9 Things About Bret Hart's Life Outside Of Wrestling Fans Should Know

Bret Hart is widely regarded as the greatest in-ring performer of his generation, if not all time. It’s almost hard to believe that it was over 20 years ago since his last major match and forced retirement. In those years and even during his in-ring career, Hart has established several other ways to make a buck instead of just relying on what he could do in the ring.

While not as prolific as The Rock or John Cena in amassing a multi-media empire, The Hitman has lent his name to several companies over the years, as well as tried his hand in the movies too.

9 Alcoholic Beverage

Stone Cold Steve Austin has his Broken Skull IPA (naturally!), and The Rock asks his fans to “bring the Mana,” with his Teremana Whiskey. For Bret Hart fans, they all know his heart lies where his roots are in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. The province is also the home of the Romero Distilling Company. The Hitman has become a spokesman for their rum. The announcement was made when the company earned a Guinness World Record for having the world’s largest Cuba Libre cocktail.

8 Clothing Company

Bret Hart Roots Of Fight Clothes Cropped

Just about every wrestler not employed by the WWE has a store on the ProWrestlingTees website.

Bret also has one on TheRootsOfFightwebsite too. You might have actually seen this gear worn by the unofficial trio of FTR and CM Punk - The Sons Of The Hitman. The gear is a little pricey, compared to ProWrestlingTees, but when you want “Excellence,” you have be willing to open up the coffers.

7 Currently Married To Stephanie Washington

The Hitman has been married three times during his life. His first wife and mother of his children is Julie Smadu - you might have recognized her from the Wrestling With Shadows documentary. He fell in love and married Cinzia Rota in the early aughts, but after an argument over where the couple should live, they broke up as well. Hopefully, for The Hitman, the third time’s the charm. He married Stephanie Washington in 2014.

6 Cameo Appearances

Nowadays, thanks to social media, Superstars can interact with their fans like never before. One of the ways Bret Hart meets and greets his fans is through the web service Cameo. If you don’t know, Cameo is a service where fans can pay for a celebrity to send their loved ones all kinds of messages. Surprisingly enough, The Hitman is neck and neck with Mick Foley for the top star in the wrestling category. Foley likes to joke about it on his podcast, Foley Is Pod. He’ll say he’s “the best there is, the best there was, and the best there ever will be…at Cameo.”

5 Has Acted In Several Movies

Bret Hart - Tales From The Dead Zone Cropped

Of course, we all know that as Superstars, a wrestler is all a bit of an actor throughout their career. Plenty of them have caught the Hollywood bug as well - some more successful than others. The Hitman isn’t going to earn nearly the amount of accolades for his acting career as he did his wrestling career, but that doesn’t keep him from getting the occasional gig.

At the height of his wrestling fame, Bret was actually part of the cast of Oliver Stone’s epic, Natural Born Killers; albeit in a deleted scene. Later that same year, he began a stint on the television series Lonesome Dove. The Hitman’s pretty versatile too in his roles. He’s played everything from The Genie in Aladdin to his most recent role as an inspector in the horror film, Tales From The Dead Zone.

4 The Calgary Hitmen

Similar to America and the NFL, when Canadians are born, they're issued a pair of ice skates and a hockey stick…aren’t they? The Hitman, like many Canadian superstars, have literally worn their love of Hockey and Canadian hockey teams on their sleeves. Bret has worn several teams’ jerseys over the years, but none closer to his heart than The Calgary Hitmen. He was initially an owner of the junior hockey team when it was founded in 1994.

3 He Is An Author

Bret Hart has been putting pen to paper his entire life, and even during his in-ring career. For years, he had his own column in the Calgary Sun where he’d write about a variety of topics.

Over the years, he has been asked to provide the forward to several wrestling biographies, including for his cousin, "Rowdy" Roddy Piper. In 2007, he wrote his own book called Hitman, My Real Life In The Cartoon World Of Wrestling.

2 Sharpshooter Funding

Bret Hart - Sharpshooter Funding Cropped

A quick search on their website and you’ll soon see why Sharpshooter Funding in Canada chose to use the namesake of Bret Hart and pair up with the Excellence Of Execution. “There’s an old saying that if you want to know what someone is like, you just need to look at who their friends are.”

The company and Bret Hart are devoted to helping small businesses in The Great White North thrive.

1 Courageous Chief

Over the course of his in-ring career, The Hitman had shown remarkable bravery and (say it like Gorilla Monsoon would) intestinal fortitude. That grit carried over to Bret’s personal life through recovering from concussions, a stroke, and prostate cancer. In 2018, during a Blackfoot ceremony, he received the name Iyiikitapinna, which means Courageous Chief. This was in part to the family as a whole and the tribe’s respect for Stu - as Stampede always had respect for Canada’s indigenous communities. Bret was humble about the honor, "I think it's a great name. It might be too bold a name for me, but it tops 'Hitman' anyway,"