10 Years Ago

10 years ago today, an event ocured which no wrestling fan will ever forget - the death of Owen Hart. He was scheduled to face The Godfather for the WWF Intercontinental Championship under his gimmick The Blue Blazer.

As he was preparing to perform his ring entrance, the same ring entrance Shawn Michaels and Sting had performed in the past, a release mechanism disengaged, and Owen fell over 70ft and landed on his chest on the turnbuckle. According to Mick Foley, Owen tried to sit up, before falling back down. The official cause of death was given as internal bleeding from blunt chest trauma.


Here is a website, which features some images of before and after the tragedy, as well as newspaper reports, and an image of an attempt of the same stunt made the previous year.
The second link features an image of Owen in the ring following the tragedy.

http://homepage.mac.com/knarley/owenhart/timeline/owentimeline.html
https://2img.net/h/i77.photobucket.com/albums/j68/seema_124/Bret%20Hart/Owen%20Hart/owen_accident.jpg

Jim Ross had the unfortunate task of telling the viewers the news of Owen Harts death

Jim Ross wrote:

Ladies and gentleman, 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 tragically died from that accident here tonight.

R.I.P. Owen Hart - May 7, 1965 – May 23, 1999

Great wrestler his match against Bret at WM 10 was top class. I would've liked to see him win the world title. Owen Hart R.I.P

i was just watching the lengend never die video and realised the date i culdnt belive its was ten years today it doesnt feel that long. Owen was a good worker and a great professional and it was a complete waste of a life just on entrance. RIP

rip. owen gone but not forgotten

rip great wrestler and from what iv heard a great man

I'll post some Owen stories later, found a fair few yesterday

Owen had to be my favorite wrestler of all time, but is still messed when you think about the events that took place before the untimely accident. Its sad to think that he was somewhat cohursed into having to do the stunt after the company returned him to the Blue Blazer gimmick, just because he didn’t want to ruin his families self image.

He is one wrestler that definitely deserved to be heavyweight champion and was on his way if it wasn’t for that bizarre PPV. I cannot believe it has been 10 years since that day, but it still bugs me because something like this did not deserve to happen to such a good guy. From what everyone says he was as good as a family man as he was a wrestler, which says a lot about his of screen life.

Owen is one of the best Intercontinental Champions the company has ever had and is definitely my all time favorite Slammy Award Winner (2 times that is and don't forget it). Ha, he totally stole the best bow tie award like a true bad-ass, “I did it, woooo!”

R.I.P. Owen Hart….The Rocket….The Black Hart…..The King of Harts………You will always be missed

I loved Owen, whether or not he had a championship run in him will never be known and will always be debated, however what I will say is that his career kinda peaked in 1994 when he and Bret tore it up all over America, throw a couple of 5* PPV matches into the mix and you had a must see feud, Owen became the ultimate heel during that run and I always felt he could have had a run with the strap, even if it where just for a month or two to help stoke the flames of that feud, everyone loved to hate Owen in the mid 90s, awesome heat magnet, from his cast to his slammys he could use anything to get him over that little bit more

People remember him as the Blue Blazer and think of him as that character when saying he wouldn't have got to the top, however the Blazer was all just part of a storyline, if anyone is old enough to remember Owen 'severely injured' Dan Severen in a match, and in doing so 'quit' the WWF, thats when the Blazer started appearing, he was scheduled to win the IC title the night he died, sure of it infact, the Blazer was only a temporary gimmick to get over the bigger gimmick, which was Owen showing no remorse for almost crippling Severen, who at that time was being sold on being the toughest guy in the WWF

Can't believe it's been 10 years already, I remember watching it live and Jim Ross' announcement was absolutely chilling, still gives me shivers when I hear it nowadays

Im too young to have ever seen him perform

but R.I.P Owen

The first time I saw Owen was when he was in WCW so that was in the early 90s, I'd have been about 8 or 9 at the time if I remember correctly.

He was known as The Rocket and I absolutely loved him from the minute I saw him wrestle, so athletic complared the usual guys like Arn Anderson etc.

He never really got a big push at all though back then!!

As Kayfabe mentioned, when he was really on top was when he had the series of matches with Bret, they were awesome together! I cannot stand when Bret talks about how great he was when he did this and that (Bret Hart's biggest mark is Bret Hart!!!!) but in the case of his matches with Owen, I have to agree with him when he says that it was some of, if not completely, his best work.

RIP Owen, you are missed!

I didn't know he was known as the Rocket in WCW as well, good stuff