The Night the Wrestling Stopped: A Minute-by-Minute Account of the Death of Owen Hart
On May 23, 1999, the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) presented Over the Edge live on pay-per-view from the Kemper Arena in Kansas City, Missouri. The event is not remembered for the matches, the storylines, or the championships contested. It is remembered as the night professional wrestling faced its darkest reality. Owen Hart, performing as “The Blue Blazer,” fell 78 feet from the rafters of the arena to his death in front of a live audience.
The tragedy was a convergence of a questionable creative direction, a fatal mechanical error, and a corporate decision to continue the broadcast that remains debated to this day. The death of Owen Hart did not just rob the industry of a beloved performer; it shattered the illusion of the show and resulted in a legal battle that permanently fractured one of wrestling’s most famous families.
The Return of the Blue Blazer
To understand the circumstances leading to the stunt, one must examine Owen Hart’s career trajectory in early 1999. A gifted technical wrestler and a member of the legendary Hart family, Owen was widely respected for his in-ring ability. However, following the “Montreal Screwjob” in 1997, which saw his brother Bret Hart leave the company in an acrimonious fashion, Owen remained in the WWF to fulfill his contractual obligations and provide for his family.
By 1999, the creative team pitched a storyline involving Owen Hart having an on-screen affair with Debra, the manager of his tag team partner Jeff Jarrett. Owen, a devoted husband and father who prioritized his family above wrestling stardom, refused the angle. He did not want his children to see him in such a role on television.
As a compromise—or perhaps a punishment, as suggested by some critics—the WWF revived his old gimmick, “The Blue Blazer.” The character was presented as a bumbling, self-righteous superhero who preached about eating vitamins and saying prayers, a parody of Hulk Hogan. Part of the gimmick involved the Blue Blazer making clumsy, over-the-top entrances.
For Over the Edge, the plan was for the Blue Blazer to descend from the rafters on a cable, unhook himself just above the ring, and fall flat on his face in a comedic pratfall. It was a stunt meant to elicit laughter, designed to humiliate the character before his Intercontinental Championship match against The Godfather.
The Rigging and the Clip
The stunt was coordinated by an outside firm hired by the WWF. In previous rafter entrances, notably those performed by Sting in World Championship Wrestling (WCW), performers used a comprehensive safety harness system with multiple redundancies.
For Owen Hart’s descent, the setup was different. To facilitate the “comedic” release where he would drop the final few feet, the rigging crew utilized a “quick-release” mechanism. Specifically, the harness was connected to the cable using a snap shackle, a piece of equipment commonly found in sailing. Unlike a locking carabiner, which requires manual unscrewing or twisting to open, a snap shackle is designed to open immediately under load when a release cord is pulled.
This mechanism was chosen to ensure Owen could unhook himself quickly without fumbling with complex latches on live television. The release cord ran down the front of his costume. The margin for error was non-existent. A mere six pounds of pressure on the release cord was sufficient to trigger the mechanism.
The Fall
At approximately 7:40 PM CST, a pre-taped video package aired for the live pay-per-view audience and the fans in the arena. The video featured the Blue Blazer character in a comedic interview. While this footage played on the “TitanTron” video screen, Owen Hart was positioned in the catwalks, 78 feet above the ring, making final preparations for his descent.
The exact cause of the trigger release remains a point of forensic debate, but the outcome was instantaneous. The snap shackle opened prematurely. Owen Hart fell from the rafters.
He did not land on the canvas, which might have offered some absorption. He struck the top rope near the turnbuckle, whiplashing his body, and then bounced into the ring.
Jim Ross and Jerry “The King” Lawler were on commentary. They were watching the monitors as the interview played. Lawler was the first to notice the fall. His microphone picked up his genuine reaction: “Oh, look out.”
The live broadcast feed remained on the pre-taped interview for several more seconds. When the video concluded, the cameras cut to a wide shot of the crowd, avoiding the ring entirely. Jim Ross, realizing the gravity of the situation, spoke directly to the home audience.
“We’ve got big problems out here,” Ross said, his voice dropping the “announcer” persona. “This is not part of the entertainment… Owen Hart has taken a very bad fall from the rafters.”
The Medical Response
Inside the ring, the scene was chaotic. Referees and medical personnel rushed to Owen’s side. Jerry Lawler, leaving the broadcast table, entered the ring to assist.
The fans in attendance were initially confused. In the “Attitude Era,” where wrestlers were thrown off Hell in a Cell structures and engaged in wild brawls, many assumed this was a dummy or a planned stunt. However, as chest compressions began and the paramedics worked frantically to establish an airway, a hush fell over Kemper Arena.
Owen Hart never regained consciousness. The blunt force trauma had caused severe internal bleeding and a transection of the aorta. He was loaded onto a stretcher and wheeled out of the arena to a waiting ambulance.
The Decision to Continue
With Owen Hart en route to Truman Medical Center, WWF Chairman Vince McMahon was faced with a decision. The show was less than an hour old. There were thousands of fans in the building and hundreds of thousands watching on pay-per-view.
McMahon made the call: The show would continue.
