More than a decade has passed since wrestler Owen Hart's death, but his widow Martha Hart and the WWE have taken until Wednesday to reach a settlement on a lawsuit concerning the use of Owen's image as well as royalties, according to reports.
Martha's lawsuit, filed in June 2010, alleged that WWE and the McMahon family were "using Owen Hart's name and likeness without right in dozens of commercial videos and other materials" and had "violated a contract restricting the use of Owen Hart's name, likeness and wrestling footage, and disregarded Martha Hart's wishes against further association of her late husband's name with WWE following his death," according to Lalate.com.
At the time, Vince McMahon said "Martha Hart does not have some exclusive right to the story of her husband. It's just that simple."
Martha announced on Wednesday that a settlement with WWE has been reached and she chose not to disclose any details. A WWE spokesman also declined to comment on specifics of the settlement.
Owen, wrestling as The Blue Blazer, fell to his death in Kemper Arena, Kansas City, 14 years ago in 1999. He was being lowered into the ring from the Kemper Arena rafters before a scheduled match with The Godfather for the Intercontinental Championship. His character was a comedic one; he was intended to get near the ring and become "entangled" in his harness, eventually falling on his face.
A mechanism in his harness failed, however, and Owen was dropped 78 feet, landing chest first on the top rope and falling into the ring. He was 34 when he died. The "Over the Edge" pay-per-view was showing a small video segment as a lead-in to the match, so home viewers never saw Owen fall to the ring. After he was taken to the hospital, the show continued as planned, but that particular "Over the Edge" event was never released for home viewing.
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