April 6, 1985
At a taping for an episode of
WWF Championship Wrestling which will later air on April 28th, “Rowdy” Roddy Piper, irate at not winning the WWF Championship at
Wrestlemania, demands a rematch with Ricky Steamboat. It isn’t Steamboat, but surprisingly, WWF Intercontinental Champion Greg Valentine who answers Piper, who says that clearly, Piper is delusional. He says that anyone who can’t win a title under pressure doesn’t need to be in the WWF. Piper says if he can’t have the WWF Title, he’ll take the next best thing, and a match between the two is made for the Intercontinental Title for later in the broadcast. That night, in a rare heel vs. heel contest, Piper pins Valentine by using the ropes for leverage to win the IC Title, his first ever belt in the WWF. [1]
April 14, 1985
After a technical glitch ended the local broadcast of
Wrestlemania I at the Civic Center in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania two weeks earlier, the pay-per-view is shown for free on a local television station. [2]
April 15, 1985
Vince McMahon was seated in his office, looking over the buyrate from the inaugural
Wrestlemania yet again. He nodded to himself as he looked over the figures. “400,000…not bad. Not bad at all…” [3]
Just then, a knock was heard at McMahon’s door. “Come in,” Vince said as he put down the buyrate sheet.
A man with feathery black hair and a mustache to match walked into the room, carrying a small cassette player. It was 41-year-old Jimmy Hart, who McMahon had hired about a year ago. Hart was a former member of a rock-and-roll band [4], and he co-wrote most of the entrance music for the WWF performers. He had recently been used as a manager onscreen, accompanying Greg Valentine, King Kong Bundy, and most recently, newcomer Jim Neidhart to the ring. Hart smiled as he looked Vince in the eye. “Vince, how are ya’?” Hart asked as he shook his boss’ hand. “Just wanted to bring you this new composition me and Jim came up with yesterday.” Hart pulled a cassette tape from his jeans pocket and handed it to McMahon.
McMahon nodded as he looked at the tape. “I appreciate it, Jimmy. Should I listen to it now?”
Hart nodded. “I came prepared for just such an emergency.” He placed the cassette player on the desk, inserted the tape into it, and pressed the play button. After a few seconds, an instrumental hard rock tune began playing, complete with an electric guitar overture and drums in the background.
McMahon nodded approvingly at the catchy tune that was playing. “It’s great…but who could use it?”
Hart shrugged. “Well, you have a few new guys who don’t have any entrance themes yet, right? How ‘bout the Bulldogs, or that Bret Hart kid?”
McMahon scowled and shook his head. “The Bulldogs need something English-sounding, like ‘God Save the Queen’ or something. And I had a particular gimmick in mind for Bret—the kid’s a great athlete, no doubt, but his father sure didn’t teach him much about talking. I think giving him a gimmick would work wonders for him.”
Another knock was heard at McMahon’s door. “Who is it?” Vince asked.
“It’s Bret,” said the voice of the young son of Stu Hart from the other side of the door. “You wanted to see me?”
“Yes, I did,” McMahon said. “Come on in.”
The handsome Canadian wrestler stepped through the door. McMahon had acquired Bret Hart, along with Jim Neidhart and the British Bulldogs, among others, from his acquisition of Canada’s Stampede Wrestling a few months ago. Bret sat down in a folding chair in front of McMahon’s desk. “What’s on your mind, sir?”
“I wanted to talk to you about a gimmick I had in mind for you,” McMahon replied as he took out a notepad. “You’re a great technical wrestler, Bret, but I just feel that you need a little extra…oomph to get the audience to like or dislike you.”
Bret nodded slowly, but said nothing.
“Bret, you have kind of a rustic look to you,” McMahon continued. “I think a cowboy gimmick would be great for you. We’ll put you in a hat, blue jeans, maybe even have you wrestle in some cowboy boots. It’ll be great—what do you say?” [5]
Bret creased his forehead as he thought about it. “I don’t know. I know next to nothing about cowboys. I’m Canadian, for God’s sake.”
McMahon frowned. “Well, I’d still like you to have some sort of gimmick—otherwise, the people might think you’re too bland. Do you have any suggestions?”
