Inlewd Book Review

Under The Mat: Inside Wrestling's Greatest Family

The book starts off on the wrong foot, with a very un-Stu Hart forward, which has been said by Bret and many others to be not in Stu's words. In the first paragraph she says her husband, former WWF and WCW wrestler Davey Boy Smith drugged and raped her, a theme that she carried throughout the book. From there she wanders aimlessly, discussing topics at random, with seemingly little rhyme or reason.

I live in Atlantic Canada, in the Maritime province of New Brunswick. The local Indy federation was and still is Atlantic Gran Prix wrestling. Gran Prix is run by former wrestler Emile Dupre and the Cormier family. Gran Prix ran shows all summer. Out West, centered in Calgary, Alberta, was Stu Hart's Stampede Wrestling, which ran shows all winter. Dupre and Stu had a very successful relationship, which the Gran Prix wrestlers worked Stampede in the winter and Stampede wrestlers worked Gran Prix in the summer. Also, tapes of matches transferred back and forth, so we regularly seen matches from the Pavilion in Calgary here in Atlantic Canada, with the always entertaining Ed Whalen and fans in Calgary got to see matches from the old ATV studio in Moncton of Gran Prix, with the far less entertaining Bill McCulloh. Thus, the Hart family and Stampede Wrestling is something that is very dear to the hearts of Atlantic Canadians, me included.

In my years as a wrestling fan, some of my all time heroes in wrestling were people who were strongly affiliated with Stampede and the Harts. To me the finest tag team I have ever seen were the British Bulldogs. Owen and Bret Hart were two of the finest wrestlers to have ever wrestled, plus in the last few years I have seen Dynamite Kid's revolutionary matches with Tiger Mask from Japan. Stampede and the Hart's produced so many of the top stars in wrestling, it is scary. I could name you dozens of wrestlers that were trained in Calgary, many of the top names in the sport. Not to mention all of the people who traveled through the old territory.

The proceeding two paragraphs brings me to what this article is about, a review of the book "Under The Mat: Inside Wrestling's Greatest Family", a tell all book by Stu Hart's daughter Diana Hart, with Calgary Herald writer Kirstie McLellan. This is a shocking, disturbing and maddening book. Hart pulls no punches, she mean mouthed everyone, talking about her mother's drinking problem, her father's financial matters and family problems, including her husbands drug problems, her sisters and brothers in laws various problems and last, but not least, her very public disagreements with her brother Bret.

The book starts off on the wrong foot, with a very un-Stu Hart forward, which has been said by Bret and many others to be not in Stu's words. In the first paragraph she says her husband, former WWF and WCW wrestler Davey Boy Smith drugged and raped her, a theme that she carried throughout the book. >From there she wanders aimlessly, discussing topics at random, with seemingly little rhyme or reason. There is little transition from sentence to sentence, let alone chapter to chapter. There are maddening chapters where she gets well known facts mixed up, names spelled wrong and years mixed up. Not to mention chapters where she deliberately mean mouthed family members and their spouses. There are shocking chapters where she describes the abuse she and her sisters endured. Then there are many sad chapters, when you realize that Diana is a person who had a tough life and made some very bad decisions.

I am very disappointed in her views on many of the wrestling world's most beloved people. She has disparaging comments on people like Stampede announcer Ed Whalen. She has equally bad words about Dynamite Kid, talking about his current state, which to my knowledge is false and her comments about her brother Owen's wife Martha and Martha's family is very shocking and disturbing. Also, she has very mean words about her brother Bruce's wife Andrea. Co-incidentally, after Diana filed divorce proceedings against Davey, Davey took up with Andrea. She discusses her post Davey relationship with another wrestler, James Trimble, who is 13 years her junior, when she was actually still married to Davey. She never addresses properly why her supposed drug addict husband had custody of their children Harry and Georgia, after she filed divorce proceedings.

So, this is the point in the review where I should encourage or dissuade the reader to read the book. I am at a loss really. I really didn't like the book, I found it untruthful, inaccurate and actually poorly written. However, in the end I could not help but feel sorry for Diana, yet I question her motives with her lack of disparaging words about Vince McMahon, Hulk Hogan or any of the other well known power figures within wrestling. I wonder if she is not looking for a way to get a job in the WWF for herself or her son Harry, who is trying to get a wrestling career going, or if she was being truthful in as that it is her true opinion on McMahon and Hogan. So, did I like the book??? No, I didn't. Would I suggest to wrestling fan to read it??? Probably not, it is a very negative look at professional wrestling and a very negative look at one of wrestling's top families. Only time will tell if Diana is an abused wife and mother who came from a troubled family, who should be respected and revered for turning her life around, or is she a mean, bitter, spiteful woman who wants to take revenge on her family and soon to be ex-husband.

That may have to be a decision you make for yourself.

"Under The Mat: Inside Wrestling's Greatest Family" is published by Fenn Publishing Company in Bolton, Ontario. It is currently out of print due to a lawsuit filed by Martha Hart.

Troy Hotton, WrestlingBytes.com