Bret Hart (born July 2, 1957) is a Canadian writer, actor, and retired professional wrestler, currently signed with WWE under a Legends contract. A member of the Hart wrestling family, Hart has an amateur wrestling background, wrestling at Ernest Manning High School and Mount Royal College. Along with his "Hitman" nickname, Hart was known by the monikers "The Excellence of Execution", "The Best There Is, The Best There Was and The Best There Ever Will Be" and "The Pink and Black Attack".
Hart joined his father Stu Hart's promotion Stampede Wrestling in 1976, made his in-ring debut in 1978. He gained popularity and championship success throughout the 1980s and 1990s in the World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now WWE), where he helmed The Hart Foundation faction. He left for World Championship Wrestling (WCW) following the controversial "Montreal Screwjob" in November 1997, where he remained until October 2000, achieving much success despite his creative handling being widely criticized. Having been inactive from in-ring competition since January 2000, owing to a December 1999 concussion, he officially retired in October 2000, shortly after his departure from the company. In a publication that year, WCW described Hart as "universally respected by other wrestlers", and "perhaps the greatest pure wrestler ever to lace up a pair of boots."
He returned to sporadic in-ring competition in 2004 and 2006, and in 2010 with WWE, where he won his final championship, headlined that year's SummerSlam event, and served as the General Manager of Raw. He makes occasional appearances for WWE, who has described him as "arguably the greatest technical wrestler in WWE history." The promotion has also described Hart as one of the biggest names in the history of the business, and perhaps the most popular in the world by the mid-1990s. He headlined WrestleManias IX, X and XII, and participated in the headlining matches of the 1997 and 1999 editions of WCW Starrcade - as a special enforcer in the former.
Hart has held championships in five decades from the 1970s to the 2010s, with a total of 32 held throughout his career, and 17 held between the WWF/WWE and WCW. He is a seven-time world champion, having held the WWF Championship five times and the WCW World Heavyweight Championship twice. He spent more time as WWF Champion than any other wrestler during the 1990s, with a total of 654 days as champion, and was the first WCW World Heavyweight Champion born outside the United States. He is also a record-tying five-time WCW/WWE United States Champion, with his four WCW reigns being the most in the history of the organization; and the second WWF Triple Crown Champion and fifth (with Goldberg) WCW Triple Crown Champion.
Hart was the first man to win both the WWF and WCW Triple Crown Championships. He is also the 1994 Royal Rumble winner (with Lex Luger), and the only two-time King of the Ring in WWE history, having won the 1991 tournament and the first King of the Ring pay-per-view in 1993. Hart was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2006 by Stone Cold Steve Austin.