestleMania, Owen Hart comes into his own, achieving accolades

beyond the shadow of his brother.

But for Owen's family, his growing success means a more rigorous travel

schedule.

He was gone over 250 days a year, and he would go 10 days on and then three days

off. It was just a revolving door

of, you know, he was home and then he was gone and home and gone.

Hopefully some money to pay for all the aches and pains that I've done.

I can enjoy myself at home with my wife and family.

In 1997,

Brett's controversial departure from the WWF to rival company WCW shakes up the

entire industry.

In an incident known as the Montreal Screwjob, Brett is stripped of his

championship belt following creative differences with the company.

Fans witness real -life backstage drama unfold as Bret is left stunned on live

television. The Montreal Screwjob was a double -cross on Bret Hart, and Bret was

hot. He was mad.

Even though Owen didn't share the same sort of philosophy or view of wrestling

that, you know, Brett had, he knew it was important to his brother, so he knew

his brother was going to be crushed. So as soon as that happened, he went right

to the ring and told Brett, don't worry about it. It doesn't matter.

You know, it's all garbage anyway. But for Brett, it was a stab in the heart.

This thing was taking on a life of its own, and it was starting to look bad and

reflect poorly on the WWF, and they wanted to keep one member of the family.

The fact that we knew Owen was going to be a star, big star, not a star. He was

already a star.

But to get to the next level, we gave Owen a new contract.

You can't lie to people and say, well, it had nothing to do with Montreal.

Bullshit. It had a lot to do with Montreal. Come on.

But that's not bad.

It's just what it is.

We knew what we had, and he was so motivated from being Brett's little

to being Owen Hart.

And with Brett gone to another team,

it helps facilitate that.

It has been said that anything can happen here in the World Wrestling

Federation, but now more than ever, truer words have never been spoken.

Vince McMahon wanted wrestlers to start being actors at this point, and he

couldn't understand why they didn't want to go along with it. Because the way

that wrestlers had always been portrayed was, you're not playing a character,

this is you. Surely the era of the superhero who urged you to say your

and take your vitamins is definitely passe.

In the new entertainment attitude era, they didn't know what to do with Owen

because he was just a great professional wrestler. They kept trying to find

something to plug him into. Well, let's get him in an affair with somebody.

Debra McMichael. Owen was the one guy that was always pushing back. You know,

don't want to do this angle. I don't want to look like I'm cheating on my

with Debra. It was that tipping point that we reached at that time between

not going to use great wrestlers.

Just because they're great athletes and they're great wrestlers, they have to be

willing to put on goofy outfits and do skits.

But check this out. Owen Hart, man, his head is not in this at all. So that's

why when they came to him with a revival of the Blue Blazer as a comedy gimmick,

okay, sure, at least that's not going to make my family look bad, right? It's

just stupid. Here it comes. It's Owen Hart.

The Blazer is Owen Hart. You got one of the top.

Four or five workers in the world, and you want to put them under a mask, an

unknown mask, the blue blazer.

Couldn't work.

Bottom line, it was really simple.

Creative couldn't find a better idea to utilize one of the best technical

workers in the entire world, and I found that to be embarrassing.

In 1998, the WWF reprises the blue blazer character.

A campy superhero gimmick Owen Hart portrayed a decade earlier.

Take your vitamins, say your prayers, and drink your milk.

They were also trying to spoof Sting, who was a wrestler in the WCW.

And he would come down, descend into the ring. And so I think they were

competing with WCW, and that was one way that they could almost make fun of

them, too, in a sense.

The company that had rigged Owen was a top rigging company that had rigged

John, the Rolling Stones. They also had worked for Disney and MGM in Las Vegas.

So they were really renowned.

You know, Owen didn't have control over any of the stunt. He was locked in with

what they call a locking carabiner, which they feel is the only safe

to use if you're doing these types of descents.

This is nonsense!

Six months later, the aerial descent of the Blue Blazer is revisited for an

upcoming pay -per -view event called Over the Edge.

