Stu Hart

At 88 years old, Stu Hart has this physical status:

It was during his time in the Navy that Stu was introduced to professional wrestling. Around this time Hart and Al Oeming, a future wrestler, nature conservationist, and fellow sailor, became closer as friends. Oeming later would help him handle his own promotion.

After recovering from a car accident, Stu competed in various exhibition matches to entertain the troops. In 1946, while receiving training from Toots Mondt, Hart debuted in New York City. Early on, Hart experienced harsh treatment from his fellow wrestlers in the ring and during training, being considered a "pretty boy" at first by his peers and older wrestlers; described as "tall, dark and handsome, with a build that would put movie idols to shame" he was immediately a favourite with the female fans. Hart would often be swarmed by women and covered with kisses as he made his way to the ring. The roughing up of younger performers by veteran workers was common at the time in the industry but Hart adapted to it rather quickly and would retaliate with the same treatment, utilizing his catch wrestling experience to his advantage. While never given the opportunity to be champion Hart did partake in several high-profile matches with the likes of Lou Thesz and Frank Sexton. He also developed a reputation as a legitimate athlete and "tough-guy" in the business. Hart was a frequent tag team wrestler together with Lord James Blears. Blears and Hart lived together for six months with another wrestler named Sandor Kovacs whom Hart already knew from the Navy. They used to frequent the beaches at Long Beach in New York on their free time and it was on the beach that Hart first met his wife Helen Smith and her family. Hart had quickly become a rising star in the area but chose to leave together with his newly engaged fiancée only about a year and a half after debuting.

By 1947, Hart was working for Jerry Meeker and Larry Tillman in Montana as both a wrestler and a booker. In late 1947 he travelled to wrestle in San Antonio briefly. In September 1948, Hart established Klondike Wrestling in Edmonton, the promotion joined the NWA in 1948. In 1949, Hart was involved in a storyline with the "heel" Lord Albert Mills, they were scheduled to have a two out of three main event match at the Billings Sports arena on Monday December 19, the match was a followup to another one the previous week when Mills had gotten the win through nefarious means. Hart was portrayed as having been caught off guard the Monday before when it happened. Hart was a perpetual "face" during his in-ring career, including during his time with the NWA, and was a noted draw for women in the areas he wrestled. In 1950, Hart wrestled for the NWA associated Alex Turk Promotions in Winnipeg. The first match was against Verne Gagne on June 29 at the Civic Auditorium, the match resulted in a draw. He also wrestled in a match against Matt Murphy in the Civic Auditorium on November 9, which he was booked to win. In 1951, Hart purchased a mansion in Patterson Heights, Calgary, The Hart House which is now considered a heritage site. Its basement, later known as the Dungeon, provided training grounds for his wrestling pupils. Later that year Hart headlined an event in Wisconsin, again together with Verne Gagne. Hart was still favoured by women at this time even against a bigger star like Gagne.

In 1952, Hart bought up Tillman's territory in Alberta and merged his own promotion with it into Big Time Wrestling. The promotion would later change name to Wildcat Wrestling and lastly morph into Stampede Wrestling many years later. The televised version of Hart's wrestling shows were one of Canada's longest-running television programs, lasting over 30 years and remained one of Calgary's most popular sports programs, eventually airing in over 50 countries worldwide.

Hart's Stampede Wrestling was responsible for developing many wrestlers who would later become very successful in other promotions and territories, mainly in the WWF. Hart would generally close the promotion down during summers and open it up again during the winter when the other territories were closed. Hart had on occasions wrestled animals such as tigers and grizzly bears as part of promotional efforts for the company as well as charity. Later in life Hart would often let his sons Bruce and Keith handle the booking of the promotion.

On July 25, 1986, he wrestled his last match in a tag team match with his son, Keith defeating Honky Tonk Wayne and J.R. Foley at a Stampede Wrestling event in Calgary.

Hart made several appearances on WWE television in the 1990s and early 2000s. The majority of those appearances involved his sons, Bret and Owen Hart. A recurring staple of these appearances in the 1990s was that Stu and Helen would be verbally attacked by several of the commentators, mostly by Bobby Heenan and Jerry Lawler, the latter of whom was in a long-running feud with Bret during this point in time. At the 1993 Pay-Per-View event Survivor Series, Stu had a planned physical interaction outside of the ring with Shawn Michaels. Michaels was involved in a match with Stu's sons, Bruce, Keith, Bret and Owen Hart. Michaels played the part of the antagonist, and when failing to succeed in winning the match, Michaels' character then attacked Stu who responded by pretending to knock him out with an elbow smash. Michaels later stated that he was happy to take the hit as he considered it an honour.

Hart also appeared in WCW at the Slamboree 1993: A Legends' Reunion event.

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