Courtney Love killed Kurt Cobain. There was a second shooter in the assassination of JFK. Andy Kaufman, Elvis and 2Pac are still alive and living on a remote island somewhere. It seems like there are theories about the death of almost every celebrity that died in even the slightest bit of controversy. Why is there no theory that WWE murdered Owen Hart? And I don’t mean that in the sense that he was under their employ at the time, I literally mean that they cut the cable which lead to his fatal fall.
When looking to prove this point, the evidence just seems to write itself. Around the same time that Owen Hart died, the television series “Walker, Texas Ranger” had filmed an episode where a wrestler fell to his death in a similar fashion of Owen Hart, though this was an actual murder case that Chuck Norris had to solve. (If I remember correctly, the booker man did it) I remember reading about the episode finally getting to air some time later, and I watched it, but now when I look back I wonder why it wasn’t taken more seriously? How come no one watched that episode and wondered if WWE had done the same thing to Owen Hart? Sure, the Hart Family had law suits filed against WWE and settled for undisclosed sums, but I feel like it was always ruled as an accident and not the direct act of malice that it might very well have been.
Obviously for the WWE to have pulled the proverbial trigger, they must have had the means. Any detective will tell you that’s one of the first things to look for in a homicide case. Could WWE have done it? Simply put: Yes. I had always heard that a test run was done by someone else earlier in the day with no problems, yet when Owen went on the cable he somehow managed to break it and had it fall. Has the idea of foul play been ruled out? Did anyone even look to see if perhaps the cable was tampered with, triggered to split and cause the fall? I’m sure that this was part of the formal investigation, but since everyone seemed to be in agreement that this was an accident, I’m just wondering how hard they looked at the evidence.
The next thing- and perhaps most important- a good detective will tell you to look for is the motive. Why would WWE have killed one of their own? Actually, when you look at it now from a business standpoint, it makes quite a bit of sense. For one thing, Owen Hart was a veteran of the WWE, having been one of the wrestlers to be there the longest at the time of his death, and yet, he was not able to achieve the grand prize of being WWE Champion. Was Owen Hart ever seen as having main event potential? Could Owen Hart ever have been as big a draw as other top wrestlers? While that issue can be speculated upon by many (including wrestlers themselves), the simple fact remains that it only matters what the WWE happens to think. At a time when Owen Hart should have rightfully been having classic singles matches in the main events of pay-per-views worldwide, he was instead saddled in numerous tag teams and could break free on his own. You don’t need to work for WWE to know that his merchandise wasn’t exactly a top seller. In fact, WWE had Owen Hart under a mask as the Blue Blazer character at the time of his death. Does anyone think that someone portraying such a parody of a character was ever championship material, at least in the eyes of WWE?
One thing that always bothered me most about Owen Hart’s death was his widow confessing that they had just bought a house and were about to settle down at the time of his passing. Owen Hart was about to retire. Whether or not WWE felt like he was championship material, he was about to get out. Now you have to keep in mind that we were not that far removed from Bret Hart leaving WWE for WCW in one of the most infamous incidents in all of wrestling history that would become known as “The Montreal Screwjob”. If Vince McMahon and WWE were that worried about Bret Hart trying to appear on the competition with their championship belt, imagine what would have happened if Owen Hart went to WCW and they made him into the champion that fans saw him being but WWE never felt he deserved. Sure, Owen Hart was on the verge of retirement, but come on, WCW brought Hulk Hogan out of retirement, amongst many others. If WCW had offered Owen Hart twice the money he was making in WWE to work alongside his brother and do half the work, would he have accepted it? You can’t say yes for definite, but you can imagine that idea floating around in the back of the mind of WWE.
Had Owen Hart actually been able to retire, then what would WWE have to gain? Owen Hart’s death- as tragic as it is- was actually really good for WWE business, as Owen kind of became an unspoken legend and what not. Granted, WWE currently can’t make any DVDs, t-shirts, action figures or, well, anything with Owen’s name or likeness on it per the law suit by his widow, but do you think WWE knew that going in? In death, Owen Hart could’ve made ten times (if not more) what he did in life, and WWE is always willing to do what’s best for business. (It’s the wrestling business, not the wrestling friends) If Owen Hart’s widow had more of an “Well, accidents happen, but let’s do what’s right for the fans”, she and WWE could both have a lot more money right now from merchandising. Again, this was just a wrench thrown into the WWE wheel that they probably didn’t factor into their whole equation and plot to kill for the good of the business.
With all that being said, I think we are missing the most important part still. In 1999, Owen Hart and “Stone Cold” Steve Austin faced off for the Intercontinental Title. In the match, a tombstone piledriver (a move which would later become outlawed by WWE) broke the neck of Austin, leaving him out of action for a considerable time. The storyline was that Austin was fired and he kept finding ways to come back and rebel without actually wrestling. WWE will play it off as making the most of a bad time. But no matter how strong the ratings might have been, anyone will tell you that a wrestling Stone Cold would have had better ratings and pay-per-view buyrates than the injured one. Did WWE perhaps somehow blame Owen Hart for Steve Austin’s neck breaking? If WWE did indeed murder Owen Hart, could this have been the main reason for it, or at least one of the strong underlying factors, coupled with reasons previously stated and some we still don’t know about?
I’ll admit that WWE may not have killed Owen Hart. I certainly don’t believe that Vince McMahon himself cut the rope because he would have had someone lower on the totem pole do it for him. But you do have to wonder if all of these factors are merely coincidental or somehow connected.
