- This article is about the Hart Foundation in professional
wrestling. For the charity organization, see British Heart Foundation or
National Heart
Foundation of Australia.
The Hart Foundation was a collective name used by
various
stables in the
World Wrestling
Federation (WWF).
They are generally associated with the
Hart wrestling family of the
legendary Stu Hart from Canada
.
Original incarnations
The Hart Foundation
Career
Manager "The Mouth of the South"
Jimmy
Hart had been using the name
Hart Foundation
to describe the stable of wrestlers that he managed before his
arrival and did so early in his WWF stint. That usage was eclipsed,
however, by the
tag team of Bret Hart and
Jim Neidhart, managed by Jimmy Hart and originally a part of the
larger
Hart Foundation stable.
The
Hart Foundation tag team began when
Jim "The Anvil" Neidhart, already managed by
Jimmy Hart, joined up with
Bret "The Hitman"
Hart (whose sister he had already married) to form a
heel tag team. The name
Hart Foundation, already used by Jimmy Hart,
derived from the fact that all three had
Hart in their
family names.
According to Bret Hart, the tag team originated after Bret turned
down the "Cowboy" Bret Hart
gimmick he was given,
claiming that he didn't really take a liking to it. He then
suggested to WWF management that he would much prefer to be teamed
up with Jim Neidhart. Management first laughed at the idea,
claiming that Bret didn't have the heel look that was appropriate,
but months later just as Bret was about to quit, he was given what
he wanted: he was allowed to turn heel, and was partnered up with
Neidhart and Jimmy to form the Hart Foundation.
The Hart Foundation is regarded as one of the best tag teams during
wrestling's 1980s heyday. What set the Harts apart from their
contemporaries was their respective wrestling styles - Neidhart was
more of a brawler/power wrestler, whereas Bret on the other hand
was a more agile, sound, and polished technician who used ring
psychology to his advantage. This characteristic and uniqueness in
the Hart Foundation was at that time rare yet successful, leading
to
two reigns
as
WWF Tag Team
Champions.
The Hart Foundation were involved in perhaps some of wrestling's
greatest tag team matches of all time, and they were constantly
involved in feuds with various other teams including the
British Bulldogs, the
Killer Bees,
The Rockers, and the
Rougeau Brothers.
Formation and low-card (1985-1986)
The Hart Foundation was formed as a low-card
tag team in 1985. They consisted of Bret "Hit Man"
Hart and Jim "The Anvil" Neidhart. They were
managed by "Mouth of the
South" Jimmy Hart and started as
heels, introduced as "members
of the Hart Foundation", in keeping with the original idea of a
stable of wrestlers run by Jimmy Hart. Despite being managed by
Hart, Neidhart and Hart were mostly used to
put over other tag
teams, like The British Bulldogs and The Rougeau Brothers;
victories against non-
jobber tag teams were
scarce. They made their
pay-per-view
(PPV) debut at
WrestleMania 2 in 1986
as participants of a 20-man
battle royal which
also included
NFL stars.
The duo were the final two men whom
André the Giant eliminated to win the
battle royal. The Harts gained their status as a mid-card team when
feuding with The Killer Bees (
Jim
Brunzell and
B. Brian Blair). At
Saturday Night's Main Event, the Foundation faced Brunzell
and Blair in a tag team match. Despite their great performance, the
Killer Bees won the match. The Hart Foundation would continue to
feud with the Killer Bees for the better part of 1986, with the end
result usually being a Hart loss after Brunzell and Blair would
resort to their "Masked Confusion" gimmick.
Tag Team Champions (1987)
The Hart Foundation began a feud with Tag Team Champions
British Bulldogs (
Davey Boy Smith and
Dynamite Kid) in early 1987 over the titles.
