The most shocking tragedy in the history of May has to be Owen Hart's untimely death and the circumstances around it. Owen was only 34 years old and appearing on a WWF pay per view on May 23rd 1999 when he died in a horrific fall from the arena roof into the WWF ring. He had been scripted to descend from a harness into the ring as part of his Blue Blazer character, but a fault released him, sending his body plunging 78 feet. Owen suffered fatal internal injuries upon hitting the ring turnbuckles and bouncing into the ring. To say the WWF was thrown into mayhem is an understatement. The cameras hadn't filmed the fall but instead cut to Jim Ross who had to communicate that Owen had suffered a serious incident and this wasn't part of the script. Controversially Vince McMahon decided to continue with the pay per view, and for weeks afterward the WWF came under attack. The widow of Owen sued McMahon and there was a barrage of bad press. Perhaps the darkest part of all was the emotional pain felt within the company. Forget the money, this was a friend and colleague who had died in a WWF ring, that would have been the dominating thought for McMahon. The month of May has never been kind to pro wrestling and it doesn't get any worse than the circumstances of the death of Owen Hart.
