Stu Hart's Best Students?

[Brilliance In Supremacy]

Stu Hart's famous "Dungeon" has graduated some of the greatest wrestling talent in history. Technicians, high flyers, power wrestlers, brawlers, and every style in between have been used by his students. In your opinion, who are Stu Hart's top five students? Disregard technical ability and all that...just list who are your favorites and why.

My take:

1) Chris Benoit - Sometimes his matches contain about a dozen legit wrestling moves a minute. He's such an amazing talent and his matches usually have you going, "Holy shit...this guy's good."
2) Chris Jericho - Not only was he phenomenal in the ring (in my opinion, he has wrestling's largest move-set), but he was such a great talent on the mic.
3) Owen Hart - In my opinion, he was a more versatile performer than his legendary brother. He talked better, had a more diverse style, and played his role better. Unfortunately, he was taken from us far too soon.
4) Lance Storm - He's probably the greatest pure athlete to graduate from the dungeon. I mean, the dude at one point almost had a 40" vertical and could catch a ball that he threw the whole length of a football field. Oh yeah, I almost forgot - he's a genius when it comes to technical wrestling
5) Bret Hart - Bret Hart is a great wrestler and his legacy is one to respect. However, he's a little overrated. Nonetheless, he's arguably Stu Hart's most legendary graduate

Honorable mention: Christian (Great worker and great mic work), Edge (ditto), Roddy Piper (quite a legend), Brian Pillman (RIP), Davey Boy Smith (RIP), Kensuke Sasaki (a legend in Japan), Jushin Liger (invented so many popular moves)

 

[Y 2 Jake]

I'll go for Tom Billington A.K.A. The Dynamite Kid. For one he's an absolute legend in Japan also Chris Benoit would'nt be half the wrestler if it was'nt for him. The majority of Benoit's move's are what Dynamite used to do in the mid 80's. He was good in the British Bulldog's but if you want to see some real quality wrestling get hold of his matches with Tiger Mask from 1984-85.

 

[Brilliance In Supremacy]

I forgot about the Dynamite Kid. He just slipped my mind. I'm well aware that he is Benoit's idol; hence Benoit's earlier identity as "Pegasus Kid". Though I haven't seen much of the Dynamite Kid, I'd like to.

 

[Y 2 Jake]

I cant recommend his matche's enough. There quite hard to get hold of but there worth it. If you have the patience to sit through 60 minute matche's you wont find any better.

I also think Lance Storm is probably the most underated of Stu Hart's former pupil's. He was never given a proper oppertunity in WWE and he was labeled as boring, despite being anything but. I would love to see him frequently in R.O.H. or in T.N.A. But I think he's happy to just work occasional dates.

 

[satan's onion]

was anyone else shocked to learn that mark henry is a product of the dungeon?

 

[Catlmutln187]

Yeah, Mark Henry and Test both are actualley products of the dungeon, its pretty ridicolous. So is Jack Evans, But the best, by far is Owen Hart. Owen Beats Bret by far on the mic, in the ring and just overall. I think if he were still around today, he would not have been such a bitch (sorry Bret) like his brother and still be wrestling.

 

[Kasey]

I cant recommend his matche's enough. There quite hard to get hold of but there worth it. If you have the patience to sit through 60 minute matche's you wont find any better.

I also think Lance Storm is probably the most underated of Stu Hart's former pupil's. He was never given a proper oppertunity in WWE and he was labeled as boring, despite being anything but. I would love to see him frequently in R.O.H. or in T.N.A. But I think he's happy to just work occasional dates.

Co-sign. Dynamite was the man, and it's beyond apparent that Benoit patterns his whole style as a carbon copy of what Dynamite was doing back in the early 1980's. Bret Hart was even quoted as saying he was the best of all time, and Bret was on the money. The Tiger Mask encounters wouldn't be bested or even equalled in terms of high-flying maneuvers and raw speed/power/creativity/psychology until well into the 1990's. This is why I like it anytime Benoit fights Misterio Jr. It's like jumping in a time machine and watching what went down between Tiger Mask & Dynamite around the time I was still in diapers. Man, those guys could pace a match and whip a usually timid Japanese crowd into a complete and utter frenzy. I still like watching the T.M./Billington match from MSG in '82 at least once weekly. That match scared the hell out of the American wrestling audience because they'd never seen anything remotely like that...ever, and those matches are so good they'd hold up against ANYTHING released by any promotion today, whether it be WWE, TNA, or ROH.

I also agree that Lance was very underrated in terms of what he could do. ECW was really the only company that I ever saw that knew what the hell to do with him and near the end of his run there he had some classic matches with RVD and Jerry Lynn that I still enjoy watching to this very day. I feel that WCW and WWF/E didn't know what the hell to do with the guy and just threw him in some angles to appease the marks that didn't actually appreciate solid talent. The guy could sell, had loads of offense, was nimble and agile, and could wrestle deep into matches without dropping the pace if he had a worthy opponent to help him out, and he always made his opponent look good and had a good track record for keeping people safe. Tommy Rogers once wrestled him in ECW at a point when Tommy had a pretty serious injury, but when Heyman told him that he'd be working with Storm, he immediately said "okay." That kind of trust and respect is something you can't buy, but have to earn...and Storm did that well.