The Hart Family, that famous wrestling clan that produced Bret Hart, Owen Hart, Natalya, and countless others, was a major fixture of the Canadian wrestling scene, particularly in Calgary. In fact, they’re associated with a highly influential but now-defunct promotion called Stampede Wrestling, which was founded by family patriarch Stu Hart.
Given that it was a regional promotion in Canada, it’s likely many fans don’t know much about Stampede Wrestling. Let’s take a look at the history of the company and what fans should know about it, including its various revivals and some of the big names to come out of it.
10 Underwent Several Name Changes
Stampede Wrestling began its illustrious history in 1948 when it was started by Stu Hart and wrestler/childhood friend Al Oeming, but it wasn’t called Stampede back then. At first, it was known as Klondike Wrestling before becoming Big Time Wrestling in the early 1950s. Halfway through the following decade, the promotion underwent another name change, becoming Wildcat Wrestling in 1965. This would be the shortest stint of the territory’s various names — in 1967, the promotion finally adopted the name Stampede Wrestling.
9 Its Top Title Was The Stampede North American Heavyweight Championship
As part of the National Wrestling Alliance, Stampede adopted special NWA-affiliated titles specifically for the Calgary territory, like its own version of the NWA Canadian Heavyweight Championship. However, in 1972, Stampede ditched that title, and made its secondary title, the Stampede North American Heavyweight Championship, its top belt. The title was founded in 1968 and over the years had been held by names like Bret Hart, Bad News Allen, Harley Race, Ox Baker, Davey Boy Smith, and Abdullah the Butcher.
8 Associated With Stu Hart’s Dungeon
Not just a promoter, Stu Hart was also very well known for being a trainer, having not only trained all of his sons, but much of Stampede’s homegrown talent. Stu Hart’s wrestling school was called The Dungeon, and was in the basement of the Hart family home.
Stu Hart’s training was infamous for being particularly grueling. Referred to as “stretching,” Hart (who experienced the same training in his youth) would put his students in legitimately painful submission holds to improve their pain tolerance.
7 Introduced The Ladder Match
The ladder match is a fairly common gimmick in modern pro wrestling, having been popularized by WWE in the legendary 1994 Intercontinental Championship encounter between Razor Ramon and Shawn Michaels. But it was Stampede that first introduced the concept to the world, thanks to wrestler Dan Kroffat, who came up with the idea and took on in its first iteration, fighting Tor Kamata over a bag of money suspended above the ring. The ladder match would make its way to WWE thanks to Bret Hart, who defended the IC strap against Michaels in an unaired bout at a Wrestling Challenge taping.
6 Sold To WWE In 1984
The year 1984 marked a pretty significant change in the history of Stampede Wrestling, as Stu Hart sold the company to Vince McMahon, the owner of WWE. For the cost of $750,000, McMahon got Stampede’s television time slot, as well as access to all the venues that the promotion tended to run in. However, McMahon actually forgot to pay Stu Hart for all of this, and Hart refrained from pursuing it out of fear that it would interfere with the burgeoning career of Bret Hart, who had gone over to WWE following the purchase.
5 Run By Bruce Hart In Its Second Revival
However, WWE’s ownership of Stampede Wrestling was short-lived, as WWE returned it to the Harts in the fall of 1985. This kicked off a bold new era of Stampede, one fully run by Stu’s son Bruce Hart, and bolstered by an impressive array of up-and-coming wrestlers. Along with Owen Hart, the new Stampede boasted Brian Pillman, Chris Benoit, and rookie NJPW exports like Shinya Hashimoto and Hiroshi Hase. However, backstage issues and financial problems eventually became too much, and Stampede went dormant in late 1989.
4 Many Of Its Stars Went To WWE
With WWE’s 1984 purchase of Stampede Wrestling, several Stampede stars ended up moving over to the WWE roster. In addition to Bret Hart and Jim Neidhart — who were paired in WWE as the Hart Foundation — real-life cousins and Hart Family in-laws Davey Boy Smith and Dynamite Kid joined Hart and Neidhart in the tag team division as the British Bulldogs.
However, other Stampede regulars of the mid-’80s also ended up in a WWE ring, including Honky Tonk Wayne (who became Honky Tonk Man) and Bad News Allen, who was renamed Bad News Brown.
3 Revived For A Second Time In 1999
Throughout the 1990s, Bruce Hart tried to re-establish Stampede Wrestling, including a short three-month run in 1990 and a tribute show in 1995. However, in 1999, another revival got off the ground, run by Bruce Hart and his brother Ross, and was associated with their wrestling school. This run boasted the latest generation of Harts including Davey Boy Smith Jr., Natalya, and Tyson Kidd, but the Harts sold the company in 2007 and Stampede Wrestling shut down again the following year.
2 Mauro Ranallo Did Commentary For The 1999-2000 Stampede TV Show
The original Stampede Wrestling had a weekly TV show running from the late 1950s until the promotion went under for the first time in 1989, and the 1999 reboot of Stampede strived to bring the promotion back to television. The new Stampede weekly show notably had as its play-by-play commentator a young Mauro Ranallo, who’d go on to commentate for New Japan, WWE’s SmackDown and NXT as well as boxing and MMA. Sitting alongside Ranallo at the commentary booth was Stampede legend Bad News Allen.
1 Featured On Tales From The Territories
Stampede Wrestling also has the distinction of being the focus of the Vice series Tales From the Territories. A spin-off of Dark Side of the Ring, Tales From the Territories specifically focuses on the old days of old school territory wrestling, with roundtable discussions and anecdotes from the figures who were present for it. The fifth episode of the first season, “Stampede: The Hart of Pro Wrestling,” is entirely about the promotion, with its roundtable featuring Stampede veterans Bret Hart, “Dr. D.” David Schultz, and Abdullah the Butcher.