Hart acquired the former army hospital mansion in 1951 and transformed its basement into his personal training centre shortly thereafter. This was done because Hart needed a training facility after the founding of his first wrestling promotion in 1948. Although, the nickname itself developed over time when
Stampede Wrestling became world famous. Aside from
professional wrestlers, the Dungeon provided training grounds for various athletes from
strongmen to
football players. The majority of Hart's sons trained in the Dungeon and went on to become involved in the wrestling world including
Bret and
Owen Hart. Other famous Dungeon graduates include
Billy Graham,
Greg Valentine,
Bad News Brown,
Davey Boy Smith,
Brian Pillman,
Jushin Thunder Liger,
Ricky Fuji,
Chris Jericho,
Lance Storm,
Chris Benoit,
Justin Credible,
Edge,
Christian and
Mark Henry. As a teenager,
Rhonda Sing approached members of the
Hart wrestling family and asked to be trained, but she was rejected as they did not train women wrestlers at the time. One of the first televised acknowledgements of the nickname "Dungeon" was by then
WWF color commentator Jesse Ventura. Its first significant exposure was in the
documentary Hitman Hart: Wrestling with Shadows. In it, the Dungeon was moderately filmed for the first time and Stu Hart is shown demonstrating
wrestling holds on a pupil. Bret also discusses being trained by his father and having submission holds applied to himself, often with graphic descriptions from his father of the holds' impact. A bonus feature on
Bret's DVD set also shows him discussing the Dungeon. Various activities took place in the Dungeon, ranging from
weight lifting to
Catch wrestling. Bret Hart has described the Dungeon in interviews as having holes in the walls and ceiling from bodies being driven into them. He also noted that practices could, at times, be as intense as
MMA styled fighting. In July 1998, the WWF filmed a match between Owen Hart and
Ken Shamrock in the Dungeon for the
Fully Loaded pay-per-view. ==Reputation==