The usage ofanimals in professional wrestling has varied throughthe profession's history. Animals that have been used as opponents to humans in matches include bears, tigers, cheetahs and orangutans.[1][2][3][4]
Bears have long been a part ofprofessional wrestling.[5] Usually declawed and muzzled, they often wrestled shoot matches against audience members, offered a cash reward if they could pin the bear. They also wrestled professionals in worked, often battle royal orhandicap, matches (usually booked so the bear won). Wrestling bears enjoyed their greatest popularity in the Southern United States, during the 1960s and 1970s. The wrestling bearTerrible Ted was used many times forStampede Wrestling and briefly lived atStu Hart's home in Calgary while working for Stampede, where Stu's sonBret Hart and hisother children would sometimes play with him.[6][7]Hercules, another celebrated wrestling bear, appeared with Terrible Ted in Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto. After quitting the sport, Hercules moved to Scotland and took up acting; he appeared in 1983 James Bond movieOctopussy and was named "personality of the year" by the Scottish Tourist Board.[8]
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Wrestling promoter and wrestlerStu Hart would wrestle tigers in hisStampede Wrestling territory.[9][10][11] His match with thetiger Sasha "Chi-Chi" was performed partly as a publicity stunt for theCalgary Stampede and was on the behalf of the Calgary Fish and Wildlife Association.[12] Hart's daughterDiana also stated that he had acheetah who he had borrowed[a] over to their home, theHart mansion, which he may have planned to wrestle.[13]
WWF championBruno Sammartino wrestled anorangutan in a match.[14] The match lasted for fifteen minutes with Sammartino earning 25 dollars for each five minute. Sammartino has expressed that he was under the impression that the ape would be a monkey and that he only took the match because he was relatively desperate for money at the time as a young newly debuted wrestler. He also stated that the match was very painful and unsafe as the animal was not trained to perform.[15]
Teddy Hart, grandson of Stu Hart, has expressed interest in using animals such as cats and dogs in his matches. He has on many occasions brought his cats with him to the ring.[16][17] On the matter Hart stated:
I'm training cats to come out to the ring with me, and I'm also trying to train animals to get involved in matches. I'm trying to get safety animals, like a dog, to basically pull the referee's leg before the count of three, little things like that. Or my dog will be carrying a weapon for me, and I would get it off his neck. Potentially if I had a female manager, and she has a cat, and the cat is maybe a good way of getting couple kids out of the audience, and I lure the kids out of the audience and the kids cause a disqualification to happen so I don't have to lose the belt, or something like that.[18]
On December 25, 2004, atDDT Pro-Wrestling's Never Mind 2004 event,Shoichi Ichimiya faced aJapanese macaque named Yatchan in a "Man vs. MonkeyMixed Martial Arts RulesHair vs. Hair match". The match was a single three-minute round and was won by Yatchan by split decision.[19][20]
A "Pig (or Hog) Pen match" is a match that takes place in a pig pen full of pigs, placed near the stage.[21]
In 1999 theBig Boss Man wrestledAl Snow for theWWF Hardcore Championship in aKennel from Hell match atUnforgiven. The match consisted of a standardsteel cage with the cell placed atop it, with the object being that the wrestler would escape from both the cage and cell while trying to avoid guard dogs that were placed between the ring and cell door. This specific match has been called one of the worstgimmick matches in history,[22][23] as the dogs showed no hostility toward the competitors and proceeded tourinate,defecate and evenmate outside the ring.[23]
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As of 2006, bear wrestling is banned in 20 U.S. states.[27]
