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23/05/2009 Owen Hart |
It is hard to believe that it has been ten years since the death of Owen Hart, and yet I know it to be true because for me – a humble fan – it is one of those days that sears itself into your memory, and you can recall exactly where you were and what you were doing when you heard the news. On that particular day, I was standing with my Dad at a payphone in an Oxfordshire caravan park as he called home to talk to my brother. After a few minutes, he turned to me to say that my brother’s friend Gary – my one wrestling ally – wanted him to tell me that Owen Hart had died at that morning’s pay-per-view. My instantaneous reaction was to run all the way back to our caravan, tell my Mum the news, before retreating to my bedroom to stare at the wall. It was not the first or last time I have turned to face the wall when grieving or when shaken by upsetting and unexpected news, though to this day I have no idea why I do that. However, I do know that at times it felt as though the blank white wall was staring back at me, just as the blank white page has been doing this week as I have wondered what to write. I cannot claim to have ever known or even met Owen Hart, so at times it seemed pompous and self important for me to be writing any kind of memorial. After all, what was there for me to say - that I enjoyed watching his matches? For a long time it didn’t feel like that was good enough. I was wrong. It was more than good enough; it was truthful, because that is how I knew him. While it brings a smile to my face whenever wrestlers tell stories about the practical jokes he used to play and warms my heart to hear what a loving family man he was, that was not the Owen I knew and to attempt to write about him would indeed have been pompous and self important. No, the Owen I knew was the wrestler, and whatever misgivings anyone, including he himself may have had about the wrestling business itself, it would be disingenuous not to acknowledge what a fantastic wrestler he really was. He gave those of us watching from all over the world amazing matches and wonderful memories. That was his gift to the world at large. His gift to me was in giving me a wrestler I could relate to. He was relatively small and the youngest sibling in a large family, struggling to stand out and make a name for himself, just like me, so despite his sometimes less than honest tactics in the ring, I was always in his corner. I have never been more emotionally involved with a wrestling storyline than when he feuded with his family, and never did I feel a more genuine joy than when he emerged victorious at both Wrestlemania X and King of the Ring 1994. The Owen I knew had won at last and his success inspired me to keep fighting and to never give up, no matter what the odds. I followed him until the end of his career, which as we all know was tragically the end of his life as well. The fact is, despite never being fortunate enough to know the real Owen Hart, I always knew that he was a star and that he shone brighter than most. And Owen; I thank you. |
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