World Wrestling Federation pay-per-view event
The 1999 Over the Edge was the second annual and final Over the Edge professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by the World Wrestling Federation (WWF; now WWE). It was held on May 23, 1999, at Kemper Arena in Kansas City, Missouri, United States. The event was held under the In Your House series in May 1998, but following the discontinuation of the In Your House shows, a second Over the Edge event was scheduled as its own PPV, thus being the first former In Your House event to do so.
In the main event, The Undertaker faced Stone Cold Steve Austin in a singles match (with Vince McMahon and Shane McMahon as the guest referees) for the WWF Championship. Of the six scheduled bouts on the undercard, two received more promotion than the other matches. The first was a singles match in which The Rock defeated Triple H by disqualification. The other was an eight-man elimination tag team match in which The Union (Mankind, Ken Shamrock, Test and Big Show) defeated the Corporate Ministry (Viscera, Big Boss Man and the Acolytes (Bradshaw and Faarooq)).
The event is infamous for the fatal stunt accident involving wrestler Owen Hart, who was scheduled to face The Godfather for the WWF Intercontinental Championship during the event. Wrestling under his Blue Blazer gimmick, Hart was to make a superhero-like ring entrance, which would have seen him descend from the arena rafters into the ring. He was, however, released prematurely when the harness line malfunctioned, and fell more than into the ring and died. 
Criticism later arose over Vince McMahon's decision to continue the show after Hart's accident. In court, his widow Martha, children and parents sued the WWF, contending that poor planning of the dangerous stunt caused Hart's death. The WWF settled the case out of court, with the McMahon family paying US$ (equivalent to $ million in 2023) to Hart's surviving family. Due to the accident and controversy surrounding the event, the Over the Edge name was retired and its PPV slot was replaced by Judgment Day in 2000. The event was also not released for home video viewing until the launch of the WWE Network in 2014, where an edited version of the show that displays a tribute to Hart at the beginning but otherwise removes any mention of his involvement was released.
Production.
Background.
Over the Edge was first held as the pay-per-view (PPV) in May 1998; In Your House was a series of monthly PPV shows first produced by the World Wrestling Federation (WWF; now WWE) in May 1995. The In Your House branding was retired following February 1999's event, as the WWF moved to install permanent names for each of its monthly PPVs. The company then announced that Over the Edge would return on May 23, 1999, as its own PPV and would be held at Kemper Arena in Kansas City, Missouri. It was the first of the In Your House events to be held as its own separate PPV.
Storylines.
The main angle for Over the Edge continued the events that unfolded at , the WWF's previous PPV event, held on April 25, 1999. There, The Undertaker abducted Stephanie McMahon, the daughter of WWF chairman Vince McMahon. The Undertaker's price for Stephanie's return was control over the wrestling organization. His plans were thwarted, however, by the WWF Champion, Steve Austin, who rescued Stephanie and denied The Undertaker his ransom. This set up a feud between the two wrestlers, which was settled in a title match at Over the Edge in which both Vince and his son Shane, who had aligned himself with The Undertaker, served as the guest referee. ;ref name="SNH5/2" ; ;/ref ; Originally Shane had named himself the sole referee of the match, but WWF commissioner Shawn Michaels made Vince the co-referee in order to level the playing field. 
The WWF further hyped the rivalry between The Undertaker and Austin by having them attack each other on WWF programming prior to the showdown. On May 3, The Undertaker threw Austin off the stage, and two weeks later, the WWF Champion handcuffed his title's challenger to a crucifix, which was raised above the ring. ;ref name="RAW5/17a" ; ;/ref ;
Another feud culminating at Over the Edge involved Triple H and The Rock, who met each other in a match at the event. Triple H had interfered in one of The Rock's matches, and later threw him off the stage, leading The Rock to wearing his (kayfabe) injured arm in a plaster cast. Shane, acting as co-owner of WWF and ally of Triple H, further aggrieved The Rock by forbidding him to wear the cast for Over the Edge.
The PPV event contained the rivalry among two stables, the Corporate Ministry and the Union. The Corporate Ministry was formed when The Corporation merged with the Ministry of Darkness; the Corporate Ministry consisted of Shane McMahon, The Undertaker, Paul Bearer, Viscera, Mideon, Triple H, Chyna, the Big Boss Man and the Acolytes (Bradshaw and Faarooq). ;ref name="SD4/29a" ; ;/ref ; Throughout the month of May, the Ministry was involved in matches with Mankind, Ken Shamrock, the Big Show and Test, and in retaliation, the four wrestlers formed the Union stable. The WWF continued to enhance the feud over several weeks, which included a brawl among all eight wrestlers on May 10. The feud led to an eight-man elimination tag team match between both groups at Over the Edge.
Event.
Before the PPV event began and aired live, an episode of "Sunday Night Heat" aired live on the USA Network. Meat defeated Brian Christopher, while the Hardy Boyz (Matt Hardy and Jeff Hardy) defeated Goldust and The Blue Meanie. After the match, The Brood gave The Hardy Boyz and Hayes a bloodbath. In the final contest, Vince McMahon and Mideon fought to a no-contest, when the Corporate Ministry attacked Vince and broke his ankle (kayfabe) in order to prevent him from refereeing the main event match.
Jim Ross and Jerry "The King" Lawler were the English commentators for the event, while Carlos Cabrera and Hugo Savinovich were the Spanish commentators. Howard Finkel acted as the ring announcer. The referees included Tim White, Mike Chioda and Teddy Long. Other officials include Vince McMahon, Pat Patterson and Gerald Brisco.
