Bret Sergeant Hart (born July 2, 1957) is a Canadian and American retired professional wrestler. A member of the Hart wrestling family and a second-generation wrestler, he has an amateur wrestling background at Ernest Manning High School and Mount Royal College. A major international draw within professional wrestling, he is credited with changing the perception of mainstream North American professional wrestling in the early-mid 1990s by bringing technical wrestling to the fore. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest professional wrestlers of all time; Sky Sports noted that his legacy is that of "one of, if not the greatest, to have ever graced the squared circle". For the majority of his career, he used the nickname "the Hitman".
Hart joined his father Stu Hart's promotion Stampede Wrestling in 1976 as a referee and made his in-ring debut in 1978. He gained championship success during the 1980s and 1990s in the World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now WWE), where he helmed the Hart Foundation stable and was the face of company's New Generation Era. He left for World Championship Wrestling (WCW) following the controversial "Montreal Screwjob" in November 1997, where he remained until October 2000. Having been inactive from in-ring competition since January 2000, owing to a December 1999 concussion, he officially retired in October 2000, shortly after his departure from the company. He returned to sporadic in-ring competition from 2010 to 2011 with WWE, where he won his final championship, headlined the 2010 SummerSlam event, and served as the general manager of Raw. Throughout his career, he headlined the respective premier events of the WWF and WCW, WrestleMania (9, 10, and 12) and Starrcade (in 1999). He was inducted into the Wrestling Observer Newsletter Hall of Fame upon its inception in 1996, while still an active performer.
Hart held championship titles in five decades from the 1970s to the 2010s, 32 throughout his career and 17 between the WWF/WWE and WCW. Among other accolades, he is a seven-time world champion; a five-time WWF Champion and a two-time WCW World Heavyweight Champion. He went the most combined days as WWF Champion during the 1990s (654) and was the first WCW World Heavyweight Champion born outside the United States. He is the second WWF Triple Crown Champion and fifth (with Goldberg) WCW Triple Crown Champion. He is also the 1994 Royal Rumble match winner (with Lex Luger), and the only two-time King of the Ring, winning the 1991 tournament and the first King of the Ring pay-per-view in 1993. He co-headlined multiple pay-per-view events as part of an acclaimed rivalry with Stone Cold Steve Austin from 1996 to 1997. He is the first wrestler to be inducted three times into the WWE Hall of Fame: in 2006 individually, in 2019 as a member of the Hart Foundation, and in 2025 when his Submission match with Stone Cold Steve Austin at WrestleMania 13 was inducted as the inaugural entry into the Immortal Moments category.
Outside of wrestling, Hart has appeared in numerous films and television shows such as The Simpsons as well as featuring in several documentaries, both about himself specifically and others about his family or the wrestling industry in general. He also helped found and lent his name to the major junior ice hockey team the Calgary Hitmen and has written two biographies along with a weekly column for the Calgary Sun for over a decade. After his retirement, he spent much of his time on charitable efforts concerning stroke recovery and cancer awareness, due to his experiences with the two.
Early life The eighth child of wrestling patriarch Stu Hart and his wife Helen, Bret Hart was born in Calgary, Alberta, Canada into the Hart wrestling family. He is of Greek descent through his maternal grandmother and of Irish descent through his maternal grandfather. His father was of Scottish, Irish and English ancestry. Hart is a dual citizen of Canada and the United States since his mother Helen was born in New York. Hart has stated that he considers himself to be North American and that he is equally proud of his U.S. and Canadian nationality. His maternal grandfather was long-distance runner Harry Smith.
Hart grew up in a household with eleven siblings, seven brothers Smith, Bruce, Keith, Wayne, Dean, Ross and Owen, as well as four sisters, Ellie, Georgia, Alison and Diana. As a child he was the closest with his older brother Dean who was the nearest to him in age of all his older brothers, being three years his senior. Together they would often fight with Bret's two older sisters, Ellie, who was two years older, and Georgia, who was one year older. Hart's family were non-denominational Christians, but he and all of his siblings were baptized by a local Catholic priest.
Hart spent the vast majority of his childhood in the Hart family mansion which was owned by his father. During one period his father was housing a bear known as Terrible Ted chained under the building, the bear had had all of its teeth removed and Hart would sometimes as a very young child let the bear lick ice cream off his toes since he thought it was a good way to keep them clean.
His introduction to professional wrestling came at an early age. As a child, he witnessed his father training future wrestlers like Superstar Billy Graham in the Dungeon, his household basement which served as a training room. Before school, Hart's father, also a wrestling promoter, had him hand out fliers to local wrestling shows. In the 1998 documentary Hitman Hart: Wrestling with Shadows, Hart reflected on his father's discipline, describing how Stu uttered morbid words while inflicting excruciating submission holds that left broken blood vessels in Bret's eyes. Hart claimed his father had an otherwise pleasant demeanour.
Hart's first work in wrestling involved pulling out lucky numbers out of a metal box during intermission at the Stampede Wrestling shows when he was four years old. When he got slightly older, he would sell programs to the shows, something all Hart's seven brothers would do. He would often compete for customers with his little brother Ross since the fans would often want to buy from the youngest Hart child.
