Stampede Wrestling was a Canadian professional wrestling promotion based in Calgary, Alberta, founded by Stu Hart in 1948. For nearly 50 years, it stood as one of the main promotions in western Canada and the Canadian Prairies, regularly running events at Calgary's Victoria Pavilion, Ogden Auditorium, and the Stampede Corral, while competing with promotions such as NWA All-Star Wrestling and Pacific Northwest Wrestling. In 1984, the promotion was bought out by Vince McMahon and briefly operated under the World Wrestling Federation before being sold back to the Hart family in 1985. Bruce Hart ran the promotion until January 1990, and he and Ross Hart later reopened it in 1999.
Stampede Wrestling is particularly notable for its wrestling school, known as "The Dungeon," which produced many of the most popular stars in the WWF and other American promotions during the 1980s and 1990s. The promotion also produced one of the earliest televised professional wrestling programs, considered a forerunner of WWE's Raw and SmackDown, which eventually aired in over 50 countries and remained one of Calgary's most popular sports programs.
Sources used for verification
- Wikipedia