Wrestler Owen Hart's Widow Suing WWE, U.S. Senate Candidate Linda McMahon Over Use of Hart's Image

HARTFORD, Conn. (CBS/WFSB/AP) The widow of WWE wrestler Owen Hart, who died in a televised 1999 stunt, filed a federal lawsuit Tuesday against the organization and its leaders, including Republican U.S. Senate candidate Linda McMahon.

Martha Hart said she learned three months ago that McMahon, who stepped down as World Wrestling Entertainment  chief executive in the fall to run for Senate, and her husband, Vince, the current chairman, have for years used the image of her late husband in at least 37 videos and other materials without her knowledge and permission, and despite her objections to his likeness being associated with the pro-wrestling company.

"They'd have to be living under a rock if they didn't get that I don't want any association with them whatsoever or Owen to be associated with them whatsoever," said Martha Hart, who lives in Calgary, Alberta, with the couple's two children, now 18 and 14.

"I believe it is morally, ethically and legally wrong for the WWE to seek profit from Owen's death," she told reporters at a news conference held at a hotel in downtown Hartford.

Owen Hart died May 23, 1999, after falling from an apparatus about 80 feet high into the wrestling ring before a crowd of 16,500 people at Kemper Arena in Kansas City, Mo. Hart, who was making an aerial descent into the ring, fell after the device that connected his body harness to the rigging malfunctioned, said Jerry McDevitt, an attorney for the WWE.

Both McDevitt and Gregg Rubenstein, an attorney for Martha Hart, agree there is nothing in a wrongful death settlement the WWE reached with Hart in 2000 addressing the company's use of Owen Hart's image.

McDevitt called the lawsuit "a political stunt" coming as Linda McMahon campaigns. Martha Hart's suit and accompanying news conference were the first time the company has heard from her since she settled with them a decade ago, he said.

"I don't think you'd see what happened today if Linda wasn't running for Senate," McDevitt said. Martha Hart denied her case had anything to do with the campaign but said voters in Connecticut should question Linda McMahon's moral character.

"The death of Owen Hart was a tragic accident and this claim is nothing more than pure political orchestration," said Robert Zimmerman, a spokesman for the WWE, to which McMahon's campaign had referred requests for comment.