Remembering Owen Hart: 11 years later

The night the WWE went “Over the Edge.”



11 years ago, May 23, 1999, World Wrestling Entertainment held their monthly pay-per-view event in Kansas City, Missouri, called "Over the Edge." One of the matches during the event was for the Intercontinental Championship, featuring The Godfather (champion) facing The Blue Blazer (Owen Hart) for the title. As fans were watching a promo video for the match, Hart fell to the ring, which led to his tragic untimely death.

As Jim Ross was talking, Owen Hart was preparing to descend from the rafters on a cord. Hart never made the descent he had planned, as he tragically fell at full speed some 90 feet from the top of Kemper Arena, snapping his head against one of the turnbuckles and falling into the ring. I remember sitting in my seat in section 217 of the arena, watching the whole thing, and wondering to myself, “Is this real?” For those 3 of you that do not know, pro wrestling is scripted. After a few seconds or so, I saw Owen’s leg flinch and WWE announcer Jerry “The King” Lawler jump up from his announce position and run over to Owen. EMT’s rushed out. Right in the middle of the ring, in front of 15,000 people, there was an attempt going on to save the life of Owen Hart. Nobody at home saw the fall as TV cameras were not focused on Owen at the time of the fall, but there were people that night that did see that fall, me included.

After several minutes, Owen was rushed out of the arena on a stretcher and to a local hospital. Now, that stunt Owen was going to attempt was performed a number of times, without any serious problems. The decision to have Owen perform that entrance did not bother me. It is what happened after the fall did. Immediately, and I mean IMMEDIATELY, after Owen was removed from the arena, Jeff Jarrett, one of Owen Hart’s best friends, along with Debra (another one of Owen’s good friends), were forced to go on camera for an interview. Jarrett, visibily shaken, and Debra (crying) said something, but I could not remember what was said. In fact, I cannot even remember who Jarrett wrestled. The fact the show was going on at this point was mind boggling.

After that match, I looked at the video screen and Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler were talking. Nobody in the arena could hear them, as the audio was cut-off, but I had a hint of what they were saying. Owen Hart had died, and nobody in the arena was going to hear that. Vince McMahon had a show to do and he did not want every fan leaving the arena if they announced it. Back in 1999, I still did not own a cell phone and none of my friends had phones either. I can recall sitting in my seat for the rest of the show and not one person around me had even mentioned Owen’s death. But everyone outside the arena knew. Anyways, the show went on and Vince McMahon even made an appearance during the show (about 10 minutes before facing the media I may add). I got home and found out the news.

I do think Vince McMahon is a smart-business man, I mean, looking at the wrestling empire he has created. But he is not a good person, and his decision to keep that show going, after what happened was the first of his two giant blunders he has made the last eleven years (The Chris Benoit tribute show, before it was revealed Benoit murdered his family, was the over). McMahon’s horrible decision could be summed up in him suggesting that the show must go on, because Owen would have wanted it that way, or something like that. Oh really Vince, too bad you were not able to ask Owen that, because he died tragically two hours earlier. Now, of course I am upset because I saw the whole situation un-fold before my eyes and the truth was never told to me that night in the arena. But the biggest victims in all of this: Owen’s wife Martha and her two kids, who were left without a husband and what many other wrestler’s referred to as a great father.

I really do not know if this has ever been discussed, but I think next year it is time to give Owen his proper respect, and that is placing him in The WWE Hall of Fame.

If you want to read more about this or watch other videos, please visit the following links:

http://homepage.mac.com/knarley/owenhart/timeline/owentimeline.html

Random Thoughts

Random Thoughts



• USC May be stripped of 2004 National Championship by The BCS

I got a good laugh out of this today. A report out of USA Today suggests that there is a possibility that the BCS may strip USC of their 2004 BCS Championship, based on what the NCAA reveals in their investigation of the USC football program. My only question is this……Can you strip somebody of a title they did not actually earn in the first place? As everyone probably knows by now, in my opinion, teams do not win National Championships in College Football, you CLAIM National Championships. In what other major team sport (or any team sport) out there can there be two champions of something? Because in College Football, it has seemingly happened for over a period of 100 years and has happened as recently as 2003, when the BCS was supposed to be the model that would prevent split National Championships. The BCS can do what they want, I do not really care. Maybe Auburn will. (Remember, they went 13-0 that year, but did not get VOTED National Champion). And yes, I will admit, Nebraska has not won 5 National Championships in College Football; they have claimed 5 National Championships.