Owen? was on his way home. He was just flying in, and I was literally just

walking out the door to go pick him up from the airport when I got a call from

someone that worked at the WWF. And they said, well, you know, we need to get

his measurements for a vest because we're doing this drop -in this weekend

Kansas City, and we need to get his measurements ASAP.

And I remember thinking, you just had him. He was just with you guys.

Why didn't you get it? And I asked her that. And then she said, well, we just

decided. We just wrote it in.

So I actually asked on the phone about, you know, who'd be rigging him, and the

girl on the phone said, oh, you know, don't worry, we have the top riggers

L .A. coming in, so don't worry about that. Yeah, it's totally safe. He never

questioned, ever, his safety because he assumed that this billion -dollar

company was certainly going to make sure that they hired the best in the

business, which they did not.

Life on the road is never ending for Owen and his family. And on May 22,

he travels to Kansas City for Over the Edge.

It was Saturday when he left. He was rushing out the door, you know, just

embarking on another long 10 -day journey away from home. He decided that

going to take Oge to the airport and he'd pick up my mom. She'd drive Oge

to the house.

It wasn't very common where I would take Dad to the airport, but this occasion

was different.

And the last thing he said to me was, like, you look after your mom. You take

care of your mom. You take care of your sister.

And then he was walking in with his bag over his shoulder into the airport.

I wasn't sure what that meant. I honestly didn't think anything of it. It

seemed like something you'd say when you were saying goodbye.

My name is Jimmy Corderas, and I am a former referee with the WWF slash WWE.

We got there, we set up the ring, we got our match assignments, which was Blue

Blazer, Owen versus The Godfather. They happened to be together at ringside, and

I went over and got with them, got the finish to the match. And that was

basically it. It was business as usual.

I am The Godfather, WWE Hall of Fame Godfather.

I remember hanging out with Owen that day.

We talked about the match. We talked about the finish.

Just normal stuff, hanging out. We were sitting in the arena, and he said that

he was getting ready to practice one of the things, and he did that, and I

watched him.

I had a feeling that day that Owen was not his normal, exuberant, enthusiastic

self about what he was doing that night.

And I remember saying something about, you know, better you than me.

I don't like heights. He said, I don't either.

I think that he was a little concerned, and look.

He's the one that's got to do it. There's nobody that can do it for him.

there's no stunt double.

Just a couple little things he said, and maybe more specifically what he didn't

say, led me to believe that he's not totally down on this thing.

On May 23, 1999,

Over the Edge takes place at Kemper Arena in Kansas City, Missouri.

The event plays to a sold -out crowd.

and airs live to hundreds of thousands at home.

In preparation for his dramatic entrance, Owen Hart makes his way to the

the arena.

That night, myself and Mark Henry were at Kane and X -Pac for the tag titles in

the first match, and I believe Owen was like the third or fourth match.

I remember talking to Kane and X -Pac and seeing Owen walk by, and this was

before our match.

From the rafters, Owen changes into his blue blazer costume.

and the rigging crew readies him for his descent.

We were clearing out the ring. I had my left hand on the top rope, and I was

kicking debris out of the ring, and I was moving towards the corner.

At that time, there was a promo playing on the screen of the Blue Blazer. Ooh,

the Godfather.

Just saying his name makes my blue blood boil.

Hanging in the air over 80 feet above the ring, he waits for his cue.

And in here comes the time for the entrances.

And I'm looking at my monitor, looking at my paper, and all of a sudden Lawler

gives me the elbow.

I looked up, and I just caught Owen coming into my line of vision.

A blur.

And I just... I thought I heard

screaming, and then I felt something brush against the side of my head and my

shoulder, and at the same time... The top rope that I was holding pulled out

my hand and came back and, like, jammed my fingers.

And I'm thinking in my head, what the heck was that?

And when I turned and looked, there was Owen. He was, like, laying in the ring,

like, face up.

And I just started screaming for help.

