Foley may have inspired him to go for it, but as a kid his childhood heroes were the extended Hart family: specifically, Davey Boy Smith, the British Bulldog, and Bret The Hitman Hart. Bennett had a poster of the Bulldog on his wall as a child, and idolised the man. He was from Wigan, only twenty-odd miles from where Bennett was born in Preston, and had made it to the big leagues despite his provincial upbringing. To young Stu, the jacked man in the Union Jack tights that spoke in his own accent was a real hero. Hart, on the other hand, was The Excellence Of Execution. Its difficult to overstate exactly how over Bret Hart was in the mid-nineties WWF. He may love to tell stories about how much of a star he was, and a hero to children, but hes not wrong for the most part. Bennetts first memory of anything wrestling related was being given a Bret Hart sticker by a friend at nine years old. Since then, the Hitman has been one of his all time favourite wrestlers. He names Hart as the exception to the rule that you should never meet your heroes, as theyll always disappoint you: he was even better as a person and as a mentor than he ever dreamed hed be. Hes remained a Hart fanboy to this day, and has become good friends with Davey Boy Smiths family as a consequence: the closest hed get to Smith himself, who died a couple of years before Bennett entered the business.
Professional writer, punk werewolf and nesting place for starfish. Obsessed with squid, spirals and story. I publish short weird fiction online at desincarne.com, and tweet nonsense under the name Jack The Bodiless. You can follow me all you like, just don't touch my stuff.