• NCAA Tournament Expansion

In what was a big sigh of relief to me and many College Basketball fans, the NCAA Board of Directors opted to expand the NCAA Men’s Tournament from 65 teams to 68 teams, not the 96 first feared. The question now remains of how the expansion is handled. Many people just assume that instead of one play-in errrrr opening round game between two 16 seeds, that there will be four opening round games between 16 and 17 seeds. Personally, I think it would be better and more competitive (and more watchable) if the last eight at-large teams in the field play for the right to compete in the NCAA Tournament. From what I have read, CBS and Turner did not pay for the rights to televise the tournament for opening round games, which could lead to the bottom of the barrel teams fighting for the right to get clowned by a #1 seed; however, I hope the NCAA sees it my way and makes the at-large teams battle it out for a spot in the final 64.

• Break up the Royals?

I was going to write an immediate column about what I thought about Ned Yost taking over as the manager of Kansas City Royals. This is the same Ned Yost that The Milwaukee Brewers fired when the team was 83-69 in 2008. The firing may have been justified, as Milwaukee was in danger of falling apart at the end of the season for the second straight season and missing the playoffs. However, so far, so good. The Royals are 5-2 under Yost and have lost each of their two games by just 1 run. Now, seven games are not even 5% of a major league schedule, so time will tell if the Royals can keep up this pace. Regardless of what the immediate future holds, Royals fans have to be happy with the start under Yost and the news that the prospects in the minor leagues (Mike Moustakas, Michael Montgomery, Aaron Crow, and Eric Hosmer) are all doing very well and may find themselves on the big league roster in 2011 and certainly no later than 2012.

• UFC 114: Evans vs. Jackson

Spike TV has done two thirty minute shows the last two Wednesdays promoting this fight. If you are a UFC fan and have not caught these episodes, I recommend you search your DVR for re-air dates because they are absolutely fantastic. I really do not know if the actual fight will live up to the verbal war these two have been one for the last year; however, it has been entertaining to see these two trade verbal jabs the last few months. If you need a taste of what, I am talking about, check out their audio press conference which was held this past Tuesday

http://www.ufc.com/index.cfm?fa=multiMedia.detail&gid=81898

• The Summer of Lebron

I don’t have much to say about this, other than I thought the Brett Favre coverage about him coming back every year was overdone. And now I got to put up with six weeks of this crap? I just hope whatever Lebron decides to do; he does it on July 1 and does not drag it out too long.

Another Royals Blunder

Royals find no use for Ka'aihue in his eleven day stint with Kansas City



On May 5, 2010, Kila Ka’aihue got the call he had been waiting for nearly a year and a half. Ka’aihue was informed he was being promoted to Kansas City, as the Royals needed a bat to replace Rick Ankiel, who very not surprisingly, landed himself on the 15 day Disabled List (DL). Ka’aihue had spent all of 2009 and the beginning of 2010 in Omaha. He was hitting .304 with seven homers, and 20 RBI’s in Omaha, prior to being called up. Royals fans, such as myself, were hoping that Ka’aihue would get a fair shot in Kansas City; however, as Royals fans have come to expect over the years, Ka'aihue's reign ended in dissapointment, as he departed Kansas City on Sunday, back to Omaha, after getting one start and four at-bats, getting one hit, and driving in one run. For the second time this year, Kansas City has rendered a good bat useless on their bench. First, they gave Mike Aviles a spot on the opening day roster and after ten days on the bench, demoted him back to Omaha, before being brought back up. By the way, Aviles is now an everyday member of the starting lineup and hit second today. Oh yeah, Aviles is hitting .378 in 13 games. (NICE GOING DAYTON AND TREY!!!!!!!)

Since a team only gets so many options to bring a player up and send him back down, Royals fans can only wonder if the Royals did the smart thing in bringing Ka’aihue up to the majors (no need to think about the question, the answer is no). The only two positions Ka’aihue can play (first base/designated hitter) are played by Billy Butler and Jose Guillen. The Royals did not even bother to use Ka’aihue in key pinch hitting situations, such as Wednesday night. In what could have been the downfall of Trey Hillman’s managerial career, he elected to keep Yuneski Betancourt at the plate with 2 on and 2 out in the 8th inning, while the Royals traded 4-0. Instead of getting Kila a shot to perhaps make it a one run game, Hillman stuck with Betancourt, who calmly did nothing at the plate, and the inning (and the game) was over.

Prior to learning of Ka’aihue’s demotion, I had planned to write that Kansas City should just flat out release Jose Guillen, eating his contract (whatever is left of the $12 million) and making the young Ka’aihue the full time DH. Guillen is not likely to come back to Kansas City next year and with the season pretty much over (from a playoff standpoint), Ka’aihue should have been given a shot. That will not happen, and with Rick Ankiel due back soon, Ka’aihue may not get another shot at Kansas City until 2011, which is a shame, because he is a great hitter. To me, this is just another blunder, in a long line of blunders, made by General Manager Dayton Moore, and prior manager Trey Hillman.

