Under the Mat: Inside Wrestling's Greatest Family
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| Author | Diana Hart Kirstie McLellan Foreword Stu Hart |
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| Country | USA and Canada |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Biography |
| Publisher | Fenn |
| Released | 2001 |
| Pages | 200 pp |
| ISBN | ISBN 1551682567 |
Under the Mat: Inside Wrestling's Greatest Family is a book written by Diana Hart.
[edit] Plot Summary
The book focuses mainly on the realities of professional wrestling. Under the Mat recounts Diana's life growing up in the Hart home, being sister to Owen and Bret, witnessing their rise to fame and the terrible tragedy, which claimed Owen's life. She remembers her father training some of the WWF's and WCW's biggest names in her family's basement gym, the famous Dungeon, and recounts their tales to stardom.
[edit] Controversy
Under the Mat is used by Diana to express the "dirty secrets" of the Hart family and friends. Diana elaborates that the Dynamite Kid is a "sadistic, masochistic bastard who got Davey Boy Smith hooked on drugs, abused his wife and takes no responsibility for the way his life has now turned out". Diana says that Bret is bitter as all hell at Vince McMahon, and wants to destroy him at the cost of the Hart family, to the point where he threatened to run her over with his car. Davey is a steroid abuser with an unsatisfiable sex drive that drugged Diana so he could anally rape her until she got hemorrhoids. Diana's mother, Helen, is an alcoholic. Martha, Owen's widow, is a control freak, who likes to be victimized. Owen is described as being pussy-whipped, avoided confrontations, and didn't jump ship to WCW at Bret's request because of Martha. Martha sued Diana over the book, and it was subsequently pulled from many store shelves and part of the profits went to the Owen Hart Foundation.
Bret is a vocal critic of the book and has said that it is a very disturbing read. Bret goes on to say that there are enough true Hart stories that Diana didn't need to resort to fiction.[1]
