Hart Foundation
The Hart Foundation is the name of several derivative tag teams and stables composed primarily of members and close friends of the Hart wrestling family. The name originated in the World Wrestling Federation in 1985 with the original Hart Foundation consisting of brothers-in-law Bret Hart and Jim Neidhart. Initially managed by Jimmy Hart, they won the WWF Tag Team Championship twice. WWE has consistently ranked the original Hart Foundation as one of the greatest tag teams in wrestling history.
The tag-team known as The New Foundation was a short-lived team formed in 1991 soon after the original disbanded. This team consisted of Neidhart and Owen Hart, Bret's younger brother. The two also teamed again in 1994, and the New Foundation name would later be used by Neidhart together with The Blue Meanie.
The Hart Foundation was reformed as a stable in 1997, composed of Bret, Owen, their brothers-in-law Neidhart and Davey Boy Smith as well as family friend Brian Pillman. Formed as a pro-Canadian, anti-American group, they would go on to hold all available WWF championships. After Pillman died in 1997, the other four continued on with the stable for another month before it disbanded.
Owen and Bret's oldest nephew Teddy Hart has used the Hart Foundation name several times together with close friend Jack Evans since the early 2000s, and they have held a championship together under the name. In 2007, several of the third generation of Harts formed a new stable, including Teddy, David Hart Smith, Natalya, Natalya's boyfriend Tyson Kidd and close friend Ted DiBiase. This collective worked together as the Next Generation Hart Foundation in WWE's development territory Florida Championship Wrestling, where they won the FCW Florida Tag Team Championship. Smith and Kidd, managed by Natalya, later debuted in WWE as The Hart Dynasty where they won the Unified WWE Tag Team Championship.
The Hart Foundation
The original Hart Foundation began in 1985, when Jim "The Anvil" Neidhart, already managed by Jimmy Hart, joined his brother-in-law Bret "Hitman" Hart to form a villainous tag team. According to Bret, the tag team originated after he turned down the "Cowboy" Bret Hart gimmick he was given, claiming that he did not really take a liking to it. He then suggested to WWF management that he would much prefer to be teamed up with Neidhart. Management first laughed at the idea, but months later just as Hart was about to quit, he was given what he wanted: he was allowed to become a villain and was partnered up with Neidhart and Jimmy Hart to form the Hart Foundation. The name "Hart Foundation" was already used to refer to the stable of wrestlers managed by Jimmy Hart, and in early matches the Neidhart/Hart team would be introduced as "members of the Hart Foundation". With the success of the new tag team, however, "The Hart Foundation" came to be associated solely with the Neidhart/Hart team and their manager, who all had 'Hart' in their family names.The Hart Foundation made its pay-per-view 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. At Saturday Night's Main Event VIII, the Foundation faced the Bees in a tag team match, which the Bees won. The Hart Foundation continued to feud with the Killer Bees for the better part of 1986.
The Hart Foundation then began a feud with Tag Team Champions The British Bulldogs in early 1987 over the title. 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 after Davis became a member of the Hart Foundation. On the March 14 Saturday Night's Main Event X, the Harts made their first title defense against Tito Santana and "Golden Boy" Danny Spivey, retaining the title 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, it was strongly suggested that Davis, as referee, had been to blame for Santana's loss of the WWF Intercontinental title to Randy Savage with the help of a foreign object a year earlier. At this point, Santana 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 with Davis against the British Bulldogs and 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 Saturday Night's Main Event XI, the Foundation defended their tag title 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 Smith pinned Neidhart. However, the Hart Foundation retained the title due to the disqualification result.
On the October 27 edition of Superstars, the Hart Foundation dropped their title to Strike Force after Neidhart submitted to a Boston crab applied by Martel, ending their 10-month reign. Soon after, the Hart Foundation began making claims that Neidhart had never submitted and that they were robbed on national television. The two teams faced each other at Survivor Series in a 10-team Survivor Series elimination match. Strike Force captained a team of fan favorites while the Hart Foundation captained a team of villains. Strike Force was eliminated by the Hart Foundation, but the Hart Foundation also got eliminated and in the end, the fan favorite team won the match. The feud culminated in a match for the WWF Tag Team Championship on the February 5 The Main Event I, as the Hart Foundation challenged Strike Force for the title, but lost the match.
