Bret “Hitman” Hart is one of the most celebrated personalities in the professional wrestling industry. With several worldwide championships under his belt throughout his career, The Canadian-American wrestler is regarded as one of the best wrestlers of all time. His growing success even earned him a spot in the WWE Hall of Fame in 2006. His story, however, still had its share of mishaps. He suffered in one of the most talked about public controversies in the history of professional wrestling that greatly affected his career. Ties were severed, relationships were broken, tragedy ensued. Hart’s tale is a journey filled with success, failures, betrayal, reputation recovery, and a whole lot of things in between.

Early Years — Father Knows Best

Hart was born on July 2, 1957, in Calgary Canada and his full name is Bret Sergeant Hart. He comes from a family with a wrestling background, his famous father being Stu Hart, a Hall of Famer who had trained several famous world champions. Hart also ended up training under his father in the famous Hart Dungeon. Hart made his wrestling debut on Stampede Wrestling, a professional wrestling circuit in Canada owned by his father. He was also a part of the promotion New Japan Pro Wrestling from early to the mid-‘80s.

Coming To WWE ­— Not a “Cowboy”

Stampede Wrestling, established by Stu Hart in 1948, was one of the biggest promotions in Canada. In 1984, it was bought out by Vince McMahon, seeing it as a worthy investment, and ran under the stewardship of the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) before the Hart family bought it back, one year later. Hart was supposedly going to debut as “Cowboy” Bret Hart with a cowboy image when he started in the WWF in 1984 as a gimmick, but he ended up refusing the idea, emphasizing his respect for real cowboys and how he did not want to call himself a cowboy if he was not really one.

Hart Foundation — The Hart Tag Teams

The Hart Foundation was the umbrella name of the many different tag teams mainly composed of the wrestler members of the Hart family as well as close friends. Upon its establishment in the WWF in 1985, the original members were Bret and his brother-in-law, Jim Neidhart. The team was managed by Jimmy Hart. They managed to bag the title of WWF Tag Team Champions twice and was recognized by the WWE as one of the greatest tag teams in wrestling history. The original team eventually disbanded and was succeeded by several teams, including Bret’s younger brother, Owen Hart.