Original subtitles

As a fan of Owen Hart,

pioneer of all pioneers. One of the best.

I knew this guy was gonna make it. You can tell.

I wanted to be just like Owen Heart.

He was really the chosen one.

Owen, he just had a very nice aura.

He was always just trying to spread the joy.

He was cast in the role of a lifetime.

Owen Hart was a naturally gifted wrestler.

He was born into a legendary wrestling dynasty,

but he put family above all else.

Despite his success in the ring, he was searching for a way out.

On May 23rd, 1999, during a live Pay Per View event,

Owen Hart's hopes for a life after wrestling were cut short.

When you're doing live television,

a lot of things can happen and sometimes they are not good.

Is this really real?

Then I remember hearing a gasp from the crowd.

It was shocking. "What do you mean, Owen fell?" He goes, "Owen fell!"

It was Owen. He was laying in the ring face up.

I heard them screaming, "It's not fake! Get an EMT here!"

If he fell, he's gotta be dead.

Owen Hart fell from the ceiling during an event in Kansas.

Someone doesn't just fall from the top of an arena.

Something's wrong here.

Her husband flew to Kansas to go to work and never came home again.

Mere days after Owen's death,

his widow Martha vows to uncover what happened that night in Kansas.

There will be a day of reckoning and this is my final promise to Owen.

It was out of respect for Owen.

I can't let everything our life was just be all for nothing.

Happy birthday to you

Happy birthday to you

From the earliest days of pro wrestling,

it has been traditionally a family business.

We're the greatest force in the World Wrestling Federation!

Few compare to the impact of the Hart family in Calgary,

who has spawned generations of in-ring icons.

Despite being the youngest of 12,

Owen Hart was considered a true prodigy.

Number one, baby!

But with the circumstances surrounding his death,

his legacy has become more complex.

In this episode, his family comes together

to share memories of the husband and father they lost all too soon.

I don't think you can talk about pro wrestling history

and not incorporate the Hart's into that conversation early.

I'm Jim Ross, 2007 member of the WWE Hall of Fame,

the NWA Hall of Fame, and The National Hall of Fame.

And one of the athletes that I worked with very closely

is the late, great Owen Hart, one of the best.

Stu Hart had a dozen kids, and all the boys became wrestlers,

the girls grew up to marry wrestlers.

So, the extended Hart family was 20 people involved in pro wrestling.

I'm Jim Cornette. For almost 40 years,

I've been promoter, matchmaker, announcer, manager,

historian, all things related to pro wrestling,

and I managed Owen Hart.

The Hart family was a dynasty in wrestling

because of the respect Stu Hart had as a promoter

and the fact when the boys started becoming wrestlers, they were good.

The Hart family became one of the royal families in pro wrestling.

It was like a nice Sopranos.

They stuck together and helped each other,

and everybody got a chance

to pick the brass ring off the wrestling merry-go-round.

All of his sons began to want to follow in his footsteps.

Bret Hart was, obviously, the biggest star worldwide.

Some of the other sons, Ross and Keith were stars as well.

And son-in-laws, Davey Boy Smith "The British Bulldog",

Jim "The Anvil" Neidhart. So many got to be stars that at one point,

there was a Hart family member in half the territories.

Owen was the youngest brother to get involved in wrestling,

but when he started, he was a prodigy, instantly.

Owen Hart, as a rookie, he was spectacular.

His acrobatics were amazing. He could flip backwards off ropes,

could land on his feet from every direction.

I saw this guy doing all of these things.

Back flips off of a guy's back, he had blond hair, he looked cool.

Looked like a big version of Johnny from The Karate Kid.

I thought, I want to do this with that guy.

I drew pictures of me and Owen Hart

as tag team champion in Stampede.

I just really was influenced by him.

Owen was a natural. You didn't have to teach him.

He'd already picked it up by osmosis.

Within hours of his debuting, he's as good as anybody.

You can see it. Get him in the game. He's gonna be a star. He was.

Please, Owen. I'm gonna cut the tape.

Well, why don't you say something to the camera, you egomaniac!

Hello there.

I am Martha Hart,

a doctor for University of Calgary and Alberta Children's Hospital.

I'm the founder of the Owen Hart Foundation

and I'm a mom.

That's my whole title.

I started dating Owen when I was 15.