On the
February 7 edition of Superstars, in Tampa, Florida
, the Harts defeated Bulldogs for their first WWF Tag Team Championship
when the referee of
the match, "Dangerous" Danny Davis helped
the Harts to win the match and become champions. As a result
of this title win, referee Danny Davis turned into a wrestler. They
continued to feud with the British Bulldogs at that time. On the
March 14
edition of
Saturday Night's Main Event, the Harts made
their first title defense against
Tito
Santana and
Dan Spivey and retained
the titles after Danny Davis hit Santana with Jimmy Hart's
megaphone. Santana began to feud with Davis as a
result of this action and at this point, he joined the British
Bulldogs in their feud with the Hart Foundation. The rivalry
culminated in a six-man tag team match at
WrestleMania III where the Foundation
teamed up with Danny Davis against the British Bulldogs and Tito
Santana. Davis hit Davey Boy Smith with Jimmy Hart's megaphone and
pinned him to get the victory for the Hart Foundation. On the May 2
edition of
Saturday Night's Main Event, the Foundation
defended their tag titles against the British Bulldogs in a
Two out of three falls
match. In the first fall, they got disqualified because of
illegal double-teaming and in the second fall Neidhart was pinned
by Smith. However, the Hart Foundation retained the titles due to
the disqualification result.
The Hart Foundation went on to feud with many other tag teams in
the WWF and defended the titles against each and every tag team
including the
Can-Am Connection
(
Rick Martel and
Tom
Zenk) whom they faced on editions of
Wrestling Challenge in June and
usually retained their titles by getting
counted-out or
disqualified. In
July, they started a feud with fellow Canadians
The Fabulous Rougeaus (
Jacques and
Raymond) while they also feuded with The
Killer Bees. They began a feud with
The Young Stallions (
Paul Roma and
Jim
Powers), who got an upset victory over the Hart Foundation by
disqualification on an edition of
Superstars. This led to
a title match on the October 3
edition of
Saturday Night's Main Event, which the Hart
Foundation won via a
Hart Attack and
retained the titles. On the October 27 edition of
Superstars, the Hart Foundation
dropped their titles
to
Strike
Force (Rick Martel and Tito Santana) after Neidhart submitted
to Martel's
boston crab, ending their 10
month reign.
The Hart Foundation began a feud with Strike Force and the two
teams faced each other at
Survivor Series in a 10-team
Survivor Series
elimination match. Strike Force captained a team of babyfaces
while the Hart Foundation captained a team of heels. Strike Force
was eliminated by the Hart Foundation, but the Hart Foundation also
got eliminated and in the end, the babyface team won the match. The
two teams continued their rivalry, and at
Royal Rumble 1988, Bret Hart of the Hart
Foundation and Tito Santana of Strike Force were the first two
participants of the first-ever
Royal
Rumble match. The feud culminated in a match for the WWF Tag
Team Championship on the February 5
edition of
The Main Event, as the Hart
Foundation challenged Strike Force for the titles but lost the
match.
Face turn (1988-1990)
In late spring/early summer of 1988, Jimmy Hart signed the Hart
Foundation's rivals
The Rougeau
Brothers and (
kayfabe) claimed 25
percent of Bret Hart's and Jim Neidhart's payment. Jimmy Hart's
betrayal would slowly
turn the Hart
Foundation into
faces.
Another factor of the Foundation's turn took place at
WrestleMania IV during a
battle royal after
Hart and fellow heel
Bad News Brown
cooperated to eliminate
Junkyard Dog
and decided to share the trophy which was going to be given to the
winner of the battle royal; Brown attacked Hart when his back was
turned and eliminated him. After Jimmy Hart's betrayal of the team,
and the loss of their tag team championship, the Hart Foundation
were
pushed as faces,
and really
got
over with the fans. They began performing smart, and at times,
hilarious interviews (although they were always regarded as a
"serious" tag team) and continued to have intense and memorable tag
team matches.
In the summer of 1988, the Hart Foundation began a feud with WWF
Tag Team Champions
Demolition for the
titles. At
SummerSlam, they
challenged Demolition for the WWF Tag Team Championship but ended
up losing the match. On the
October 29
edition of
Saturday Night's Main Event, they faced
Demolition in a rematch for the titles but lost due to outside
interference by The Rougeaus. At
Survivor Series, they participated in
a 10-on-10 tag team Survivor Series elimination match. The Hart
Foundation were eliminated but their teammates the
Powers of Pain (
The Warlord and
The
Barbarian) went on to become the sole survivors of the match.
The Hart Foundation continued their feud with The Fabulous
Rougeaus, and formed an alliance with
Jim
Duggan. At
Royal Rumble
1989, Duggan and the Hart Foundation defeated
Dino Bravo and the Rougeaus in a two out of three
falls match to end the feud.
