Jeff Jarrett Says He Wasn’t Able To Grieve Owen Hart’s Passing For a Long Time

Jeff Jarrett was very close to Owen Hart, and he recently reflected on his emotions surrounding Hart’s tragic passing at WWE Over the Edge ’99. Hart passed away at the May 24, 1999 PPV when he fell from the rafters to the ring due to a stunt gone wrong.

Jarrett was in the match that went on immediately after the moment, and he looked back on the matter on Insight With Chris Van Vliet. Jarrett acknowledged that he wasn’t able to properly grieve over Hart’s passing for years and talked about his experiences on that night. You can see highlights below:

On Finding Out About Hart Falling:

“I’ve covered this a couple of different times. I can talk about it so much more clearly now than I could in Kansas City that afternoon. As Owen would always do, he would find a little nook and cranny. Anyway, we were dressing in kind of a makeup room connected to a bathroom, a little area. He had done the rehearsals, and I was after him, and they called him, ‘Owen, you got to go up, get up.’ So I’m in the dressing room by myself, doing what I always do, tape and getting stretched and all this. The screen came, ‘Jeff, you’re up now.’ I knew that wasn’t right. I’m just like, ‘Owen, there’s no way he’s even had time to get to the ring.’ I was right, and you know, I just knew. Matt Miller busted in and said, ‘You’re up.’ I’m like, ‘Owen’s up.’ He goes, ‘No.’ I said, ‘Well, what happened?’ He said he fell. That stopped the match, not good. He fell.

“So then there was a T-shirt. Grab my T-shirt, run down there. I knew how to promo beforehand, and as I’m walking through the backstage area, that is the heaviness, and I’ve processed this so many different times, I can live it, I have visualized it, I can visualize it. Kevin Kelly, we get in front, me and Deborah and have the interview, Owen’s being wheeled by 10 feet apart. Crazy emotions, hollering, and screaming, and you know 15-20 people following a gurney, and all this, and ‘3,2,1…’

On His Emotions Going Out To the Ring After Hart’s Fall:

“Whatever I said, the heaviness was, which I had no idea, but it was on me, and then leave there, like the format process goes, go straight to the ring, and I remember walking out, doing my stuff, and getting up the ring, feeling the top rope, and it was like super, super loose. At the time, again, none of that really processed, and then I walked through the ring, I’m like, damn, but I didn’t really understand that at the time. Went through the match, and came back through the curtain, Matt and a cop were there, and I said, ‘Let’s go.’ The cop said, ‘You want to get your stuff?’ I said, ‘Give me 30 seconds.’

“I literally threw my stuff, got in the car and the cop is driving really fast and he didn’t answer my questions two or three times. I said, ‘Officer, please can you let me know anything? ‘And he just kind of looked over his shoulder and said, ‘It’s not good, Jeff.’ So again I’ve processed this, I didn’t grieve it at the time. In 2017 I went through a deep process to grieve it and really understanding what I went through then, because we went to the service in Calgary, stayed up all that night, went and did Raw the next day. It was go home, change your clothes, pack, go to Calgary, the service back at work.”