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The usage of animals in professional wrestling has varied through the profession's history. Animals that have been used as opponents to humans in matches include bears, tigers, cheetahs and orangutans. [2] [3] [4] [5]
Bears have long been a part of professional wrestling. [6] Usually declawed and muzzled, they often wrestled shoot matches against audience members, offered a cash reward if they could pin the bear. They also wrestled professionals in worked, often battle royal or handicap, matches (usually booked so the bear won). Wrestling bears enjoyed their greatest popularity in the Southern United States, during the 1960s and 1970s. The wrestling bear Terrible Ted was used many times for Stampede Wrestling and briefly lived at Stu Hart's home in Calgary while working for Stampede, where Stu's son Bret Hart and his other children would sometimes play with him. [7] [8] Hercules, another celebrated wrestling bear, appeared with Terrible Ted in Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto. After quitting the sport, Hercules moved to Scotland and took up acting; he appeared in 1983 James Bond movie Octopussy and was named "personality of the year" by the Scottish Tourist Board. [9]
Wrestling promoter and wrestler Stu Hart would wrestle tigers in his Stampede Wrestling territory. [10] [11] [12] His match with the tiger Sasha "Chi-Chi" was performed partly as a publicity stunt for the Calgary Stampede and was on the behalf of the Calgary Fish and Wildlife Association. [13] Hart's daughter Diana also stated that he had a cheetah who he had borrowed [lower-alpha 1] over to their home, the Hart mansion, which he may have planned to wrestle. [14]
WWF champion Bruno Sammartino wrestled an orangutan in a match. [15] The match lasted for fifteen minutes with Sammartino earning 25 dollars for each five minute. Sammartino has expressed that he was under the impression that the ape would be a monkey and that he only took the match because he was relatively desperate for money at the time as a young newly debuted wrestler. He also stated that the match was very painful and unsafe as the animal was not trained to perform. [16]
Teddy Hart, grandson of Stu Hart, has expressed interest in using animals such as cats and dogs in his matches. He has on many occasions brought his cats with him to the ring. [17] [18] On the matter Hart stated:
I'm training cats to come out to the ring with me, and I'm also trying to train animals to get involved in matches. I'm trying to get safety animals, like a dog, to basically pull the referee's leg before the count of three, little things like that. Or my dog will be carrying a weapon for me, and I would get it off his neck. Potentially if I had a female manager, and she has a cat, and the cat is maybe a good way of getting couple kids out of the audience, and I lure the kids out of the audience and the kids cause a disqualification to happen so I don't have to lose the belt, or something like that. [19]
A "Pig (or Hog) Pen match" is a match that takes place in a pig pen full of pigs, placed near the stage. [20]
In 1999 the Big Boss Man wrestled Al Snow for the WWF Hardcore Championship in a Kennel from Hell match at Unforgiven '99. The match consisted of a standard steel cage with the cell placed atop it, with the object being that the wrestler would escape from both the cage and cell while trying to avoid guard dogs that were placed between the ring and cell door. This specific match has been called one of the worst gimmick matches in history, [21] [22] as the dogs showed no hostility toward the competitors and proceeded to urinate, defecate and even mate outside the ring. [22]
 | The examples and perspective in this section may not represent a worldwide view of the subject.(August 2021) |
As of 2006, bear wrestling is banned in 20 U.S. states. [26]
Bret Sergeant Hart is a Canadian-American retired professional wrestler. A member of the Hart wrestling family and a second-generation wrestler, he has an amateur wrestling background, wrestling at Ernest Manning High School and Mount Royal College. A major international draw 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 performance to the fore. Hart is widely regarded as one of the greatest professional wrestlers of all time; Sky Sports noted that his legacy is that of "one of, if not the greatest, to have ever graced the squared circle". For the majority of his career, Hart used the epithet "the Hitman".
Stewart Edward Hart was a Canadian amateur and professional wrestler, wrestling booker, promoter, coach, trainer, football player and sailor. He is best known for founding and handling Stampede Wrestling, a professional wrestling promotion based in Calgary, Alberta, teaching many individuals at its associated wrestling school "The Dungeon" and establishing a professional wrestling dynasty consisting of his relatives and close trainees. As the patriarch of the Hart wrestling family, Hart is the ancestor of many wrestlers, most notably being the father of Bret and Owen Hart as well as the grandfather of Natalya Neidhart, Teddy Hart and David Hart Smith.
Josip Hrvoje Peruzović, better known by his ring name Nikolai Volkoff, was a Croatian-American professional wrestler from Yugoslavia, best known for his time in the World Wrestling Federation where he usually played a Soviet heel.
David Smith was an English-Canadian professional wrestler best known for his appearances in the United States with the World Wrestling Federation under the ring names Davey Boy Smith and The British Bulldog.
James Henry Neidhart was an American professional wrestler known for his appearances in the 1980s and 1990s in the World Wrestling Federation as Jim "the Anvil" Neidhart, where he was a two-time WWF Tag Team Champion with his real-life brother-in-law Bret Hart in the Hart Foundation. He also won titles in Stampede Wrestling, Championship Wrestling from Florida, Mid-South Wrestling, Memphis Championship Wrestling and the Mid-Eastern Wrestling Federation. He was part of the Hart wrestling family through marriage to his wife Ellie Hart, teaming with various members throughout his career, and appearing with his daughter Natalya Neidhart on the reality television show Total Divas.
