Jimmy Korderas remembers being in the ring when Owen Hart crashed at Over the Edge in 1999

Yesterday was the 25th anniversary of the death of Owen Hart, who died after a fall at WWF Over the Edge 1999. In an interview with Wrestling Inc., former WWE referee Jimmy Korderas recalled being in the ring at the time of Hart’s tragic accident. Here are the highlights:

On witnessing the Fall of Man: “They had had this hardcore fight before. There was a bunch of debris in the ring. So the crew went out, and since I had the next fight, which was Owen as the Blue Blazer against Godfather, I went out to help them, and I was kicking stuff out of the ring and stuff like that, and I had my hand on the top rope… And it’s so weird because I heard a scream, but I just thought, the arena is full of people. Of course someone’s going to scream… And a second or two later, like I said, I had my hand on the top rope, and I felt something, believe it or not, brush against my head and shoulder. At that same moment, the rope was ripped out of my hand and flicked back and jammed my fingers. So I looked around and saw the rope was still there, and when I turned around, I saw Owen just laying there in the corner face up, and I couldn’t put two and two together. It just didn’t make sense. So I went over and called out a few times and it was so weird, eyes wide open, no movement, and I just panicked and started screaming for help… It was surreal. Unbelievable.”

When he went to RAW the next night, Jim Ross offered him a flight home: “The next day we drove to St. Louis for Raw and I still don’t remember how I got there, if that makes sense. I don’t remember driving or flying from Kansas City to St. Louis. It was just so surreal. I just told him, ‘JR, you know what? I don’t know if this sounds weird to you, but I feel like I need to be here with everyone because we’re all going through the same thing.'”

About what Jerry Lawler told him: “He sat me down and said, ‘Listen, I don’t know if I should tell you this, but I saw his fall, I witnessed the last 5, 6 meters of his fall.’ He had just noticed him out of the corner of his eye and his first reaction was, ‘Oh my God, he’s going to fall on the referee.’ And apparently I felt that on my side. And when he told me that again, I just freaked out. I couldn’t hold it back. And he consoled me as best he could. And again, they said, ‘You know, if you want to go home.’ I said no, I think I need to be here with everyone because like I said, we’re all going through this.”