So, who is taking Ka’aihue’s place on the roster? The Royals called up Bryan Bullington from Omaha, a right-handed pitcher who will bolster the Royals bullpen, which has been horrible the first six weeks of the season. Bullington joins Blake Wood (3rd round, 2006 draft), in what hopes will be improvement to the bullpen. Now, some of you baseball purists may recognize the name of Bryan Bullington. He was the #1 overall pick of The Pittsburgh Pirates in the 2002 MLB Amateur Draft. After brief stints with Cleveland and Toronto, after being dumped by Pittsburgh, Bullington struggled and has a lifetime 5.09 career ERA. Since he is still relatively young at age 29, teams such as Kansas City can give him a shot with little or no cost, in hopes he could regain that edge that once made him the #1 overall pick in the draft. Should that be successful, Kansas City may have found itself a potential gem in a bullpen that desperately needs someone to come through in a big-time situation.

Random Thoughts-May 9, 2010

Random Thoughts

Tim Clark wins The Players Championship



First and foremost, congrats to Tim Clark for winning The Players Championship today. While most golf fans spend time arguing who the best player never to win a major is, Tim Clark was clearly the best player never to win a PGA tour event (he has won three on the European tour). That all changed today when Tim Clark shot the round of his life and held on to a one stroke victory over Robert Allenby. Now, for all you people out there that call The Players Championship “the Fifth Major”, I ask you please stop. Don’t get me wrong, it is one of the more important non-major events on tour, but it is not a major. I look no further back than 2008 to prove my point. Tiger Woods was injured and was on the verge of major surgery. With the U.S. Open forthcoming, which was Woods last tournament of the year, Woods skipped The Players Championship. In my opinion, if The Players Championship was a “Major”, then Tiger would not have skipped it.

When the Golf Channel was given the access to Tiger Woods for a five minute interview last month, Kelli Tilghman was summonsed to do the interview. Now, if you watch the Golf Channel, you certainly know that Lauren Thompson and Win McMurray are employed by that channel, and certainly are much more attractive than Kelli Tilghman. Perhaps the Golf Channel made the right move in not dispatching Thompson or McMurray to do the interview. Check out what happened today as Win McMurray reported on the “bulging” injury that forced Woods to withdraw from The Players Championship.

http://www.sportsbybrooks.com/video-blonde-hottie-on-why-tiger-had-to-pull-out-28330

As many co-workers certainly know, my favorite person in the entire world is former Miss Teen South Carolina Caitlin Upton. The answer was so priceless to me, that I called myself “Joe in Bugaha, U.S. American” during my days of emailing The Jim Rome Show, before it started to suck (another column for another day)

The answer she gave to why 1 in 5 children could not identify the United States on a map for priceless. This past spring, Catie (as she now likes to be called) showed everyone (in her view) that she was an intelligent person and finished in 3rd place with her boyfriend in The Amazing Race. She didn’t win a $1 million, but she won over my respect. Congrats Catie on finishing the race, and being the only woman to do so. As a tribute to you, I will never post another link or make another reference to you being Miss Teen South Carolina and having a bad night back in August 2007.

An incredible Mother’s Day story unfolded today in Major League Baseball, and roughly 12,000 people in Oakland, California were able to witness it in person. Dallas Braden, who had a 17-23 career record with a lifetime 4.64 ERA threw a PERFECT GAME on Mother’s Day, with his Grandmother in attendance. What nobody probably knew before today, Braden’s Mom died of cancer during his Senior Year of High School and his Grandmother raised him after that. Not only that, but Braden’s grandmother told Alex Rodriguez to “stick it” during a post-game interview.

Two weeks ago, the Yankees were in Oakland playing New York. Alex Rodriguez was the runner on first and had reached an area between 2nd and 3rd on a foul ball. Instead of running back to first base by touching second base first, A-Rod walked right over the mound, which led Braden to accuse A-Rod of breaking an unwritten rule and calling A-Rod and “individualistic baseball player.” After the game, A-Rod said "He just told me to get off his mound. I was a little surprised. I'd never quite heard that. Especially from a guy that has a handful of wins in his career ... I thought it was pretty funny actually." After Braden once again sounded off on the situation this past week, A-Rod responded this past Friday by saying "I think Major League Baseball reads the same articles as we do," Rodriguez said. "Now, look, I really don't want to extend his extra 15 minutes of fame." Well A-Rod, Braden joined a list of 18 other people who have thrown a perfect game in Major League History, and he didn’t need your help in getting his “lifetime” fame today. In A-Rod’s defense, time will tell if Dallas Braden will top Len Barker and Mike Witt, as “pitchers who had no business throwing a perfect game.”

Some quick thoughts on UFC 113, the best card put on by the UFC since UFC 100 last July.

