Monday, August 13, 2018

Saturday Morning Ringside: Remembering Jim "The Anvil" Neidhart (1955-2018)

Expect another tribute graphic to lead off tonight's Monday Night Raw, this time to honor the memory of 2-time WWF tag team champion Jim "The Anvil" Neidhart, who passed away this morning at 63.

Neidhart originally wanted to play in the NFL after graduating college, but could go no further than playing pre-season games and/or making the practice squads of the Oakland Raiders and Dallas Cowboys. With his football career over, Neidhart traveled to Calgary to train with future WWE Hall of Famer Stu Hart, and married Hart's daughter, Ellie.

As the Hart Foundation, Neidhart and brother-in-law Bret "Hitman" Hart won 2 WWF tag titles (1986-7, 1990) before embarking on solo careers. Prior to signing with WWF in 1985, Neidhart had first made the acquaintance of manager and former pop singer Jimmy Hart in Memphis as part of Hart's First Family before Hart jumped to the WWF himself.

While Bret was relaxed and calm most of the time, Neidhart was a manic ball of energy, as this 1989 promo would suggest:



Neidhart's last WWF run came during the early days of the Attitude Era in 1997, when he & Bret reformed the Hart Foundation, this time expanding the roster to include another brother-in-law, former nemesis Davey Boy Smith, family friend Brian Pillman, and Bret's younger brother, Owen. After Bret left the WWF in controversial fashion in November of that year, Smith and Neidhart soon followed, disbanding the Hart Foundation once and for all. Pillman had himself passed away that summer. Neidhart was briefly in WCW, and made a brief appearance in TNA in its early years.

More recently, Neidhart had returned to the WWE fold, appearing with daughter Natalya on Total Divas.

Rest in peace, Jim.

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