Hart wrestling family

This article is about the Canadian family. For the wrestling stable, see The Hart Dynasty. For the murderers of adoptive children, see Hart family murders.
Hart
Current regionCalgary, Alberta
Earlier spellingsHardt
EtymologyGerman meaning Hard. Spoken with Irish Ulster Scots dialects.
Place of originCanada
Members
Connected members
Helen Hart
Martha Hart
B. J. Annis
Ben Bassarab
Davey Boy Smith
Jim Neidhart
Tom Billington
Tyson Kidd
Pete Wilson
Roddy Piper
Teal Piper
Harry Smith
Donald Stewart
Connected familiesBillington family
DistinctionsWrestling family[1]
TraditionsProfessional wrestling
Sunday dinner
Estate(s)Hart Mansion

The Hart wrestling family, sometimes known as the Hart dynasty,[2] is a mainly Canadian family with a significant history within professional wrestling.[3] The patriarch of the family was wrestling legend Stu Hart (1915–2003).[4] An amateur and professional wrestling performer, promoter and trainer,[5] Stu owned and operated his own wrestling promotion, Stampede Wrestling. He also trained some of the most well known stars in wrestling history including "Superstar" Billy Graham, Fritz Von Erich, Chris Benoit, and his own sons Bret Hart and Owen Hart.[5]

All of Stu's eight sons were wrestlers and two of them, Bret and Owen, achieved considerable fame and success in the World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now WWE),[3] with many of the WWF's biggest storylines in the mid-1990s being built around Bret and Owen and their brothers-in-law.[6][7] The family is closely associated with Canada in the North American wrestling landscape and its Canadian heritage has often been emphasized in wrestling storylines, even to the point of overt opposition to American culture, but most of its members also have American citizenship through the family's American matriarch, Helen Hart.

As of 2024, the only Hart actively wrestling in WWE is Stu's granddaughter Natalie "Natalya" Neidhart, but Bret makes occasional guest appearances while WWE employs Dungeon graduate Tyson Kidd (also Neidhart's husband) as a producer.[8]

  1. ^ "Gauntlet Magazine — Summer 2018".
  2. ^ "The 411 Wrestling Top 5 8.05.09: Week 34 – Wrestling Families". 411mania.com.
  3. ^ a b "Hart Family Profile". Online World of Wrestling. Retrieved 2008-08-15.
  4. ^ "Stu Hart's Hall of Fame profile". WWE. Archived from the original on 28 April 2013. Retrieved 2011-04-13.
  5. ^ a b "Stu Hart Profile". Online World of Wrestling. Retrieved 2008-08-15.
  6. ^ "Legends of Wrestling: Bret Hart the Excellence of Execution". News. wrestlingdotcom.com. Archived from the original on July 18, 2011. Retrieved July 11, 2009.
  7. ^ Eric Cohen. "The Hart Family Tree". prowrestling.about.com. Archived from the original on 2015-11-05. Retrieved 2016-04-14.
  8. ^ "The 15 greatest families in WWE history". wwe.com. Archived from the original on March 27, 2018. Retrieved March 26, 2020.