The Hart Dungeon or Hart Family Dungeon, otherwise known simply as The Dungeon, was the gym and wrestling school located in the basement of the Hart mansion. The school was created by

Stu Hart Stewart Edward Hart (May 3, 1915 – October 16, 2003) was a Canadian sport wrestling, amateur and professional wrestling, professional wrestler, wrestling Booker (professional wrestling), booker, professional wrestling promotion, promoter, and ...

, patriarch of the

Hart wrestling family The Hart wrestling family, sometimes known as the Hart dynasty, is a mainly Canadians, Canadian family with a significant history within professional wrestling. The patriarch of the family was wrestling legend Stu Hart (1915–2003). An amateur a ...

and is known for having produced some of the greatest and most successful professional wrestlers of all time.

Location description

The room was located in the Hart family mansion basement and had a very low ceiling. For most of the duration of the room being used as training hall there was a wrestling mat located on the floor without any ropes which would be used for training students.

History

Hart acquired the former army hospital mansion in 1951 and transformed its basement into his personal training centre shortly thereafter. This was done because Hart needed a training facility after the founding of his first wrestling promotion in 1948. Although, the nickname itself developed over time when Stampede Wrestling became world famous. Aside from professional wrestlers, the Dungeon provided training grounds for various athletes from strongmen to football players. The majority of Hart's sons trained in the Dungeon and went on to become involved in the wrestling world including Bret and Owen Hart. Other famous Dungeon graduates include

Billy Graham William Franklin Graham Jr. (; November 7, 1918 – February 21, 2018) was an American Evangelism, evangelist, ordained Southern Baptist minister, and Civil rights movement, civil rights advocate, whose broadcasts and world tours featuring liv ...

, Greg Valentine, Allen Coage, Davey Boy Smith,

Brian Pillman Brian William Pillman (May 22, 1962 – October 5, 1997) was an American professional wrestler and professional football player best known for his appearances in Stampede Wrestling in the 1980s and World Championship Wrestling (WCW), Extreme ...

, Jushin Thunder Liger, Ricky Fuji,

Chris Jericho Christopher Keith Irvine (born November 9, 1970), better known by the ring name Chris Jericho, is an American-Canadian professional wrestler, rock musician, and actor. As a wrestler, he has been signed to All Elite Wrestling (AEW) , where he ...

Lance Storm Lance Timothy Evers (; born April 3, 1969), known professionally by his ring name Lance Storm, is a Canadians, Canadian retired professional wrestler. He is signed to Total Nonstop Action Wrestling, where he works as a producer. He is best known ...

Chris Benoit Christopher Michael Benoit ( ; May 21, 1967 – June 24, 2007) was a Canadian Professional wrestling, professional wrestler. He worked for various pro-wrestling promotions during his 22-year career, but is notorious for Chris Benoit double-murd ...

Justin Credible Peter Joseph Polaco (born October 16, 1973) is an American professional wrestler. He is best known for his appearances with Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) and the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) under the ring name Justin Credible. Debut ...

, Edge,

Christian A Christian () is a person who follows or adheres to Christianity, a Monotheism, monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus Christ. Christians form the largest religious community in the wo ...

and

Mark Henry Mark Jerrold Henry (born June 12, 1971) is an American former powerlifter, Olympic weightlifter, strongman, and retired professional wrestler currently signed to WWE under a Legends contract. Henry is a two-time Olympian (1992 and 19 ...

. Natalya, daughter of Jim Neidhart and granddaughter of Stu, was the first ever woman to graduate from the Dungeon. One of the first televised acknowledgements of the nickname "Dungeon" was by then WWF color commentator

Jesse Ventura Jesse Ventura (born James George Janos; July 15, 1951) is an American politician, political commentator, actor, media personality, and retired professional wrestler. After achieving fame in the WWE, World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now WWE), he ...

. Its first significant exposure was in the

documentary A documentary film (often described simply as a documentary) is a nonfiction Film, motion picture intended to "document reality, primarily for instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". The American author and ...

'' Hitman Hart: Wrestling with Shadows''. In it, the Dungeon was moderately filmed for the first time and Stu Hart is shown demonstrating wrestling holds on a pupil. Bret also discusses being trained by his father and having submission holds applied to himself, often with graphic descriptions from his father of the holds' impact. A bonus feature on Bret's DVD set also shows him discussing the Dungeon. Various activities took place in the Dungeon, ranging from weight lifting to

Catch wrestling Catch wrestling (also known as catch-as-catch-can) is an English wrestling style where wrestlers aim to win by Pin (sport wrestling), pinning or Submission (combat sports), submitting their opponent using any legal holds or techniques. It emph ...

. Bret Hart has described the Dungeon in interviews as having holes in the walls and ceiling from bodies being driven into them. He also noted that practices could, at times, be as intense as

MMA Mixed martial arts (MMA) is a full-contact fighting sport based on striking and grappling; incorporating techniques from various combat sports from around the world. In the early 20th century, various inter-stylistic contests took place t ...

styled fighting. In July 1998, the WWF filmed a match between Owen Hart and Ken Shamrock in the Dungeon for the Fully Loaded pay-per-view.

