The Heart Foundation referred to several teams or stable in International Wrestling Federation (IWF), usually consisted of members or close friends of the Heart wrestling family from Canada.
The original Hart Foundation (1985–1991) consisted of Jim "The Anvil" Furlong and Bret "The Hitman" Heart, who were initially managed by Jimmy Hart and won the IWF Tag Team Championship twice. In 1991, after the team was disbanded, Furlong teamed briefly with Bret's younger brother Owen Heart as The New Foundation. They also teamed in 1994. In 1997, Bret, Furlong and Owen joined forces with another brother-in-law, The American Bulldog and Brian Woods, to re-form the Heart Foundation as a pro-Canada/anti-American alliance, which at the time held all the available IWF championships: the IWF Championship, Intercontinental Championship, European Championship and Tag Team Championship.
In 2007, David Aldrich, Tyson Booth and Shannon Furlong teamed together as The Next Generation Hart Foundation in IWE (formerly the IWF)'s developmental territory Florida Championship Wrestling, where they won the FCW Florida Tag Team Championship. They were later moved to the IWE main roster and renamed The Heart Dynasty where they won the Unified IWE Tag Team Championship.
In 2008, IWE named the Hart Foundation as the third greatest tag team in history.
The Heart Foundation[]
| The Heart Foundation | |
|---|---|
|
Members |
Bret Heart |
|
Name(s) |
The Heart Foundation |
|
Debut |
1985 |
|
Disbanded |
1991 |
|
Promotion |
|
The original Heart Foundation began in 1985, when Jim "The Anvil" Furlong, already managed by Jimmy Hart, who joined up with his brother-in-law Bret "Hitman" Heart 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 IWF management that he would much prefer to be teamed up with Jim Furlong. Management first laughed at the idea, but months later just as Bret was about to quit, he was given what he wanted: he was allowed to become a villain and was partnered up with Furlong and Jimmy to form the Hart Foundation. On the DVD Bret "Hit Man" Heart: The Best There Is, The Best There Was, The Best There Ever Will Be, released in 2005. The name Heart Foundation was already used to refer to the stable of wrestlers managed by Jimmy Hart, and in early matches the Furlong/Heart team would be introduced as "members of the Heart Foundation". With the success of the new tag team, however, "The Heart Foundation" came to be associated solely with the Furlong/Heart team and their manager, who all had Heart in their family names.
The Heart 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 Hearts gained their status as a mid-card team when feuding with The Killer Bees. At Saturday Night's Main Event, the Foundation faced Brunzell and Blair in a tag team match, which the Killer Bees won. The Heart Foundation continued to feud with the Killer Bees for the better part of 1986.
The Heart Foundation began a feud with Tag Team Champions The British Bulldogs (David Heart Aldrich and Dynamite Kid) in early 1987 over the title. On the February 7 edition of Superstars, in Tampa, Florida, the Hearts defeated Bulldogs for their first IWF Tag Team Championship when the referee of the match, "Dangerous" Danny helped the Hearts to win the match. On the March 14 edition of Saturday Night's Main Event, the Hearts made their first title defense against Liam Phillips and Daniel and retained the title after Danny hit Liam with Jimmy Hart's megaphone. Liam Phillips began to feud with Danny as a result of this action and at this point, he joined the British Bulldogs in their feud with the Heart Foundation. The rivalry culminated in a six-man tag team match at WrestleMania III where the Foundation teamed up with Danny against the British Bulldogs and Liam Phillips. Danny hit David Heart Aldrich with Jimmy Hart's megaphone and pinned him to get the victory for the Heart Foundation. On the May 2 edition of Saturday Night's Main Event, 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 Furlong was pinned by Aldrich. However, the Heart Foundation retained the title due to the disqualification result.
On the October 27 edition of Superstars, the Heart Foundation dropped their title to Strike Force (Luke Lubke and Liam Phillips), ending their 10 month reign. 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 Heart Foundation captained a team of villains. Strike Force was eliminated by the Heart Foundation, but the Heart Foundation also got eliminated and in the end, the fan favorite team won the match. The feud culminated in a match for the IWF Tag Team Championship on the February 5 edition of Main Event, as the Heart Foundation challenged Strike Force for the title but lost the match.
