Vince McMahon has dismissed claims that he humiliated Owen Hart over Bret Hart’s move to WCW, addressing the topic in the Netflix docuseries Mr. McMahon. Owen Hart tragically died during WWE’s Over the Edge pay-per-view on May 23, 1999, when a stunt involving his Blue Blazer persona went wrong.
At the time, some fans speculated that Owen’s portrayal and the incident were part of a pattern of mistreatment following his brother Bret’s exit from WWE.
In the documentary, McMahon explained that after Bret left for WCW, he met with Owen to discuss his future. Owen expressed his desire to stay with WWE, with McMahon stating, “After the problems I had with Bret, I met with Owen and I said, ‘Do you want to stay with us or do you want to leave with Bret?’ He said, ‘Well, I’d like to stay’.”
Bret Hart, however, believed Owen faced humiliation because of his loyalty to WWE. “When I went to WCW and Owen stayed, nothing was the same anymore. He thought I was mad at him. If anything, I had great sympathy for Owen and felt badly that he was in the predicament that he was in. Owen had nothing to do with either me or Vince, but you know, he was gonna pay for it. They kind of humiliated his character as often as they could for quite a while to get at me.”
McMahon refuted this notion, saying, “The hypothesis that we would do something against Owen because Bret left only speaks to Bret’s ego [laughs]. Really, Bret? You know, why would we do that? We don’t care about you, you left. We’re trying to make Owen a star.”
Following Owen’s death, his widow, Martha Hart, filed a wrongful death lawsuit against WWE, which was settled out of court for $18 million in November 2000.
McMahon has been embroiled in several controversies throughout his career, including a recent lawsuit by Janel Grant accusing him of sexual assault and sex trafficking.
That case is currently on hold pending a federal investigation.
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