Official "Dark Side Of The Ring" Discussion Thread

[Kinguno]

Idk what’s the word but watching this I feel like I couldn’t breathe in or breathe out I was in the middle no pressure. I’m going to be honest I’m under 30 so I don’t remember Owen I remember Bret from early early. Owen’s death is the equivalent of the JFK assassination of the WWE it’s something that you over analyze it but at the end of the day that was a human that died a son, a father, a husband, and a friend. I read a lot about it, listened to many interviews and even tried to search for pictures of it but seeing with my eyes his wife and son really broke me. The show should have been stopped at the minimum. To have the wrestlers continue to work some who saw Owen’s body getting carried out is demonic. To not even change the mat top of the ring that still had Owen’s blood on it was gross. The whole area was a crime scene. Like his death was avoidable and he died for nothing. It sucks so bad that Owen had a plan all the way planned out and it’s something I’m seeing from people dying when they shouldn’t that makes me feel like making plans aren’t worth it. The second thing is someone or something unknowingly trying to block them from death but there is just such a strong energy that unfortunately feels like destiny for example before MLK went to Memphis and as he was walking out the door his children hid some of his things, cried to him, yelled to him, and literally pulled him to stay but he still left and told the people in the car when I get back I really do need to spend more time with these kids. The closest thing to seeing someone’s soul is to see their YouTube front page. I enjoy wrestling interviews so a few nights ago I came across an interview of the Road Warriors after Owen died they went and took care of the house he brought his family fixing the roofs and all the kind of things you do for a house. The Road Warriors were crazy motherfukkers they had an episode this season. Nobody ever had a bad Owen interaction. Also the Hart family seems like my family not that many good ones so when there is an Owen it always feels like they aren’t here for long.

 

[Lurk Angle]

After watching this
Like dudes said in this thread they left to much outta of this
Owens story really should be its own doc imo

Also I knew Russo wasn't gonna be in this
He played a part along with McMahon in Owens death and he has to live with that

 

[TrueEpic08]

Ep. 95: WWF's Over The Edge 1999 from The Lapsed Fan Wrestling Podcast | Podbay
Anyone wanna see the most compressive breakdown of this incident if you have time listen to this. They went way deeper than this doc did

I've been promoting this as well. The hosts do a fantastic job over the first 2.5 hours or so of that podcast breaking the events and the lawsuit down.

I'm watching the Vince interview they clipped here and it reminds me of something one of the Lapsed fan hosts said about him (at around 1:56 in the podcast): he's always scheming to turn a situation into an opportunity, he's always on the defensive from the very minute an interview begins, and it's always deeply uncomfortable watching him because he's never, ever at ease during these press conferences or interviews (possibly because, as they suggest, he knows how wrong some of the things he does really are). I've never seen anything like it, save possibly with Donald Trump. Just disconcerting and disturbing as hell.

 

[Peter Parker]

A lot of people calling Vince a piece of shyt after this, and I get that but to play devils advocate for a second, imagine you're in his shoes. All his kids work in that company, he has a wife to support, and this situation could completely ruin him, he did what he thought he could do appease Martha with offering her money and a bunch of shyt but when she didn't take it and decided to sue, it likely wasn't about Owens accident or his responsibility for it anymore for Vince but survival for his own family because if he goes down, so does his family and the families of all the people that work for him.

So the countersuing and all the underhanded legal tactics are on the table for him and i'm sure the second he got a money number from her no matter how large(because they didnt think he was going to accept), i'm sure he just wanted make it go away and to protect his business, the people loyal to him and his fam.

With that being said, the show going on was disgusting but I doubt anyone could think right in that situation

 

[3Rivers]

About the document that was faxed by Ellie Hart
Found this old thread on reddit

This has already been revealed and addressed. The document was the hold harmless agreement between Martha and the manufacturer where she agreed to relieve them of responsibility for Owen's death. In Missouri, a co-defendant can't be sued by another co-defendant after he settles with the Plaintiff, so Martha did that as a big fukk you to WWE. She basically made it so WWE wasn't allowed to prove in open court that the manufacturer was responsible.

But thanks to Ellie, WWE was able to prove in court that the agreement was done in bad faith just to prevent WWE from suing the manufacturer, and that led to a public Connecticut court opinion holding that WWE was allowed to sue.

