Owen Hart Tribute

A VIEW FROM A BROAD - WHEN FACT AND FICTION BLUR
by Lisa Chapman

What really happened to us the night Owen fell to his death? For me, it brought back vivid memories of when I was very, very young. My earliest memories are regarding the assassination of John F Kennedy. I was so young, I did not even know what was going on, but I remember seeing John Jr. on the big black and white television in the living room. He and I were born just a few weeks apart, so I saw someone my age - just a kid - saluting the American flag. I stood up in my parents' livingroom and saluted as well, not knowing why, but just having that childhood instinct that something really important was going on, and that I should do the same that this other kid did.
For weeks afterwards, my mom and dad, who were both social studies teachers, talked about the death. Theeir friends for the next decade almost always came up with the question "What were you doing when JFK got shot?" My generation took up the conspiracy theories with interest - one incident in Texas truly became a shot heard 'round the world.
It is so different when the fans talk about the death of Owen Hart. No one asks what they were doing. It is accepted that they were watching the ppv, expecting an ultimate showdown between the Undertaker and Steve Austin. The conspiracy theories and the finger pointing have reared their heads, but the fact remains none of us still can understand how something so fun became something so fatal, how something so right, could turn into something so wrong.
Personally, I will carry a deep down guilt in my soul over that night. Other fans, when you talk to them, if they are comfortable enough with you, will also share this emotion. Why? It is not because I bought the ppv or anything like that. It is more insidious and hurtful. For me, after almost 20 years spent in the media, in that moment, I let fact blur with fiction. I had become so used to "works" and exaggerations in the sport, that I did not believe the incident was real..
Here I was sitting in a gorgeous sports bar complex, outside of Boston (ironically it is named Good TImes - which my night out should have been!) with a bunch of my best friends from the East Coast and at home. We had been eating the tastiest steak tips and the whole viewing room was full of fun, adult, legitimate fans. With over three huge wide screens, everyone in that room had turned it into just like being there for our mutual enjoyment. We yelled, screamed, jeered and giggled. The two of us in UT shirts rolled our eyes up at the Steve Austin fans sitting beside us. Throughout the beginning of the show, I just could not believe what a good time I was having on my vacation.
Then it happened. We did not see the incident. First, there was an Owen interview as the Blue Blazer, then we were told it was him against the Godfather - and then they rolled an outdated t-shirt promotion clip. I snapped my head to attention. The Titan video guys are some of the best in the business - what was going on in the truck? I dont even remember what happened next but this room of over 300 people became so quiet you could hear a pin drop. No sound of glasses clicking or forks on china. Silence. Deep, empty, cavernous and uncomfortable. I felt alone in a room packed with 300 people,
We sat there and watched Debra cry. We saw Lawler. We saw JR. One guy in the crowd loudly explained that Jerry would pull this, but JR would never stand for this as a storyline. He started to cry - a grown man in his twenties - in front of a room full of strangers.
A close friend, who is arguably one of the top people in press relations in the country, whispered to me that he did not know what to think. I agreed, especially since I could not understand why that video clip had been hit. The matches and interviews went on, none of us were watching.
That night, when Steve and the Undertaker came out, I gained a whole new respect for them. They went and did what they had to do. Inside, they must have been ripped up. To work in a blood stained ring after a friend had passed away, has got to be a nightmare. Yet bravely they fought, doing the best that they could.
There were no sounds in our room except low level conversation. No cheers or ribbing between fans of the two men. Everyone just wanted to go home.
After the show, we all piled back in the blazer to go to the hotel. There was no
typical analysis, the car was silent. We missed our turn, we argued about stupid things, but did not talk about the show. My mind kept telling me this cant be true, this can't be true, but looking at it, nothing made sense.
We walked into the hotel room. I turned on CNN. The fiction was ripped away in a 20 second news story. The fact now was clear..The entertainment was removed from the sport. It was not a story line, it was a tragedy.
I remember Owen fondly with Ko Ko BeWare, with his slammies with his crown.
I also remember a professor at Emerson College, telling us seriously, "the media eats her young. She exacts her price in one way or another." That night the media did eat one of its young, and ate parts of the hearts of fans throughout the world. Fact and fiction blurred, and then it became horribly clear. For wrestling fans watching,it was the end of a life and it was the end of their innocence. This is a view from a broad.

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