For me, he was just very striking, he had blond hair and well built,

and I thought he was a bit of a scrapper

because he was an amateur wrestler.

But then, as it turned out, he was quite a gentle giant underneath.

He was a really secure, grounded person.

Even though he ended up being a very world famous wrestler,

he didn't feed off of that fame.

He really wanted to have this very normal life.

He wanted to have a normal job.

He wanted the white picket fence.

-Hi, Owen. -Hi, Martha.

-What ya doing? -I'm walking with my boy, Oje here.

Owen was an amazing father. He loved being a dad.

-Hi, Oje. -Hi.

My childhood was phenomenal. I loved every second.

I'm Oje Hart and I am Owen Hart's son.

My mom's love for my father was unexampled.

They had the love that could only get stronger.

Trains are my favorite thing on earth, especially toy trains.

Every year, a train show would come to Calgary

and I only wanted to go with dad.

I remember he said he was going somewhere, like a big trip,

but I think what he did was he actually re-booked it.

It was him stiff-arming the show, saying "Kids come first,

and this weekend I cannot miss. And this one's for my son."

But I remember when he was there, it was us there together,

and mom and Athena.

Athena, do you like that? Yeah.

Him taking me to the zoo. That was, like, our thing.

I don't have many memories, but that's the one that's stuck,

and it just makes me happy

because the short time we had, that was my favorite.

I went to school where my dad went to school

and so, everyone knew me as the wrestler's daughter.

-Hey, daddy wins. Who did he beat? -Uncle Bret. He turned his head!

Owen loved the wrestling business. He wasn't a lifer like some guys.

He wanted to save money, devote it to his family,

and get out at an early age.

At the age of 23, Owen signs with the WWF,

where his older brother, Bret, is rising through the ranks

as an up and coming star.

I remember going to Winnipeg Arena to see a show,

and he comes to the ring wearing, I knew Stampede Wrestling tights,

they had lightning on the side, stars on the ass, but he had a mask.

I wonder if he looks like a Stampede Wrestling guy. Who is it?

Then he did a bum flip. That's Owen Hart.

Owen had a great personality, but not an over-the-top personality

that translated on television for the style of the WWF at the time.

By 1993, the Blue Blazer persona is phased out,

and Owen enters a story line portraying Bret's jealous brother,

looking to prove himself.

Bret Hart, you're nothing but selfish!

Your ego is too big! You only worry about yourself, Bret!

Their feud builds towards a match at WrestleMania X.

There's great matches I'd watch. One would be in the Garden,

WrestleMania X, Owen and Bret. Here's the deal:

Two brothers from Calgary, two sizes, too hard, came into New York city,

Madison Square Garden, the world's most famous arena, stole the show.

Oh, wow!

It was a testament to Bret that he went along with it.

It was designed to help Owen.

Owen wasn't over, was getting there, he was hitting the root.

Bret was the star. Arguably, the biggest.

So, Bret doing this was really brotherly love.

He helped his brother get recognized and get the spotlight on him.

After his win at WrestleMania, Owen Hart comes into his own,

achieving accolades beyond the shadow of his brother.

But for Owen's family,

his growing success means a more rigorous travel schedule.

He was gone over 250 days a year,

and he would go 10 days on and then three days off.

Just on my way to go wrestle at the Nashville Municipal party.

It was a revolving door of he was home and then he was gone.

It's a rough life, but one day I'll have, hopefully, some money

to pay for all the aches and pains I've got

and I can enjoy myself at home with my wife and family.

That's nice.

In 1997, Bret's controversial departure from the WWF

to rival company WCW shakes up the entire industry.

In an incident known as The Montreal Screw Job,

Bret is stripped of his championship belt

following creative differences.

Fans witness real life backstage drama unfold

as Bret is left stunned on live television.

The Montreal Screw Job was a double cross on Bret Hart

and Bret was hot. He was mad.

Even though Owen didn't share the same sort of philosophy

or view of wrestling that Bret had,

he knew it was important, and knew he'd be crushed.

Soon as it happened, he went to the ring and said,

"Don't worry. It doesn't matter. It's all garbage anyway."

But for Bret, it was a stab in the heart.

This was taking on a life of its own and it was starting to look bad

and reflect poorly on the WWF, and they wanted to keep one of them.

