Owen Hart was widely celebrated as one of the most talented in-ring competitors in WWE history. Tragically, his life was cut short at Over the Edge in 1999 when he fell to his death during a stunt. Recently, Jim Ross has expressed the belief that Vince McMahon does not regret continuing the show after Hart’s accident.
Owen Hart had doubts about the deadly Blue Blazer stunt that ultimately took his life as well. His passing led to a lot of controversy that carries on even today. Owen Hart’s wife Martha sued WWE for wrongful death, and Vince McMahon sued her back.
While speaking on Grilling JR, Jim Ross was asked if he thinks Vince McMahon has any regrets about how he handled Owen Hart’s passing as McMahon simply continued the show after the accident.
Ross shared that he doesn’t believe McMahon had any regrets. According to Ross, McMahon made the decision he thought was right at the time, despite the difficult circumstances. While McMahon might have had private reservations, Ross notes that they never discussed this issue.
“I don’t think he had any regrets. He did what he thought was right, whether it was or it wasn’t. Somebody had to make the decision, and he was sitting in that chair—the emperor’s chair. So, I don’t think he had any reservations at all. He may have privately; I don’t know. But we never discussed it. We discussed a lot of things over the years, but that was not one of them.”
Ross explained that McMahon acted on his instincts about what he felt was the right course of action. Given the unique nature of the situation, with no previous precedent to guide them, Ross feels there might not have been a clear right answer. He acknowledged that it was a challenging and uncomfortable time, and despite being close to the situation, he never reached a definitive conclusion about what should have been done. The incident was highly controversial, and Ross believes it’s difficult to judge the decisions made given the unprecedented nature of the situation.
”I think Vince simply did what he felt in his gut was the right thing to do. Based on what we know about the whole scenario and how it eventually played out, I don’t know if there is a right answer. How do you? I just don’t know if there’s a right answer. When he was the boss, the sergeant, the general, the emperor—he was everything. You just try to support that mindset, and that’s what I did. I followed his lead. It was uncomfortable at times, no doubt, but I don’t know if there is a right answer to that whole situation. It was just terrible what occurred, and what happened, and we had no precedent to go back and say, ‘Well, the last time this happened, we did this.’
There was no last time; this was the first time, the only time. So, there was nothing to go back and draw from, and when you don’t have that, you’re just starting with a clean slate. It’s easy to make a mistake or be misjudged in this case based on how things went, how it should have gone, and what the right answer was. I don’t know what the right answer is, and I was as close as anybody in the company to that whole scenario. I understood what was going on and tried to think through it, but I never had the ability to come to a clear conclusion about what we should do. It was a controversial topic, to say the least, and that might be an understatement.”
Even Jake Roberts believes Vince McMahon should have halted the show following Owen Hart’s tragic demise. Nevertheless, the way McMahon handled Owen Hart’s passing will forever be one of his biggest black marks and that’s never changing.
What’s your opinion on what Jim Ross had to say about Vince McMahon not having regrets over how he handled Owen Hart’s passing? Sound off in the comments section below!
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