For 22 years, Jimmy Korderas was a WWE ref and ring crew member, which included being in the ring for one of the great tragedies in pro wrestling history.

At the Over the Edge pay per view event at the Kemper Arena in Kansas City, wrestling superstar Owen Hart lost his life after a planned ring entrance went horribly wrong. Hart, who wrestled at the time as The Blue Blazer, was set to take on The Godfather for the Intercontinental Title.

The details surrounding Hart’s death are the subject of the season finale of Viceland’s Dark Side of the Ring documentary series.

You can watch Dark Side of the Ring "The Final Days of Owen Hart" tonight on Crave at 10 p.m. ET, 7 p.m. PT.

Korderas was assigned to referee the match and was in the ring to help the crew clean up after a Hardcore Title match between Al Snow and Hardcore Holly.

As fans watched a pre-taped backstage interview between announcer Kevin Kelly and the Blazer, the tragic events that led to Hart’s death unfolded in front of everyone in attendance.

"I've got my left hand on the rope facing the entranceway, so I’m looking at the stuff I was kicking out, debris from the previous match, so I wasn't really paying attention to the promo or anything," Korderas recalled. "I heard some screaming, but it's an arena full of people so I didn't think anything of it.

"Almost immediately, I felt something brush against the side of the right side of my head and my right shoulder but at the same time, my left hand that was holding the top rope. It just snapped out of my hand and came back in and jammed my fingers. My immediate reaction for some reason was to duck and cover, because in my mind, I'm thinking did the top rope snap? I kind of take a quick glance around the ring and I'm looking at the rope and it’s still there and then I turn to my right. And I see Owen laying in the corner face up and the shock of it all."

Hart was to rappel from the roof of the arena for a stunt entrance for the match, but the quick-release gear he was wearing opened early and he fell more than 70 feet into the ring. Korderas yelled to timekeeper Mark Yeaton to get people in the ring to tend to Hart, who didn’t survive the fall.

"It was unnecessary, and it didn’t need to happen," Jim Cornette, who worked for the company at the time, told the documentary crew.

Korderas was advised to go to the hospital as a precaution and was cleared of any injuries. It wasn’t until he arrived the next day in St. Louis for a Monday Night Raw taping that he found out how close he was to another tragedy.

"I arrived to the arena and the first guy I see is the Undertaker and he asks me if I’m okay," Korderas said. "I said yes."

"’Well if you need anything, you come to me,’ Undertaker told Korderas. Undertaker then consoled Korderas with a hug. 

"I’m thinking, wow, that’s our locker room leader right there," Korderas said.

As Korderas continued into the building he ran into Triple H and was greeted with identical questions.

"I still hadn’t put two-and-two together yet," Korderas said.

It wasn’t until he ran into Jerry ‘The King’ Lawler and the two had a sit-down conversation about the incident that Korderas realized how close he was to getting caught up in Hart’s fall.

"He and JR (announcer Jim Ross) were watching the promo on the monitor and he said he looked up and caught the last 15 to 20 feet of Hart’s fall and he told me his thought at the time was ‘Oh my God, he’s going to fall on the ref,’" Korderas said. "That’s when I just lost it.

"I felt bad because I started thinking about this as opposed to someone else losing their life. I started feeling bad that I'm thinking thank God I wasn't in a different part of this tragedy. I’m trying to come to grips with that. I'm thinking about me now when I should be thinking about [Owen] and his family."

As Korderas and other grieved the loss of their co-worker, Martha Hart, the wife of Owen, began to investigate the incident.

"Someone just doesn’t fall form the top of an arena," Hart told the documentary. "Something went wrong."

Dark Side of the Ring delves deeper into details of the incident and the events which followed Owen’s death. In addition to full detailed accounts from Korderas, Hart and Cornette, the crew also speaks with Ross and The Godfather.