Owen Hart - We'll Miss You

On May 23rd, at the WWF pay-per-view Over the Edge, a truly tragic event occured:

Wrestler Owen Hart was trying a stunt with his Blue Blazer character. As the Blazer was a parody of superheroes, Owen was descending from the rafters on a wire. He was supposed to descend safely to the ring, as he'd done in several tests of the stunt before hand.

Unfortunately, something horrible happened. Whether the wire snapped, or he released the safety catch too soon, he plunged 70 feet to the ring, snapping his neck on the turnbuckle. Owen died an hour later.

Owen was never good on a microphone, but he was an enormous talent in the ring. On Raw Monday evening, grieving performers described an entertaining, humorous man who had no enemies, someone who'd be terribly missed.

I'll always remember Owen as a great ring talent, and a person who, the more I hear of him, I wish I'd had a chance to know as a person.

I followed his career since he debuted as the Blue Blazer more than 10 years ago now. I always knew he had the goods needed to be a true superstar, and that he just needed the right push to get him there.

This loss has hit me very hard. While watching RAW, I found myself crying along with everyone else. Owen died at the age of 34; a mere two years older than I am - but he also leaves behind a wife and children, who loved him as much as he did them. I grieve for them as well.

I also feel a lot of anger. Anger directed at one Phil Mushnick, a writer for the New York Post. For well over a year now, he's engaged in a non-stop war against wrestling, saying that it's the cause of every superstar's death. While the rest of us are grieving, he's using Owen as proof of his theories. Further, he went as far as to lie about Brian Pillman's death, stating it was caused by drugs [he was already proven wrong. Apparently, he thinks that lies can still work, if forgotten]

To quote Owen's old catch-phrase: Enough is enough! If this man wants to spit on Owen's memory, I say that in honor of that same memory, we should all, everyone who can, write to the New York Post to complain about Mushnick. Realistically, it won't get him fired... but enough negative press and he'll have to stop this garbage.

For now though, anger must move aside for grieving. Goodbye, Owen Hart. We'll miss you horribly.

Created May 26, 1999