The fact we knew Owen was gonna be a star, big star,

not a star, he was already a star,

but to get to the next level, we gave Owen a new contract.

People say, "It had nothing to do with Montreal."

Bullshit. It had a lot to do with Montreal.

But that's not bad, it's just what it is.

We knew what we had,

and he was so motivated from being Bret's brother to being Owen Hart.

And with Bret gone to another team, it helped facilitate that.

It's been said anything can happen in the WWF,

but now, truer words have never been spoken.

Vince McMahon wanted wrestlers to start being actors at this point,

and they didn't want to do it.

Because the way wrestlers were was,

you're not playing a character.

Surely, the era of the superhero who urged you to say your prayers

and take your vitamins is definitely passé.

In the entertainment era, they didn't know what to do with Owen,

because he was just a great wrestler.

They kept trying to find something to plug him into.

Let's get him in an affair with Debra McMichael.

Owen was the one guy that was always pushing back.

"I don't want to do this.

I don't want to look like I'm cheating on my wife with Debra."

It was that tipping point we reached between,

we're not gonna use wrestlers

just because they're great athletes and wrestlers.

They have to be willing to put on goofy outfits and do skits.

Check this out. Owen Hart, man, his head is not in this at all.

So when they came to him with a revival of the Blue Blazer,

"That's not gonna make my family look bad," right, it's just stupid.

Here it comes! It's Owen Hart! The Blazer is Owen Hart!

You got one of the top workers in the world

and you want to put him under a mask, an unknown mask.

The Blue Blazer. Didn't work.

Bottom line is simple: Creative couldn't find a better idea

to utilize one of the best technical workers in the entire world,

and I found that to be embarrassing.

In 1998, the WWF reprises the Blue Blazer character,

a campy superhero gimmick

Owen Hart portrayed a decade earlier.

Take your vitamins, say your prayers, and drink your milk.

They were also trying to spoof Sting who was a wrestler in the WCW,

and, he would come down, descend into the ring.

And so, they were competing with WCW

and that was one way they could almost make fun of them.

He's stuck. The idiot is stuck in the harness.

The company that had rigged Owen was a top rigging company

that had rigged Elton John, The Rolling Stones.

They also had worked for Disney and MGM in Las Vegas.

They were really renowned.

Owen didn't have control over any of the stunt.

He was locked in with a locking carabiner,

which they feel is the only safe apparatus to use

if you're doing these descents.

He can't get out of the harness! This is nonsense!

Six months later, the aerial descent of the Blue Blazer is revisited

for an upcoming Pay Per View event called Over the Edge.

Owen was on his way home. He was just flying in,

and I was walking out the door to go pick him up from the airport

when I got a call from someone that worked at WWF and they said,

"We need to get his measurements for a vest

because we're doing this drop-in this weekend in Kansas City

and we need to get his measurements ASAP."

I remember thinking, you had him. He was just with you guys.

Why didn't you get it?

And I asked her that, and she said, "We just decided. We wrote it in."

I actually asked on the phone about, you know,

who'd be rigging him, and the girl said, "Oh, don't worry.

We have the top riggers from LA coming in.

Don't worry. Yeah, it's totally safe."

He never questioned, ever, his safety

because he assumed this billion-dollar company

was certainly going to make sure

they hired the best in the business, which they did not.

Life on the road is never-ending for Owen and his family,

and on May 22nd, 1999,

he travels to Kansas City for Over the Edge.

It was a Saturday when he left. He was rushing out the door,

just embarking on another 10-day journey away from home.

He decided he was gonna take Oje

and he'd pick up my mom. She'd drive Oje back.

It wasn't common where I'd take dad to the airport. This was different.

And the last thing he said was, "Look after your mom.

Take care of your mom and your sister."

He was walking in with his bag over his shoulder into the airport.

I wasn't sure what it meant. I didn't think anything of it.

Something you'd say when you were saying goodbye.

My name is Jimmy Korderas

and I am a former referee with the WWF/WWE.

We set up the ring, got our match assignments,

which was Blue Blazer, Owen versus The Godfather.

They happened to be at ringside and I went over,

and got the finish to the match.

And that was basically it. It was business as usual.

I am The Godfather, WWE Hall of Fame, Godfather.

I remember hanging out with Owen that day.

We talked about the match, we talked about the finish.

