• On This Day In Pro Wrestling History (May 23, 1999) – Old School WWF Legend Passed Away
On this day in 1999, we lost Old School WWF Legend “The King of Harts” Owen Hart at the age of 34 due to an accident during a LIVE PPV.
Owen Hart started in his family’s promotion ‘Calgary Stampede Wrestling’ during the 80s, before joining the World Wrestling Federation for the first time in 1988 as The Blue Blazer.
Owen returned to the WWF under his own name in 1991 and stayed with the promotion till his tragic death during the ‘WWF Over The Edge 1999’ PPV.
He once became the 1994 King of the Ring and won several other titles, such as the WWF Intercontinental Championship and the WWF Tag Team Championship, but has yet to be (posthumously) inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame, a move that is currently prevented by his widow Martha Hart.
† REST IN PEACE OWEN HART!
May 7, 1965 – May 23, 1999
• WWE Issues Statement Regarding Ashley Massaro’s Rape Allegations
An affidavit from Ashley Massaro reveals details about her claim of getting raped during a WWE tour in The Middle East.
Ashley noted that Vince McMahon told her to avoid publicly commenting on this incident as it wouldn’t turn out to be good for WWE’s partnership with the US Military and that “one bad experience” shouldn’t ruin the good work they were doing (tap here to read the complete statement).
WWE issued the following statement regarding these claims:
“WWE is saddened by the death of Ashley Massaro, and we reiterate our condolences to her family. However, we regret that her attorney Konstantine Kyros, who filed multiple cases against WWE, lost all of them, and was sanctioned multiple times by the Court for repeated misconduct and false allegations, is using Ashley’s death to further his malicious campaign against WWE by releasing an affidavit that she submitted to the Court and later apologized to WWE for being involved with, so we wish to make certain things crystal clear.
At no time was Vince McMahon or the management of WWE ever informed by Ashley Massaro or anybody else that she had been sexually assaulted, drugged, raped or sodomized by a military doctor with a nurse standing guard while on a goodwill tour in 2007 to U.S. military bases in Kuwait. In fact, if she ever articulated such a claim to WWE, we would have reported it immediately to the Base Commander.
At no time was there ever a meeting with Vince McMahon, Kevin Dunn, John Laurinaitis or other company executives in which she told them of such a claim and was instructed to keep it quiet.”
