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“DARK SIDE OF THE RING” wrestling series coming to VICELAND 4/10/New series The Wrestlers 5/22


Ziggy Vercetti

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Owen's son looks like him and Athena looks like Martha. And I agree with Bret's statements about martha and this situation also due to the comments that the WWE's lawyer said about that lawsuit as well.  But yeah that settles it. Owen is never going into the WWE HoF sad to say.

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- In response to Martha Hart's interview with CBS where she discussed her dealings with WWE - regarding both the death of her husband Owen Hart as well as the subsequent lawsuit, WWE's lawyer Jerry McDevitt reached out to CBS with a rebuttal:

On the lawsuit

"The reality is, we've never told our side of the story of what happened -- at least not outside of court. We told it in court, but when she talks about the way the lawsuit unfolded over the years, it really isn't accurate what she's saying. What she did whenever this happened is, she hired a lawyer in Kansas City who we caught essentially trying to fix the judicial selection process to get a judge that was more to their liking. We caught them and went all the way to the Missouri Supreme Court. The Missouri Supreme Court said, 'No, no, no. We're not going to let that happen.' They essentially appointed an independent judge to come in from outside of Kansas City to oversee the proceedings. We were basically trying to find out what happened that night. Martha was not even remotely interested in finding out what happened that night; she just wanted to used it as a vehicle to beat up a business that she didn't like that her husband was in, the wrestling business."

On WWE manipulating members of the Hart family to go against her

"Her and her lawyer, in reality, had tried to get the members of the Hart family, Owen's brothers and sisters, to sign a document in which they would agree to support Martha and her case and they would not talk to WWE. In exchange for that, they were all promised a share of any verdict or settlement, which is highly illegal, completely improper and you can get in big trouble for that. What happened was some of the members of the Hart family were offended by this because they realized this was wrong. ... They knew this was wrong and they faxed me those documents, which I fell out of the chair when I read them. I was like, 'You've got to be kidding me. This is completely illegal, you can't do this stuff.' All of that was then brought to the attention of the judge in Kansas City."

On Martha's claims that that justice, not money, was the driving force behind the lawsuit

"She talked about how $18 million settlement, she didn't really want to do that, she wanted justice. Again, that's just not true. There was court-ordered mediation. We went to the mediation, and her lawyers were demanding $35 million and some admission of punitive damages. Vince told her right there, 'Look, Martha, I feel so bad for what happened. I feel responsible because this happened on my watch. I want to take care of you and your family, I loved Owen.' He was almost crying. We offered $17 million to take care of her. How many times does a CEO walk in a room and say he feels responsible? 'I'm not going to argue, I just feel responsible for what happened.' They turned it down; they wanted to go to court for their $35 million. Fine, we'll go and litigate. The next day, I get a call from her Canadian lawyer, saying they didn't want to do it because they knew what they were facing with the other things I talked about. They said, 'If you could put a little more money in. If you can go to $18 million we'll settle right now.' That's how the settlement went down."

 

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I’m sorry I’m still torn up. These *censored*ers literally wanted to save 2 seconds of time by using something that only controls a boat mass of 6 pounds in pressure? Instead of the harness he used before with the gimmick? Get the *Censored*...OMG! Ew! 

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It didn't so much break my heart, it more made me angry and despise Vince McMahon and Kevin Dunn. Turned the entire Hart family against her, what I don't get is how they'd believe a man who 18 months previous shit on Bret. Dunn saying what he did to JR was just disgusting, not stopping the show when Owen fell and broke the ring and his blood smeared on the canvas. And the likes of Jeff Jarrett and Mark Henry can stfu about begging Martha to let Owen be in the HOF, she's right, why should they earn a penny on Owen Hart's name? Then you got the WWE bringing out their lawyer to rip into her. 

In the last few months I've really grown to dislike Vince, covering up the Nancy Argentino murder, releasing superstars during a massive pandemic and the unknown, what he's done to Owen and Martha. The more that comes out the more I dislike the man, the more I don't want to watch the WWE, which is wrong to the talent today.  They say Disney is the evil empire, WWE isn't far behind though. 

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Didn’t realize a vid on YouTube from the event in Spanish commentary features the sound of the impact when Owen hits the ring ? 

 

 

can't imagine being at that event and witnessing it not knowing off the bat what was going on till they carried him out or the news broke 

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I just watched the Owen Hart episode and holy shit dude, that was too real. Mad respect for his family and the likes of JR or Cornette for talking honestly about it. This was huge. Vince and Dunn can go *Censored* themselves, honestly.

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Perhaps a controversial post but here are my thoughts.

It was a really tough episode to watch and it really gave you an insight into the reasons why Martha and her children want nothing to do with WWE or wrestling. Who could really disagree with that? They blame wrestling for taking Owen away from them, which you can't really argue with. 

In regards to WWE and their involvement - I don't think it's as black and white as the documentary portrays. No doubt, they made the request to want Owen to be able to come out of the apparatus quickly but what happened isn't on WWE in my opinion, even though it happened on their watch.

WWE is, and was at the time, a huge organisation which outsources a large amount of it's work to contractors. Having someone put together a safe way for Owen to get to the ring with the specification of a quick release is a request from WWE, but it's up to the contractor to be able to identify whether it's possible and whether it's too risky to pull off. 

The contractors that WWE used were negligent, didn't take the proper safety precautions and didn't do a full risk assessment. While WWE are the company that appointed the contractor, they can't be held 100% responsible for what happened to Owen. Should WWE have carried out their own risk assessments or had someone internally with enough knowledge to be able to properly risk assess the situation? Sure. But I don't think for one second that Vince McMahon, WWE or anyone working for WWE would have gone ahead with the stunt had they really realised the danger of the situation.

To blame or hate WWE, Vince McMahon or Kevin Dunn for something that, I believe, was a tragic accident isn't entirely fair. To me, it's heartbreakingly sad but the contractor that WWE used is far more to blame than WWE itself, even though, in hindsight they should have also had measures in place (and I believe do now for any stunt considering what happened). 

To paint WWE as a caring organisation is inaccurate, but to paint it as a demonic organisation that only cares about money and doesn't value human life or human rights is equally as inaccurate in my opinion. 

At the end of the day, it was unnecessary and it was incredibly unfortunate for all involved on a personal level, a business level or any other level. The outcome is that a man lost his life, and it never should have been allowed to happen.

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