I thought I hit the turnbuckle or the ring post because it really sounded

sick, sick.

That's when...

You know, things kind of went sideways.

The Blue Blazer, as we know, is Owen Hart, was going to make a very

superhero -like entrance from the rafters, and something went terribly

here. I was watching the pay -per -view, as they did at the time, and then they

go to Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler saying that Owen Hart has had a bad fall, or

whatever they said, and we'll keep you posted. I'm like, what?

What do you mean?

And they're not showing the ring. They're just panning the crowd. What's

on here? I said, something's wrong.

I was at the guerrilla station behind the curtain, and somebody said, Owen

Owen just fell. And I went, Owen fell? What? He goes, Owen just fell.

I kept getting these alerts in my headset, we need another update. But I'm

getting any updatable material.

And JR's, you know, filling time on live television while a guy's laying there

in the ring.

Dying?

Well, it's one of the most shocking things I've ever seen. This is not your

typical wrestling storyline.

This is a real situation.

I said, I've never seen anything like that.

Not on any wrestling program, not on any television program.

It's never happened before.

It was Jerry Lawler who came back. He came through the curtain. And Jerry was

white as a ghost.

And his words were, I think he's dead.

And we're like, who? And he was like, Owen.

And then it was just like, ah.

Jerry Lawler, back joining me here. King, I was reiterating to the fans,

not part of the show.

We're here to entertain and have fun, but this is neither.

No, it doesn't look good at all.

I knew something was wrong because Lawler, his face just became ashen

Like he'd just seen death.

And they wheeled Owen past us to go to the ambulance.

And...

That's

not even an image I want to even bring up in my head anymore. That was not what

I wanted to see.

When they wheeled him through the curtain and they put him in the

remember being in shock.

When they did Will and Becky, it was like blue.

And I remember that.

And I remember crying, too.

They didn't want to stop the show, so Jeff Jarrett, who was real close with

Owen, did a promo, and he was in tears.

Owen Hart, I'm praying for you, buddy.

I am, too.

In the chaos, Kevin Dunn, the executive producer, thought that I had been told

what the deal was.

I said, Kevin, nobody's told us anything.

What is the update?

And he said, he's dead.

And you're back at 10, 9.

And I have the unfortunate responsibility to

let everyone know that Owen Hart has died.

Owen Hart has tragically died from that accident here tonight.

On camera, what people saw was the result of 10 seconds of preparation.

Didn't know what to say.

And it wasn't a storyline.

I got very numb after that night.

My hands were shaking. My stomach was hurting. I was just, I was damned, man.

And they went on with the show.

When Owen was fought shit.

When Owen was falling, everybody that was there said the last thing that he

yelled was, look out, a guy's fallen from 100 feet and he knows he's done.

And the last thing he's thinking is, look out, I don't want to hurt you. You

know, that's, it was foolish. It was unnecessary.

It didn't need to happen.

During a live pay -per -view event, Owen Hart was set to make a dramatic

entrance from the rafters of Kemper Arena when something would go terribly

wrong. The phone rang and it said unknown caller, which was always like

code for like that's Owen on the road.

And so then I picked it up in a hurry and I was like, hello. And then, you

I heard this voice like Martha and I said.

Owen and then he said no this isn't Owen this is Vince McMahon you know Owen is

such a prankster and I'm like oh Owen and he's like no it's Vince McMahon and

then he said I'm calling you because you know, I have to tell you that Owens had

a fall. Well, what do you mean? Like, how far did he fall? What's wrong with

him? Is he conscious? Like, and then he was like, I don't know. I don't know.

Well, I need to talk to somebody who's got some answers.

And so then he said, well, someone will be calling you right away.

Then the next call that I got was from the doctor from the Truman Medical

Center.

So the doctor, you know,

So the doctor, he said, are you home alone?

And I said, yes.

And he said, well, you know, we should really fly you down to get this kind of

news. And, you know, he's kind of going through all of these details.

And then I said to him,

you know, doctor, could you just get to the end and just tell me what the end

result is?

