Tom Buchanan, a former WWE photographer, was just 20 feet away from Owen Hart when he fell 80 feet to the floor 20 years ago today. Tom mentioned it was the worst day of his life and today he took to Facebook to give some more insight as to what he thinks went wrong.
Tom revealed he was asked by police to take photographs after the PPV for numerous reasons. He was a rock climber, certified skydiving instructor, and licensed by the Federal Aviation Administration as a Senior Parachute Rigger. If you click on this link, you will see a photo that Tom showed to Vince McMahon not even 24 hours after the incident in an effort to explain what went wrong.
“The bottom silver piece is a “shackle” and the top silver piece is a spring-loaded “snap shackle.” The shackle was attached to a harness Owen was wearing, and the snap shackle was attached to a rope that suspended him above ring. The red line represents the rope that ran from the snap shackle to the catwalk, and the green line represents a release cord running from the snap shackle along Owen’s side to a small grip/hand release. Owen was to have been lowered to the wrestling ring and then pull the hand release which would open the snap shackle and allow him to step away from the rope. Somehow the snap shackle opened when Owen was being staged for the stunt, while he was suspended alongside the catwalk 80 feet in the air.”
He went on to say that he spent hours with the police after the show and then began a long drive from Kansas City to St. Louis for the next show. He typed up some notes that he made on that night so fans could see what was going on. The highlight of his notes were that when he met with Mr. McMahon the following day, he was distraught and not interested in a detailed briefing of the rigging, nor was he interested in a demonstration of how a snap shackle works, or looking at the photographs.
The full post is available here.
READ MORE: Owen Hart Passes Away Twenty Years Ago Today; Wrestling World Pays Tribute
