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Revisiting the Dungeon's horrors
By
JASON CLEVETT -- SLAM! Wrestling
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CALGARY -- It was August of 1969 when former Stampede Wrestling star Dan
Kroffat went up to the Dungeon for the first time. Stampede
Wrestling started their TV tapings in September, and Stu, then 54,
started his training camp in early August to prepare those who survived
for the show. And it truly was a case of survival.
"There were 14 of us. I was 23 and considered myself in good shape. I
had heard the stories of the Dungeon so although I was reluctant, I
wanted to wrestle so bad my tolerance level was beyond my common sense
level, because if I had known what I was about to see in the next four
weeks I wouldn't have traveled from Vancouver," Kroffat remembered as if
it was yesterday.
"After a couple of nights, Stu made all of us stand off to the side of
the mat and takes one of the guys by the wrist to the middle of the mat.
The next 10-12 minutes was like watching The Exorcist. The guys
head turned completely around, he was looking at parts of his body he
probably didn't know he had, his face changed colors. Stu was like a cat
playing with a mouse. I watched this horrified, thinking 'thank God it
is not me.' After about 12 minutes, this sweet voice, like an angel from
the top of the stairs 'Stu, you are wanted on the phone.'"
That voice belonged to a woman he hadn't met yet, but grew to love and
respect: Stu's wife Helen.
"Stu unwound the guy like a rope and went upstairs. All of a sudden the
guy in the middle of the floor bolted for the door, grabbed his clothes,
and ran out of the house, and we never saw him again."
This scene quickly became familiar to Kroffat.
"This happened about every three days, and each time Helen called for
Stu after 10 minutes. Each guy that got stretched didn't come back.
After two weeks and six guys, I became aware of the fact that Helen
could hear the guys screaming from upstairs, and couldn't stand it
anymore. So Stu would realize that was when to call it quits. I thought
if I could hold out for 10 minutes, until I heard that angelic voice, I
would be okay. But I decided I couldn't take it. Fortunately, I never
did."
As more and more tough men, football players and smart-alecks lost their
will to wrestle (and sometimes their will to live) to the meaty paws of
the master, Kroffat debated internally what he would do if Stu ever
grabbed him, fearing he couldn't take the torture. He never had to.
"After four weeks, I decided this was the meanest bully I have ever met
in my life. At the end of it was myself and Gilles Poisson ... were told
we were going to start with the promotion and I knew I would never have
to go back to the Dungeon again."
Stu Hart used stretching as a test in his youth. The smart ones managed
to avoid Stu's grasp.
"The Dungeon in Stu's house was famous. He tried to lure me in but I
wouldn't take the bait," said former NWA World champ Jack
Brisco.
'Hellraiser' Jason
Helton has many stories about his time training in the Dungeon and
many will be included in his planned autobiography. He shared his
thoughts with SLAM!
"Stu never broke anyone down emotionally, he broke them down physically.
In Paul Jay's documentary Wrestling
With Shadows they showed Stu stretching Carl
Leduc. In the film they only showed 10 seconds' worth. Stu would
stretch you for 10, 15, 30, or 45 minutes. How ever long he felt like
stretching you. The more you screamed the more he stretched you out."
It was a sign of respect if he didn't stretch you, because he saw
something in you. He used stretching to weed out the loudmouths, the
cocky, and those who thought wrestling was fake. The Great
Gama said he was "lucky" to have never been on the Dungeon mat with
Hart.
"Stu used it as a test for people he didn't think could handle it. I was
an amateur wrestling champion, and he respected that, that may have been
part of why he never taught me a lesson."
"He never stretched me once. I asked him half a dozen times why it is I
survived that camp. He never told me. He always commended me on being a
unique wrestler, and that he knew I had the potential to go far. Other
then that I have no answer as to why," said Kroffat
Bad News
Allen also had similar respect from Stu. Allen broke into the
business in Japan and was a judo expert, so Stu never seemed to need to
get him on the mat. That didn't mean he was safe.
"I had just worked a tag match with the Bulldogs, and the ropes broke
and I had to get 20 stitches. I was heading back to Japan and went to up
to the house to get my cheque. He said 'Hey big guy you had an
accident.' He started telling me about this Russian he worked with years
ago. I turned away for a minute and he hauls off and hits me with an
elbow, sending me ass over tea kettle out of the chair," Allen laughed
as he recounted the rest of the story. "I sat back in the chair and I
could see that he wanted to give me another one. I moved my chair, and
he moved over close to me again. We went halfway around that big dining
room table before I finally bolted out of there."
You definitely didn't have to be in the Dungeon to be grabbed by Stu.
Backstage at WWE shows, he could be seen demonstrating headlocks or
moves on wrestlers, or you could be talking in his kitchen and he would
suddenly get his hands on you, as he did up-and-comer Randy Myers.
"One time I was just standing in the kitchen and he grabbed my arm and
started twisting it. He started yelling at me telling me how to reverse
it on him and I tried doing what he said and of course he didn't let me
reverse it, he just held on tighter," said Myers.
As Stu became older it was considered a compliment if he stretched you,
because although you were in pain, he didn't take it quite to the levels
he did in his younger years.
Duke Durrango considered it an honor to have been stretched by Stu and
fondly recalls when he and fellow amateur wrestler Greg Pawluk were in
Stu's clutches for the first time.
