Remembering Owen Hart

Eleven years ago today, which oddly enough was a Sunday in 1999 was the event that most have forgotten about. WWF’s Over The Edge 1999. Back in those days my buddies and I would get every pay-per-view event. In 1999 there were ppv wrestling events almost every weekend with WWF, WCW and ECW still around at the time. To be honest this pay-per-view going in of course didn’t look like much as most of the time the shows outside of the big four Royal Rumble, Wrestlemania, Summerslam and Survivor Series (the fifth at the time was King of the Ring which is no longer around) were just throwaway shows furthering smaller feuds on RAW/Smackdown. At any rate the scheduled third match on the card was to be The Godfather vs The Blue Blazer (a stupid gimmick Owen was doing at the time). Of course everyone who’s a wrestling fan knows what unfortunately happened. Seeing the show live as it happened and assuming that although Owen may have been seriously injured, I was hoping for the best. A few minutes later when Jim Ross announced that Owen Hart had died in the ring in Kansas City, the news really floored my friends and I. Of all the years I’d been a wrestling fan nothing like this had ever happened. Unbelievably the wrestlers were told to continue on with the show, even with a huge blood stain on the canvas throughout the remainder of the matches. It just felt wrong to me…I of course wasn’t interested in the rest of the matches and I could only imagine what the wrestlers who were on the road and friends with Owen were going through in the ring.

Even though its been over a decade since the horrific accident I still from time to time think about what if Owen was still around? Where would his career be at 45 years old? Would he accomplish what his brother Bret accomplished? It’s a shame we’ll never find out. I hope at some point we’ll see a WWE Tribute DVD showcasing some of Owen’s best matches, interviews, etc. Along with family and friends talking about their favorite memories!

RIP Owen…we still miss you, WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

On a side note…and a weird coincidence, tonight WWE has a ppv 11 years to the minute and its called Over The Limit! Notice how Edge is in the poster art!