Amateur wrestling Like his father, Hart was an excellent amateur wrestler since an early age, having begun training as a nine-year-old. At Ernest Manning High School, Hart became a standout student in the amateur wrestling division. Hart has stated that he joined the wrestling team "for the sole reason that my dad expected me to... no-one asked me to".Bret "Hit Man" Hart: The Best There Is, The Best There Was, The Best There Ever Will Be (aka "The Bret Hart Story"), WWE Home Video (2005) He won significant championships in tournaments throughout Alberta, including the 1974 city championships in Calgary. He scored a victory over competitor Bob Eklund – who would go on to become a Canadian Interuniversity Sport national champion, winning "Outstanding Wrestler of the Year 1980–1981". Canadian Interuniversity Sport. Wayback Machine. Retrieved July 6, 2011. – en route to the championship. He described his display of the medal to Stu as a "powerful moment", and said his relationship with his father "took a different direction from that point on". Hart considered the medals to be one of his most prized possessions.
By 1977, Hart was a champion at Mount Royal College, where he was studying filmmaking; his coaches and other people around him felt that he had shown sufficient promise to compete at the following year's Commonwealth Games and encouraged him to begin training for the event. He began to find amateur wrestling unrewarding amid injuries and fluctuating weight. Stu still believed his son capable of making it to the Olympic or Commonwealth Games if he put forth the effort. Bret said he believed that even if he became an exceptionally successful amateur wrestler, it would not have led to a career that interested him, rather one as a wrestling coach or high school gym teacher.
Hart felt the only way to give up amateur wrestling without disappointing his father was to become a professional wrestler. His college grades became poorer as his interest in filmmaking waned; he dedicated himself to professional wrestling and began training with his father's Stampede Wrestling promotion. Hart has spoken of how helpful his amateur background was in his professional wrestling career, and of what a positive effect amateur wrestling has on junior high school and high school-aged boys in terms of building self-confidence.
Professional wrestling career
Stampede Wrestling (1976–1984) In 1976, Hart began working for his father's Stampede Wrestling promotion in Calgary. Hart first began helping the promotion by refereeing matches. At a 1978 event in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, a wrestler was unable to perform his match, forcing Stu to ask his son to stand in as a replacement. Hart teamed with Hubert Gallant losing to Mr. Hito and Mr. Sakurada. Before long, he became a regular contender, eventually partnering with brother Keith to win the Stampede International Tag Team Championship four times.
Hart gained some of his most prominent experience with Japanese combatants and real-life trainers Mr. Hito and Mr. Sakurada. Hart also had high-impact matches against Tom Billington, who was better known by his in-ring name as the Dynamite Kid. In the midst of wrestling alongside his family, Hart made a point not to ride on the shoulders of his elders. Hart faithfully jobbed as requested of him, taking pride in the believability of his performances. As he said himself, "No one could take a shit-kicking like Bret Hart". Although he dreaded partaking in interviews and speaking in front of a crowd, Hart went on to win the promotion's top titles, including two British Commonwealth Mid-Heavyweight Championships, five International Tag Team Championships, and six North American Heavyweight Championships.
Hart remained one of Stampede's most successful performers until the promotion, along with several wrestlers, was acquired by the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) in August 1984.
New Japan Pro-Wrestling (1980, 1982, 1984) Hart debuted in New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) on June 19, 1980, as part of its "Summer Fight Series", teaming with his brother Keith Hart to defeat George Takano and Kantaro Hoshino. Over the following weeks, Hart faced opponents including Tatsumi Fujinami, Strong Kobayashi, and Antonio Inoki. He also competed in a series of six-man tag team matches, teaming with Keith, Tiger Jeet Singh, Johnny Mantell, and Umanosuke Ueda. On July 23, Hart faced Kengo Kimura in Kitakyushu for the vacant NWA International Junior Heavyweight Championship, with Kimura winning with a German suplex. Hart wrestled his final match of the tour on July 25, teaming with Keith in a loss to Hoshino and Kimura. Hart was paid $7,050 () for the tour.
Hart returned to Japan for a second tour with NJPW in January–February 1982 as part of its "New Year Golden Series". In his first match, he teamed with Dynamite Kid in a loss to Tatsumi Fujinami and Tiger Mask in Kitakyushu. His other opponents on the tour included Kengo Kimura, Antonio Inoki, Akira Maeda, Riki Choshu, and Ryuma Go. On February 5, Hart unsuccessfully challenged Tiger Mask for the WWF Junior Heavyweight Championship in the Nakajima Sports Center in Sapporo. In April 1982, Hart faced Tiger Mask in a pair of matches promoted by NJPW in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. Hart made a third tour of Japan with NJPW in July–August 1982 as part of its "Summer Fight Series II". In his first match, he teamed with Dynamite Kid to defeat Kengo Kimura and Tiger Mask in Nakama, Fukuoka. He faced Tiger Mask in various matches throughout the tour, including unsuccessfully challenging him for the WWF Junior Heavyweight Championship in Nagoya, Aichi on July 30. In his final match of the tour, on August 5, he defeated Kengo Kimura in Tokyo's Kuramae Kokugikan.