Owen Hart's untimely death led to a rift between Martha Hart and the Hart family.
Martha Hart is set to appear on the latest episode of Dark Side of the Ring, chronicling the death of Owen Hart, in the 10th and final installment of what has been an excellent second season for the breakout show on VICE. In fact, Dark Side of the Ring has garnered some of the highest ratings in the network’s history.
As good as this season has been, VICE is saving its most compelling subject matter for last as it will dive into the events before and after the tragic death of the wrestling legend and youngest child of Stu and Helen Hart. Martha Hart, Owen’s widow, captured the poignance of the tragedy through harrowing storytelling about her fight against WWE to seek justice for her husband, who died during a fateful stunt at 1999’s Over the Edge pay-per-view. The stunt led to a lawsuit from Martha Hart against WWE after evidence suggested the rigging company was negligent.
At one point during Hart’s fierce legal battle against WWE, she was aligned with Owen’s brother and WWE Hall of Famer Bret Hart, who at the time had an iconic falling out with WWE stemming from the events of the Montreal Screw Job. During a recent phone interview, Martha Hart discussed Bret’s involvement in her legal battle against WWE, which led to their relationship souring after initially fighting against WWE as allies.
“The Dark Side of the Ring producers did approach Bret if he wanted to be a part of this episode, but he never got back to them as far as I know,” said Hart about Bret Hart not being involve in the documentary.
Martha Hart with economist Jeff Rubin (left) and Steve Forbes.
“With Bret, what happened was, throughout the lawsuit he was very supportive, but he was battling at the time with Vince. And so he wanted us to include his footage in our settlement agreement. So he didn't have access to his wrestling footage because Vince, you know, so he had this agenda that that's what he wanted included in our settlement agreement.”
“He was helping me, but I had to say to him ‘this isn't about your wrestling footage,’ but when we weren't able to obtain that for him, he got very angry and that's when he then went back and confronted Vince McMahon and then got his footage and stuff like that. So that was disappointing for me and that sort created a rift between us but then he seemed to really flip flop and he really embraced Vince all of a sudden. And then he was disrespecting me—and before he sort of hated Vince McMahon—and then he turned that hate towards me. And then he was saying things all the time in the media about me disrespecting Owen's memory and that I hadn't done anything that I should let him be in the WWE Hall of Fame.”
Martha Hart maintains strong feelings against the WWE Hall of Fame as the prospects of Owen Hart ever being inducted remain slim to none.
Owen Hart and Bret Hart wrestled a classic match at WrestleMania X.
“I would never let a company I held responsible for Owen's death try to honor him, especially with a fake Hall of Fame that doesn't even really exist,” said Martha Hart.
“And there's not even a hallway of fame. It's not real. It doesn't exist. There's no place you can go and visit and it's there. It's just all made up and make-believe and it's all done for the sole purpose of making money because they just have a show where they have a celebration and, you know, it's just absurd.”
During a 2016 sit-down interview with Bret Hart in Calgary, Hart discussed his efforts to get Owen Hart into the Hall of Fame and had some strong words for his sister-in-law.
“She needs to be psychoanalyzed by herself,” said Bret Hart about Martha Hart.
“She really is so childish and immature and obtuse towards the fans and the people that loved him in the industry.”
Hart continued:
“I wish Owen’s kid’s could sit here and learn about their dad and learn what a great man he was, and what he really was like. For someone to put a wall up and say ‘nah, that can’t happen. We don’t want that to happen. We’re still mad about what happened...’ I think it’s a real shame.”
Bret Hart has since responded to Martha Hart’s recent public comments ahead of The Final Days of Owen Hart, telling The Wrap (h/t Wrestling Inc):
“While I am not interested in engaging in any more media mudslinging between Martha and myself, especially in light of a global pandemic, I will say that our fallout is multifaceted. To say that it only involved being able to access and use my WWE footage and photos for future projects would merely be an oversimplification and inaccurate. I will not comment any further on the matter.”
Martha Hart’s recent comments have also led to a response from WWE, namely longtime WWE attorney Jerry McDevitt who questioned the accuracy of her story.
“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,” said McDevitt in a statement.
“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.’”
It’s clear that there will be no type of closure between Martha Hart and WWE as a result of this highly anticipated documentary that chronicles Hart’ underdog fight against what is now a multi-billion-dollar company in the name of her beloved husband’s passing.
Despite pro wrestling’s ubiquity of the Hart family’s DNA, it’s possible that current WWE Superstars Natalya, daughter of Jim “The Anvil” Neidhart, will be among the final Harts to compete for WWE, if not the last.
When addressing any concerns about her own children—son Oje and daughter Athena—catching the wrestling bug, Martha Hart said it was never even a consideration.
“I never had that concern, ever. My kids made their own choices and that’s the road that they picked and I was just happy to support them. They would have never chosen [pro wrestling.]”
Dark Side of the Ring: The Final Days of Owen Hart premieres tonight on VICE at 10 EST/9 central.
All comments from Martha Hart were received firsthand unless otherwise noted.