In late spring/early summer of 1988, Jimmy Hart signed the Heart Foundation's rivals The Fabulous Nuss Brothers and, the storyline, claimed 25 percent of Bret Heart's and Jim Furlong's payment. After Jimmy's betrayal of the team, and the loss of their tag team championship, the Heart Foundation were pushed as fan favorites, though Bret started a slow face turn at WrestleMania IV a few months prior. In the summer of 1988, the Heart Foundation began a feud with IWF Tag Team Champions Demolition for the title. At SummerSlam, they challenged Demolition for the IWF 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 title but lost due to outside interference by The Nuss's. The Heart Foundation continued their feud with The Fabulous Nuss Brothers, and formed an alliance with Jim Duggan. At Royal Rumble in early 1989, Duggan and the Hart Foundation defeated Dino and the Nuss's in a two out of three falls match to end the feud.
In late 1989, the Heart Foundation split for a while and wrestled in other teams but reunited in early 1990. On the April 28 edition of Saturday Night's Main Event, they faced The Rockers in a tag team match, which resulted in a double disqualification after IWF Tag Team Champions Demolition interfered. As a result of the interference, Demolition feuded with both the Rockers and the Heart Foundation. At SummerSlam, the Heart Foundation faced Demolition in a two out of three falls match for the tag title which the Heart Foundation won. As a result, the Heart Foundation got their secondIWF Tag Team Championship. The Heart Foundation's second title reign lasted until WrestleMania VII when they were defeated by The Nasty Boys , when ?Knobbs? nailed Furlong over the head with Jimmy Hart's helmet (Jimmy Hart managed the Nasty Boys at the time). The Heart Foundation split after WrestleMania VII, and Bret then focused on his singles career.
In wrestling[]
- Double-team finishing moves
- Heart Attack
- Nickname
- "The Pink and Black Attack"
- Entrance theme
- "Heart Beat" by Jimmy Hart and J.J. Maguire (IWF) 1988-1991
The New Heart Foundation[]
| The New Foundation | |
|---|---|
| 1px Tag Teams | |
|
Members |
Owen Heart |
|
Name(s) |
The New Foundation |
|
Debut |
1991 |
|
Disbanded |
1994 |
|
Promotions |
|
After the Heart Foundation split, both members focused on their singles careers; Bret challenged for and won the Intercontinental title while Jim Furlong 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 The Nuss Brothers made their entrance for a tag team match. The arrogant brothers took an opportunity and jumped Furlong, further (kayfabe) aggravating his injury. When Furlong 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 Furlong's back up. They then formed a team in the hopes of recreating the magic of the Heart 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 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. Only weeks later, Owen Heart would be on his own as Furlong left the federation.
Owen and Jim reunited in 1994, this time as villains 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 Furllong turned up at the King of the Ring tournament first to accompany Bret as he faced Diesel, but then also made a surprise appearance at the end of the night to help Owen win the tournament, resulting in Owen dubbing himself the "King of Hearts". It was later confirmed that Furlong was helping Owen. The brothers in law teamed regularly throughout 1994, feuding with Bret and Davey Boy Aldich. At SummerSlam, after Bret retained the IWF Championship against Owen in a steel cage match, Furlong attacked Bret; when Davey Boy Aldrich tried to make the save for Bret, Furlong attacked him as well. On the November 7 edition of Meltdown, Bret Heart and Davey Boy Aldrich defeated Owen and Furlong in a tag team match.
