May 23 was the 9 year anniversary of Owen Hart's death. :( Very sad. I still remember the day it happened. I was working at a convenience store in Red Deer at the time, which is an hour and a half's drive north of Calgary, the Hart hometown. We sold the Calgary papers in our store and I couldn't believe that a wrestler made the front page, even if it WAS a Hart. Then I read the headline and my heart sank. I often think about where the Harts would be now if it weren't for Owen's death. There was a lot of bitterness from the family towards McMahon for what happened. I wonder if Owen hadn't died if Bret would have come back to the WWE, or if it would have affected the careers of Owen's niece and nephews.

Anyway, very sad.

Well, back in '99 before I had the 'net, I had no idea that it happened. Didn't even order "Over The Edge". Before I went to school that Monday, my TV was on Sportscenter, and my mom must've overheard that a wrestler died. Didn't find out until sometime at school or on Raw.

May 23, 1999 was the day I graduated high school. It was in the midst of the biggest wrestling craze of all time, and pretty much all of my friends were massive wrestling fans. We all went to the commencement ceremonies, went to our individual parties, and then our plan was to meet at my house, order the PPV, order some pizza, and then go to "Project Graduation", a late-night casino night/giveaway/non alcoholic way for the Seniors to celebrate.

Anyway, we all meet up, get our pizza, and start enjoying the event, until of course the worst thing ever happened. We sat there and speculated for about 5 minutes about whether it was real, but it was fairly obviously that something real had finally happened.

Anyway, we've all seen it and remember it our own way, but it sucked, and absolutely sucked all of the life out of our Graduation Day. I remember it being on my mind all night at Project Graduation, and every time I'd bump into one of my friends, we'd kind of share a "I can't believe Owen frickin died" moment.

It makes me wonder alot of thing. I think mainly Owen would have blossomed into a more complete star had he stayed around long enough. He would've been huge in the Benoit/Angle/Guerrero Era, and without doubt would've been World Champion had he stayed healthy and in the WWE.

I'm still most touched by Jeff Jarrett from all of this. I don't know how close they were, but Jarrett has always seemed (much like Owen) like one of the "real" guys in the locker room. They aren't bigger than life, they're just guys doing what they love to do. When Jarrett cut his promo at Over The Edge, it just ripped into me, and then the next time on Raw his bit just tore me to pieces.

Anyway, its nice to remember, and I still miss Owen Hart.