10 Things We Learned From Owen Hart’s Final Day: A POST Profile
2. Harts & Minds
"Some really condemned Vince McMahon, and some pointedly did not, and you could already see a rift forming in the family there and then".
Hushed musings similar to those later shared by Bret himself in his autobiography were brought to the foreground in the immediate aftermath of the accident when then-Calgary Herald intern Heath McCoy recounted those memories of his first impressions at Hart House.
He asserts, as countless others had, that the split was murkily motivated by the possibility of alienating Vince McMahon. Ellie, Diana and Bruce were the siblings most attached to the notion of forgiving WWE, but they were wives of wrestlers and ailing promoters respectively - the sense that they needed McMahon's support rather than scorn was felt fiercely by those on the other side of the divide.
A legal battle between Owen's widow Martha and WWE brought any on-the-record wrongdoings to a monied halt, but much of the world moved on even then, let alone in the months and years that passed without further incident.
Audio from Owen's funeral plays, where an emotional Martha promises a "day of reckoning" for her late husband, and it's again hard not to be deeply moved by her own fight for what she felt was right.