The death of Owen Hart at WWE Over The Edge 1999 remains the most tragic incident to ever have taken place during a wrestling show. The decision to continue the PPV even after the veteran’s fall will forever be a controversial topic.
The Undertaker who was one of the stars that had to go out there and perform after the incident was recently asked about it during a Patreon Q&A. The WWE Hall of Famer explained that mentally it was one of the toughest days of his life, and questioned the decision to keep the show going even after Owen’s passing:
“Wow. Man, [it was] such an interesting time period. We’re all grinding, just trying to do the best that we could but trying to process the information that somebody just passed away due to some, whatever, the rigging accident.
A guy that you spent tonnes of time with and seen every day for years and you just losing. One minute he’s there and then the next he’s not. Then you have to go out and put the pieces together and try and perform, it was probably one of the most difficult…definitely, mentally one of the toughest days I think I’ve ever had.
If you go back and you watch the footage of that, you can see it on everybody’s face. There’s just a huge element to the match and everything that’s going on. You can just tell that no one really wanted to be out there. Like I said, it’s still very raw and you’re processing this information, but you also are trying to entertain these people. You lived by that motto back then ‘the show must go on.’ I just don’t know that that was the right thing to do.”
We Were Hoping It Wasn’t True: The Undertaker
The Undertaker defeated Stone Cold Steve Austin to win the WWF Championship in the main event of the pay-per-view. He noted that nobody celebrated the title win and detailed the mindset of the locker room after the show had concluded:
“Although we’d already been told, it was kind of like you still didn’t believe it. When we came back we were hoping that something miraculous had happened and it wasn’t true. It was such a tough night. Hindsight being 20-20 [we should have stopped the show] but you also have an arena full of people too.
I don’t envy or didn’t envy Vince McMahon having to make that decision. It was a tough call in the heat of it. I just know it was extremely difficult to go out and do my job that night. It was tough man, we tried to do the best with what we had.”
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