4. On This Day In Pro Wrestling History – May 23, 1999
On this day in Pro Wrestling history in 1999, WWF Over The Edge PPV took place. This PPV event is infamous for the death of Owen Hart during his Superhero style entrance.
Below is what happened at the event:
Owen Hart was in the process of being lowered via harness and grapple line into the ring from the rafters of Kemper Arena for a booked Intercontinental Championship match against The Godfather. In keeping with the Blazer’s new “buffoonish superhero” character, he was to begin a dramatic entrance, being lowered to just above ring level, at which time he would act “entangled”, then release himself from the safety harness and fall flat on his face for comedic effect—this necessitated the use of a quick release mechanism.
While being lowered into the ring, Hart fell 78 feet (24 m), landing chest-first on the top rope (approximately a foot from the nearest turnbuckle), throwing him into the ring.
Hart was transported to Truman Medical Center in Kansas City. While several attempts to revive him were made, he died from his injuries. The cause of death was later revealed to be internal bleeding from blunt force trauma.
The WWF management controversially chose to continue the event.
Below are the results from the show:
– WWF Tag Team Title Match: Kane & X-Pac (c) def. D’Lo Brown & Mark Henry to retain the Titles.
– Hardcore Title Match: Al Snow (c) def. Hardcore Holly to retain the Title.
– Val Venis and Nicole Bass def. Jeff Jarrett and Debra
– Billy Gunn def. Road Dogg
– Elimination Tag Team Match: The Union (Mankind, Big Show, Test, and Ken Shamrock) def. The Corporate Ministry (Viscera, Big Boss Man, Faarooq, and Bradshaw)
– The Rock def. Triple H via DQ
– WWF Title Match with Vince & Shane McMahon As Special Guest Referees: The Undertaker def. Stone Cold Steve Austin (c) to win the WWF Title.
