Arn Anderson calls the day of Owen Hart's tragic death one of the darkest days in wrestling.
Regardless of what promotion you were working for, Owen Hart's tragic death at WWE Over The Edge 1999 was a solemn day for all in the industry.
On his podcast, Arn Anderson recalls watching the pay-per-view that night and learning of the tragic news. He says that on that day, wrestling lost one of the real good guys.
“Well, I'm sad to say that I wasn't around him more than what I was. He's legendary with his ribbing. He's legendary just from the positive personality that he brings to the locker room. All that being said before you even get to the fact that he was an excellent worker,” Arn began. “I know it was one of the, if not the darkest days in the history of our business. I was home I was working for WCW at the time and I had cut on that pay-per-view and I was for whatever reason watching it, which I normally didn't buy pay-per-view, but I bought that one. I was kind of in and out and doing stuff out in the garage and I think on the deck or whatever and just half-assed watching it. But I came in, and it was just-- the timing was terrible because there was just the announce team was sitting there and they were just laying out, they weren't saying anything. I want to say it was Jerry Lawler, I looked at his face and his face just said it all. I mean, it looked like he had just seen a ghost and a legitimate ghost. It was just the looks on the announcer's faces for that brief time before anybody said anything told me something bad had happened. Now, I had no idea of how bad it could be.”
He continued, “Then I started watching more and more and more and my phone started ringing and guys were calling me saying, 'God, any chance you're watching the pay-per-view? Something bad has happened.' Then I started to get the word and, man, it's one of those things that you just knew it was possible would you put it so far in the back of your head that somebody could actually lose their life in the ring. I mean every one of us that go to the ring that are smart enough to know on any day you could get hurt, on any day you could get crippled. I don't think any of us put in the back of our head 'any day you go to the ring, you can die.' I know that I didn't go that far in my thinking and man it was just a really really really dark day and we lost day one of the good guys of the business as far as the friend he was to the guys, the performer he was for the audience and the family member, husband, father, all those things, the positive things that you can be. I guess, just from talking to other people he was really a favorite of a lot of the guys. So. It was a terrible day.”
The Dark Side of the Ring special that aired on May 19 covering the tragic death of Owen Hart did record-high viewership numbers for the series. Learn more at this link.
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