The Hart Foundation spent the rest of 1989 feuding with teams such
as
Rhythm and
Blues (
Greg Valentine and
The Honky Tonk Man) at
WrestleMania V and the
Brain Busters (
Arn
Anderson and
Tully Blanchard) at
SummerSlam. In late 1989, the Hart
Foundation split for a while and wrestled in other teams but
reunited in early 1990. At
Royal
Rumble 1990, they both participated in the Royal Rumble match
but both were unsuccessful in winning the match. The Hart
Foundation continues to hold a WrestleMania record, as they
squashed
The Bolsheviks (
Nikolai Volkoff and
Boris Zhukov) in 17 seconds at
WrestleMania VI. On the
April 28
edition of
Saturday Night's Main Event, they faced
fellow babyfaces
The Rockers (
Shawn Michaels and
Marty Jannetty) in a tag team match, which
resulted in a double disqualification after WWF Tag Team Champions
Demolition interfered.
Final title reign and split (1990-1991)
As a result of the interference, Demolition feuded with both the
Rockers and the Hart Foundation. At
SummerSlam 1990, the Hart Foundation faced
Demolition in a two out of three falls match for the tag titles
which the Hart Foundation won (in part because of the
Legion of Doom's (
Hawk and
Animal) interference when they dealt
with
Ax, who hid under the ring during
the match and switched places with
Smash). As a result, the Hart Foundation got
their second WWF Tag Team Championship. On the
November 23 edition of
The Main
Event, the Hart Foundation had one of the most controversial
tag team matches in the history of wrestling when they defended the
tag titles against the Rockers in a two out of three falls match.
The Rockers won the match and became champions but it was with
controversy because the top rope broke during the match (after Hart
hit Michaels with a Hart Attack on the top rope) and as a result,
WWE does not recognize the Rockers as champions. The match was
never shown on television and the titles were returned to the Hart
Foundation. The Hart Foundation's second title reign lasted until
WrestleMania VII when they were
defeated by the
Nasty Boys (
Jerry Sags and
Brian
Knobbs), when Knobbs nailed Neidhart over the head with Jimmy
Hart's helmet (Jimmy Hart managed the Nasty Boys at the
time).
The Hart Foundation split after WrestleMania VII, without a
dramatic storyline explanation (compared with other teams). This
was because WWF management saw Bret's potential in becoming a
singles superstar. Bret then focused on his solo career, winning
the
WWF
Intercontinental Championship and the
WWF Championship as well as
King of the Ring tournaments in
1991 and
1993 and co-winning the
Royal Rumble in
1994.
In wrestling
- Double-team finishing moves
- Double-team signature moves
Championships and accomplishments
The New Foundation
Career
Succeeding the Hart Foundation (1991-1992)
After the
Hart Foundation split
both members focused on their singles careers; Bret challenged for
and won the Intercontinental title while Jim Neidhart faced a much
tougher road as a singles competitor. In late 1991, Neidhart had a
match against
Ric Flair, which Neidhart
lost via submission to the
figure four
leglock. The move incapacitated Neidhart so much that he had to
be helped from the ring; as he exited the arena the
Beverly Brothers made their entrance for a
tag team match. The arrogant brothers took an opportunity and
jumped Neidhart, further (kayfabe) aggravating his injury. When
Neidhart returned about a month later, he was determined to get
revenge and he even had back up. Bret's younger brother,
Owen, had been signed with the company and he was
revealed as Neidhart's back up. They then formed a team in the
hopes of recreating the magic of the Hart Foundation and the duo
was subsequently dubbed
The New Foundation. Owen
was soon nicknamed "The Rocket" and the duo became famous and
instantly recognizable for their bizarre 'baggy pants' attire and
bright jackets.
Their first feud was naturally with the Beverly Brothers but they
also had matches with
The Nasty Boys
and
The Natural Disasters
(
Earthquake and
Typhoon) but with very little success. The team
had their one and only pay-per-view match at the
Royal Rumble, where they defeated
The Orient Express (
Tanaka and
Kato).
Only weeks later, Owen Hart would be on his own as Neidhart left
the federation.
