4. Stampede Wrestling
A promotion that continues to live in lore, Stampede Wrestling from Calgary was the birthplace of the legendary Hart family, serving as a starting point for the career of several influential wrestlers. Founded by Stu Hart in 1948, Stampede, like many regional promotions was a part of the NWA. However, where many of those promotions were stubborn in giving in to the growing World Wrestling Federation, Stu Hart cashed out, and the WWF was a parent company to Stampede between 1984 to 1985. Just a year after the sale, Stu had a change of heart (no pun intended) and bought back the promotion. The family would continue to run shows until 1989 before closing its doors, only living on via several failed reboots of the show. In the end, Stampede couldn't deal with the gutting of their roster by the WWE, and eventually succumbed to the pressure of regional wrestling dying out. The promotion was covered extensively during a WWE DVD release, titled "Hart & Soul", a documentary about the Hart Family. Stampede is remembered fondly by many wrestlers, and is treated as such on WWE programming when mentioned. Perhaps more famous than Stampede Wrestling itself, was Stu Hart's training area, nicknamed the "Dungeon" which produced countless Stampede and WWE superstars.