• After the fights, Dana White indicated that Kimbo Slice would no longer fight in the UFC. My question is why Kimbo ever got a chance after he was beat during The Ultimate Fighter by Roy Nelson. Kimbo was gassed within 30 seconds of fighting Matt Mittrione last night and I am not sure why it took the referee so long to stop the fight.
• Considering how stacked the light heavyweight division is, I wish Dana White all the luck in the world in determining who the first person will be to get a shot at Maurico “Shogun” Rua’s light heavyweight title. Hopefully we don’t have to wait 6 months for another Rua fight, like we did for Machida-Shogun 2. Personally, I think it is only fair to give Rashad Evans the fight (if he beats Rampage Jackson); however, it is not unreasonable to believe that Machida deserves a shot at getting his belt back and having a third fight between these two great fighters.
• Josh Koscheck did his best attempt to win an Oscar last night by faking like he took an illegal knee to the face from Paul Daley. Replays clearly showed that the knee missed his face and fortunately for Paul Daley, he was not deducted a point. Unfortunately for Daley, that did not stop him from trying to fight Koscheck, AFTER THE FIGHT WAS OVER. White indicated that Daley would no longer be in the UFC after his post-fight actions. Considering White is threatening to cut Anderson Silva from the promotion, who may be the #1 pound for pound fighter in all of MMA, I would not be surprised to see White hold up his word in banning Daley from the organization.
• As if Daley’s post fight actions were not enough, Koscheck did his best to piss off the Montreal crowd by telling them that Pittsburgh would beat Montreal during the NHL Playoffs and that he will be Georges Saint-Pierre for his title. Koscheck may be right about the NHL, but good luck even getting through one round of GSP before being submitted.


What? You thought I was serious? Hell, no. Caitlin Upton can run for U.S. Senate and win in SouthCarolina for all I care, but I will always remember her for this.

Royal Blunders

The Royals are 11-19 and well on their way to losing 100 games (again). Here are some quick thoughts on three blunders made by Kansas City, some which occurred this year, and one that was building up over the course of time.



1. The Handling of Mike Aviles

In 2008, The Kansas City Royals made a midseason call-up and gave Mike Aviles his first crack in the big leagues. Aviles paid off for Kansas City as he hit .325, 10 homeruns, and drove in 51 runners in just 102 games. The limited action resulted in Aviles winning Player of the Year for Kansas City and he finished 3rd in the American League Rookie of the Year voting. The good times quickly ended for Aviles, as he underwent Tommy John surgery in 2009 and missed most of the season.

Fast-forward to 2010 and Aviles appeared to be picking up right where he left off. He hit .471 in Spring Training (24-51) and made the Royals Opening Day roster. Surely, somebody like Aviles would get his starting job back, based on his performance; however, The Royals just sat him on the bench and after one at-bat in two appearances he was sent back to Triple A Omaha.

So, instead of giving Aviles regular playing time in Omaha in the first place, he sat useless on the KC bench for the better part of the first two weeks of the season. After hitting .271 in Omaha over 18 games, KC called Aviles back up. Well, Aviles has only hit .350 since returning, yet he still has to share time with Chris Getz and Yuniesky Betancourt.

The handling of Aviles could not have been done any worse than it was. If the Royals were not going to start him from day one due to him coming off a recent injury, he should have been in Omaha in the first place. Instead, KC made a blunder and rendered Aviles useless for two weeks. This is only one of the examples of why The Royals have been near or at the bottom of their division for 20 years.

2. Ramon Colon

I really do not think this needs much explanation. Ramon Colon was with the Royals from 2007 up until his recent release. Despite struggles, he made the Royals opening day roster. After 5 appearances totaling 2 innings and an ERA of 18.00, Colon was released by the Royals and had his contract sold to the Tigers. No, not Detroit, the Kia Tigers of the Korean pro league. So there you have it, Kansas City had a player on their opening day roster who now pitches in Korea, about one month after the start of the season.

3. Alex Gordon

It appears Kansas City may finally be giving up on their 1st round pick from 2005. Gordon was selected #2 overall from the University of Nebraska after a decorated college career. Gordon, who played 3B for Kansas City, was sent back to Triple A Omaha and will be moved to the outfield. Now, it is possible that they are just trying to get Gordon some work at outfield and try him out again in 2011, as most of the outfield in Kansas City this year is not signed for 2011, or they are just trying to make him into a fielder at another position to increase his trade value (which is none). Anyway, this information is irrelevant. I just wanted to point out who Gordon was drafted around in 2005.

1. Justin Upton
2. Alex Gordon
3. Jeff Clement
4. Ryan Zimmerman
5. Ryan Braun
6. Ricky Romero
7. Troy Tulowitzki
8. Wade Townsend
9. Mike Pelfry
10. Cameron Maybin
11. Andrew McCutchen

Outside of picks 3 and 8, every one of those players is in the Major Leagues, and a few are all-stars. Needless to say, major miss by Kansas City.