And he said.

I tried.

I did everything I could to save his life, but I couldn't.

And he said, I'm so sorry, but your husband has died.

And then I just, you know, I just doubled over and I just screamed, no,

But, you know, of course, all the no's in the world weren't going to change

anything. Whose belt is that, Osh?

That. Yes, and what is it? What kind of belt?

champion belt, world tag team champion.

My memory of May 23rd begins in my basement of my house.

I was with my one neighbor and it said my mom was crying, really crying.

And I was like, well, what is my mom crying about?

And she said, I don't know why your mom's crying, but she's crying a lot.

I went upstairs and I opened the door and I walked through the foyer into the

kitchen and there my mom was screaming, what am I going to do?

And I really did not have any conclusions drawn about why she was so

hysterically sad.

And I just remembered, like, it was just such a moment of truth where I just,

like... saw so clearly like there were just two paths in front of me one total

destruction and one of like reconstruction you know and i was like i

this destroy everything that we worked for and and let everything fall apart

know all i could think of were oj and athena because i was like their whole

lives are going to be different now And all they have is me. That's it. They're

three and seven years old. So I need to make sure that, you know, somehow

I survive for them.

Then mom has to take me upstairs because it's bedtime.

And we sit at the foot of the bed on the side.

Nobody prepares for this.

But she did it. And she said, your dad's dead.

She said, he's died.

He fell, and he died, but he didn't feel any pain.

That memory has played in my mind millions of times.

I remember that night, all three of us slept in the same bed, and I just looked

at the roof.

I just looked at the roof, and I tried not to hear my mom.

Sniffling. I don't think either of us slept that night.

Martha and her family begin to make final preparations as Owen's body is

transported to Calgary.

I remember the funeral director saying, you know, are you ready? Are you ready?

And I said, yep, I'm ready.

Soon as he opened the door, I just remembered being absolutely horrified

101 looked like. I screamed so loud and I tried to run away and Brett just

bear hugged me and then we just sort of did this weird little like inch dance

towards the casket and then you know I just took it all in and then

I was comforted by his hair because his hair was the same

and then i just thought oh you know what like the person that i loved in life

you know i loved in death too and then i just wasn't afraid anymore on may 31st

1999 owen hart is laid to rest owen hart known as the blue blazer in

the ring was killed last week when a stunt went horribly wrong at a match in

missouri Taking part in a tearful farewell were the sports superstars,

politicians, and a huge crowd of fans.

We were riding in the funeral procession, and there were Canadians

the side of the road, letting us pass like Owen was the head of state.

It was amazing to see how revered he was in that town, in that country, and in

our business.

There were so many people that came to the service, and we didn't have room for

everybody inside, but there were over 1 ,000 people outside of the funeral home

just to listen. We broadcast it. We piped it out through speakers.

I'm a very forgiving person, and I'm not bitter or angry, but there

will be a day of reckoning, and this is my final promise to Owen.

When you live in a world of make -believe and something so real happens,

want to hammer that home.

Although I didn't know exactly what had happened yet, that I was going to get to

the bottom of it and that I would have my day of reckoning.

After Owen Hart's funeral, his widow Martha travels to Kansas City to try and

piece together the events surrounding her husband's death.

I saw my mom transform into a completely different person. But she became a

fighter. That means I have to go to Kansas City. I have to see the arena

plummeted in.

We actually went up on the catwalk.

She needed to see it firsthand.

She needed to, as hard as it was, to know.

And she had to go and take us so that we would never have to wonder and that we

would never grow older thinking, F only had known.

I really didn't want to leave any stone unturned, so I consciously chose to go

on that catwalk and to walk to the exact spot where he fell.

From my understanding, Owen had to make his way down that little catwalk to get

to the point where he needed to be. We walked right to the spot. We were

literally right at the top of the arena.

