Jim Ross Suggests Martha Hart is Being “Selfish”

Jim Ross discussed Owen Hart’s legacy and whether he should be in the WWE Hall of Fame on the latest Grilling JR. Owen’s widow Martha Hart refuses to allow him to be inducted into the Hall of Fame, as she blames the company for Owen’s death and settled a lawsuit out of court with WWE for $18 million. Highlights are below:

On if Owen should be in the Hall of Fame: “Well, of course! Absolutely. It’s not even — yeah! It’s not a hard question, at least in my view. He earned that opportunity. He brought joy, and smiles, and tears, and laughter and shock and awe to fans all over the world for a long time. And he had a huge fanbase. People loved him. And when you met Owen, you couldn’t help but love him. So for him not to have the opportunity to be enshrined in the WWE Hall of Fame where he earned — he didn’t get all of his fame there but let’s be honest, the majority of it. It’s a no-brainer.”

On Martha Hart’s refusal to allow Owen to be inducted: “Look, I understand that part of Martha is grieving. I grieve myself lately. But at some point in time, you can’t — this grieving process is a strange cat, man. And one person can’t dictate how everybody else grieves, I can promise you. So I think that Martha’s being a little selfish sometimes. And it’s cold to say. ‘God, JR, she’s a widow, she’s got two kids to raise.’ I’m sorry if that comes off bad and I’m apologizing now. It just seems to me on the surface, okay look. You file this lawsuit, justifiably so. And you won it, and you got somewhere in the $18 million range before attorney fees. And so that’s been settled. And the process of doing that, it imploded within the family, which was totally unnecessary because it was never a point where it didn’t seem like Martha was really willing at times to move on. But again, she was grieving. And I can promise you, that process, there’s no manual for it and no predictability to how you grieve. So I just think she might have been unfair to the fans who loved him, who bought tickets to see him, who helped him earn a great living for a long time, but who really had an emotional investment in the character. And the character was the real guy.”