Hart Foundation set for 2019 WWE Hall of Fame induction

With less than two weeks until the ceremony, the WWE has announced more names for it’s 2019 Hall of Fame class.

A month ago, rumors circulated that the original Hart Foundation would be among those named to the 2019 class of the WWE Hall of Fame. Time passed, though, with other names announced for the honor and no word on whether the duo of Bret “Hitman” Hart and Jim “The Anvil” Neidhart would indeed get the nod.

But on Monday, the WWE cleared up the speculation and announced (via a Yahoo! Sports scoop) that the Hart-Neidhart pairing are set to hit the Hall this year. Originally, it was believed that manager Jimmy Hart would also be included; ultimately, that is not the case. However, as earlier reports indicated, the mid-1990s iteration of the Foundation, which included Owen Hart, Davey Boy Smith and Brian Pillman, are not part of the current proceedings.

Hart and Neidhart, who were brothers-in-law in real life, first began teaming up in 1985 and won WWE Tag Team Championship gold twice before splitting up in 1991. Hart, in speaking to Yahoo! Sports, said that the two men’s contrasting styles were a major reason for their success:

"Jim and I brought a different mental thinking to wrestling, we were one big guy, one smaller guy. We were very versatile in the sense that we could wrestle any team. Word of mouth is kind of what got Jim and I recognized as a team that would work."

Neidhart passed away in August 2018. His daughter, Natalya, is a current WWE Superstar. Hart has already been inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame, as a solo performer in 2006. He joins Shawn Michaels, Booker T and Ric Flair as the only Superstars to be inducted into the Hall twice. Michaels will receive his second induction this year as part of D-Generation X; Booker T will also receive his second induction this year, as part of the tag team Harlem Heat.

Other members of the WWE Hall of Fame class of 2019 are the Honky Tonk Man and Torrie Wilson. The company’s head of community relations, Sue Aitchison, will receive the Warrior Award. The ceremony takes place on April 6 at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn on the night before WrestleMania 35.