Vince McMahon has explained the reason he decided to continue a 1999 WWE pay-per-view in Kansas City, Missouri, despite performer Owen Hart falling to his death in a tragic accident live on air.
The revelation came in Netflix’s new docuseries Mr. McMahon, which documents the career of former WWE founder, chairman, and CEO Vince McMahon and his various controversies. One of the incidents discussed in the series is the death of legendary pro wrestler Owen Hart.
During the WWE’s Over The Edge pay-per-view on May 23, 1999, Hart, performing under the name Blue Blazer at the time, fell 78 feet from the rafters after his harness malfunctioned. His cause of death was later confirmed as internal bleeding from blunt force trauma.
While the event’s live feed was momentarily blacked out, McMahon said he was left with the decision of whether to go on with the show.
“The decision that basically I had to make was whether or not the show goes on,” McMahon said in the doc. “The live audience didn’t really see what happened. Had they seen, there was no question about it, you have to shut the show down…Those people came to see a show. They didn’t come to see somebody die. And me as a businessman, it’s like, ‘Okay, let’s continue on. Let’s continue the show.’”
“There were a lot of negative comments actually as to whether or not the show should have continued,” McMahon continued, noting how Owen’s brother Bret Hart was particularly upset.
“Naturally, Bret’s gonna feel like, you know, like a brother should. He had every right to say anything negative about our company,” the former chairman stated. “Had it been me, not just my son, had it been me who was ‘splatted on the mat’ as Bret said, I would want the show to go on. So get me out of there, you know, and let the show go on. I’d do it with me and to this day I would.”
The incident led to various lawsuits, with Owen’s widow, Martha Hart, suing WWE and reaching a settlement for $18 million. Martha continues to honor Owen to this day in partnership with All Elite Wrestling, which holds an annual Owen Hart Foundation tournament.
McMahon resigned as CEO and chairman of WWE in 2022 after an investigation of hush-money settlements McMahon paid over an alleged affair with a former employee in April 2022. The investigation uncovered other nondisclosure agreements related to misconduct claims from McMahon’s former employees.
Despite retiring from the company on July 22, 2022, McMahon would return to WWE just six months later. However, he resigned again in January 2024 after sex trafficking accusations by his former employee, Janel Grant, were made public. The docuseries touches on these allegations, which McMahon has denied.
Mr. McMahon, Streaming, Netflix
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