Hart Dungeon

The Hart Dungeon or Hart Family Dungeon, otherwise known simply as The Dungeon, was the gym and wrestling school located in the basement of the Hart mansion. The school was created by Stu Hart, patriarch of the Hart wrestling family and is known for having produced some of the greatest and most successful professional wrestlers of all time.[1][2]

Hart Dungeon
BuildingHart House
LocationBasement
CountryCanada
PurposeTraining facility
Named forStu Hart

Location description

The room was located in the Hart family mansion basement and had a very low ceiling. For most of the duration of the room being used as training hall there was a wrestling mat located on the floor without any ropes which would be used for training students.

History

Hart acquired the former army hospital mansion in 1951 and transformed its basement into his personal training centre shortly thereafter.[3] This was done because Hart needed a training facility after the founding of his first wrestling promotion in 1948. Although, the nickname itself developed over time when Stampede Wrestling became world famous.[4]

Aside from professional wrestlers, the Dungeon provided training grounds for various athletes from strongmen to football players. The majority of Hart's sons trained in the Dungeon and went on to become involved in the wrestling world including Bret and Owen Hart. Other famous Dungeon graduates include Billy Graham, Greg Valentine, Allen Coage, Davey Boy Smith, Brian Pillman, Jushin Thunder Liger, Ricky Fuji, Chris Jericho, Lance Storm, Chris Benoit, Justin Credible, Edge, Christian and Mark Henry.[5][6] Natalya, daughter of Jim Neidhart and granddaughter of Stu, was the first ever woman to graduate from the Dungeon.[7]

I take a lot of pride in being one of the last guys that had the hands-on training from Stu Hart when I went to the Hart family to train ... It was a good experience just to be there, to imagine all the people that had been through there, and all the blood, sweat, and tears that had been paid ... Going to the Hart family for training was kind of like, if you're a very religious person, going to the Vatican.

—Chris Benoit, WWE Unscripted, p. 54

One of the first televised acknowledgements of the nickname "Dungeon" was by then WWF color commentator Jesse Ventura. Its first significant exposure was in the documentary Hitman Hart: Wrestling with Shadows. In it, the Dungeon was moderately filmed for the first time and Stu Hart is shown demonstrating wrestling holds on a pupil. Bret also discusses being trained by his father and having submission holds applied to himself, often with graphic descriptions from his father of the holds' impact. A bonus feature on Bret's DVD set also shows him discussing the Dungeon.

Various activities took place in the Dungeon, ranging from weight lifting to Catch wrestling. Bret Hart has described the Dungeon in interviews as having holes in the walls and ceiling from bodies being driven into them. He also noted that practices could, at times, be as intense as MMA styled fighting. In July 1998, the WWF filmed a match between Owen Hart and Ken Shamrock in the Dungeon for the Fully Loaded pay-per-view.

Reputation

During the period when Stu Hart was regularly training individuals at the school, it held a reputation for being one of the harshest wrestling schools in the world. Graduating from it was considered very impressive and something which would be brought up on air on televised wrestling shows. Hart himself also garnered a reputation for being borderline sadistic in his training techniques, and was known to torture his pupils with legitimate submission wrestling holds he had learned as a sports wrestler.[8][9][10][11][12][13] Buddy Roberts described the place as "like a torture chamber".[14] In contrast to his descendants, Stu never took money for his training services and did it mostly for the love of the artform of professional wrestling.[15][16]

Trainers

List of notable trainees

Men

Women

Legacy

In modern day being trained in the Dungeon carries a level of status and there have been many attempts to recreate and recapture its glory. In 2005 a documentary directed by Blake Norton (who trained at the school) named Surviving the Dungeon: The Legacy of Stu Hart was released.[48][49][50][51]

Subsequent training camps run by members of the Hart family

After their father's retirement some of the Hart brothers managed the school by themselves under the name Hart Brothers Training Camp which was also known by the nickname School of Hart Knocks.[52][53][54] Leading up to the Hart House's sale in 2003, the Hart Brothers Training Camp run by Bruce, Keith and Ross was still running three times a week in the basement of the Hart mansion.[55] A very similar training camp remains today at the family's gym, although none of the Hart brothers are involved.

