Jeff Jarrett has shared a deeply private account of the heartbreaking night time Owen Hart tragically handed away throughout WWE Over the Edge 1999. Talking on The Bobby Bones Jones, Jarrett mirrored on the chaotic moments surrounding the incident and the way it has stayed with him through the years.
Owen Hart, performing as The Blue Blazer, was set to make a dramatic entrance by descending from the rafters, however a stunt went horribly flawed, resulting in his deadly fall. Jarrett, who was shut pals with Hart, was subsequent up on the cardboard. Recalling the moments backstage, Jarrett mentioned, “His match was on earlier than me. The backstage stage supervisor got here and mentioned, ‘Hey, Owen goes to the ring, you’re up subsequent.’ I had in my thoughts 15-18 minutes. Three minutes later, they got here and mentioned, ‘You’re on now.’”
Regardless of the tragic occasions, Jarrett was advised to go to the ring as deliberate. “I went, did a promo, and all that stuff was going round. They wheeled his physique proper beside me,” Jarrett revealed, emphasizing how surreal the second was. “I went to the ring, did that, got here again, and I mentioned, ‘I need to go to the hospital proper now.’”
Jarrett admitted that, on the time, he didn’t absolutely course of the gravity of the state of affairs. “It was, I hate to say this, however it was the fact…it caught as much as me. It was, sadly, in my thoughts, one other day at work with a tragic accident.”
When Jarrett entered the ring, he instantly observed one thing wasn’t proper. “I felt the highest rope was very, very unfastened, and I went over within the nook the place his physique had fallen,” he mentioned. “There was a dip within the ring. There was no blood. It was the place his physique had fallen. In my intestine, I didn’t course of it or intellectually suppose it via, however I used to be like, ‘Okay, that is dangerous.’”
The wrestling world was left in shock as Jim Ross broke the devastating information in the course of the broadcast that Owen Hart had been pronounced useless. Years later, Owen’s legacy continues to be celebrated via the AEW Owen Hart Basis Memorial Event, held with the blessing of his widow, Martha Hart. Jarrett competed within the 2024 match, paying tribute to his fallen good friend.
Jarrett additionally mirrored on how he’s processed the tragedy over time, saying, “That was the one factor after I went into restoration that I by no means processed in any respect. I hate to say it, however it was work.” Regardless of the trauma of that night time, Jarrett expressed his admiration for Owen and the way his legacy continues to encourage the wrestling neighborhood.
Jeff Jarrett’s heartbreaking account of that tragic night time presents a uncooked glimpse into one among wrestling’s darkest moments. Owen Hart’s legacy nonetheless looms massive, and his reminiscence lives on via tributes just like the AEW Owen Hart Basis Memorial Event.
Do you suppose WWE ought to have dealt with issues in a different way that night time, or was it an unimaginable state of affairs? Please share your ideas and suggestions within the remark part under.