Bret Sargent Hart is a Canadian-American retired professional wrestler, born on July 2, 1957, in Calgary Alberta. He is a member of the Hart wrestling family and a second-generation professional wrestler with an amateur wrestling background. The eighth child of wrestling patriarch, Stu Hart and his wife Helen, Bret grew up in a household with eleven other siblings, seven brothers and four sisters.
A major international superstar within professional wrestling, he has been credited with changing the perception of mainstream North American professional wrestling in the early 1990s by bringing technical in-ring performances to the forefront. Bret is widely regarded as one of the greatest professional wrestlers of all time.
Bret’s introduction to wrestling began at an early age. As a child, he watched his father train future wrestling superstars in the household gymnasium, infamously called “The Dungeon”. Like his father, Bret was an excellent amateur wrestler and went on to win city and provincial wrestling championships. In 1977, he won the collegiate championship for Mount Royal College (now called Mount Royal University).
Hart officially joined his father’s wrestling promotion, Stampede Wrestling, in 1978 when he made his ring debut in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. He gained experience wrestling internationally in Puerto Rico, Japan, England, New Zealand, and Germany. He was one of Stampede Wrestling’s most successful performers until the promotion was acquired by the World Wrestling Federation (now World Wrestling Entertainment -WWE) in August 1984.
He gained greater international success during the 1980s and 1990s during his tenure with the WWE, where he formed The Hart Foundation with his brother-in-law, Jim “The Anvil” Neidhart. Together, they won the World Tag Team Championship twice. For most of his career, he has used his ring name “Hitman”. Bret’s agile, technical style also earned him the nickname “The Excellence of Execution”. At SummerSlam 1991, Bret defeated Mr. Perfect (Curt Hennig) to win the InterContinental Title and would win it a second time in 1992 at WrestleMania 8 by defeating fellow Canadian “Rowdy” Roddy Piper. He went on to defeat Ric Flair in October 1992 and won the WWF/WWE World title. Bret would win this championship title four more times. He was also the very first King of the Ring in 1993 and the co-winner of the 1994 Royal Rumble.
Bret was the face of World Wrestling Entertainment until November 1997 when he left to work for the World Championship Wrestling (WCW). Bret would go on to win the WCW U.S. Heavyweight Championship three times, won the WCW World Tag Team Championship with Bill Goldberg and the WCW World Heavyweight Championship two times. He was forced to forfeit the WCW World Heavyweight title after being badly injured by Goldberg with a career-ending concussion.
Bret officially retired from professional wrestling in October 2000. In June 2002, he suffered a stroke after hitting his head in a bicycle accident. He suffered total paralysis on his left side, which required months of arduous physical therapy. Bret has since recovered much of his mobility and later became a spokesperson for March of Dimes Canada’s Stroke Recovery Canada program. In the fall of 2004, Bret was voted one of the top 50 Canadians of all time on CBC’s Greatest Canadians. Bret was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame Class of 2006 (individually) and Class of 2019 (as a member of The Hart Foundation).
Outside of wrestling, Bret has appeared in numerous films and television shows such as Lonesome Dove and The Simpsons, as well as several other documentaries. Bret also helped found the hockey team, the Calgary Hitmen and his critically acclaimed, best-selling autobiography, Hitman: My Real Life in the Cartoon World of Wrestling, which comprehensively chronicled his wrestling career. Bret is currently working on his second book which details how his childhood was influenced by professional wrestling.
In February 2016, Bret announced that he had been diagnosed with prostate cancer. Later that year, he underwent a successful surgery and he is currently cancer-free.
In August 2018, he was honoured with a traditional Niitsitapi naming ceremony and was given the name ‘Courageous Chief’ by Siksika Elder Miiksika’am (Clarence Wolfleg).
Bret has four children: Jade, Dallas, Alexandra (nicknamed “Beans”), and Blade. The four hearts located on the right thigh of his tights symbolize his children, as do the four dots following his signature. Through his children, Bret has two granddaughters, Kyra and Vylet and two grandsons, Grayson and Bo.
He married Stephanie Washington in 2010 and they currently reside in Calgary.