Bret Hart started a slow face turn at WrestleMania IV in spring 1988. Hart and Bad News Brown were the last 2 competitors in a 20-man Battle Royal and looked to be co-existing heels after eliminating the Junkyard Dog. But Brown then double crossed Hart, hitting him with his Ghetto Blaster finisher before throwing him over the top rope for the win. Immediately after being declared the winner and being awarded a huge trophy, Hart attacked Brown and smashed up the trophy starting his face turn. Neidhart eventually joined Bret's side in the feud with Brown causing a rift between the Foundation and manager Jimmy Hart. As a result, the Hart Foundation were increasingly pushed as fully fledged fan favorites. In the summer of 1988, the Hart Foundation began a feud with WWF Tag Team Champions Demolition for the title. At the inaugural SummerSlam in August 1988, they challenged Demolition for the WWF Tag Team Championship but ended up losing the match after Ax hit Hart with Jimmy Hart's megaphone leaving Smash to get the pinfall. Jimmy Hart had "managed" Demolition alongside their regular manager Mr. Fuji for the match as part of the ongoing Hart Foundation split. On the October 29 Saturday Night's Main Event XVII, they faced Demolition in a rematch for the title but lost due to outside interference by The Fabulous Rougeau Brothers, old rivals of the Hart Foundation and, until a few months previously, a fan favourite team. In the late fall of 1988, Jimmy Hart signed the Rougeaus who, in the storyline, claimed 25 percent of the Hart Foundation's contract. The Hart Foundation continued their feud with the Rougeaus, and formed an alliance with "Hacksaw" Jim Duggan. At the Royal Rumble in early 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 continued to feud with wrestlers managed by Jimmy Hart through 1989. At WrestleMania V, they defeated Rhythm and Blues with the use of Hart's megaphone. They also defeated several tag teams during this time. At SummerSlam 89, they faced the Tag-Team Champions The Brain Busters in a non-title match. When the match was made, the Busters, managed by Bobby "The Brain" Heenan, were not champions and were not obliged to give the Harts a title shot. The Hart Foundation lost the match pushing them further away from regaining their titles. In the fall of 1989, the Hart Foundation split for a while and both wrestled as singles for the first time in almost four years. Hart had a series of matches against Mr. Perfect, while Neidhart began a feud with The Warlord. However, by the end of November 1989, Hart and Neidhart resumed their partnership and were booked into a series of tag team matches with fellow fan-favorite tag team The Rockers. This was unusual at the time as fan favorites rarely faced each other in the ring; also, although no hostilities between the two were apparent at this time, it marked the genesis of what would become a long-running rivalry between Hart and Michaels. Most of these early Hart Foundation-Rockers matches ended in time-limit draws.
On the April 28, 1990, Saturday Night's Main Event XXVI, they faced The Rockers in a tag team match, which resulted in a double disqualification after WWF Tag Team Champions Demolition interfered. As a result of the interference, Demolition feuded with both the Rockers and the Hart Foundation. At SummerSlam 90, the Hart Foundation faced Demolition in a two out of three falls match for the tag title. By this time Demolition member Ax was suffering from health problems so a third member of Demolition was introduced with the storyline being that the Hart Foundation didn't know which two members they would face until Demolition entered the arena. The two chosen were Crush and Smash. In the first fall, Hart was pinned by Crush but the Hart Foundation won the second fall by disqualification after Crush attacked the referee. Ax then made his way to the ring and interfered in the third fall until the Legion of Doom came to ringside and attacked Demolition, the distraction allowed Hart to pin Crush and the Hart Foundation won. As a result, the Hart Foundation got their second WWF Tag Team Championship.
During their second reign as champions, the Harts met the Rockers again, this time in a series title and non-title matches. On October 30, 1990, Jannetty and Michaels did actually defeat the Hart Foundation in a two out of three falls match in Fort Wayne, Indiana to seemingly win the title. However, the WWE has never officially recognized The Rockers' champion status. During the match the top rope broke by accident making the match a disjointed affair that would require serious clean up before it could be shown on TV. The Rockers actually defended the WWF Tag Team title against Power and Glory on November 3, 1990. Shortly after November 3 it was decided to not air the title change and that the title would revert to the Hart Foundation. In his book Michaels claims that the Hart Foundation had politicked to keep the title. Michaels claim is contradicted by other claims, including one that the WWF had actually fired Neidhart, and another that his contract had ended and an agreement to re-sign hadn't been reached which forced the title change, but that after the match the two sides came to an agreement and Neidhart was brought back with the broken ring rope used as the reason to nullify the match. The Rockers were never officially credited with a title win but footage from the match was shown prior to Jannetty's WWF return in 1995. The match can be seen in its entirety on the DVD The Shawn Michaels Story: Heartbreak & Triumph. Because it never aired, the match was not clipped and thus is shown in full with no commentary; the only edit being after the second fall when a ring crew arrived to reattach the broken rope.
The Hart Foundation's second title reign lasted until WrestleMania VII when they were defeated by The Nasty Boys, when Knobs nailed Neidhart over the head with Jimmy Hart's helmet. The Hart Foundation split after WrestleMania VII, and Bret then focused on his singles career.