This decision remains the most controversial aspect of the night. Critics argue that out of respect for a dying employee, the event should have been cancelled immediately. Supporters of the decision, including some wrestlers from that era, argue that in the chaos of the moment, the “the show must go on” mentality of the carnival business took over, and there was no protocol for stopping a live global broadcast.
The next match scheduled was a mixed tag team match: Val Venis and Nicole Bass vs. Jeff Jarrett and Debra. Jeff Jarrett was Owen Hart’s closest friend in the company. He had watched Owen being wheeled past him backstage.
Jarrett and Debra were sent through the curtain to perform. In later interviews, Jarrett described the experience as a blur of trauma. Debra was visibly crying during the match. They performed their spots, but the energy had evaporated from the building.
The Announcement
At the hospital, doctors pronounced Owen Hart dead. The news was relayed to the production truck at Kemper Arena.
Jim Ross was given the instruction to inform the audience. He was told he had ten seconds before the camera went live to him. In his memoir Slobberknocker, Ross recalled the crushing weight of that moment—having to tell the world that a husband and father was gone, while maintaining his composure as a broadcaster.
Ross looked into the camera. “Ladies and gentlemen, earlier tonight here in 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. I have the unfortunate responsibility to let everyone know that Owen Hart has died. Owen Hart has died from that accident here tonight.”
Crucially, this announcement was made only to the television audience. The fans inside Kemper Arena were not informed of Owen’s death until the show concluded, or until they called home on cell phones. The matches continued. The main event, featuring Stone Cold Steve Austin and The Undertaker, took place in a ring stained with the blood of their colleague.
Backstage Reaction
While the show continued in the ring, the backstage area was a scene of devastation. Wrestlers were openly weeping. The Undertaker (Mark Calaway), one of the locker room leaders, was reportedly furious and conflicted about going out to perform.
Mick Foley, writing in his book Foley Is Good, described the atmosphere as surreal. He recalled sitting in the locker room, seeing men who made a living acting tough breaking down in tears. The disconnect between the brightly lit arena floor and the grief-stricken backstage area was jarring.
When the show finally went off the air, Vince McMahon gathered the roster. The details of the meeting vary by account, but the overarching sentiment was one of shock.
The Raw is Owen Tribute
The following night, May 24, 1999, the WWF held a tribute show titled Raw is Owen at the Kiel Center in St. Louis. The storylines were dropped. The show consisted of exhibition matches and emotional testimonials from the wrestlers.
Mark Henry read a poem through tears. Jeff Jarrett screamed Owen’s name. Stone Cold Steve Austin, usually stoic, toasted a beer to Owen’s picture on the TitanTron. It was a cathartic night for the roster, but for the Hart family in Calgary, it was little comfort.
The Lawsuit and The Clip
Martha Hart, Owen’s widow, filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the WWF, the rigging company, and the manufacturers of the harness equipment.
The legal discovery process revealed damning details about the “quick release” snap shackle. It was established that the clip was designed for rigging sailboats, not for suspending human beings. The release mechanism required only six pounds of pressure to open. It was argued that the movement of Owen adjusting his cape or the harness could have inadvertently triggered the release.
Furthermore, it was revealed that the rigorous safety checks usually associated with such stunts were not fully implemented due to the rushed nature of the setup.
The lawsuit was settled out of court in November 2000 for $18 million. The money was used by Martha Hart to establish the Owen Hart Foundation, a charity dedicated to providing scholarships and housing for low-income families.
The Family Fracture
The death of Owen Hart destroyed the relationship between Martha Hart and the Hart family wrestling dynasty. Martha felt that members of the Hart family, particularly Bret Hart, were trying to co-opt the tragedy for their own agendas or were not supportive enough of her lawsuit against the WWF.
Conversely, Bret Hart and other family members felt that Martha was erasing Owen’s wrestling legacy by refusing to allow the WWF (now WWE) to induct him into the Hall of Fame or use his likeness in video games.
This estrangement lasted for over two decades. Martha Hart remained steadfast in her refusal to work with the company she held responsible for her husband’s death. “I don’t think the WWE should be celebrated for killing my husband,” she stated in an interview with Chris Jericho.
The Legacy
For years, Owen Hart’s career was a ghost in the WWE archives. His matches were available on the WWE Network, but his name was rarely mentioned, and he was conspicuously absent from merchandise and Hall of Fame ceremonies.
In 2021, the landscape changed. All Elite Wrestling (AEW), the rival promotion to WWE, announced a partnership with the Owen Hart Foundation. With Martha Hart’s blessing, AEW established the “Owen Hart Foundation Tournament,” an annual event featuring both men’s and women’s brackets.
At the Double or Nothing pay-per-view in 2022, Martha Hart stood in a wrestling ring for the first time since 1999. She received a standing ovation. She spoke about Owen not just as a wrestler, but as a man. It was a reclamation of his memory, on her terms.
The death of Owen Hart remains a cautionary tale about the price of entertainment. It highlighted the lack of regulation in professional wrestling stunts and the perilous power dynamic between talent and management. But more than that, it is remembered as the night the line between the “work” and the “shoot” was erased in the most tragic way possible, leaving an empty space in the ring that can never truly be filled.
