The world lost Owen Hart on May 23rd, 1999. He fell to his death in front of thousands of onlookers from the Kemper Arena ceiling during the Over the Edge PPV in Kansas City. He was only 34-years-old at the time of his death. Owen left behind a wife, 2 children, and countless friends, family, and fans.
Owen’s tragic fall will be the topic of Dark Side of the Ring’s season 2 finale. His widow Martha appeared on Talk is Jericho recently to discuss Owen, the documentary, and more. During the conversation, Martha revealed the legal battles that have taken place between her and WWE.
“It was really tough. I have to say it was a knock-down-drag-out fight/battle against them,” Martha said during the discussion. “A lot of people might not realize this but they actually sued me for breach of Owen’s contract.”
“They had in their contract that you could only sue them in Connecticut but I wasn’t suing them about Owen’s contract, it was something totally different. But through that process of the lawsuit, they were trying anything and everything to muddy the waters or just intimidate me.”
“This was a company, they have deep pockets, and they can pay lawyers forever to just keep this case going and going.”
Martha continued to mention details of the lawsuit filed against her.
“Vince sued me because he wanted the case moved to Connecticut because in Missouri you are allowed punitive damages but in Connecticut you’re not. So he was so worried that ‘oh my god, there’s so much negligence here that the punitive damages are just going to be through the roof.’ So he sued me which was really tough because I had to actually hire lawyers in Connecticut to fight that lawsuit while I was battling the wrongful death lawsuit in Kansas City.”
Martha continued to talk about coming to the realization that the wrongful death lawsuit would only ever end up being about money. This motivated her to create the Owen Hart Foundation.
The Owen Hart Foundation
The Owen Hart foundation helps fund many charitable causes including a scholarship fund and a homeowners fund for low-income families and individuals. Martha would continue to talk about how the work of the foundation mirrors the kind of person Owen Hart was.
“Owen was a practical man of profound integrity, a wonderful husband and devoted father. He would be extremely proud of the good work carried out by the Foundation and would be honoured to be remembered for what he loved best, which was his sincere kindness to all people,” reads the website of the Owen Hart Foundation.
A clip from Talk is Jericho featuring Martha Hart’s comments can be heard in the player below:
