Excellence celebrated: Canada's Walk of Fame honours Bret "Hitman" Hart

Dorian Reeves/Courtesy Canadian Walk of Fame

Canadian wrestling legend and Calgary icon Bret “Hitman” Hart was honoured by the Canadian Walk of Fame with a hometown celebration.

The celebration, fittingly, took place at the Victoria Pavilion where Hart and the rest of his clan put on shows with Stampede Wrestling for over 30 years.

Hart is considered one of the greatest professional wrestlers of all time, earning the nickname “The Excellence of Execution.” He performed around the world with the then-World Wrestling Federation (now WWE) from 1984 to 1997 and with World Championship Wrestling from ’97 to 2000.

Bret “The Hitman” Hart (Bret Hart/Facebook)

A fan favourite around the world, Hart won the WWF Championship five times and is a two-time WCW world heavyweight champion.

One of the highlights of Hart’s run was in Calgary at the Saddledome during the 1997 Stampede when he and his team, The Hart Foundation — with his brother Owen, brothers-in-law Jim Neidhart and the British Bulldog Davey Boy Smith, and family friend Brian Pillman — took on rivals Stone Cold Steve Austin, Goldust, Ken Shamrock and the Legion of Doom. The atmosphere was so electric fans still talk about it to this day. And it had a happy ending with the entire Hart family celebrating in the ring afterward.

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Hart has been honoured by the WWE Hall of Fame twice. He was inducted individually in 2006 and then again in 2019 as part of the legendary Hart Foundation with Jim “The Anvil” Neidhart.

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Hart’s post-wrestling focus has been on men’s health. He is a strong advocate for prostate cancer screenings after his own battle with the disease in 2016. He credits early detection as the reason he was able to beat it.

As part of their induction to Canada’s Walk of Fame, each Inductee receives a $10,000 donation to the charity or cause of their choice. Hart picked Siksika Nation’s SN7 youth program, a Siksika Health Services initiative, as well as Water First as the beneficiaries, each receiving $5000 of this donation.