Owen Hart accident

Owen James Hart (May 7, 1965 – May 23, 1999) was a Canadian professional wrestler who worked for several promotions including Stampede Wrestling, New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW), World Championship Wrestling (WCW), and the World Wrestling Federation (WWF). He received most of his success in the WWF, where he wrestled under both his own name and the ring name The Blue Blazer. However, at WWF's Over the Edge 1999 PPV, during his entrance from the rafters of Kemper Arena in Kansas City, Missouri, United States. The equipment that was lowering him to the ring malfunctioned and he fell to his death in front of a live audience and live on Pay Per View during WWF's Over the Edge event.

Accident
When Owen Hart was to challenge The Godfather for the WWF Intercontinental Championship, he was performing as the Blue Blazer. The character, originally used by Hart in the late 1980s, had recently been revived as a superhero gimmick that parodied various wrestlers. At Over the Edge, Hart was to emulate WCW wrestler Sting's ring entrance by descending from the arena rafters into the ring. The entrance was successfully tested on the November 15, 1998, episode of Sunday Night Heat (that year's Survivor Series pre-show, and using a different harness configuration); however, during his descent at Over the Edge, a cable disengaged from the safety vest he wore, and he fell more than 70 feet (21 m) from the rafters into the ring. As he fell, he landed chest-first on the top rope.

The accident was not seen by television viewers. A pre-recorded interview video was shown at the start of Hart's descent, and when the broadcast returned live, the cameras quickly turned away from the ring to the audience. Soon afterward, Jim Ross, one of the commentators of the event, informed pay-per-view viewers that Hart had fallen from the rafters, that the incident was "not a part of the entertainment" and that it was "a real situation". Ross's broadcast partner Jerry Lawler immediately ran to the ring to check on Hart and was visibly shaken when he returned to the announcer table on air, saying somberly "it doesn't look good at all." EMTs came down to the ring and gave Hart CPR, but he showed no response to the treatment. Bringing Hart out on a gurney, the EMTs boarded the heavily injured wrestler into an ambulance and took him to nearby Truman Medical Center in Kansas City.

At 7:59 Central Standard Time, Hart arrived at Truman Medical Center. At this point, he was not technically dead considering his Glasgow Coma Scale, a system used to measure neurological function was listed at a 3/15. 3 is the lowest possible score meaning eye, verbal and motor function each received a score of 1, thus totalling 3. A "GCS of 3" in medical speak refers to imminent death or that death has already occurred. The initial reading from the cardiac monitor indicated he was asystole, meaning that he had no detectable heart activity at all. However, mere seconds later, there were signs of pulseless electrical activity, meaning his heart was not beating but faint electrical activity was still detectable. At this point, nurses began calling out observations to the doctor on the apparent lifeless body of Hart to doctor Michael Tucker. Hart’s skin had turned blue, his lips were colorless and his skin was cold, nurses also reported he had no bowel sounds and his abdomen was soft. Nurses also noted that he had also suffered an apparent open fracture above his left elbow and a cut below, but these wounds were of little concern to the medical staff at the moment. Nonetheless, the medical staff still persisted on and pumped Hart’s unresponsive body with epinephrine in an attempt to stimulate his heart. Still, no pulse was detected, even though his heart still showed signs of slight electrical activity. Outside in the waiting room, former wrestler Harley Race paced anxiously, awaiting word on Hart. He would later be joined by Jeff Jarrett, who participated earlier that night in the event. By the end of the night, a variety of concerned wrestlers who numbered close to two dozen had arrived to get information on Hart's condition. At 8:07 a final dose of epinephrine and atropine went into Hart’s right femoral line. After four minutes, he was still unresponsive. CPR was performed in the final few minutes of his life but the doctors determined that all resuscitation efforts were futile. 13 minutes after arriving at the medical center, 33 minutes after the fall, all work on Hart was stopped. At 8:12 P.M. Hart was pronounced dead at the age of 34.

After the incident, the event was halted for 15 minutes, until Vince McMahon and other WWF Corporate officials decided to continue the event. Hart's coworkers, professional wrestlers, and other miscellaneous workers appeared somber after Hart's fall as they continued to do their jobs. An hour after the event restarted, Ross informed pay-per-view viewers that Hart had died at the age of 34 at a nearby hospital. The fans in attendance were not told any information about what had happened to Hart, and they did not hear the announcement of his death. Here at Kansas City, tragedy befell the World Wrestling Federation and all of us. Owen Hart was set to make an entrance from the ceiling, and he fell from the ceiling. 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.

—  Ross was informed by WWE Television producer Kevin Dunn of Hart's death via headset and that Ross had ten seconds to get back on the air.

