As the 21st anniversary of Owen Hart’s death draws near, many WWE fans still feel as if he was done wrong. In 1999, Hart fell to his death due to an entrance stunt that went wrong, and his widow believes things should have been different. Martha Hart states that not only was the stunt set up for failure from the beginning, but Owen received poor treatment after his fall occurred.
Numerous legal battles related to his death during the Over the Edge pay-per-view have been fought over the years, and they have likely contributed to Owen not being inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame.
On Tuesday, the season finale of Dark Side of the Ring will air on Vice, and it will detail “The Final Days of Owen Hart.” In a recent interview with CBS Sports , Martha said that the pay-per-view should have come to an end, but WWE disrespected her husband even further.
“When Owen died, they scooped him out like a piece of garbage, and they paraded wrestlers out to wrestle in a ring that had Owen’s blood, where the boards were broken from Owen’s fall and where the guys could feel the dip in the ring from where he fell. Just that disrespect and lack of respect for a human life that had just been lost.”
Martha said that Vince McMahon was a “poor leader” and that it was “just appalling” that the show did not stop.
At Over the Edge , Owen was playing the role of a masked superstar named the Blue Blazer. For his match, he was to perform a stunt where he “flew” across the arena before being slowly lowered into the ring.
The rigging broke, and Owen fell nearly 80 feet to his death in the middle of the pay-per-view. Martha claims that “hackers” were hired to set up the stunt, which was done in a cost-cutting measure after an experienced rigger refused to do the work.
Many experienced riggers turned WWE down, saying that it was not safe to do such a stunt. Martha Hart claims that the equipment was wrong and not even meant to suspend someone up in the air, making the entire stunt and team “negligent.”
“He thought for sure they were hiring people that knew what they were doing. He was putting his life in their hands, and they didn’t care. They didn’t have any regard for Owen’s life whatsoever. They went outside of qualified riggers that had good experience.”
To this day, Owen Hart is still not in the WWE Hall of Fame despite many fans and superstars begging for him to go in. There has been constant speculation that this is because Martha is possibly not allowing his induction to go through.