Teddy Hart, Stu Hart's oldest grandson ran a training camp in Texas named Texas Hart Dungeon from around 2012 to 2015. Smith Hart, Stu's oldest son founded a new wrestling school in 2015 named Dungeon Discipline Professional Wrestling School which is run out of Calgary and Berrie in Alberta, after Smiths passing in 2017 the training is mostly handled by Smith's son Matthew.[56]

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References
  1. Logan, Shawn (April 26, 2008). "Taking falls in the New Hart Dungeon". SLAM! Wrestling. Canadian Online Explorer. Retrieved 2016-04-27.
  2. http://www.texomashomepage.com/news/local-news/jump-in-the-ring-at-the-pro-wrestling-hall-of-fame/693904022 https://www.webcitation.org/6wc2jdKE0?url=http://www.texomashomepage.com/news/local-news/jump-in-the-ring-at-the-pro-wrestling-hall-of-fame/693904022
  3. Davies, Ross (2002). "bret+hart"+stu#v=snippet Bret Hart. ISBN 9780823934942.
  4. "Surviving The Dungeon part 2/11". Documentary.
  5. James Martin (2001). Calgary: The Unknown City. Arsenal Pulp Press. p. 69 pp. ISBN 978-1551521114.
  6. Marsha Erb (2002). Stu Hart: Lord of the ring. ECW Press. p. 17 pp. ISBN 1-55022-508-1.
  7. Mooneyham, Mike (April 29, 2012). "WWE diva Natalya: Pretty in pink but red hot in the ring". The Post and Courier. Retrieved 2016-03-05.
  8. (Klein 2012, pp. 25)
  9. (Matysik 2005, pp. 48)
  10. (Erb 2002, pp. 136)
  11. (Kerekes 1994, pp. 18–20)
  12. (Randazzo 2008, pp. 47)
  13. Wood, Greg (7 November 1999). "The sadist, the loving father and a knockout end". The Independent. Retrieved 11 January 2014
  14. "Buddy Roberts recalls the wild times as a Freebird and a Hollywood Blond".
  15. McCoy, Heath (2007). Pain and Passion: The History of Stampede Wrestling. ECW Press. ISBN 978-1-55022-787-1.
  16. https://pwtorch.com/artman2/publish/Ask_the_Editor_18/article_9496.shtml#.WrVo-ejOXIU
  17. http://www.1wrestling.com/2010/12/31/ringside-remembrances-r-i-p-2010/ https://archive.today/20120720222158/http://www.1wrestling.com/2010/12/31/ringside-remembrances-r-i-p-2010/
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  19. "Legendary wrestler and Hart Dungeon trainer passes away at 75". 6 November 2017.
  20. "Exclusive interview: Bret Hart separates fact from fiction on who really trained in Stu Hart's Dungeon".
  21. "Salut Bonjour | Recettes, Mode et beauté, Maison, Mieux-être".
  22. (Davies 2002, pp. 19)
  23. Hornbaker, T.; Snuka, J. (2012). Legends of Pro Wrestling: 150 Years of Headlocks, Body Slams, and Piledrivers. Skyhorse Publishing Company, Incorporated. ISBN 9781613213148.
  24. (Davies 2002, pp. 19)
  25. "DAN SPIVEY, BILLY JACK HAYNES AND BRYAN CLARKE HAVE BEEN GOING BACK-AND-FORTH ON SOCIAL MEDIA". f4wonline.com. Wrestling Observer Newsletter. July 23, 2015.
  26. (Dixon 2013, pp. 22)
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  32. (Toombs 2016, pp. ??)
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  45. (Zawadzki 2001, pp. 175)
  46. "Superstar Billy Graham Made It Big in Wrestling -- Now the Steroids That Got Him There May be Killing Him". 31 March 2011.
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  51. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2018-08-04. Retrieved 2018-08-04.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
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  54. Hart, Martha; Francis, Eric (2004). Broken Harts: The Life and Death of Owen Hart. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 270. ISBN 978-1-59077-036-8.
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Further reading
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