Preliminary matches.
After "Sunday Night Heat", the PPV event began with a tag team match, in which the WWF Tag Team Champions Kane and X-Pac defended against Mark Henry and D'Lo Brown. During the match, Henry lifted X-Pac and rammed his back against the steel ring post at ringside. Afterward, Brown and Henry simultaneously attacked X-Pac, which led Kane to launch himself from the top turnbuckle onto Brown and Henry. After the competitors reentered the ring, Kane performed a chokeslam on Henry, lifting him by the throat and slamming him down. Kane then pinned Henry to retain the WWF Tag Team Championship. Next was the hardcore match, which allowed no disqualifications or countouts. WWF Hardcore Champion Al Snow defended against Hardcore Holly. Holly and Snow began their match in the ring but moved their brawl into the arena stands. From there, they proceeded to the backstage area, and into the concession stands before returning to the ring. The fight was decided when Snow lifted Holly onto his shoulders and threw him through a wooden table. Successfully covering and pinning Holly, Snow retained the WWF Hardcore Championship.
The next scheduled match was a singles match for the WWF Intercontinental Championship between The Godfather (champion) and the Blue Blazer (Owen Hart). As Hart descended into the ring on a safety harness, the equipment gave way, and he fell. Emergency medical technicians (EMTs) rushed him to the hospital, but he was pronounced dead on arrival. The show was halted for 15 minutes before it continued with the next match, a mixed tag team match pitting Val Venis and Nicole Bass against Jeff Jarrett and Debra. At one point, Jarrett attempted to hit Bass with a guitar, but Venis took the guitar away, dropped Jarrett on the mat and pinned him. In the fourth match of the evening, Billy Gunn defeated his former tag team partner Road Dogg, after hitting him with the time keeper's hammer.
Main event matches.
The fifth match was the eight-man elimination tag-team match between The Union (Big Show, Ken Shamrock, Mankind, and Test) and the Corporate Ministry (Big Boss Man, Bradshaw, Faarooq, and Viscera). Test was eliminated by pinfall after Bradshaw performed a "Clothesline from Hell" on him. Bradshaw was then eliminated by submission as a result of Ken Shamrock's ankle lock. Afterwards, Shamrock was eliminated via disqualification as a result of attacking the referee. Then, Faarooq was eliminated by pinfall after the Big Show chokeslammed him. Only one member of each team remained after Viscera and the Big Show failed to return to the ring within ten seconds and were counted out as a result. The Union won the match after Mankind forced Boss Man to submit with the Mandible claw. It was at this point that the viewers at home were told by Jim Ross that Owen Hart had died.
The final match on the undercard pitted Triple H against The Rock. Triple H targeted The Rock's injured arm. Towards the end of the match, Triple H asked Chyna, his valet, to retrieve a folding chair. The referee, however, took it away from him, which led to an argument between Triple H and the referee; Triple H pushed down the referee, for which he was disqualified, giving The Rock the victory. After the match, Mankind ran in to save The Rock from Triple H and Chyna.
In the main event, Stone Cold Steve Austin defended his WWF Championship against The Undertaker. Originally, Shane and Vince McMahon were supposed to be the guest referees, Vince McMahon had his ankle (kayfabe) broken earlier in the event and was replaced by his accomplice Pat Patterson, to prevent Shane from helping The Undertaker. Patterson, however, could not continue after the Undertaker chokeslammed him. The Undertaker and Austin wrestled inconclusively until Austin hit The Undertaker on the head with a folding chair. As Austin went to cover the Undertaker, Gerald Brisco, another accomplice of Vince, came down to the ring to replace Patterson and counted the unsuccessful pinfall attempt by Austin. Like his partner Patterson, Brisco was attacked by the Undertaker. Vince then came down to the ring to act as referee, but when Austin forcefully executed a stunner on the Undertaker, Shane prevented Vince from performing a three count. As Vince, Shane and Austin, argued, Shane shoved Vince into Austin, who fell into a roll-up by The Undertaker. Shane performed a fast count to give the Undertaker the victory and the WWF Championship.
Owen Hart accident.
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This is not part of the entertainment tonight. This is as real as real can be here.
—Jim Ross, play-by-play commentator for the event
When Owen Hart was to challenge The Godfather for the WWF Intercontinental Championship, he was performing as the Blue Blazer. The character, originally used by Hart in the late 1980s, had recently been revived as a superhero gimmick that parodied various wrestlers. At Over the Edge, Hart was to emulate WCW wrestler Sting's ring entrance by descending from the arena rafters in a suspended harness, stopping a few feet above the floor, at which point the suspension mechanism would "malfunction" and drop him unceremoniously onto the ring. The entrance was successfully tested on the November 15, 1998 episode of "Sunday Night Heat" (that year's Survivor Series pre-show) using a different harness configuration; however, during his descent at Over the Edge, a cable disengaged from the safety vest he wore, and he fell more than from the rafters into the ring. As he fell, he landed chest-first on the top rope.
The accident was not seen by television viewers. A pre-recorded promo and interview video was shown at the start of Hart's descent, and when the broadcast returned live, the cameras quickly turned away from the ring to the audience. Soon afterward, Jim Ross, one of the commentators of the event, informed pay-per-view viewers that Hart had fallen from the rafters, that the incident was "not a part of the entertainment" and that it was "a real situation". Ross's broadcast partner Jerry Lawler immediately ran to the ring to check on Hart and was visibly shaken when he returned to