What is Bret Hart's Net Worth?
Bret Hart is a retired professional wrestler who has a net worth of $7 million. Bret Hart comes from the famous Hart wrestling family whose career lasted from 1976 to 2011. Considered one of the greatest professional wrestlers of all time, he held a total of 32 championships across five decades, including five WWF Championships and two WCW World Heavyweight Championships. Since his retirement, Hart has spent much of his time focused on charitable endeavors related to cancer and stroke recovery.
Early Life and Education
Bret Hart was born on July 2, 1957 in Calgary, Alberta, Canada as the eighth of twelve children of professional wrestler Stu Hart and his wife Helen. He is of Greek and Irish descent. All seven of Hart's brothers – Smith, Bruce, Keith, Wayne, Dean, Ross, and Owen – also went on to become professional wrestlers. He was introduced to wrestling himself when he witnessed his father training various wrestlers in the Hart Dungeon, the gym located in the basement of their mansion. When he was four years old, Hart pulled lucky numbers from a metal box during intermissions at his father's Stampede Wrestling shows. At a slightly older age, he sold programs to the shows.
As a teenager, Hart went to Ernest Manning High School, where he was a star amateur wrestler. He won multiple championships in tournaments throughout Alberta, including the 1974 city championships in Calgary. Hart continued wrestling at Mount Royal College, where he was collegiate champion in 1977. However, he soon lost his passion for wrestling amid various injuries and his fluctuating weight. Hart's academic grades also declined. Ultimately, he decided to pursue professional wrestling and began training with his father's Stampede Wrestling promotion. He got his start with the promotion as a referee before making his in-ring debut in 1978.
(Photo by Isaiah Trickey/FilmMagic)
World Wrestling Federation, 1980s and 90s
In 1985, Hart joined his brother-in-law Jim Neidhart to form the villainous tag team known as the Hart Foundation. Originally managed by Jimmy Hart, the team twice won the WWF Tag Team Championship. Hart won numerous other championships during his original tenure in the WWF, including two Intercontinental Championships (1991 and 1992) and five WWF Championships between 1992 and 1997.
Toward the end of his first WWF tenure, he had a major in-ring feud with Stone Cold Steve Austin and a real-life rivalry with WWF owner Vince McMahon. The latter beef culminated in the infamous "Montreal Screwjob" incident in late 1997 during a match between Hart and Shawn Michaels, when McMahon and certain WWF employees secretly manipulated the outcome of the match in favor of Michaels. Unaware of the change, Hart lost his championship title in an unscripted screwjob. He subsequently left the WWF.
World Championship Wrestling
After leaving the WWF in the wake of the "Montreal Screwjob" in late 1997, Hart joined World Championship Wrestling, where he remained for three years. During his time in WCW, he won four WCW United States Heavyweight Championships and two World Heavyweight Championships, as well as a World Tag Team Championship with Goldberg. Following a concussion in late 1999, Hart stepped away from the ring for a while before officially retiring from wrestling in October of 2000.
Final Wrestling Years
After his retirement, Hart made some appearances at independent wrestling events. In late 2009, he came out of retirement and re-signed with WWE. Hart went on to make sporadic in-ring appearances from 2010 to 2011, during which time he headlined the 2010 SummerSlam event and won his final championship. He also served as the general manager of Raw.
Steve Haag/Gallo Images/Getty Images
Other Media Appearances
Beyond his wrestling career, Hart has appeared in some television series and films. From 1994 to 1995, he played the character Luther Root in "Lonesome Dove: The Series." During the latter half of the decade, Hart had guest spots on such shows as "The Adventures of Sinbad," "Big Sound," "MADtv," and "Honey, I Shrunk the Kids: The TV Show." He was also the subject of the 1998 documentary film "Hitman Hart: Wrestling with Shadows" and the 2010 television documentary film "Bret Hart: Survival of the Hitman." In other media, Hart has appeared in a plethora of WWF and WWE video games.
Personal Life
In 1982, Hart married Julie Smadu. Together, they had four children named Jade, Dallas, Alexandra, and Blade. The pair separated in 1998 and divorced in 2002. Hart went on to wed Cinzia Rota in 2004; they divorced in 2007. Three years later, Hart married Stephanie Washington, who is several decades his junior.
Hart has struggled with various health issues since the early 2000s. In 2002, he had a stroke after hitting his head in a bicycle accident. Later, in 2016, Hart announced that he had been diagnosed with prostate cancer. Due to these experiences, he has been involved with charities working on behalf of stroke recovery and cancer awareness.
