August 3rd, 1997, Continental Airlines Arena - East Rutherford New Jersey:
Owen Hart and Steve Austin squared off in a bout for the WWF Intercontinental Championship which Hart held. Austin was the fan favorite, Hart was the "bad guy". Hart was a member of the Hart Foundation, a faction of Heels (Pro Wrestling slang for "bad guys"), formed by Bret Hart. A former fan favorite, who turned his back on the fans months ago and formed this anti-USA pro-Canada group, consisting of him, his brother Owen, Davey Boy Smith aka the British Bulldog, Jim Neidhart and Brian Pillman.
Austin on the other hand was the "bad ass", loud-mouthed, doing what he wanted, and disrespecting every kind of authority. And the fans loved him. Many saw Austin as the next big star in pro Wrestling. He even had the potential to become such a top-drawer like Hulk Hogan in the 80's. But most importantly, he became some kind of front runner in the fight against WCW, which were far more successful by that time. With the "New World Order" and especially their TV-Show "Monday Nitro", which ran at the same time with WWF's Raw but got better ratings. And this was a pain in the ass for Vince McMahon, owner of the WWF. But he had hopes to get head-to-head with WCW again. But his hopes were destroyed on August 3rd.
Austin was scheduled to win the championship. As far as good. But he also had to take a piledriver by Owen Hart. Normally only a routine thing...if that one thing went wrong.
Hart had Austin in the move, but he executed it too fast, not waiting for Austin to get himself ready. Of course it ended painful for Austin. He broke his neck live on PPV. Of course viewers of the PPV could see that something was wrong. Even the announcers saw it, but tried to pretend that everything was ok. Although Austin couldn't barely move. Quickly Hart covered him, but stopped at 2. This was probably an attempt to "check" if Austin was alive, which he was as he could be clearly seen breathing. But he was knocked out, and couldn't end his match. Hart and the referee were confused. They looked at announcer Vince McMahon, though "surprisingly", it wasn't caught by TV-cameras.
Hart then covered Austin again, this time he got a three-count. As EMT's rushed down to the ring to aid Austin, nobody really knew what disaster has started for the World Wrestling Federation...