And when I looked over that...

cliff well into the abyss down below i saw distance between where we were and

the ground and knowing that he just like that he went out there i can't even

imagine the fear that he would have been feeling in those final minutes like

those seconds but still not forfeiting the opportunity to bring us the life

we had so ultimate sacrifice

It was, you know, very disheartening for me to know that that's the last things

that he saw and how hopeless that feeling would have been to know that

nothing you could do. Your life was over and you knew it. I have all these

nagging suspicions that, you know, Owen was the most cautious person I'd ever

known. He'd never...

take, you know, any sort of uncalculated risk.

And how did this happen? There must be negligence. Like, you know, if someone

doesn't just fall from the top of an arena and die and something went wrong,

like something's wrong here.

And so what evidence did the Kansas City police show you? They brought

everything in and they put it all out on a table. And then we kind of went

through everything slowly. And that's the first time that I saw the clip.

This is some of the legal documents.

And this is actually the clip that

held on.

This is the actual clip. It's a clip meant for the sole use of sailboats. And

how it's designed is it's designed to release on load. So when you have a load

on it, and then when you just click it, then it just opens.

It opens immediately because the design is to let the mast down on a sailboat.

It's this quick release right here, six pounds of pressure to release it like

that. That's it. This is what was holding him, this little thing right

That's it.

When I first saw the clip, the very first time, I gasped, and I was so

upset. It was just appalling.

We looked at statements.

to really piece together what we felt Owen's last day was like.

Just hours before the over -the -edge pay -per -view event, Owen was

by the riggers to rehearse the stunt.

They had approached Owen and asked him to do a rehearsal, and then he said, no,

it's okay, I got it. Bobby Talbert said, well, but it's a different setup.

And so Owen said, okay. To my understanding, they did it.

I don't know to this day if they did it with the quick snap shackle or the

locking carabiner. I have a sense that it was the locking carabiner because he

didn't release himself.

The way Owen had been rigged previously, they felt looked a bit clumsy, a bit

sloppy, and what they wanted was this quick release.

As soon as you hit the ground, you just unrelease and you're ready to go

immediately. And so that's what they wanted.

It was to save, like, two seconds of the setup.

Bobby Talbert should have never been in charge of rigging anybody.

He had no experience.

Do you remember what you came to learn were the rigger's final instructions to

Owen?

They said, as long as you don't pull this cord, you'll be okay.

And he never pulled the cord.

After I gathered enough information about what had happened, I was so firm

belief that there was absolute negligence involved, hand over fist.

Everything was pointing in that direction.

With my full authority, my legal counsel filed a wrongful death lawsuit against

WWF, Vince McMahon, and all others I believe are responsible for my husband's

death. I was suing Vince in Kansas City, and he wanted the case moved to

Connecticut because in Connecticut, there are no punitive damages awarded.

He chose to sue me, the widow, which caused a lot of grief. And on top of it,

he was manipulating Owen's family.

There were some people in the family that were for it and some people that

against it when the lawsuit came up.

I'm sure a lot of shock and trepidation amongst the core Hart family that you

can't sue the most powerful man in wrestling because their family life had

centered around professional wrestling.

And there were still a lot of other people in the family that probably

that Vince McMahon was going to be good to them in the future.

The Hart family, they were not supportive of my lawsuit

against WWF. Some members were silent.

And then other ones actively worked against me, stealing my legal documents,

giving them to the defense. So they basically had our playbook.

So that was very heartbreaking for me, you know, because I said to them, you

know, you don't have to support me, but please just don't work against me.

First of all, I resent

your tone.

I resent your tone, lady, okay?

This was a tragic accident.

Her fight for justice was an uphill battle, to say the least, a real David

Goliath story. I do think that the measurable neglect that had to go into

something so catastrophic cannot be overlooked.

This tragedy is the magnitude at which it's at because it was completely

preventable. This was a guy who was 200 and...

40 pounds. There could have been a rigging team that knew what they were

and they didn't because it was more expensive.

After a year -long legal battle between Martha Hart and the WWF, a settlement is

reached in the amount of $18 million.

