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| In death, remember how much of a good person he was in life Photo Credit: WWE.com |
It should come as no real consolation to the people whom he loved and was loved by that he died a hero, ensuring his son was saved before rescuers attended to him. The reality is that he selflessly reacted in a situation where he knew he might end up worse for wear in order to make sure the ones closest to him would be as close to okay as humanly possible. There's nothing that can blunt the shock of losing a titanic figure out of your life. I would never endorse in a trillion years going up to his now-widow and his son telling them he was a hero so don't be sad. It's not how grief works. It's not how the human brain works.
That being said, there's comfort in finding silver linings to horrific things. Gaspard in death showed who he was repeatedly in life. None of his co-workers ever had a cross word to say about him. None. He was supportive all the time, and his peers, his friends, his brothers showed it back to him in kind. Everyone offering condolences today has had nothing but glowing things to say about a man who may not have reached the heights in the business that he would have liked, but that were commensurate to a titanic figure, just in a different way. While you can find no comfort in his loss, perhaps the fact that he died putting someone else first should speak as validation for the life he lived, a life filled with compassion, love, and support.
It wasn't even the first time he didn't think twice about making what could have been an ultimate sacrifice in service of helping others. In December of 2016, he thwarted an armed robbery. The suspect pulled a gun, and Gaspard didn't think twice about disarming him despite the fact that his hands would've stood no chance against a real, fully loaded firearm. He didn't realize until afterwards that the gun to be used for the robbery was a BB gun. Given the nature of fake guns these days, he had no way of knowing what kind of weapon it was. He acted as if it were firing a real bullet. It's the kind of person he was up until the end, and it's awful that he had to show it in death at such a young age.
No amount of memorializing can bring him back, but it would be something if Gaspard in the longer view became known as one of the best the business ever produced, not for matches or promos or character work, but for being the kind of person who was the measure of a human being to aspire to. WWE honored Ultimate Warrior for some godforsaken reason because they wanted to honor backstage workers who don't get shine, but Warrior was pompous, egotistical, bigoted, and just happened to die just around the time WWE implemented an award they could name after a dead person. Gaspard, from all accounts, was the complete opposite of that reputation. I'm not saying I care whether or not WWE names a sham award after him, but his legacy should be that he's the guy people are compared to when talking about the good people who work in wrestling.
Wrestling fans have melted down for over 20 years that WWE isn't allowed to "honor" Owen Hart's memory, but does WWE need to honor someone in order for them to be remembered? The answer is no. Hart's impact is indelible, even before taking into account the horrific and burned-into-the-memory way that he died. Wrestling isn't an industry where you need a corporate endorsement to be remembered. The best people in the business make you remember them. Why can't someone like Gaspard be remembered for having a big heart and a ton of courage? Everyone should strive to keep him in their hearts to remember that in an industry full of scoundrels and abusers, some people are worth remembering not just for what they did in character, but what they did as human beings as well.
