10 Creepy Wrestling Curses

9. The Hart Family Curse

Brutus Beefcake mask
WWE.com

The children of the Hart family were all the direct or indirect victims of tragedy.

The sad reality, based on the extent to which pro wrestling was awful - it still is now, just in different ways - is that, statistically, a family of that size was very likely to encounter it in magnitude.

Owen Hart was tragically and needlessly killed, in 1999, when the WWF opted, despicably, for cheap alternative equipment with which to facilitate a stunt that in no way was necessary to get the character over. His brother Bret was concussed into a multifariously grim retirement throughout which he suffered significant health issues.

The cursed DNA of the British professional wrestler extended the Hart Family and its misery by law through the marriages of Davey Boy Smith and Diana Hart and Dynamite Kid and Michelle Smadu. The British Bulldog died prematurely, while Smadu endured a disturbing cycle of physical and psychological abuse.

The industry the Harts were born into callously ripped them apart.

There's a stark, sobering lesson to be gleaned from the history of the Hart family: professional wrestling, a grim paradox of an industry, is to be taken both very seriously and not at all. It's a silly fiction that can tragically claim young life with a merciless inverse bathos.

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Michael Sidgwick is an editor, writer and podcaster for WhatCulture Wrestling. With over seven years of experience in wrestling analysis, Michael was published in the influential institution that was Power Slam magazine, and specialises in providing insights into All Elite Wrestling - so much so that he wrote a book about the subject. You can order Becoming All Elite: The Rise Of AEW on Amazon. Possessing a deep knowledge also of WWE, WCW, ECW and New Japan Pro Wrestling, Michael’s work has been publicly praised by former AEW World Champions Kenny Omega and MJF, and current Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes. When he isn’t putting your finger on why things are the way they are in the endlessly fascinating world of professional wrestling, Michael wraps his own around a hand grinder to explore the world of specialty coffee. Follow Michael on X (formerly known as Twitter) @MSidgwick for more!