MMA’s Odd Tie to Pro Wrestling


By Brad Walker MMATorch Columnist

There is no denying the deep ties to professional wrestling that lies within mixed martial arts. Collectively they make stars, share stars and now are oddly tied together in a new documentary from Peacock about wrestlings greatest outcast Teddy Hart.

In the peacock original, Dangerous Breed we follow the comeback attempt of a member of the legendary Hart family, Teddy Hart. With famous uncles including Bret Hart, Owen Hart, Jim Neidhart and The British Bulldog amongst others. Where we run into an odd MMA inclusion is that this notably very talented but very borderline psychotic wrestler Teddy Hart is training his girlfriend to be a professional wrestler … and a UFC fighter?

Let me clarify – as far as I can find through my channels in professional wrestling this man has no training relevant to mixed martial arts. Through out the show we are introduced to … a number of girlfriends / wives / trainees almost all female and they’re never just training for wrestling but also almost hyper specifically the UFC. This is just the beginning of where this gets incomprehensibly dark and the start of a mystery.

Circa 2015 his newest “student” was Samantha Fiddler. She is presented as a mother of 3 born in Canada who is looking to break into both industries under the teachings of a man who is black balled in one and seemingly has nothing to do with the other. Here’s the dark part, shortly after one portion of filming of Dangerous Breed wile residing in Florida with Teddy, Samantha Fiddler went missing. At current time she has been missing since at least 2016 and is presumed dead. The filmmaker upon finding this out returned to interview Teddy again, and he behind a series of non-answers and evasion refuses to touch on it but does refer to having friends in Bellator and UFC.

Why is this important you ask? Because a woman, a mother was lured to her presumed death by her dreams. There is a toxic subculture in both MMA and wrestling of janky promoters, false promises and abuse. I am not in any way saying that this is the norm – I am however making sure people exercise caution if a case that is being this widely publicized is going unsolved.

If you have dreams or aspirations towards pro wrestling or MMA or both, research schools near you, never look for an individual to train you on their own. Proceed with caution but prepare to love the journey!

Follow me on Twitter @MMATorchBrad

And my wrestling promotions page @AHWrestling

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