05232024 Why Sports Podcast?! Tribute to Owen Hart

The podcast discusses the tragic death of professional wrestler Owen Hart, who fell to his death during a pay-per-view event 25 years ago. The host shares his personal admiration for Owen as a fan and highlights his accomplishments in the wrestling world. He reflects on the shock and impact of Owen's passing, emphasizing the importance of cherishing loved ones and being mindful of the last words we say to them. The host also discusses the power of sports and how Owen's legacy continues to inspire fans. The podcast concludes with a reminder to appreciate life and the upcoming episodes of the Wild Sports Podcast. Good afternoon, everyone. This is a special edition of the Wild Sports Podcast. It's your boy, Alvin Strain. And on this day, and I cannot believe it has been 25 years, the legendary wrestler Owen Hart fell to his death in Kansas City, Missouri at the Kemper Arena at the pay-per-view called Over the Edge. On this special podcast, I wanted to take a few moments to talk about Owen Hart and what he meant to me as a fan. I love Owen Hart. I obviously never got a chance to meet him, but he will probably go down as one of my top four favorite wrestlers of all time, along with The Rock, Eddie Guerrero, and Ric Flair. I loved watching him perform. He was a world-class wrestler. He actually has one of the great hitting gems in WrestleMania history. If you go back to WrestleMania 5, he at the time came out as the Blue Blazer and fought Mr. Perfect Kurt Henning. So you can honestly say Kurt Henning and Owen Hart had a WrestleMania match. And it was like maybe six, seven minutes, but it was really good. I'd highly recommend that for anybody who wants to watch Owen Hart. Former intercontinental champion, former European champion, former tag team champion, and probably his greatest claim to fame in the WWE, he was the two-time Slammy Award winner. I remember watching that pay-per-view all the way back on May 23rd, 1999. My family and I, we recorded pay-per-views forever. We had the old VHS tape. And I will never forget, they were showing the promo for that match, Owen Hart versus The Godfather. And the next thing I heard was Jim Ross saying, uh-oh, we got problems here. And when he came back on screen to pronounce that Owen Hart had passed away, it was to me the most shocking thing I had ever witnessed, ever seen in wrestling. For reasons I've never gone back to replay that tape, I see YouTube, members of YouTube have a video of his fall. He fell approximately 70 feet from the rafters of the arena to the top rope that day. I have not seeked any of those videos. I do not want to. And it was when I remember watching it live with my friend. I think we literally looked at each other in complete shock because we never expected anything, even remotely, anything like that happening. He is probably, in my opinion, the greatest wrestler to never win a World Heavyweight Championship. He has the charisma, the technical expertise. He would have just been a legendary champion, a world champion anyway. When he won the King of the Ring in 1994, it was pretty cool. But of course, my favorite match from him was WrestleMania X. I remember my older brother Malcolm and I were watching that match. We had laid money down. He, of course, being my older brother, he picked Bret. I picked Owen. And I will never forget that call that Jerry, the King of Law, had when Bret Hart got pinned by Owen. And he told Big Big Man, sing his praises. And the Rocket King was going, well, the Rocket was born in WrestleMania. The Rocket King was born at the King of the Ring. The King of Hearts, I should say. The King of Hearts was born at the King of the Ring in 1994. I look back at that day on two different fronts. One, my favorite wrestler had passed. One of my favorite wrestlers had passed. And it was so out of the shock and out of the blue. And that took me to the second thing that this day still stands out to me more than any other. It's always that expression. You never know what's going to happen to you tomorrow. You never know what's going to even happen to you in the next minute. That never rang out more true than watching that. See, from all the accounts and all the things I've read about Owen and all the things that I've seen about Owen, Owen is a family man. He loves his two kids. He loves his wife, Martha, and he loves his kids, Doja and Athena. And I can only imagine what those last words were to them. That, for some odd reason, that's the thing that's always stuck out to me. Like, what were his last words? And it always made me mindful that in the midst of everything, to be very mindful about what your last words can be. Sometimes we can look to spit fire and try to hurt people and try to get that satisfaction. And we do it sometimes even to the ones we love. But we don't know when it all will end. I don't, and nobody anticipated Owen having his life end that night. I'm pretty sure he had every plan to go back home with his family. I remember around that time, too, my brother and I were having a big argument and we're not, we weren't on the same page. We weren't good, if you will. And I remember when I saw the news