10 Huge Wrestling Moments That Played Out To Silence

3. The Death Of Owen Hart

While the rest of this piece is littered with matches and segments that were simply part and parcel of putting on a wrestling show, the tragic death of Owen Hart is something entirely more real.

Of course, as we all know, Owen fell to his death at the Over the Edge PPV back in 1999. To this day, this is one of the darkest days the wrestling industry has ever seen, and it was one that played out to a different, more sombre silence than anything else featured here.

That silence was one of grim reality, as the watching Kemper Arena audience became aware that they had seen an awful accident take place - rather than simply a piece of action designed to be 'part of the show'.

For poor Jim Ross, he was the one who had to serve as the guide to those watching on PPV, and J.R.'s updates on this situation played out to the backdrop of an eerily silent 16,000+ crowd. Rather than shocked into silence at a match result, those in attendance were stunned into silence for a far more serious, sadly tragic reason.

Andrew Pollard

Senior Writer

Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main day job, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks/Saints, Jamie Hayter, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg. Where his beloved Wrexham AFC is concerned, Andrew is co-host of the Fearless in Devotion podcast, which won the Club Podcast of the Year gong at the 2024 FSA Awards.

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