"Greg Pawluk and I had just met him in the kitchen. Within half an hour,
he got us down to the Dungeon and simultaneously nearly dislocated my
shoulders; just as they were about to pop out he let me go. After me he
got hold of Pawluk and put him in some kind of armbar that I have never
seen him do again. Then Stu stuck his chin in Greg's eye."
Ah, the chin. One of the constant topics that came up among nearly every
wrestler was Stu's habit of grinding his chin into your eye. Stu always
kept a little bit of stubble on it; 80-year-old stubble is the
equivalent of having a wire brush jammed in there. Stampede star
Apocalypse laughs when he recalls Stu getting his hands on another poor
sucker.
"Mauro Ranallo, who did commentary for Stampede's syndicated TV show
when it aired in 2000, got stretched one day. Stu ground his stubble
into his eyes and when Mauro stood up, he looked like a raccoon. It was
pretty funny."
Johnny
Devine was a stubbling victim many times, and shared some other
tidbits about Stu.
"Stu's nose had no cartilage, so you could pull it over to his ear and
he wouldn't feel it. It was ineffective to grab his nose. You couldn't
do anything to that guy. There was absolutely no way to avoid the pain
of being stretched. You may have thought you could do it, and then he
would find a new way to twist you. He probably knew more ways to cheat
then I knew to legally maneuver someone," he laughed, adding, "Every
time I got stretched by him was an honor."
There were other trademarks that Stu had. When a person says Stu
stretched them, fellow alumni ask if they were snared in Stu's favorites
-- the thread-through and the sugarhold. There is a kinship among those
who have been stretched. They are brothers in pain, and have each
other's respect.
"Wrestling in the Dungeon, you really learn to face your physical
limitations and mental boundaries and overcome them. You have to fight
through pain and fatigue everyday," said Helton.
Stu had the ability to sense what your limits were physically, and take
you to them but never past them. Many a tough guy would cry and think
"He's going to seriously hurt or maybe even kill me" as their bodies
contorted. Stu always released them before that would happen. WWE
superstar Chris
Benoit commented on this in his tribute on wwe.com.
"I feel Stu enjoyed putting me in different holds, listening to me moan
and watching me suffer. I think I caught the tail end of Stu's good
years doing all that. It hurt, but he never hurt me. He made you feel
the pain, but he'd never break my arm or dislocate something," Benoit
wrote.
"The impressive thing about him was that he could take your body to the
point that he knew he could injure you, and just when you thought it was
going to he let you go. He would push you to see how much you could
take. If you could take a lot, you got less, because the guys who really
moaned got it worse," Durrango recalled. He has seen Stu stretch
hundreds of guys and remembers one wrestler who was really overdramatic.
"The guy was really screaming, and Stu wasn't impressed. He said 'Stu,
Stu my neck cracked.' Stu snickered and said "Don't worry, it'll crack a
couple more.'"
Even those that Stu never got his hands on have their own tales to tell.
"Turtleboy" Jason Carter saw the drastic contrast of Stu's toughness and
frailty during one session.
"I remember watching him stretch Tiger Khan. It was amazing because
Tiger was screaming for Stu to let him go because he was in so much
pain, and Tiger is a pretty tough guy. But after he was done, Stu had to
have Bruce help him stand up. He still had all that strength and power,
it was just his joints that were bothering him."
Stu got a thrill out of getting his hands on big men. Apocalypse recalls
him getting a giant on the mat in front of a crowded Dungeon.
"Bruce [Hart] offered one of us to Stu, and at the time there were a lot
of bigger guys down there, but this guy was one of the smaller ones. Stu
looked at him and said 'What's the point of stretching a guy like this,
that doesn't show anything.' Then he looked over at 7-foot-tall Cyborg
and said 'but a guy like this now that is something else.' So Cyborg
went on the mat and Stu turned his face red and tied him up. It was
funny because Cyborg was being so respectful. Stu would say 'When I do
this the pressure to his head forces his eyeballs to nearly pop out.'
And Cyborg was saying 'Yes, Mr. Hart' while trying not to scream in
pain"
"He had a mesmerizing way of getting guys on the mat. He would seduce
you into getting down there and all of a sudden you were screaming for
your life," said Kroffat.
It means something in wrestling to come out of Hart House. To Durrango,
it means you have trained to be one of the best.
"If a guy I don't know says he trained in the Dungeon, I expect a lot
from them. Even if they don't go far or aren't very good, I still expect
them to be better than the average worker."
It is all part of the reason why those who come out of the Dungeon have
so much respect. Whether they have wrestled around the world, just
locally, or never made an impact, a Dungeon grad, especially one who
survived Stu, had a kinship with his fellow men and women whose screams
echoed off the wood panel walls of the legendary room in the Hart
basement.
-- with files from Greg Oliver & Mike Altamura
Jason Clevett has also been in the Dungeon, and is glad that Stu was 81 when he was stretched by him, and not 54. Ringside Manner has an audio tribute to Stu Hart at their website, http://ringsidemanner.tripod.com/ Jason Clevett considers it an honor to have the opportunity to pay tribute to Stu Hart through his articles in the past two weeks. Ringside Manner Radio has a series of interviews with past and present stars in a special Tribute on their website, http://ringsidemanner.tripod.com/
