Hart Legacy Wrestling (HLW) is a

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

professional wrestling promotion operated by some members of the

Hart wrestling family The Hart wrestling family, sometimes known as the Hart dynasty, is a mainly Canadian family with a significant history within professional wrestling. The patriarch of the family was wrestling legend Stu Hart (1915–2003). An amateur and professi ...

, it was founded mainly by

Teddy Hart Edward Ellsworth Annis (born February 2, 1980) is a Canadian-American professional wrestler, better known by his ring name Teddy Hart. He currently wrestles on the independent circuit. He wrestled on a National scale for Major League Wrestling ...

and his associates.

Smith Hart Smith Stewart Hart (November 28, 1948 – July 2, 2017) was an American-Canadian professional wrestler and a member of the Hart wrestling family. His parents were Stu and Helen Hart. Smith was the first of their twelve children, being one of thei ...

was also involved with the promotion prior to his death on July 2, 2017. His long-time partner Stacey Angel is the current owner of the promotion.

Bret Hart Bret Hart (born July 2, 1957) is a Canadian-American retired professional wrestler, currently signed to WWE under a legend's contract. A member of the Hart wrestling family and a second-generation wrestler, he has an amateur wrestling back ...

has no involvement in HLW.

History

Shows

The promotion was announced in 2012, founded and had their first show in the Victoria Pavilion in 2013. In 2013 HLW held a show at the Stampede Pavilion named "Resurrection". The event starred wrestlers such as,

Konnan Charles Ashenoff (born Carlos Santiago Espada Moises; January 6, 1964),''Wrestling Observer Newsletter'', Dave Meltzer, ed., May 10, 2010, issue.Sims, Steve"Pro Wrestling Hall of Fame/Founded by Dave Meltzer - Konnan". Accessed August 1, 2016. O ...

Chris Masters Christopher Todd Mordetzky (born January 8, 1983) is an American professional wrestler, currently signed to National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) under the ring name Chris Adonis as a member of Strictly Business. He is a former two-time National Ch ...

Bobby Lashley Franklin Roberto Lashley (born July 16, 1976) is an American professional wrestler, mixed martial artist and bodybuilder. He is currently signed to WWE, where he performs on the Raw brand. He is an eight-time world champion, having been a two-t ...

Trent Barreta Gregory "Greg" Marasciulo (born March 30, 1987), better known by the ring name Trent Beretta or Trent?, is an American professional wrestler signed to All Elite Wrestling (AEW). He is also known for his time with New Japan Pro-Wrestling and Ring ...

, Samuray del Sol, The Super Smash Brothers,

Cody Hall Cody Taylor Hall (born May 31, 1991) is an American professional wrestler. He is best known for working for New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW), where he was a member of the Bullet Club stable. Hall is a second generation wrestler, as the son of t ...

as well as

IWGP Tag Team Champions The is a professional wrestling world tag team championship owned by the New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) promotion. "IWGP" is the acronym of the NJPW's governing body, the . The title was introduced on December 12, 1985 at an NJPW live event. The ...

Davey Boy Smith Jr. (David Hart Smith) and

Lance Archer Lance Hoyt (born February 28, 1977) is an American professional wrestler, currently signed to All Elite Wrestling (AEW) under the ring name Lance Archer. He also makes sporadic appearance for New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW). He is also known for ...

. The event had the final Canadian independent appearance of

El Generico Rami Sebei ( ar, رامي سبعي; born July 12, 1984) is a Canadian professional wrestler. He is currently signed to WWE, where he performs on the SmackDown brand under the ring name Sami Zayn, and is a member of The Bloodline. Prior to joi ...

before his signing with

WWE World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc., d/b/a as WWE, is an American professional wrestling promotion. A global integrated media and entertainment company, WWE has also branched out into other fields, including film, American football, and vari ...

. It also featured a 12-man battle royale consisting mostly of local talent. Kevin Nash had to pull out of the event after his wife became ill. During the event wrestler

Pete Wilson Peter Barton Wilson (born August 23, 1933) is an American attorney and politician who served as the 36th governor of California from 1991 to 1999. A member of the Republican Party, he also served as a United States senator from California betw ...

suffered a shoulder injury and was rushed to the ER. Harry Smith and Teddy Hart would have a rematch in 2014, after that Smith returned after performing in Japan. In September 2015 an event was held which featured a match for the NWA World Women's Title between

Santana Garrett Santana Garrett (born May 22, 1988) is an American professional wrestler, valet and model. She is currently signed to WWE, where she works as a coach at the Performance Center. During her career, Garrett has wrestled in many independent promotio ...

and Shojo Machiko which Garrett won. It also featured two matches with Teddy Hart. In December 2015 the promotion held a Hopes & Ropes charity event at the Ranchmans Roadhouse in Calgary. The main event was a match between cousins Teddy Hart and David Hart Smith. The event was put on together with the Aboriginal Friendship Centre of Calgary, the main event between Smith and Hart was for the Stu Hart Heavyweight Championship Belt. The event's goal was to raise money for anti-bullying and self-confidence programs for children. In February 2016 it was announced that the next event would be held on March 6, 2016 and that the main event would once again be Teddy Hart vs David Hart Smith. The event was again held at the Ranchmans Roadhouse. In July 2016 the company held an event called the Stu Hart Memorial Cup. The promotion has events planned for 2020 before the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

Controversies

Payment

The 2013 show, "Resurrection", was followed by many wrestlers claiming that the promotion failed to pay them. A hotel manager in the area has also stated that a large amount of rooms were booked but that the bills were never paid by the promotion.