For me, I didn't care about the money.

It wasn't about money for me. I wanted this case to go to trial.

That was my biggest... thrust from start to finish was that I didn't want a

settlement. I was looking for justice.

I was looking for accountability.

All my mom was trying to do was preserve the dignity that my dad had and give

her kids the best life they could have.

The settlement provides some closure, but the WWF's decision to continue the

show after Owen's fatal fall remains controversial to this day.

How did this happen? He didn't commit suicide.

Was there foul play?

Was it an accident? We don't know, so leave everything the way it is until we

figure this out. No, we'll just go ahead and have four or five more matches.

That they didn't stop Kansas City was bullshit.

The fact that Vince just discarded Owen like he was a piece of garbage and

scraped his...

dead body off the mat and sent wrestlers out to wrestle on a ring where owen's

blood was and it even had broken some of the boards owen's fall so there was a

dip in the ring and they could feel where he fell the police should have

the show and they should have investigated immediately this was a

crime scene there's been a death here and you know we can't just let the show

on

There's nothing that I've ever experienced compares to Owen Hart's

having to live with it every day since.

It was the worst moment of my wrestling career.

Maybe the worst moment of my life.

He was a vibrant guy that died unnecessarily before he could ever get

peak of his career.

We had a beautiful family and a wonderful mom and dad who were so proud

because the youngest Hart had stepped away from the pack and he made his own

way. with his own style, his own uniqueness, and they were all proud of

He was popular everywhere he went, kind of introduced his high -flying style all

around the world. He was a pioneer.

He could be serious, he could be funny, he could be a technician in the ring, he

could be a high -flyer in the ring. He was great at everything.

Had Owen not died in 99, even though he was getting a little bit disenfranchised

with the rest of us, think about who was coming into the business and coming

into WWE at that time. In less than a year,

Guerrero was there. Malenko was there.

Edge, Christian, Kurt Angle.

Owen would have had a huge career resurgence because I don't think anybody

keep up with him in the WWE in 1999.

We'll never know how great he could have been because he's just approaching that

place when he fell from the skies in Kansas City.

If a guy like me is in the Hall of Fame, there's no damn way that Owen Hart

should be in 10.

Owen Hart should be in every wrestling hall of fame there is because of his

talent and because he belonged there. But he's not in the hall of fame because

his wife does not want him celebrated and glorified by the same company that

took him away from her.

I would never allow for Owen to be recognized by a company that actually is

responsible for his death.

I would never let WWE put his name on a piece of silver.

say that they they got that we have built a foundation that helps put people

homes that helps single moms like my mom was that let kids go to school this is

all done in his namesake this is all got owen hart written all over it this is

how communities this is how people society remembers him and that's how we

it to be done yeah he was a wrestler but other than that he was Bigger than

that. That was just part of what he was.

I wish everyone a Merry Christmas, and we're very grateful that we are as

fortunate as we have everything that we could ever ask for, and most

importantly, our health and our happiness together.

I feel like if my dad had never been in wrestling, he'd still be here, since

I've always blamed, like, wrestling for not.

Like, everything that's happened is just, like, all Bethany's fault. If it

would have, like, caught his eye, he would have done something else, and then

would have all been together.

And when I think of him, I just think happy trails.

And I would have really liked to have had you around.

Merry Christmas, Doge.

Merry Christmas, Doge.

It would have been a lot of fun.

It was fun.

Thanks for that.

There was one person that always believed in me, and that was Owen. And I

he'd be so thrilled that Oge is a lawyer and that he's going to pursue human

rights law and that Athena is a journalism graduate and is pursuing

When you lose someone that you love because...

you still have all that love for them. I took all that love that I had for Owen

and I created the Owen Hart Foundation. Our message is that, you know, be kind

to people. Life is hard and everything we do through the foundation is a

reflection of the type of person that he was. His generosity of spirit and the

kindness that he exuded.

So I think...

he would be, you know, clapping and applauding me up there in heaven and

well done you.