Hart Foundation

This article is about the Hart Foundation in professional wrestling. For the British charity organization, see British Heart Foundation. For the Australian charity organization, see National Heart Foundation of Australia.
Hart Foundation logo used during the stable era in 1997

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 (no relation), 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.[1][2]

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 (sometimes called The New Hart Foundation in this incarnation) 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 (the WWF title, Intercontinental title, European title, and Tag Team titles). 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 (later husband) 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 (FCW), 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.

  1. ^ "Showing Hart". WWE. Retrieved June 3, 2010.
  2. ^ "The Hart Foundation". WWE. Retrieved May 15, 2012.