Jeff Jarrett Talks WWE Continuing PPV After Owen Hart’s Fatal Accident
On the latest episode of My World, Jeff Jarrett spoke about the death of his longtime friend Owen Hart, which occurred during a WWE pay per view. Jarrett mentioned having to follow Hart's fall at the event, saying when he got into the ring, he realized that the boards underneath the ring the corner Owen had fallen into had sunken down.
"To drill down into it, that's when consciously I didn't know, but subconsciously I knew he was no longer with us," Jarrett said. "Maybe not intellectually, but walking over there and piecing together [everything]. There was a big part of the ring that was sunk down in, over in that corner that I knew but didn't know that I knew."
Over the years, there has been criticism towards WWE and Vince McMahon for continuing on with the event after Owen's accident. Jarrett gave his opinion on whether the show should have continued or not, and praised Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler for their ability to stay on commentary all night while processing what had happened.
"Maybe yeah [they should have stopped the show], hindsight," Jarrett said. "I'm sure there's a protocol now put in place. Hindsight is 20-20, I don't believe there is a manual that Vince [McMahon] or Kevin Dunn, anybody that was there, it's very easy to say today stop [the show]. But when the accident happened, probably everybody went into the reflex of that injury, let's clear ringside and continue with the show.
"I've often thought how [Jim Ross] and Jerry [Lawler] [could be out there]. That's, in an ugly way or pretty way, the epitome of professionalism to continue. I had to go out there for 6-8-10 minutes, those guys had to process where the heaviness started to kick in. It was such a tragedy on so many levels."
Jarrett described the scene at Owen's funeral, saying he showed up very early to get a chance to visit with him before anyone else got there. He said he bottled up the emotions of that day for many years and went on the road to wrestle just shortly after.
"Not knowing what I was about to walk into, I just wanted to get there early and process it," Jarrett said. "Jill stayed out in the car, I went upstairs and went into the room, it was a small room with just his casket and I just went in and said my goodbyes. In my brain, put closure on it. I said my goodbyes and that's the mistake I made. I thought I said my goodbyes and closure and that's really the last time I emotionally was connected to the situation. Went to the funeral, got on the plane, come home, packed my bags, back out on the road and that was stuffing Owen Hart's relationship on an emotional level that I never processed.
"It was all in about a 4-5 day period, then I put a lid on it, 18 years later a lot of all of that came out. I had my good cries and processed and thought through it and talked about it. Stuffing feelings and not being candid and talking things out, there is so much healing that can be done and if you don't do it, it's going to come out one way or the other. Some people get mad, some people have rage, some people have anger, some people medicate themselves, some people go anyway. It doesn't end well and it does end."
If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit My World with Jeff Jarrett with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.