Reputation

During the period when Stu Hart was regularly training individuals at the school, it held a reputation for being one of the harshest wrestling schools in the world. Graduating from it was considered very impressive and something which would be brought up on air on televised wrestling shows. Hart himself also garnered a reputation for being borderline sadistic in his training techniques, and was known to torture his pupils with legitimate submission wrestling holds he had learned as a sports wrestler. Buddy Roberts described the place as "like a torture chamber". In contrast to his descendants, Stu never took money for his training services and did it mostly for the love of the artform of professional wrestling.

Trainers

* Mr. Hito, head trainer after Stu Hart * Kazuo Sakurada

List of notable trainees

Men

* Abdullah the Butcher * Allen Coage * Al Oeming *

Archie Gouldie Archibald Edward Gouldie (November 22, 1936 – January 23, 2016) was a Canadian professional wrestler. He wrestled for Stampede Wrestling for decades as Archie "The Stomper" Gouldie, with the nickname coming from the wrestler's reputation o ...

* Ben Bassarab * Billy Jack Haynes *Blake Norton *

"Stu Hart Profile".
Online World Of Wrestling. Retrieved February 20, 2010. * Davey Boy Smith * David Hart Smith * Devon Nicholson * Dynamite Kid * Edge * Eduardo Miguel Perez *

Fritz Von Erich Jack Barton Adkisson Sr. (August 16, 1929 – September 10, 1997), better known by his ring name Fritz Von Erich, was an American Professional wrestling, professional wrestler, wrestling promoter, and the patriarch of the Von Erich family. He was ...

* Gama Singh * Gene Anderson * George Scott *

Gorilla Monsoon Robert James "Gino" Marella (June 4, 1937 – October 6, 1999), better known by his ring name of Gorilla Monsoon, was an American Professional wrestling, professional wrestler, Sports commentator, play-by-play commentator, and Glossary of profess ...

* Greg Valentine * Hiro Hase * Dean Hart * Smith Hart * Ross Hart * Wayne Hart *

Bret Hart Bret Sergeant Hart (born July 2, 1957) is a Canadian 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 U ...

* Keith Hart * Bruce Hart * Owen Hart * Jim Neidhart *Jason Helton * Jake Roberts * Jos LeDuc *

Junkyard Dog Sylvester Ritter (December 13, 1952 – June 1, 1998) was an American Professional wrestling, professional wrestler and NCAA football, college football player, best known for his time in Universal Wrestling Federation (Bill Watts), Mid-South Wre ...

* Jushin Thunder Liger *

* Ken Shamrock * Klondike Bill *

* Larry Cameron * Luther Lindsay *

Masahiro Chono is an American-born Japanese retired Professional wrestling in Japan, professional wrestler and actor best known for his 26-year stint with New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW). As the leader of New World Order (professional wrestling), nWo Japan, Tea ...

* Michael Majalahti * Nikolai Volkoff * Paul LeDuc * Ricky Fuji *

Roddy Piper Roderick George Toombs (April 17, 1954 – July 31, 2015), better known as "Rowdy" Roddy Piper, was a Canadian professional wrestler and actor. In professional wrestling, Piper was best known to international audiences for his work with the Wo ...

* Ruffy Silverstein * Sandy Scott *

Shinya Hashimoto was a Japanese professional wrestler, promoter and actor. Along with Masahiro Chono and Keiji Mutoh, Hashimoto was dubbed one of the " Three Musketeers" that began competing in New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) in the mid-1980s and dominated the p ...

* Steve Blackman * Superstar Billy Graham *

Tyson Kidd Theodore James "TJ" Wilson (born July 11, 1980), better known by the ring name Tyson Kidd, is a Canadian retired professional wrestler. He is signed to WWE, where he works as a road agent (professional wrestling), producer. The final graduate o ...

* Tom Magee *

Tyler Mane Daryl Karolat (born December 8, 1966) is a Canadian actor and retired professional wrestler, better known by the name Tyler Mane. He is known for playing supervillain Sabretooth in ''X-Men'' (2000), and '' X-Men: The Official Game'' (2006), Ajax ...

* Viktor * Yvon Durelle

Women

* Natalya Neidhart

Legacy

In modern-day being trained in the Dungeon carries a level of status and there have been many attempts to recreate and recapture its glory. In 2005 a documentary directed by Blake Norton (who trained at the school) named '' Surviving the Dungeon: The Legacy of Stu Hart'' was released.

Subsequent training camps run by members of the Hart family

After their father's retirement some of the Hart brothers managed the school by themselves under the name Hart Brothers Training Camp which was also known by the nickname School of Hart Knocks. Leading up to the Hart House's sale in 2003, the Hart Brothers Training Camp run by Bruce, Keith and Ross was still running three times a week in the basement of the Hart mansion. A very similar training camp remains today at the family's gym, although none of the Hart brothers are involved. Teddy Hart, Stu Hart's oldest grandson ran a training camp in Texas named Texas Hart Dungeon from around 2012 to 2015. Smith Hart, Stu's oldest son founded a new wrestling school in 2015 named Dungeon Discipline Professional Wrestling School which is run out of Calgary and Berrie in Alberta, after Smith's passing in 2017 the training is mostly handled by Smith's son Matthew.

References

Works cited

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