WWE sued the manufacturer and got them to settle for over 3x more than what WWE paid out to Martha. In the end, WWE made a profit out of the whole ordeal. WWE really had a slam dunk case, so the manufacturer's large settlement was basically an admission that they knew they were going to lose.

 

[TrueEpic08]

About the document that was faxed by Ellie Hart
Found this old thread on reddit

I always thought it was bullshyt that WWE got out of going to trial like that. The quick release clip was never designed to be used in the manner the WWE's riggers used it, so why should they be responsible for Owen's death? It worked exactly as it should have, but it shouldn't have been used to hold up a 230-240 pound man.

I get why everything went down the way it did legally, but any idiot should know that just because you design and manufacture a fork doesn't mean you're responsible for all deaths caused by the fork (guns, of course, are different).

Edit: One more thing about this: the settlement was actually for $9 Million as opposed to $54 Million or whatever. Which makes sense and lines up with what I said in the second paragraph of this post (and you can also see, legally, why the settlement happened at all).

See: https://www.bizjournals.com/kansascity/stories/2003/10/27/daily6.html

 

[Brad Piff]

After watching this
Like dudes said in this thread they left to much outta of this
Owens story really should be its own doc imo

Also I knew Russo wasn't gonna be in this
He played a part along with McMahon in Owens death and he has to live with that

Russo said after the brawl for all episode and what he’s seen on other eps that he’s not coming on the show again unless everyone in it is hooked up to lie detector tests because most of the people be on there cappin so he said there’s no point in doing the show if people are just gonna spew their own agendas.

now, before one of you marks get mad at me, I haven’t watched tonight’s episode yet. Probably won’t til tomorrow. I’m running back The Last Dance rn.

 

[Bryan Danielson]

 

[The Girl From Innsmouth]

Russo said after the brawl for all episode and what he’s seen on other eps that he’s not coming on the show again unless everyone in it is hooked up to lie detector tests because most of the people be on there cappin so he said there’s no point in doing the show if people are just gonna spew their own agendas.

now, before one of you marks get mad at me, I haven’t watched tonight’s episode yet. Probably won’t til tomorrow. I’m running back The Last Dance rn.

Vince "Rather climb a tree to tell a lie than stand on the ground and tell the truth" Russo is calling someone else a liar? That's rich.

This should have been a two parter - one to cover the accident and one to cover the lawsuit. It would have been a good book-end for the season, to start with the Benoit two parter and end with the Owen two parter. We could have done without the Road Warriors, anyway.

I'm surprised they couldn't shake any of the Harts out of the bushes, getting them to talk on TV seems to be relatively easy.

 

[Brad Piff]

@Bryan Danielson I know u been beggin for my attention lately here u go lil fella. Go on now.

Vince "Rather climb a tree to tell a lie than stand on the ground and tell the truth" Russo is calling someone else a liar? That's rich.

This should have been a two parter - one to cover the accident and one to cover the lawsuit. It would have been a good book-end for the season, to start with the Benoit two parter and end with the Owen two parter. We could have done without the Road Warriors, anyway.

I'm surprised they couldn't shake any of the Harts out of the bushes, getting them to talk on TV seems to be relatively easy.

It’s wasn’t 2 hours? I thought I read somewhere the finale would be 2.

 

[mannyrs13]

Almost done watching. Great episode. One of the best. Got me like all thru out.

 

[Norrin Radd]

Definitely should’ve been a two parter like the Benoit episode.

 

[2CT]

just caught the rerun, very strong episode to end a strong second season

the shyt about Dunn only giving JR ten seconds to make the announcement was ridiculous him and Cokeboy are legit lunatics outchea

Martha is definitely a standup wife kept the family on the right track even after such a senseless and sudden tragedy

i'm gonna miss this show brehs hopefully they get renewed for a third season soon so they can start working on more piff

 

[Max.]

I still can’t believe they continued the show and the matches

@Max. straight up..... you should be watching this show with us and come join us in discussion.

I was asleep but im gona watch it tommorow

 

[2CT]

Bret and Benoit had a tribute match for Owen on Nitro at the Kemper Arena four months after the tragedy happened match was flames too