has claimed that the responsibility lays with the owners and promoters, John Oniston and Stacey "Angel" Olszak, others have maintained that Teddy was the one who was said to be in charge. Hart continued to state that he simply lent his name to the event and featured as a wrestler and did not handle any of the other aspect of the promotion. Wrestler Lance Storm and Jeff Jackson, who served as play by play commentator for the event, have stated that John Oniston who was the promoter for the event had talked to everyone backstage after the show had concluded and ensured them that they would be paid eventually and that they would receive a bonus of 100 C$. In late 2013 Jackson told to

CBC Radio CBC Radio is the English-language radio operations of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. The CBC operates a number of radio networks serving different audiences and programming niches, all of which (regardless of language) are outlined below ...

once again mentioned that Oniston had said to him and the other workers from the event that they would be given their money later on and that they would be compensated for their troubles. He added that Teddy Hart, David Hart Smith and Wayne Hart were the only Hart family members to be involved in the promotion at the time of the event. He also stated that while he had at the time still not been paid, he said that he did not expect for his payment to ever come. Jackson claimed that the pavilion which the event was held at had at least between 1200 and 1800 people in it and that the cheapest tickets were for 25 C$, so there should not have been any problem to pay everyone. Jackson claimed that HLW originally planned another event on February 22 that was supposed to feature former WWE wrestler John Morrison but the event was canceled due to issues. The February show was replaced by a new promotion handled by the same people and the professional wrestling newsletter ''

Figure Four Online Figure may refer to: General *A shape, drawing, depiction, or geometric configuration *Figure (wood), wood appearance *Figure (music), distinguished from musical motif *Noise figure, in telecommunication * Dance figure, an elementary dance patter ...

'' made the following statement: : "The Hart Legacy Wrestling promotion in Calgary with all the issues regarding payment to wrestlers has shut down, but essentially the same group, without John Oniston, is running a new promotion called AAA Canada Next Generation Wrestling on 2/22 at the Victoria Pavilion in Calgary with John Morrison, Kevin Nash, Davey Boy Smith Jr., Konnan, Teddy Hart, Jack Evans and Necro Butcher. A press conference was scheduled for Calgary today and they claim that all talent has already been paid in advance. They plan to run an iPPV that will be taped for the next day. B. J. Annis (the father of Teddy Hart) is behind the new company and Spencer Tapley is the front person for talent and media. Tapley wrote a letter to talent, blaming Oniston for being deceitful and said the only reason they were over budget is because others in charge bought airline tickets at the last minute." The issue was settled by 2015.

David Benoit

In April 2014

announced that David Benoit, the son of controversial wrestler

Chris Benoit Christopher Michael Benoit (; May 21, 1967 – June 24, 2007) was a Canadian professional wrestler. He worked for various pro-wrestling promotions during his 22-year career including most notably the World Wrestling Federation/World Wrestlin ...

was to make his in ring debut for Hart Legacy Wrestling on July 18 in Calgary in a tag team match with

Chavo Guerrero Salvador Guerrero IV (born October 20, 1970) better known by his ring names Chavo Guerrero and Chavo Guerrero Jr., is an American professional wrestler. He has previously worked for World Championship Wrestling (WCW), World Wrestling Federati ...

, a friend of his father Chris. Hart claimed that Benoit had been trained by his nephew

David Hart Smith Harry Francis Smith (born August 2, 1985) is a Canadian professional wrestler, best known under the ring name Davey Boy Smith Jr. and his real name Harry Smith. He currently performs for the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA), where he was on ...

. The match was later canceled in May when another friend of David's father,

Chris Jericho Christopher Keith Irvine (born November 9, 1970), better known by the ring name Chris Jericho, is an American-Canadian professional wrestler and singer. He is currently signed to All Elite Wrestling (AEW), where he is the leader of the Jerich ...

informed Guerrero that David did not have any formal training, prompting Guerrero to pull out of the match. Hart had told different versions to the two men, to Guerrero he had said that David had received training for the match but had also told Jericho that David would not be wrestling, just involved in a storyline. Jericho insisted that David would not be included in the show due to his lack of training and was reportedly upset at the promotion for using David to advertise the show.

Talent

Wrestlers

* Matt Hart *

* Jack Evans *

Brian Cage Brian Christopher Button

* Samuray Del Sol *

* Lance Storm *

Johnny Devine John Parsonage (born April 27, 1974) is a Canadian semi-retired professional wrestler, better known by his ring name "Hot Shot" Johnny Devine. He is best known for his time in Total Nonstop Action Wrestling. Professional wrestling career Early ye ...

* Principal Richard Pound *

Jason the Terrible Karl Moffat (born July 31, 1959), better known by the ring name Jason the Terrible, is a Canadian professional wrestler. He is best known for his appearances with Stampede Wrestling and in Japan. Professional wrestling career In August 1981, M ...

* Heavy Metal *Wavell Starr *

Jim Neidhart James Henry Neidhart (February 8, 1955 – August 13, 2018) was an American professional wrestler known for his appearances in the 1980s and 1990s in the World Wrestling Federation as Jim "The Anvil" Neidhart, where he was a two-time WWF Tag T ...

* Brian Pillman Jr. * Torrin Hart

Other

* Julie Hart, as chief operations officer * Stacey "Angel" (Stacey Olaszak), as CEO * Michelle Billington, ring announcer * Bronwynne Billington, valet * Fay Hart (Fay Annis), valet * Andre Cobreil, general manager * Wayne Hart, referee * Alessandro Gazzera, social media manager * Tim Stein, announcer

Current champions

References

External links

HLW Official Website
{{Professional wrestling in Canada Canadian professional wrestling promotions Hart wrestling family Professional wrestling controversies Professional wrestling in Alberta Organizations based in Calgary