[Sad News] The big problem was that Owen Hart, in his Blue Blazer costume, was coming down from a scaffold near the ceiling of Kemper Arena in Kansas City to do a spectacular goofy ring entrance--a spoof on Sting. Somehow, he slipped out of his harness and fell, headfirst, landing on a turnbuckle, and flipping into the ring. Those at ringside watching said it was clear he had a broken neck. Many in the audience thought it was a crash test dummy, and part of the show. The cameras were on the crowd, standing, in stunned silence. They wouldn't shoot anywhere near the ring.

Ross said that something went terribly wrong. "This is not part of the entertainment portion of the show. This is as real as real can get (a line that may become the single most famous line uttered at a pro wrestling event in modern history). This is not a wrestling storyline."

As EMT's feverishly tried heart massage, those at ringside could hear the panics because he had no pulse. He was changing color rapidly. First he went white, then gray, then purple and finally blue. Jim Bradbury of the Kansas City fire department said he was killed instantly. They tried mouth-to-mouth. They tried to put an oxygen mask on. As they showed the crowd, never once getting a shot of the EMT's working on Hart, fans at ringside in the building could see Ross teary eyed as his face was off camera and they rushed to show another promotional video for the Jeff Jarrett match which followed. Some still thought this was all part of the show. Lawler, with his face white as a ghost, came back to the broadcast location. As people who know Jerry Lawler would attest, even when he's out of character, he's always "on" and somewhat in character. Not this time, as he somberly said, "It doesn't look good at all." Hart was wheeled backstage on a stretcher. Not another word was said again about it on television for another hour. Nothing was ever said to the live audience at Kemper Arena the rest of the night.