Heel reunion (1994)
Owen and Jim reunited in 1994, this time as
heels and without the New
Foundation moniker. Owen had turned on his brother Bret in early
1994 and was deep in a feud with him. Jim Neidhart turned up at the
King of the Ring tournament
first to accompany former partner Bret Hart as he faced
Diesel, but then also made a surprise appearance
at the end of the night to help Owen Hart win the tournament,
resulting in Owen dubbing himself the "King of Harts". It was later
confirmed that Neidhart was helping Owen. The brothers in law would
team regularly throughout 1994, feuding with Bret and
Davey Boy Smith. At
SummerSlam, after Bret retained the WWF
Championship against Owen in a
steel cage match,
Neidhart attacked Bret; when Smith tried to make the save for Bret,
Neidhart attacked him as well.
On the November 7 edition of
Raw,
Hart and Smith took on Owen and Neidhart in a tag team match and
went on to win the match.
Neidhart and
The Blue Meanie also
teamed under the New Foundation name in
Memphis Championship
Wrestling in 2000, and were the promotion's first
Tag Team Champions.
In wrestling
- Double-team finishing moves
Championships and accomplishments
The (New) Hart Foundation
Career
Feud with United States (1997)
In 1997,
the Hart Foundation re-formed as a pro-Canadian stable that
was born after the events of 1997's WrestleMania 13, where Bret Hart defeated
his then-nemesis Stone Cold
Steve Austin in their
Submission Match. The match also saw a
double turn, as
Austin turned face and Hart turned heel. The fans began supporting
Steve Austin, who was the rebellious antihero who "
flipped the bird", and swore on television
and did whatever he wanted, when he wanted to. Because of their
new-found love for Austin, the fans in the U.S.A. booed Bret Hart,
thus causing a war between Canada and USA. Bret Hart in response
reunited himself with Jim Neidhart and recruited Owen Hart,
The British Bulldog, and
Brian Pillman to form the new Hart
Foundation.
This
stable opposed the United
States
, and even degraded the United States and its values
whereas they would speak highly of Canada and the United Kingdom
(where they were beloved). The New Hart Foundation usually
brought the
Canadian and
British flags out to their matches, and in their
promos would
talk in disgust about the United States and its inhabitants in
general, thus causing fan reactions and making the New Hart
Foundation (and Bret Hart in particular) unpopular in the States
but highly popular in Canada. Their main feud was with Stone Cold
and Shawn Michaels, whom (as opposed to the Hart Foundation) were
booed heavily in Canada and Europe, but cheered on wildly in the
United States. At
Canadian
Stampede, the Hart Foundation took part in a historic 10-man
tag team match where the entire Hart Foundation faced the team of
Steve Austin, the Legion of Doom,
Ken
Shamrock, and
Goldust. In the end,
Owen Hart pinned Steve Austin. The entire Hart family came into the
ring to celebrate afterwards.
The stable was highly successful, garnering every championship
available at the time (
WWF
Championship,
Intercontinental
Championship,
European
Championship, and
Tag Team Championship) in
the WWF.
The end of the Hart Foundation (1997)
The new Hart Foundation eventually disbanded in late 1997. Pillman
was found dead of an undetected heart condition on
October 5, the day of
In Your House: Badd Blood. At the
following pay-per-view,
Survivor
Series, Bret (who was leaving the WWF to join
World Championship Wrestling)
lost the WWF Championship to Shawn Michaels in the infamous
"
Montreal Screwjob". Both Neidhart
and Smith left over the incident, but Owen remained feeling that he
may have been sued for
breach of
contract if he left.
Members
Championships and accomplishments
Second generation
Next Generation Hart Foundation
Career
Next Generation Hart Foundation
In 2002,
Teddy Hart (the son of B.J.
Annis and Georgia Hart and the nephew of Bret and Owen Hart) formed
the
Next Generation Hart Foundation with his
cousin
Harry Smith (the son
of
Davey Boy Smith and
Diana Hart),
TJ Wilson,
Nattie Neidhart (daughter of Ellie
Hart and Jim Neidhart) and
Jack Evans in
Stampede Wrestling.