We were sitting in the arena and he was getting ready to practice,

and he did that and I watched him.

I had a feeling that day Owen was not his normal, exuberant,

enthusiastic self about what he was doing that night.

I said, "Better you than me. I don't like heights."

He said, "Me either." I think he was a little concerned.

He has to do it.

There's nobody can do it for him, no stunt double.

There's a couple things he said, and maybe what he didn't say,

led me to believe that he's not down with this thing.

On May 23rd, 1999,

Over the Edge takes place at Kemper Arena

in Kansas City, Missouri.

The event plays to a sold out crowd

and airs live to hundreds of thousands at home.

In preparation for his dramatic entrance,

Owen Hart makes his way to the top of the arena.

Me and Mark Henry worked Kane and X-Pac for the tag titles,

and I believe Owen was like the third or fourth match.

I remember talking to Kane and X-Pac,

and seeing Owen walk by. This was before our match.

From the rafters, Owen changes into his Blue Blazer costume,

and the rigging crew readies him for his descent.

We were clearing out the ring, left hand on the top rope.

I was kicking debris out of the ring and I was moving towards the corner.

At that time, there was a promo playing on screen of the Blue Blazer.

Oh, The Godfather, saying his name makes my blue blood boil!

Hanging in the air,

over 80 feet above the ring, he waits for his cue.

Here comes the time for the entrances

and I'm looking at my monitor, looking at my paper.

And all of a sudden, Lawler gives me the elbow.

I looked up, and I just caught Owen come into my line of vision.

A blur, whoo.

And I just... I thought I heard screaming.

I felt something brush against the side of my head and my shoulder,

and at the same time the rope I was holding pulled out of my hand

and came back and jammed my fingers.

I'm thinking, what the heck was that.

When I turned and looked, there was Owen.

He was like laying in the ring, face up

and I just started screaming for help.

I thought he hit the turnbuckle or the ring post

because it really sounded sick.

That's when, you know, things kind of went sideways.

The Blue Blazer as you know is Owen Hart,

was going to make a very spectacular

superhero entrance from the rafters, and something went terribly wrong.

I was watching the Pay Per View,

and then they go to Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler,

said Owen Hart had a bad fall or whatever.

And, "We'll keep you posted." I'm like, "What? What do you mean?"

They're not showing the ring, just panning the crowd.

I said, "Something's wrong."

I was at the gorilla station behind the curtain

and somebody said, "Owen fell." And I went, "Owen fell? What?"

He goes, "Owen just fell!"

I kept getting alerts in my headset, "We need another update,"

but I'm not getting updatable material.

And JR's, you know, filling time on live television

while a guy's laying there in the ring, dying.

It's one of the most shocking things.

This is not a... Your typical wrestling story line.

This is a real situation.

I said, "I've never seen anything like that.

Not on any wrestling program.

It's never happened before."

It was Jerry Lawler, he came through the curtain,

and Jerry was as white as a ghost.

His exact words were, "I think he's dead."

We're like, "Who?" He said, "Owen."

And then it was just like...

Jerry Lawler joining me here.

I was just reiterating to the fans this is not a part of the show.

We're here to entertain and have fun, but this is neither.

No, it doesn't look good at all.

I knew something was wrong, Lawler's face was ashen white.

Like he had just seen death.

And they wheeled Owen past us to go to the ambulance and...

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That's not even an image I want to even bring up.

Just, it's... that was not what I wanted to see.

When they wheeled him and put him in the ambulance,

I remember just being in shock.

When they did wheel him back, he was like blue, I remember that.

And I remember crying too.

They didn't want to stop the show

so, Jeff Jarrett, who was real close with Owen,

did a promo, and he was in tears.

-Owen Hart, I'm praying for you. -And I am, too.

In the chaos, Kevin Dunn thought

that I had been told what the deal was.

I said, "Nobody's told us anything. What is the update?"

And he said... "He's dead. And you're back in 10..."

And I have the... unfortunate responsibility

of letting everyone know that Owen Hart has died.

Owen Hart has tragically died from that accident here tonight.

On the camera, what people saw, was with 10 seconds of preparation.

Didn't know what to say. And it wasn't story line.

I got very numb after that night.

My hands were shaking, stomach was hurting. I was...

damn, man.

And they went on with the show.

When Owen was fall... Shit.

