When it first happened yeah it looked like an accident, but so much has come out since then, I think Owen did it on purpose, though I can't understand why. Both their careers were on an upward trajectory.

Before the piledriver, Austin asked if he was gonna drop on his knees and Owen said he was sitting down. Unfortunately, Austin trusted him to do the right thing. Owen knew he had a bad neck.

My own reasoning is Owen thought he paid his dues and if he's losing his spot (and title) to Austin, then he's taking him out. Even if subconsciously.

Other thoughts on why?

Here are some quotes from Owen, Bret and Austin that also leads me to believe it was intentional. The lack of remorse from Owen.


https://prowrestlingstories.com/pro-...e-austin-neck/

OWEN:
“I saw his neck – there was a bit of a push, an impact on my thighs – and his neck is so vulnerable. I knew that Steve had a bad neck prior to us going in the ring. He’d had a trapped nerve for a while — a few months — it was really bugging him. Even if you just shoved him from behind, if his neck kinked back, he would get lightning bolts [of pain].”

“My two-year-old daughter could have rolled me up better. He didn’t have the strength to do anything else. He grabbed me and pulled me down and pinned me 1-2-3…”

“It was shocking to me. I felt terrible. I didn’t want to hurt a guy. Probably it’s just hindsight now, [but] I would never have pile-driven him knowing what was going to happen.

I certainly didn’t mean for it to happen. I felt terrible that it did.”


BRET HART:
“When we went home from the pay-per-view, I told [Owen], I said, ‘You’ve gotta call him.’

And Owen- he went home, and he never called.

He forgot.

When Owen went home, he was all about his family and didn’t think about wrestling once he left the arena. I don’t think he handled that well and I think that did change the relationship that Steve had with Owen. And I think Steve was always a little bit pissed off that Owen didn’t seem to care that he hurt him.”


STONE COLD:
“Owen almost paralyzed me. He called me only once to apologize while I was in the hospital.

If I almost break someone’s neck, I’m calling them 25 times to apologize.”

From memory it was a very hot NJ night & he couldn't grab him properly as they were both very sweaty. Owen was no dummy-he knew Austin was going to be the future of the company & the IC title was nothing but a stepping stone for Austin, there wasn't any spot taking, Austin had overtaken him & most of the roster for star power over a year earlier when he won KOTR.

Owen was a piece of 💩

Austin told him to go the other way on the piledriver and he didn’t.

Someone told me Austin rigged it to get revenge on him for that piledriver. I didn’t laugh. But it’s what he was telling me. I can’t find anything that tells me Austin murdered Owen hart.

His mark brother probably put him up to it

Austin probably would have done a more professional job than the geeks Vince hired cheap.

Austin was too damn selfish & that's why he broke his neck out of his neck.

This source swears up and down it happened. While the rest of the roster were crying over owen’s death that Austin was spotted laughing his ass off backstage. And swears Austin had difficulty keeping a straight face the raw after Over The Edge. I’m not going to believe that without proof but Austin was supposedly very happy about owens death. I would never believe he caused it though! That he paid people to loosen the harness so he’d fall to his death. All to get revenge for that piledriver ffs.

Austin not being upset about Owen's death I can agree with, but rigging it to cause the fall seems like a bit of a stretch. Austin is a pretty handy guy that knows how to fix things, but not sure about his expertise to rig something like this.


https://prowrestlingstories.com/news/owen-hart-details/

lol

the classic Owen promo

Lol.

But seriously, is this some sort of conspiracy theory like how some believed Kevin Sullivan killed Benoit and his family?

I mean he was pretty bitter over it in his book. He mentioned how he career and momentum was killed “all because of that damn piledriver”. Austin raised a beer to celebrate owens death.

I mean, he might have had another year or two, but towards the end he was being pushed out and replaced.

His neck wasn't his only issues. His knees were also shot.

Still haven't ruled this out, and I think he transferred his soul into Damien Priest

BAH GAWD

YOU SON OF A BITCH

How is Priest meant to be taken seriously after jobbing to a guy called Bunny?

Sounds like total bs-if he had walked round laughing even being the biggest star he would have got his ass kicked. You could see how badly Austin & UT were affected in the main event, trying to work around his blood & both guys, like everybody else on the card were in a daze & sleepwalking through their match.

Austin didn't need to do anything-Vince told the safety guy of their regular crew they were going for a cheaper crew to do this stunt, the guy said he dropped his fee in half to do it safely, Vince turned him down & they used something designed for shipping & not human usage instead-it had something like 25 pounds of pressure it was designed to hold & then to make the stunt 'go better' as Owen had got stuck upside down a couple of times prior, it was decided to cut off the safety-backups.

In reality it only helped his career-he got to come out & stunner everybody-including Vince. He no doubt thought it at SummerSlam when it happened & maybe for a few weeks or so after, but it became clear in September that he was now undoubtedly the biggest star by a long way for the first time & was going to beat Bret or Michaels for the belt.

oh please

It is. So is Owen intentionally hurting Austin.

So Owen didn't intentionally hurt Austin? He just didn't take the proper precautions or do the move correctly. And even though he said it wasn't intentional, he really didn't care that he did hurt him. Maybe Owen didn't plan to hurt him in advance, but he intentionally hurt him when he did the move.

5 years earlier Austin messed up Chono's neck with a tombstone & Chono had to modify his style for the rest of his career, funny how Austin forgot that.

Sheeiot. Never knew that. This was a reversal so how would Chono do the tombstone if it wasn't reversed? Maybe this is why Austin didn't want to take the move and asked Owen about it. Owen should have known better.

Chono did it regularly, but he didn't land on his ass.