This week was the 19th anniversary of Owen Hart’s tragic death. He was to descend from the rafters of Kansas City’s Kemper Arena on May 23rd, 1999 but tragedy struck. Owen died after falling from the arena rafters and landing chest first on the top rope.

His official cause of death was listed as internal bleeding due to blunt force trauma. He was only 34 at the time of his death.

Yesterday, Owen’s older brother Bret sent out the following to his social media accounts:

I miss you every day Owen, and I vow to keep your memory alive despite the efforts to let you fade away.

— Bret Hart (@BretHart) May 24, 2018

Owen’s widow Martha does not want WWE to profit off of using Owen’s likeness. This likely has prevented Owen from being inducted into the Hall of Fame or receiving the historical attributes many feel he should on WWE programming.

In 2010, Martha and WWE were in court over WWE continuing to use Owen’s likeness. Bret responded with the following statement:

“I feel that it’s ridiculous for anyone to think they are serving the best interests of Owen’s memory or his children to pretend he wasn’t a wrestler. Not only was he a wrestler, he was a great one and proud of it. I personally believe Martha Hart has done nothing to keep his memory alive and sadly, he fades from view a little more every year. I do suspect this lawsuit is more about publicity, ego, and small-mindedness than it is about pro-wrestling and all of those that are in it.”

The Fight Network talked with Bret in 2015. He spoke to John Pollock on the topic of Owen’s 2015 DVD:



In 2015, a planned DVD about Owen was in the works. After learning of the planned documentary, Martha made the following statement:

“My children and I were unaware of this project until May 7, when it was brought to our attention by a friend who had read about it online. Contrary to your report, we do not back or support it in any way, nor has WWE requested our backing or support. From what little we know of the project, it seems to be another attempt to exploit Owen’s memory, and his tragic death, for commercial gain. We have resisted that kind of initiative for almost 16 years. If WWE really wanted to honor Owen’s legacy, it would just let him rest in peace.”