WrestleMania 2 was the second annual WrestleMania professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by the World Wrestling Federation. The event took place on April 7, 1986, making it the only WrestleMania that was not held on the traditional Sunday until the two-night WrestleMania 36 in April 2020. The event took place at three venues simultaneously: the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Uniondale, New York, the Rosemont Horizon in the Chicago suburb of Rosemont, Illinois, and the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena in Los Angeles, California.
Thomas Billington, best known by the ring name the Dynamite Kid, was a British professional wrestler.
Bruce Edward Hart is an American-born Canadian retired professional wrestler, promoter, booker, trainer and school teacher. He is a second-generation wrestler and a member of the Hart wrestling family, being the second child of Stu and Helen Hart. He is best known for his time in Stampede Wrestling and several appearances for WWE, often with his brothers Bret and Owen.
The British Bulldogs were a professional wrestling tag team consisting of cousins Davey Boy Smith and Dynamite Kid. They competed throughout the 1980s in Britain, North America and Japan and have consistently ranked among the top tag teams in history. Both men died prematurely.
Michael Paul Shaw was an American professional wrestler who was best known for his stint in World Championship Wrestling (WCW) as Norman the Lunatic, and as Bastion Booger in the World Wrestling Federation.
Stampede Wrestling was a Canadian professional wrestling promotion based in Calgary, Alberta. For nearly 50 years, it was one of the main promotions in western Canada and the Canadian Prairies. Originally established by Stu Hart in 1948, the promotion competed with other promotions such as NWA All-Star Wrestling and Pacific Northwest Wrestling and regularly ran events in Calgary's Victoria Pavilion, Ogden Auditorium and the Stampede Corral between 1948 and 1984. Bought out by promoter Vince McMahon, the company was briefly run by the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) before being sold back to the Hart family the following year. Run by Bruce Hart until January 1990, he and Ross Hart reopened the promotion in 1999 and began running events in the Alberta area.
Gadowar Singh Sahota ; born December 8, 1954) is an Indo-Canadian semi-retired professional wrestler known as Gama Singh and Great Gama Sahota was a villainous mainstay and top attraction in Stu Hart's Stampede Wrestling in Calgary for much of the 1970s and 1980s. Sahota also wrestled internationally in Japan, South Africa, Germany, Kuwait, Dubai, Oman, Australia, the United States and the Caribbean. He also worked sporadically, mostly on overseas tours, for Vince McMahon and the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) from 1980 to 1986. His nephew is former WWE Champion Jinder Mahal. Singh made a brief comeback of sorts in 2018, when he signed with Impact Wrestling as the manager for a stable of Indian wrestlers known as the Desi Hit Squad, but quietly left in 2020.
Diana Joyce Hart is a Canadian-American writer, model, valet and wrestling personality. She is the youngest daughter of Canadian wrestling promoter Stu Hart and was the second to last child born to Stu and his wife Helen. She is best known for her several appearances for Stampede Wrestling and WWE often with her brothers Bret and Owen Hart as well as her husband Davey Boy Smith, and for her book, Under the Mat.
Owen James Hart was a Canadian professional wrestler who worked for several promotions including Stampede Wrestling, New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW), World Championship Wrestling (WCW), and the World Wrestling Federation (WWF). He received most of his success in the WWF, where he wrestled under both his own name and the ring name The Blue Blazer.
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, patriarch of the Hart wrestling family and is known for having produced some of the greatest and most successful professional wrestlers of all time.
The Hart wrestling family, sometimes known as the Hart dynasty, is a mainly Canadian family with a significant history within professional wrestling. The patriarch of the family was wrestling legend Stu Hart (1915–2003). An amateur and professional wrestling performer, promoter and trainer, Stu owned and operated his own wrestling promotion, Stampede Wrestling. He also trained some of the most well known stars in wrestling history including "Superstar" Billy Graham, Fritz Von Erich, Chris Jericho, Chris Benoit, and his own sons Bret Hart and Owen Hart.
In Your House 16: Canadian Stampede was the 16th In Your House professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by the World Wrestling Federation. It took place on July 6, 1997, at the Canadian Airlines Saddledome in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. The event's card consisted of four matches with one match held on the Free for All pre-show.
Ross Lindsay Hart is a Canadian-American retired professional wrestler, promoter, trainer, booker, TV producer, coach and actor. Hart is a member of the Hart wrestling family and the second youngest son of Stu and Helen Hart. He is best known for his work in Stampede Wrestling and several appearances in WWE, often with his siblings Bruce, Keith, Bret, Diana and Owen Hart.
The Stu Hart 50th Anniversary Show was a professional wrestling supercard produced by the Hart family that took place on December 15, 1995 at the Stampede Corral in Calgary, Alberta. Held in honor of Stu Hart, the event featured Stampede Wrestling alumni as well as talent from World Championship Wrestling and the World Wrestling Federation. It was the first event to feature an interpromotional "dream match" during the Monday Night Wars-era. The proceeds from the event were donated to the Calgary Quest Children's Society. Nine professional wrestling matches, two of which for championships, were featured on the card.
The Iron Sheik and Nikolai Volkoff were a professional wrestling tag team who competed in the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) from 1984 to 1987.
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