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WEST - Stampede Wrestling gets pinned

Broadcast Date: Jan. 10, 1990

Stu Hart is the heart and soul of pro wrestling in Calgary. His Stampede Wrestling promotions have thrilled generations of Albertans for more than 40 years. For almost as long, a weekly television show of the same name has beamed bouts across Canada and around the world. But the bell has sounded for the last time. Hart tells CBC Television News that he's calling it quits.

Hart, 74, says he wants time to travel with his wife. But Ed Whelan, Hart's long-time ringside announcer, says it is the success of the huge World Wrestling Federation that is killing homegrown circuits like Stampede Wrestling. The U.S.-based WWF has become a "virtually monopolistic" giant trampling many local promotions into the dust, he says.

WEST - Stampede Wrestling gets pinned

• By the early 1980s the Connecticut-based WWF was expanding rapidly while Stampede Wrestling audiences were shrinking. The flashier WWF was taking over regional promotions and signing their top wrestlers. At the same time, Stampede Wrestling was under fire from Alberta's boxing and wrestling commission over alleged excessive violence. In 1984, Stu Hart verbally agreed to sell his promotion and top grapplers to WWF chief executive Vince McMahon Jr.

• Hart never received payments that were promised in the deal. With his son Bruce, he re-launched Stampede Wrestling in 1985. But they did so without their biggest stars, including another Hart son, Bret, who stayed with the WWF. Stampede Wrestling lasted another five years. It was resurrected by Bruce Hart in 1999 but never duplicated its earlier success. Stu Hart died Oct. 16, 2003 at age 88.

• Bret "The Hitman" Hart said upon his father's 1990 retirement: "The promotions on a small scale can't compete with the major ones. It's like the CFL trying to compete with the NFL. The WWF has the best wrestlers in the world…The small wrestling business is obsolete." He quit the WWF in 1997 and joined a chorus of voices accusing the company of exposing child fans to excessive sexual imagery and profanity.
• Stu Hart was raised in Saskatchewan and Alberta. He became a champion amateur wrestler and also played football for the Edmonton Eskimos. While serving in Canada's navy, he met Joe "Toots" Mondt, New York's top boxing and pro wrestling promoter. Hart was soon a top wrestling draw on America's east coast. With his dark wavy hair, blue eyes and admirable physique, Hart wrestled as a "babyface," or good guy.

• In 1948, Hart started to help book matches for promoters Jerry Meeker and Larry Tillman in the United States. Hart moved back to Alberta in 1951 with his American wife and the first of their 12 children. While continuing to wrestle, he started organizing matches in Edmonton. Later that year, he bought a Calgary-based wrestling promotion for $50,000. It was called Big Time Wrestling and then Wildcat Wrestling before becoming Stampede Wrestling in the 1960s.

• Stampede Wrestling was popular across the West, drawing top stars. In the early 1950s, Hart saw the boost that Toronto-based promoter Frank Tunney got by having his matches on fledgling CBC Television. Hart started his own broadcasts, featuring colourful interviews and features to promote his live shows, on Calgary CBC affiliate CFAC-TV. Winnipeg has always had its own wrestling scene, promoters and wrestling schools.

• By the 1970s, Stampede Wrestling was an institution. For many fans, Saturday afternoon meant bellicose brawlers and sky-high body slams on TV. Announcer Ed Whelan described the exploits of such wrestlers as Gene Kiniski, Abdullah The Butcher, Andre the Giant and some of Hart's own wrestling sons. The show was syndicated throughout North America and seen in many other countries via unauthorized broadcasts. Whalen died Dec. 4, 2001.

WEST - Stampede Wrestling gets pinned

Medium: Television

Program: CBC Television News

Broadcast Date: Jan. 10, 1990

Guest(s): Stu Hart, Bret Hart, Ed Whelan

Interviewer: Bruce Leslie

Duration: 2:41

Footage: Stampede Wrestling; World Wrestling Entertainment

Last updated:
March 22, 2004