In 2007,
World Wrestling
Entertainment (WWE) launched their new development territory,
Florida Championship
Wrestling. Harry Smith, Nattie Neidhart, and TJ Wilson were
moved to the new farm territory, where they aligned themselves and
formed the Next Generation Hart Foundation (also known as The New
Generation Hart Foundation, or simply The New Hart Foundation) and
were later joined by
Teddy Hart and
Ted DiBiase, Jr. On FCW's debut
show on June 26, Smith won a 21-man battle royale to become the
promotion's first
Southern Heavyweight
Champion. Plans to bring the stable to WWE's main roster were
made but Teddy Hart was released from his development contract in
October. Eventually, DiBiase, Neidhart, and Smith, after losing the
Southern Heavyweight title, were all called up to the main roster
albeit on separate shows, as DiBiase and Smith (using the name DH
Smith) were sent to
Raw and Neidhart to
SmackDown, disbanding the Next
Generation Hart Foundation. After being drafted to SmackDown,
Smith, would return to FCW, without debuting on SmackDown, and
reform the stable with Wilson. With Neidhart's (renamed Natalya)
help they became
Florida Tag Team
Champions. After losing the belts, they were once again split
up when TJ Wilson (renamed Tyson Kidd) was called to
ECW on Sci Fi with Natalya as his
valet.
The Hart Dynasty
In the
2009 WWE
Supplemental Draft, Natalya and Smith were officially drafted
to the ECW brand, despite Smith never debuting for SmackDown. On
the May 12 episode of
ECW on Sci Fi, Smith debuted on ECW
under the name David Hart Smith, by interfering in Kidd's match
against
Finlay, signalling the
reformation of the group, briefly under the name The Hart Trilogy,
before settling on The Hart Dynasty. Smith made his debut with the
group by defeating Finlay the following week and the team had their
first match together, alongside
Jack
Swagger, by defeating
Christian and
Tommy Dreamer before finally appearing
as just a tag team, defeating Christian and Swagger on June 9. On
June 29, the trio were traded to the SmackDown brand and debuted as
a team for the brand on the July 3 episode of
SmackDown,
when Kidd and Smith lost to
Cryme Tyme.
The Hart Dynasty made their PPV debut at
Bragging Rights, as part of Team
Smackdown!, in which Team Smackdown defeated Team Raw.
In wrestling
- Double-team finishing moves
Championships and accomplishments
The Hart Foundation 2.0
Jack Evans and Teddy Hart began wrestling as the
Hart
Foundation 2.0 in Mexico's
Asistencia
Asesoría y Administración (AAA) on November 30, 2007, a name
first used by
Major League
Wrestling. At Centro de Convenciones de Ciudad Madero for the
annual
Guerra
de Titanes event, they participated in and lost a four-way
extreme dance for the
AAA World Tag Team
Championship in a match against champions
Crazy Boy and Joe Lider,
Charly Manson and
Chessman, and Extreme Tiger and
Halloween. Jack and Teddy have both since
joined the AAA Promotion as regular rudos (
villains), joining
Konnan's stable made up of international wrestlers
known as
La Legión
Extranjera. In June 2009, Evans became a técnico (
hero) when he left Konnan's
Legion and began to feud with Hart.
Members
Legacy
Family ties
Many of the wrestlers involved in the various Hart Foundation
groups came from
Stu Hart's Calgary
Stampede promotion and as such had a "behind-the-scenes"
cohesiveness in the eyes of many "smart
marks." With the
exception of Brian Pillman (who was trained by Stu Hart), T.J.
Wilson (who was trained by Bret Hart and who was a childhood friend
of Teddy Hart), Jack Evans (who was trained by Teddy Hart) and
Jimmy Hart, every member of the stable was related: Bret Hart and
Owen Hart were brothers, Davey Boy Smith and Jim Neidhart were
married to Bret and Owen's sisters, and Teddy Hart, David Hart
Smith, and Nattie Neidhart are the children or nephews/nieces of
the above.
Bret Hart, Jim Neidhart, and Jimmy Hart (the original Hart
Foundation) are the only surviving members of the "first
generation" of the faction. Brian Pillman died of an undetected
heart condition in 1997, Owen Hart died in an
accident at
Over the Edge 1999, and Davey Boy Smith
died of a heart attack in 2002.
References
- On the DVD Bret "Hit
Man" Hart: The Best There Is, The Best There Was, The Best There
Ever Will Be, released in 2005.
External links
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