When Owen was falling,

everybody there said the last thing he yelled was, "Look out."

A guy's falling from 100 feet, and he knows he's done,

and the last thing he's thinking is, "I don't want to hurt you."

You know, that's... It was foolish, it was unnecessary.

It didn't need to happen.

During a live Pay Per View event,

Owen Hart was set to make a dramatic entrance

from the rafters of Kemper Arena

when something would go terribly wrong.

The phone rang and it said, "Unknown Caller,"

which was always code for, that's Owen on the road.

Then I picked it up in a hurry and I was like, "Hello?"

And then I heard this voice, like, "Martha?" And I said, "Owen!"

And then he said, "This isn't Owen. This is Vince McMahon."

Owen was a prankster, and I'm like, "Owen..."

And he's like, "No, it's Vince McMahon."

And he said, "I'm calling you because,

you know, I have to tell you Owen's had a fall."

"What do you mean? How far did he fall?

What's wrong? Is he conscious?"

He was like, "I don't know."

"Well, I need to talk to somebody who's got some answers."

And he said, "Well, someone will be calling you right away."

The next call I got was from the doctor

from the Truman Medical Center.

So, the doctor, you know...

The doctor, he said, "Are you home alone?"

And I said, "Yes."

He said, "We should really fly you down to get this kind of news."

He was kind of going through all of these details,

and I said to him,

"Could you just get to the end and tell me what the end result is?"

And he said...

"I tried. I did everything I could to save his life, but I couldn't."

He said, "I'm so sorry, but your husband has died."

And then, I just doubled over and I just screamed, "No, no, no!"

Of course all the "no's" in the world weren't going to change anything.

-Whose belt is that, Oje? -Dad's.

-And what is it? What kind of belt? - -Champion belt.

Champion belt. World Tag Team Champion.

My memory of May 23rd begins in my basement of my house.

I was with my one neighbor and they said my mom was crying.

I was like, "What is mom crying about?"

She said, I don't know why your mom's crying, but she's crying a lot.

I went upstairs and through the foyer and into the kitchen,

and there my mom was screaming, "What am I going to do?"

I did not have any conclusions drawn about why she was so sad.

And I just remember, like, it was just such a moment of truth

where, I just, like, saw so clearly, there were two paths in front of me.

One total destruction and one of reconstruction,

and I was like, I can't let this destroy everything we've worked for,

and let everything fall apart.

You know, all I could think of were Oje and Athena

because their whole lives are gonna be different and all they have is me.

They're 3 and 7 years old so, I need to make sure

that, you know, somehow, I survive for them.

Then, mom has to take me upstairs because it's bedtime.

And we sit at the foot of the bed, on the side.

Nobody prepares for this, but she did it.

And, she said, "Your dad's dead." She said, "He's died.

He fell and he died, but he didn't feel any pain."

That memory has played in mind millions of times.

I remember that night, all three of us slept in the same bed

and I just looked at the roof.

I just looked at the roof and tried not to hear mom sniffling.

I don't think either of us slept that night.

Martha and her family begin to make final preparations

as Owen's body is transported to Calgary.

I remember the funeral director saying,

"Are you ready?" And I said, "Yep, I'm ready."

Soon as he opened the door,

I remembered being horrified by what Owen looked like.

I screamed so loud and I tried to run away,

and Bret just bear hugged me,

and then we did this weird little inch dance towards the casket.

And then, you know, I just took it all in

and then I was comforted by his hair

because his hair was the same, and then, I just thought,

"The person that I loved in life, you know, I loved in death too."

And then I wasn't afraid anymore.

On May 31st, 1999, Owen Hart is laid to rest.

Owen Hart, known as the Blue Blazer in the ring was killed last week

when a stunt went horribly wrong at a match in Missouri.

Taking part in a tearful farewell were the sports' superstars,

politicians, and a huge crowd of fans.

We were riding in the funeral procession

and there were Canadians off on the side of the road,

letting us pass, like Owen was head of state.

It was amazing to see how revered he was in that town,

country, and our business.

There were so many people that came to the service

we didn't have room inside,

but there were over 1000 people outside just to listen.

We broadcast it, we piped it out through speakers.

I am a very forgiving person, and I'm not bitter or angry.

But there will be a day of reckoning, and this is my final promise to Owen.

