EMTs and an ambulance have been standing
Posted: Thu Jul 10, 2025 10:36 am
By conflating his real-world actions with these of a personality designed to rile wrestling, McMahon profited handsomely, giving devotees of his enterprise new incentives to pay for the privilege of hating his guts.
Maybe no second encapsulates the opaque miasma of neokayfabe higher than the evening of Might 23, 1999. In service of a storyline for a taping of a weekly WWF program referred to as “Uncooked Is Warfare,” by to help with a scripted “damage” McMahon’s character was to endure. However as a substitute of serving to the fictitiously injured Mr. McMahon, the gathered medical personnel have been thrust into real motion when wrestler Owen Hart by chance fell from the rafters of Kansas Metropolis’s Kemper Area.
“Tv viewers watched Owen, because the Blue Blazer, give his pretaped buy phone number list interview,” Riesman writes. In the meantime, “within the enviornment, the stay viewers noticed Owen mendacity within the ring, surrounded by the EMTs who had been booked for Vince’s pretend damage.”
Hart would die nearly instantly from his accidents and, tragically, go on to face in for the numerous wrestling stars — and others related to the enterprise — who would endure in a technique or one other throughout McMahon’s tenure. The examples documented in “Ringmaster” are quite a few, together with the notorious “Montreal Screwjob,” which noticed McMahon help in orchestrating well-liked wrestler Bret Hart’s unscripted loss to Shawn Michaels in a 1997 title match. (Bret Hart is Owen’s older brother.) In addition they embody chilling accusations of sexual assault from referee Rita Chatterton and lingering questions surrounding the premature dying of Nancy Argentino, girlfriend of former WWF star Jimmy Snuka.
Maybe no second encapsulates the opaque miasma of neokayfabe higher than the evening of Might 23, 1999. In service of a storyline for a taping of a weekly WWF program referred to as “Uncooked Is Warfare,” by to help with a scripted “damage” McMahon’s character was to endure. However as a substitute of serving to the fictitiously injured Mr. McMahon, the gathered medical personnel have been thrust into real motion when wrestler Owen Hart by chance fell from the rafters of Kansas Metropolis’s Kemper Area.
“Tv viewers watched Owen, because the Blue Blazer, give his pretaped buy phone number list interview,” Riesman writes. In the meantime, “within the enviornment, the stay viewers noticed Owen mendacity within the ring, surrounded by the EMTs who had been booked for Vince’s pretend damage.”
Hart would die nearly instantly from his accidents and, tragically, go on to face in for the numerous wrestling stars — and others related to the enterprise — who would endure in a technique or one other throughout McMahon’s tenure. The examples documented in “Ringmaster” are quite a few, together with the notorious “Montreal Screwjob,” which noticed McMahon help in orchestrating well-liked wrestler Bret Hart’s unscripted loss to Shawn Michaels in a 1997 title match. (Bret Hart is Owen’s older brother.) In addition they embody chilling accusations of sexual assault from referee Rita Chatterton and lingering questions surrounding the premature dying of Nancy Argentino, girlfriend of former WWF star Jimmy Snuka.