The Wrestler Who Died From a Stunt Gone Wrong
“Something went terribly wrong here,”— Jim Ross, WWE announcer
When I was younger, I was really into the WWE — and the most emotional I’ve ever gotten over the sport was when Chris Benoit died in his Atlanta home. Subsequent revelations regarding how Benoit killed his family before dying by suicide disheartened me, as well as the later erasure of Benoit’s legacy by the WWE to preserve its business interests.
But Benoit was not the first to have a tragic end in the sport. Many would, unfortunately, precede him. Most notably, I remember the story of World Wrestling Foundation (WWF) wrestler, Owen Hart.
On May 23, 1999, Owen Hart died from blunt force trauma and internal bleeding at the Truman Medical Center in Kansas City. The reason? There was an equipment malfunction that led to Hart falling 78 feet from the air in an unintentional early release from a harness. Hart had a stunt entrance where he was slated to be lowered from the top of the arena in the harness.
Announcer Jim Ross noted to the crowd that Hart was seriously hurt after the fall. It wasn’t a scripted part of the show — it was a real, fatal injury. Medical personnel came into the ring and worked on Hart before he was transported to the hospital.