When you live in a world of make believe and something real happens

you want to hammer that home.

Although I didn't know exactly what had happened,

I was gonna get to the bottom of it,

and that I would have my day of reckoning.

After Owen Hart's funeral,

his widow, Martha, travels to Kansas City

to try and piece together the events surrounding her husband's death.

I saw mom transform into a different person, she became a fighter.

It means I have to go to Kansas,

I have to see the arena he plummeted in.

We actually went up on the catwalk.

She needed to see it firsthand.

She needed to, as hard as it was, to know.

And she had to go and take us so we would never have to wonder.

We would never grow older thinking, "If only I'd known."

I really didn't want to leave any stone unturned

so, I consciously chose to go on that catwalk

and to walk to the exact spot where he fell.

From my understanding, Owen had to make his way down that catwalk

to get to where he needed to be. We walked right to the spot.

You're right at the top of the arena.

And when I looked over that cliff, into the abyss down below, I saw...

Distance between where we were and the ground,

and knowing that he just, like, that he went out there.

I can't even imagine the fear that he would have been feeling

in those final minutes, like those seconds,

but not forfeiting the opportunity to bring us the life that we had.

So, ultimate sacrifice.

It was very disheartening for me to know that's the last thing he saw,

and how hopeless that feeling would have been

to know there's nothing you could do. Your life was over and you knew it.

I have all these nagging suspicions that...

Owen was the most cautious person I'd known.

He'd never take any uncalculated risk and how did this happen?

There must be negligence.

Someone doesn't just fall from the top of an arena and die

and, something went wrong. Like, something's wrong here.

What evidence did the Kansas City police show you?

They brought everything in and put it all out on a table.

Then we went through everything slowly

and that's the first time that I saw the clip.

This is some of the legal documents and...

this is actually the clip that held Owen.

This is the actual clip.

It's a clip meant for the sole use of sail boats.

And, how it's designed is, it's designed to release on load

so, when you have a load on it, and then when you just click it,

then it just opens, it opens immediately

because the design is to let the mast down on a sailboat.

It's this quick release right here, six pounds of pressure to release it.

This is what was holding him, this little thing right there.

When I first saw the clip, the very first time, I gasped.

And I was so upset. It was just appalling.

We looked at statement to really piece together

what we felt Owen's last day was like.

Just hours before the Over the Edge event,

Owen was approached by the riggers to rehearse.

They had approached Owen

and asked him to do a rehearsal and then he said,

"No, it's okay. I got it."

Bobby Talbert said, "But it's a different setup,"

and so, Owen said, "Okay." To my understanding, they did it.

I don't know to this day if they did it with the quick snap shackle

or the locking carabiner.

I have a sense it was a locking carabiner because he didn't release.

The way Owen had been rigged previously, they felt, was...

looked a bit clumsy, a bit sloppy

and what they wanted was this quick release.

Like, soon as you hit the ground you just unreleased

and you're ready to go, immediately. And so, that's what they wanted.

It was to save, like, two seconds of the setup.

Bobby Talbert should have never been in charge of rigging anybody.

He had no experience.

Do you remember what were the rigger's instructions to Owen?

They said, "As long as you don't pull this cord,

you'll be okay." And, he never pulled the cord.

After I'd gathered enough information about what had happened,

I was so firm in my belief that there was absolute negligence involved.

Everything pointed in that direction.

With full authority, my legal counsel filed a wrongful death lawsuit

against WWF, Vince McMahon,

and all others I believe are responsible

for my husband's death.

I was suing Vince in Kansas City,

and he wanted the case moved to Connecticut

because in Connecticut, there's no punitive damages awarded.

He chose to sue me, the widow, which caused a lot of grief.

And on top of it, he was manipulating Owen's family.

There were some people in the family for it,

and some people against it when the lawsuit came up.

I'm sure a lot of shock amongst the core Hart family

that you can't sue the most powerful man in wrestling

because their family life centered around professional wrestling.

And there was still a lot of people in the family that thought

Vince McMahon was gonna be good to them.

The Hart family, they were...

not supportive of my lawsuit against WWF.

Some members were silent. Other ones worked against me,

stealing my legal documents, giving them to the defense.

So, they basically had our playbook.

That was very heartbreaking for me, because I said to them,

"You don't have to support me, but don't work against me."