of him passing, it was like really the first time in my life I remember calling my brother. And this was like maybe an hour or two even after the pay-per-view. I said, hey man, we good. And look, whatever we got, let's just squash it. Because I didn't want that to be the last image of me and my brother. Bret Hart, his brother, was in WCW at the time. And I know, and that was like two years after the Montreal Screwjob. And I know for Bret, he talked about it. He always wished he was there for Owen that day. He always wished he was there. And sometimes we don't ever want to go back and change the past because that will always drive us crazy. But I always wondered what it would be like if he didn't, if he wasn't coming in as the Blue Blazer that day. Or he wasn't, you know, if maybe he was injured or something and he would still be with us. You know, I'm a very religious man. I don't believe the Lord makes any mistakes. I did question him a little bit on this day. But I have had a chance to, I can't believe it's been a generation plus since he's passed, 25 years. And instead of trying to make sense of his death, I had to come around to celebrating what he meant to me as a wrestling fan. He was a true character in the ring, outside of the ring. When you hear the stories about how he would play practical jokes all the time and get under everybody's skin, everybody loved him so much. I will never forget WrestleMania 10, like I said, because it was the first time ever I always thought, I saw a little brother can be big brother. That always motivated me to like, I can get you Malcolm, I can get you, because if Owen can get Brett, I can get you Malcolm. And it always taught me to be mindful about the last thing you say about people, because you really don't know when it is. You really don't. And we cherish everything that we have now. We are grateful for everything that we have now. That was one of the lessons that I had to learn through Owen's death over time, because I had, like I said, I had never seen that. I had never even remotely witnessed anything like that before. But you know, as we as we look back and celebrate 25 years later, his life, he was again, one of the greatest technical wrestlers of all time. One of the best characters of all time. He would act like a brat, he would act like the little brother, but you knew not to mess with him. He was so funny and so entertaining, whether he made a promo or was doing commentary. He was, he was indeed one of the best wrestlers and fans still honor him and think of him in this day. Kevin Owens, probably the most, one of the more famous ones, he had named his son after Owen Hart. And that always stuck, that always stuck out to me as well. What it always goes back to why sports? Why do I love sports? Why do I, why am I taking the time to talk about him? Sometimes sports have the ability to make you not only appreciate your life, but understand that you can do the impossible. When you have, when you can see somebody else do something in your heart and mind, you didn't think you could do, you start to believe in a little bit more. And that's the, that's the power of sports. That's the power of really any performing arts. Like when you see it in the movies, when you see it on stage or anything else like that. But for me, I get to see that in wrestling and I got to see that in Owen Hart. The first time I did was WrestleMania 10, because I thought for sure Brett was going to win that match and then win the world title at the end of the night. But that's when I also learned about storytelling too. But for Owen, I never got the privilege of meeting you, but you have inspired me in ways you will never ever know. And to you, I will always say thank you. I miss you terribly. I wish you were still performing, or at the very least, I still wish you were with your family. And thank you for all the memories that you have. And just again, watching the sport of wrestling now, AEW has this great Owen Hart Memorial Trophy they've done these past couple of years. Adam Cole and Britt Baker have won it. Will Nightingale has won it. And it's a great way to keep his name alive. And I definitely wanted to kind of address that and just address him today on the 25th anniversary of his passing. You are forever the King of Hearts, Owen. You are indeed one of the best. And your place in wrestling will never be lost or forgotten. And for this wrestling fan, I thank you so much for all the things that you taught me, whether you knew it or not. Well everyone, that is a special edition of the Wild Sports Podcast. Today we will get back to our normal recordings starting next Tuesday when we look back at the week in sports. And then we'll have our special wrestling podcast where we will end up reviewing the Double or Nothing pay-per-views as well as the King of the Ring pay-per-views and how I propose that the King of the Ring is this weekend. And one of the great Kings is who we talk about today in Owen Hart. So thank you all for listening to the Wild Sports Podcast. It's been your boy Alvin Spain. Hug the ones that you love and be mindful of those last words that you say. Until we meet again, take care. Love y'all. Peace out.