10 Wrestlers You Didn't Know Trained At The Hart Family Dungeon

The legacy of the Hart Family Dungeon is unparalleled in the annals of sports entertainment. Founded in the basement of The Hart House by family patriarch Stu, The Dungeon was the premiere training place for not just any Canadian stars, but plenty of stars the world over.

Related: 10 Revelations From Bret Hart’s Broken Skull Sessions Interview With Steve Austin 

Stu is long gone, but the traditions infused in everyone who stepped foot in his fabled Dungeon will be able to carry on the tough customs learned there. Here are 10 wrestlers you didn’t know trained at The Hart Family Dungeon.

10 Edge

During a recent After The Bell podcast with Corey Graves, the Rated R Superstar filled everyone in on Bret Hart’s positive take on his Last Man Standing match with Randy Orton at WrestleMania 36.

Besides being Canadian, Edge also shares a Dungeon education with the Hitman. In fact, it’s Bret Hart who helped informally train Edge. The future world champion and Hall Of Famer sat under the learning tree of the Hitman for some of 1997 while Bret was rehabbing a knee injury.

9 Superstar Billy Graham

It has long been said that "Superstar" Billy Graham was far ahead of his time. He was also far ahead of the curve when it comes to where he trained. The legendary character wrestler worked in The Dungeon directly with Stu before embarking on his professional wrestling career.

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It certainly helped as after The Dungeon, Graham went on to the second toughest territory to work and train in at that time – Verne Gagne and the AWA.

8 Bad News Brown

There are many Canadian performers who still refer to Bad News Brown by his old working name, Bad News Allen. The former Judo Olympian first trained under Antonio Inoki and worked for New Japan before finding a spot in Stampede Wrestling during the early eighties.

In the territory, Bad News met and worked with several stars he’d eventually deal with at WWE, most notably, Bret Hart.

7 Jushin Thunder Liger

Hall Of Famer-elect Jushin Thunder Liger has worked in nearly every major Wrestling promotion across seven continents throughout his legendary career. WCW, WWE, CMLL, New Japan – if there was a wrestling show somewhere in the past 35 years, Liger might have been a part of it.

But after being told he was too small for the New Japan dojo, Liger toured the world before being finally accepted. He also took a learning excursion to The Dungeon and Stampede. Here he learned Hart-Canadian style but also worked matches against the likes of Owen Hart.

6 Tom Magee

Last year, the WWE unearthed footage of a match that had garnered a folk tale worth of stories. This collection was entitled Holy Grail: The Search For WWE’s Most Infamous Lost Match.

The story showcases a young Bret Hart working a big-time carry match against a young and up-and-comer Tom Magee, who happened to also be a Dungeon trainee. Even during the height of Hulkamania, Vince was eying an eventual replacement for a new major hero. While the Chairman had thought it might be Magee, the match was also one of the first instances where Bret Hart showed that he was actually the replacement.

5 Steve Blackman

In the late nineties, The Lethal Weapon Steve Blackman debuted and became involved in the storyline involving Owen Hart and other shooters like Ken Shamrock and Dan Severn. It wasn’t the first time that Blackman had encountered the Hart Family.

Related: 10 Of The Worst Things The Hart Foundation Ever Did (In Wrestling)

Blackman actually got his start about a decade before in Stampede and was on his way to having a big career and had a WWE contract in the late eighties as well. But Blackman, unfortunately, contracted malaria and dysentery while on tour and was bedridden for two years and spend several more in physical therapy to get back to the ring.

4 Justin Credible

As an outlier member of the Kliq, it seems almost sacrilegious that Justin Credible would train in The Dungeon. Credible headed up to Canada to learn under the Hart Brothers in 1992.

Much like guys like Chris Jericho, Credible was part of a training class that actually seldom included Hart family trainers. Instead, the future ECW world champion was taught by his future partner in the Impact Players, Lance Storm, who also embodied the spirit of Canadian-Hart style.

3 Abdullah The Butcher

In his 60-year career, the Madman from the Sudan, Abdullah The Butcher became world-renowned for a violent and bloody hardcore style.

The WWE Hall Of Famer had worked in several territories before landing in Stampede for several years during the seventies. During this time, he was able to garner attention as a heel and win the NWA Canadian Championship.

2 Fritz Von Erich

For anyone not familiar with how long the Hart family has been training wrestlers, submitted for your approval, Fritz Von Erich. As the patriarch of his own wrestling family, Fritz was taught by Stu and worked for Hart’s Klondike Wrestling (the precursor to Stampede). It was also Stu who gave Fritz his name, pairing him up with Waldo Von Erich as evil German wrestlers.

Related: 10 WWE Wrestlers Bret Hart Has The Most Heat With

As one of Stu’s oldest students, the Hart Legacy transcends his own family and extended to the Von Erichs as well – perhaps a feud in MLW can be built on this between the Hart Foundations and The Von Erich brothers.

1 Mark Henry

Initially signed to a massive ten-year contract in 1996, Mark Henry first was taught by Tom Prichard and another Canadian legend, Leo Burke. But after his initial feud with Jerry Lawler, a couple of injuries happened and it was clear that the strongman needed some more seasoning.

Henry headed to Calgary to learn under Bret while he was recovering from an injury himself. It took him a few more years to get to the top, but Henry is proof positive that graduating from The Dungeon usually helps a wrestler rise to the top.

Next: 10 Facts And Backstage Stories About Bret Hart That We Can’t Believe