There were no precautionary measures, why not?

First of all, I resent your tone.

I resent your tone, lady, okay. You know, this was a tragic accident.

Her fight for justice was an uphill battle,

a David and Goliath story.

I do think the measurable neglect

that went into something so catastrophic can't be overlooked.

This tragedy is this magnitude because it was preventable.

This was a guy who was 240 pounds.

There could've been an experienced rigging team,

and they didn't because it was more expensive.

After a year-long legal battle between Martha Hart and the WWF,

a settlement is reached in the amount of $18 million.

I didn't care about the money. It wasn't about money for me.

I wanted this case to go to trial.

That was my biggest thrust from start to finish

was that I didn't want a settlement.

I was looking for justice. I was looking for accountability.

All my mom was trying to do was preserve the dignity my dad had,

and give her kids the best life they could have.

The settlement provides some closure,

but the WWF's decision to continue the show

after Owen's fatal fall remains controversial to this day.

How did this happen? He didn't commit suicide.

Was their foul play? Is it an accident?

We don't know so, leave everything until we figure this out.

We'll go ahead and have five more matches.

That they didn't stop Kansas City was bullshit.

The fact Vince just discarded Owen like he was a piece of garbage

and scraped his body off the mat and sent wrestlers out to a ring

where Owen's blood was...

And it even had broken some of the boards, Owen's fall,

so there was a dip in the ring, and they could feel where he fell.

The police should've stopped the show and investigated.

This was a potential crime scene. There's been a death

and we can't just let the show go on.

There's nothing I've ever experienced that compares to Owen Hart's death

and having to live with it every day since.

Worst moment of my career. Maybe the worst of my life.

Here's a guy that died unnecessarily before he got his career.

who had a beautiful family who are proud of him

because the youngest Hart stepped away from the pack

and made his own way,

with his own style, his own uniqueness,

and they were all proud of him.

He was popular everywhere, introduced this

high flying style around the world.

He was a pioneer. He could be serious, funny.

He could be a technician, or a high flier.

He was great at everything.

Had Owen not died in '99,

even though he was a little disenfranchised with wrestling,

think about who was coming into the business and WWE then.

In less than a year, Guererro was there,

Malenka was there, Edge, Christian, Kurt Angle.

Owen would have had a huge career resurgence

because I don't think anybody could keep up in the WWE in 1999.

We'll never know how great he could have been

because he was just approaching that place

when he fell from the skies in Kansas City.

If a guy like me is in the Hall of Fame,

Owen Hart should be a ten.

Owen Hart should be in every Hall of Fame there is

because of his talent and he belonged there,

but he's not because his wife does not want him celebrated

and glorified by the same company that took him away from her.

I would never allow for Owen to be recognized by a company

that actually is responsible for his death.

I would never let the WWE put his name on a piece of silver

and say that they got that.

We have built a foundation that helps put people in homes,

that helps single moms, that let kids go to school.

This is all done in his namesake.

This is all got Owen Hart written all over it.

This is how communities, this is how people, remembers him,

and that's how we want it to be done.

He was a wrestler, but other than that, he was bigger than that.

That was just part of what he was.

I wish everyone a Merry Christmas and we're grateful

that we are as fortunate as we... have everything we could ask for,

and most importantly, our health and happiness together.

I feel like if my dad had never been in wrestling, he'd still be here.

I've always blamed wrestling for everything that's happened.

It's all wrestling's fault. If it never caught his eye,

he would have done something else and we would have all been together.

And when I think of him, I just think happy trails.

And I would have really liked to have had you around.

-Merry Christmas, Oje. -Merry Christmas, Dad!

It would have been a lot of fun. It was fun. Thanks for that.

There was one person that always believed in me. Owen.

I think he'd be so thrilled that Oje is a lawyer

and he's gonna pursue human rights law,

and Athena's a journalism graduate and is pursuing that.

When you lose someone you love,

because you still have all that love for them,

I took all that love I had for Owen

and made the Owen Hart Foundation.

Our message is be kind to people. Life is hard,

and everything we do is a reflection of the type of person he was,

his generosity of spirit and the kindness he exuded.

I think he would be clapping and applauding me,

up there in heaven,

and saying, "Well done, you."

Subtitles: Chris Ransley Iyuno-SDI Group

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