Stu Hart's Sale Of Stampede Wrestling Led To Bret Hart's First Stint In WWE
Stu Hart was tired. His promotion, Stampede Wrestling, was in financial distress. His son, Bruce Hart, constantly defied orders and was resented by the locker room for his politicking. Ed Whalen, the voice of Stampede, quit on air on the night Bad News Allen delivered a piledriver to The Stomper's son on the Victoria Pavilion floor.
The Calgary Wrestling and Boxing Commission was constantly fining and suspending Stu's wrestlers (mainly Allen) for any infraction, such as fighting in the crowd or using weapons in the ring. To top it all off, Vince McMahon had his eyes set on expanding the World Wrestling Federation into western Canada.
After nearly four decades of running the promotion, 69-year-old Stu was ready for retirement with his wife, Helen. On August 24, 1984, Stu signed an agreement with McMahon's right-hand man, Jim Barnett, to sell Stampede to McMahon for $1 million, which was to be paid off over the next decade at $100,000 per year. Bret Hart later claimed that McMahon never paid Stu Hart. As part of the deal, McMahon received Stu's television time slots and hired the "Stampede Four" of Bret Hart, Jim Neidhart, Dynamite Kid, and Davey Boy Smith.
In addition, Bruce was offered the role of booking agent to line up WWF shows in Calgary, Edmonton, Vancouver, and Seattle. And though he accepted the position, he felt disrespected for not being consulted about the sale of the promotion and not being brought in as a wrestler during the prime of his career.
McMahon struggles in western Canada
Airing Saturday afternoons on CFAC-TV, the WWF replaced Stampede Wrestling with "Maple Leaf Wrestling," which was mostly squash matches and promos. Though the WWF was regularly selling out Madison Square Garden, Boston Garden, Philadelphia Spectrum, and Maple Leaf Gardens, they struggled to fill the newly opened 18,000-seat Calgary Saddledome. After running one show a month at the Saddledome from November 1984 to January 1985, the WWF moved across the street to the 7,000-seat Stampede Corral.
On February 27, 1985, the WWF ran their first show at the Corral, and according to a Calgary Herald article by Steve Simmons, attendance was only 700. Why was the WWF struggling in western Canada? Longtime Stampede fans weren't impressed with "Maple Leaf Wrestling" and were upset at how Stampede's talent was being used in the WWF. Bret Hart had been a constant main eventer for Stampede, but for the three WWF Saddledome shows, he faced Butch Moffat, Mr. Fuji, and Alexis Smirnoff.
Wanting their wrestling back, a group comprising Stampede fans and investors launched their own wrestling promotion to compete with Vince McMahon. The promotion's name? Stampede Wrestling (Stu Hart never trademarked his promotion's name). Stu Hart quickly denounced the upstart company in the Calgary Sun, saying it was in poor taste and misleading to use the Stampede Wrestling name. What Stu didn't know was Bruce Hart knew about the new promotion.
Bruce wants The Bulldogs to jump
Upset at his father for selling to Vince McMahon and hating his job in the WWF, Bruce Hart had been in talks with the new Stampede Wrestling since late 1984. Feeling his creativity and intelligence were being wasted, Bruce was promised by the investors he would be the booker of the new Stampede Wrestling and would have a second chance to fulfill the destiny he was robbed of. Furthermore, Bruce wasn't the only Stampede alumnus ready to jump to the start-up promotion.
Davey Boy Smith and Dynamite Kid weren't thrilled with their position in the WWF either. Though they had been renamed The British Bulldogs and weren't in the opening matches, like Bret Hart and Jim Neidhart, they preferred working in Japan, where the wages were guaranteed and not based on the house gate and positioning on the card.
In a move that upset McMahon, The Bulldogs jumped from New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW) to All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW). While AJPW offered the Bulldogs $20,000 each upfront and $6,200 a week for the tour, $1000 more than NJPW, McMahon had a working relationship with NJPW, who were paying big booking fees for McMahon's top talent.
Deciding to play it safe, The Bulldogs remained in the WWF rather than moving on to the new incarnation of Stampede, which reflected badly upon Bruce, who had promised investors he could deliver the team. In addition, Bruce was demoted from booker before the first show, as Bad News Allen refused to work for the promotion if Bruce was in charge and investors needed Allen's name power.
McMahon wants out of his deal with Stu
The new Stampede Wrestling failed to live up to the hype. With no Hart family involvement, fans viewed the start-up as a cheap imposter and it showed at the gate. Attendance for the February 1985 debut show at the Victoria Pavilion was abysmal, and attendance plummeted to the point the March shows were canceled. In less than a month, the new Stampede Wrestling was out of business, something Vince McMahon used to his advantage.
After struggling for a year in western Canada, McMahon wanted out of his deal with Stu Hart. He informed the head of the Hart family he couldn't afford to pay him the agreed $100,000 per year and if Stu wanted to, he could resume operating Stampede Wrestling. McMahon knew about Bruce's talks — and near involvement — with the new Stampede Wrestling and viewed it as a violation of their non-competition agreement.
Not wanting to jeopardize his family's jobs, Stu agreed to let McMahon out of the deal, and a month later in October 1985, the Stu Hart-operated Stampede Wrestling was back in business. Though the "Stampede Four" wouldn't be the stars of the relaunch, The Bulldogs, Bret, and Neidhart wrestled on Stampede cards when their schedule permitted to give the company a boom in business.
The four also saw their fortunes change in the WWF. The Bulldogs won the tag titles at WrestleMania II and would lose the titles in January 1987 to Bret and Neidhart, aka The Hart Foundation.
Hall of Fame careers
Following their success in tag-team competition, both Bret Hart and Davey Boy Smith became full-time singles wrestlers in the early '90s. Bret won the Intercontinental Championship two times, defeating Mr. Perfect at SummerSlam 1991 and "Rowdy" Roddy Piper at WrestleMania VIII. In the main event of SummerSlam 1992, Bret was bested by Davey Boy for the Intercontinental Championship in front of 80,355 fans at Wembley Stadium.
On October 12, 1992, Bret defeated Ric Flair in Saskatoon to win the WWF Championship, a title he would hold five times over the next five years.
In 2006, Bret Hart was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame, and again in 2019 with Neidhart as part of The Hart Foundation. Davey Boy was to follow a year later as part of the 2020 Hall of Fame class, but due to the global pandemic, his class induction occurred at the 2021 Hall of Fame ceremony. Dynamite Kid remains the only one of the "Stampede Four" to not be inducted into the Hall of Fame. Stu Hart was posthumously inducted in 2010.
Information in this article was used from Heath McCoy's "Pain and Passion: The History of Stampede Wrestling" book.