Summer Boooks #3
August 12, 2008
The 3rd in the series. I guess I am a sucker for non-fiction and in particular biographies. The Tiger Willams experiment was a resounding failure but I decided to press on with another story of a hardluck guy from the Prairies - Stu Hart (May 3, 1915 – October 16, 2003).
Stu Hart was the promoter for Stampede Wrestling out of Calgary and was basically the biggest name in pro wrestling prior to the arrival of the WWF and Vince McMahon Jr. His name was brought tragically to the mainstream media in 1999 when his youngest son Owen Hart died trying to complete a stunt in a WWF run promotion.
I have jumped the gun on this review because I am only about 2/3rds the way through the book but it has been a good read so far. I was hoping for more insight into the early wrestling world but the book takes a long time to get there. It spends a great deal of time concentrating on Owen Hart’s death and Stu Hart’s childhood and teenage years. I guess the book is about the man and not all about wrestling so I can’t expect too much different.
Stu Hart was one of the most respected men in the business of pro wrestling (where respect comes less freely than a folding metal chair). In his Calgary house he build a wrestling room simply called “The Dungeon”. Many wrestlers learned their craft in that basement and for a time it was the training mecca for any up and coming young wrestler. Many of them describe how Stu Hart would put them through “stretches” which basically entailed large men screaming in agony and begging him to let them out of the hold. Apparently he routinely performed these “stretches” into his 70’s and 80’s and had these young strapping lads begging for help.
The promo below is for a DVD entitled “Surviving The Dungeon: The Legacy Of Stu Hart”.
RIP Mr. Hart