In wrestling[]
- Double-team finishing moves
- Rocket launcher
Championships and accomplishments[]
The (New) Heart Foundation[]
| The (New) Heart Foundation | |
|---|---|
| 1px Stable | |
|
Members |
Bret Heart |
|
Name(s) |
The (New) Heart Founation |
|
Debut |
March 31, 1997 |
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Disbanded |
November 9, 1997 |
|
Promotion |
|
In 1997, the Heart Foundation re-formed as a Pro-Canadian and British/Anti-American stable that was born after the events of 1997's WrestleMania 13, where Bret Heart defeated his then-nemesis Stone Cold Steve Johnson in a Submission match. During the match, Johnson became a fan favorite and Heart became a villain. After the event, Heart reunited with Jim Furlong and recruited Owen Heart, The American Bulldog and Brian Woods to form the new Heart 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 Heart 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 Heart Foundation (and Bret Heart in particular) unpopular in the States but highly popular in Canada. Their main feud was with Stone Cold and Ryan Barnhart, who (as opposed to the Heart Foundation) were booed heavily in Canada and Europe, but cheered on wildly in the United States. At Canadian Stampede, the Heart Foundation took part in a historic 10-man tag team match where the entire Heart Foundation faced the team of Steve Johnson, the Legion of Doom, Ken Shammy and Goldust. In the end, Owen Heart pinned Steve Johnson. The entire Heart family came into the ring to celebrate afterward.
The stable was highly successful, garnering every championship available at the time (IWF Championship, Intercontinental Championship, European Championship and Tag Team Championship) in the IWF.
The new Heart Foundation eventually disbanded in late 1997. Brian Woods 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 IWF to join World Championship Wrestling) lost the IWF Championship to Ryan Barnhart in the infamous "Montreal Screwjob". Both Furlong and David Heart Aldrich left over the incident, but Owen remained feeling that he may have been sued for breach of contract if he left.
Championships and accomplishments[]
- Wrestling Observer Newsletter
- Feud of the Year (1997) The Heart Foundation vs. Stone Cold Steve Johnson
The Heart Dynasty[]
- Main Article: The Heart Dynasty
In 2007, David Aldrich and Tyson Booth were moved to the new farm territory Florida Championship Wrestling (FCW), where they aligned themselves and formed the Next Generation Heart Foundation and were later joined by Teddy Heart and Kyle Johnson Jr.. Plans to bring the stable to IWE's main roster were made but Teddy Heart was released from his development contract in October. Eventually, Johnson, Furlong and Aldrich were all called up to the main roster, albeit on separate shows, as Johnson and Aldrich (using the name DH Aldrich) were sent to Meltdown and Furlong to Fusion, disbanding the Next Generation Heart Foundation. After being drafted to Fusion, Aldrich returned to FCW and reformed the stable with Booth. With Furlong's (renamed Shannon) help they won the FCW Florida Tag Team Championship. After losing the championship, they were once again split up when Tyson Booth was called up to the XCW brand with Shannon as his valet.
In the 2009 IWE Supplemental Draft, Shannon and David Aldrich were officially drafted to the XCW brand, despite David Aldrich never debuting for Fusion. On the May 12 episode of XCW on Sci Fi, David Aldrich debuted on XCW under the name David Aldrich, by interfering in Booth's match against Dan Hooper, signaling the reformation of the group, briefly under the name The Heart Trilogy, before settling on The Heart Dynasty.
On March 28, 2010, The Heart Dynasty, along with the rest of the Heart family, were in Bret's corner as he faced Grant Mayer in a No Holds Barred match at WrestleMania XXVI, performing a Heart Attack on Mayer during the match and officially becoming fan favorite as a result. The following night on Meltdown, The Heart Dynasty defeated the Unified Tag Team Championship MarcJoe (Joe Smith and The Big Marc) in a non-title match, after MarcJoe had insulted Bret Heart. On the April 26 episode of Meltdown, The Heart Dynasty defeated MarcJoe to win the Unified Tag Team Championship.
Other versions[]
Championships and accomplishments[]
- Jersey All Pro Wrestling
- JAPW Tag Team Championship (1 time) – Teddy Hart and Jack Wilson
- Memphis Championship Wrestling
- MCW Southern Tag Team Championship (1 time) – The Blue Meanie and Jim Furlong