Reactions
Vince McMahon and the World Wrestling Federation received strong criticism for designing the stunt and allowing the event to continue after Owen Hart's fall. In his weekly column for the Calgary Sun—a major newspaper in Hart's hometown—on May 31, 1999, Bret Hart (who at the time had a very acrimonious relationship with the company due to the Montreal Screwjob a year and a half prior) blamed Vince McMahon for his brother's death. He "question[ed] if this was really necessary" and said, "Shame on you, Vince McMahon." He also claimed that the tribute show "reeked of disrespect," stating, "Yes, the so-called tribute where afterward wrestlers point to their crotches and say: 'Suck it!' It makes me nauseous." Bret Hart would later state that he wished he would've been in the WWF at the time, so he could've talked his brother out of doing the stunt.

Other members of the Hart family also blamed Vince McMahon for Owen's death, claiming that the accident was the inevitable outcome of "an obsession for ratings and revenues." While in Calgary for Owen's funeral, wrestler Hulk Hogan stated, "Hopefully something good will happen. Wrestling's gotten … way too over the top". In reference to McMahon, he added, "I hope he learns a lesson from this horrible accident". Ralph Klein, the incumbent Premier of Alberta at the time, expressed a hope that Hart's death would lead to changes in wrestling, stating, "Maybe the various federations will rethink the gimmickry."

Calgary Sun columnist Eric Francis called McMahon's decision to continue the event "sick, disrespectful and wrong. But what else would you expect from the WWF?" He added, "if there's any justice in this world, McMahon will pay dearly for what his organization has done to further pain the Harts". Some fans were also upset with the decision to carry on with the show. One man, who left the event with his children upon hearing that Hart had died, claimed, "It was disgusting. … For kids to see that, for this to be so-called family entertainment, for them to just carry on as if nothing had happened, is just sad." Martha Hart, Owen's wife, refused to criticize McMahon publicly in the immediate aftermath of her husband's death. She said that McMahon "absolutely should be there" at the funeral. She also stated, "I'm a very forgiving person and I'm not bitter or angry, but there will be a day of reckoning". Commenting on the WWF's decision to continue the show after her husband's death, Martha stated, "After he lost his fight for life they just scooped him up and ordered the next match out. Where's the humanity? Would he have wanted the show to go on? Absolutely not."

The WWF received some support from people who felt that the company did the right thing by continuing the event. Vince Russo, a WWF scriptwriter at the time, pointed to the fact that Brian Pillman, a family friend of the Harts and a member of The Hart Foundation, died shortly before the Badd Blood: In Your House pay-per-view on which he was scheduled to perform in 1997. After learning of Pillman's death, both Bret and Owen Hart went ahead with their matches on the show. Russo claimed that this showed that "the night he passed away I'm sure Owen would have wanted the same thing." Vince McMahon refused to comment on Hart's death until he felt sufficient time had passed. When asked if he felt responsible for the accident, he replied, "I have a lot to say and I will say it. I promise you that. But this is not the time to do it. … Give me a few days. Give me to the end of the week. Then we'll talk." The day after Over the Edge, the WWF published a message in the Calgary Sun, stating, "We do not have much information as to how it happened and will not know until an investigation is completed. We are all shaken, and to say Owen will be missed is to fall short of a way to fully explain what he meant to us." Although the WWF had no information, they reported that "Our thoughts and prayers go out to the entire Hart family. We have to be strong for Owen; he was an extraordinary human being and consummate performer and knows that the highest tribute that we can pay is to go on entertaining the fans he loved so much."

Aftermath
After the event, in response to Owen Hart's death, the WWF canceled the encore presentation of Over the Edge via pay-per-view, and they also canceled four live events in Canada and one in Illinois. The 1999 Over the Edge event was never officially released on VHS or DVD due to Hart's death. The event was in turn discontinued and its PPV slot was replaced by Judgment Day in 2000. In 2014, the event was shown in an edited form on WWE's online streaming service, the WWE Network. All mentions of the Blue Blazer character were also removed from the Sunday Night Heat pre-show when the episodes of the show were added to the WWE Network in 2018, while the Blue Blazer gimmick was also removed from the video game WWF Attitude, which also features a tribute to him on the game's startup. On May 24, 1999, the day following this event, tributes to Hart were held on Raw is War (which was held in St. Louis) and on WCW Monday Nitro (which was held in Greenville, South Carolina); the WWF tribute was called Raw is Owen. For the WWF tribute show, all storylines and rivalries were stopped, and wrestlers were given the option to wrestle or not. The show also included interviews and testimonies from his coworkers and highlights of his professional wrestling career.

Owen Hart's funeral service was held on May 31, 1999, in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, and it was attended by family members, friends, and over 300 wrestlers who were acquainted with him. Following the funeral, Hart was buried in Calgary's Queens Park Cemetery later that day. Three weeks after the event, his widow, children, and parents sued the WWF for causing Owen's death with a poorly planned stunt; they claimed that the harness system was defective. After the court case had extended one-and-a-half years, a settlement was reached on November 2, 2000, when the WWF agreed to pay his widow, children, and parents US$18 million. The manufacturer of the harness system had also been named as a defendant in the case but was dismissed from the case after the settlement was reached.