Death of a Wrestler

Pro wrestler Chris Benoit murdered his family and then offed himself last weekend. The gruesome details keep coming: bibles placed next to his victims’ bodies, a prophetic Wikipedia post and cryptic text messages sent by Benoit in his final hours. After hearing all of this, I couldn’t help remembering the last major wrestling misfortune and Benoit’s history in Kansas City.

In May of 1999, I road tripped with a couple of friends to Kansas City for the unfortunately titled pay-per-view event, Over The Edge. Kemper Arena was packed with thousands of pro wrestling fans. Midway through the night, the arena lights went dark. A video screen glowed with the antics of the Blue Blazer, a masked wrestler better known as Owen Hart. Hart was supposed to swoop into the ring by rappelling from the catwalk above Kemper. But something went horribly wrong.