Bret shrugged. “Well, I had one swimming around in my head…maybe you could put me with Jim? We could make a decent tag team…”
“Neidhart? Your brother-in-law? The guy who Jimmy’s managing right now?” McMahon asked, laughing slightly. “We’ve got enough tag teams right now. Plus, I honestly think the cowboy thing would work better…”
Bret frowned, and then narrowed his eyes at McMahon. “No, I don’t think so. Most of your guys are already kinda cartoony anyway. Call me a traditionalist, but maybe I’m not cut out to work in the WWF anyways…”
McMahon shifted in his seat, sensing that his employee could be on the verge of quitting. “Now, now, there’s no need to do anything rash, Bret. I’m sure we can work something out…”
“Vince, may I butt in here just a minute?” Jimmy said, standing up. “I think teamin’ Bret with Jim could be a decent idea. Heck, you took a gamble on Ricky Steamboat a couple months ago, didn’t you? Why not give this a shot, too? These guys are brothers-in-law, for goodness’ sake, so they’re more likely to agree on stuff you put in front of them. Not only that,” he continued, pointing to himself and Bret, “but all three of us share the ‘Hart’ part of our name…that’s gotta be enough of a gimmick for ya’!”
McMahon blinked several times. “Hart…Neidhart…how come I didn’t see that before? I guess we
could try it out…” [6]
Just then, another hard knock was heard at McMahon’s door. “Today must be ‘Harass-the-Boss Day’,” Vince muttered, but then spoke up. “Who’s there?”
“Tom and Davey,” said an English-accented voice from behind the door. “We’ve got a bone to pick with you, McMahon.”
“Come on in,” McMahon said. The door flew open, and in walked Tom Billington, also known by his ring name of The Dynamite Kid. Billington’s cousin, Davey Boy Smith, walked behind him. Dynamite and Smith had been paired together as a tag team known as the British Bulldogs since being hired by McMahon when he bought out Stampede Wrestling. Bret smirked slightly at Davey, who nodded back at him. Davey was also Bret’s brother-in-law, having married Bret’s youngest sister Diana last year.
“We need to talk,” said Dynamite, sitting down in the chair beside Bret. “We’ve been clamoring for some competition for months now, and you’ve just had us on television wrestling jobbers, night in and night out. Hell, I bet could put away most of the guys you put me and Davey against
by myself! When are we going to get some legitimate competition, for God’s sake?”
Smith nodded slowly, but said nothing. His cousin was on another one of his tirades, and he wasn’t about to stop him for fear of making him angrier. [7]
“Whoa, take it easy, Tom,” McMahon said quietly but sternly, rising from his seat. “If you know what’s good for you, you will lower your voice in here—especially with other people present.” He motioned to Jimmy beside him and Bret in front of him.
Dynamite narrowed his eyes at McMahon, but then sighed as he put his hands up in the air. “Fine, I’m calm…just frustrated, is all. I just think it’s a crying shame that you put a tag team of mine and Davey’s caliber on a lower pedestal than those second-rate workers you’ve got as Tag Champions.”
“Watch it, Tom,” McMahon said in a low growl. “You’re entitled to your own opinions; just keep them to yourself around me. Now, if you have some ideas about your team, I’m willing to listen—just try to keep a cool head, alright?”
Dynamite took a deep breath before nodding slowly. “Yes, we had some ideas. We’ve noticed that you don’t have a decent heel tag team in the WWF, right Davey?”
Smith nodded. “Indeed. Bundy and Studd are made out to be monsters, sure, but they don’t really excel at having relatively long matches like us. Sheik and Volkoff are good, but Volkoff is kinda stiff and the Sheik is getting…well, over-the-hill. We think it might be time to turn us heel.”
McMahon stroked his chin as he thought about it. “The old ‘foreign heel’ card, huh? Sounds intriguing…Anti-American stuff has worked well with Sheik and Volkoff, so it might work with you two as well.”
Dynamite nodded and smiled. “So is it alright then?”
McMahon thought for a few more seconds, then nodded slowly. “Sure, it’s fine by me. We can always use some good competition for Santana and Beefcake.” McMahon looked around his room at everyone in it—first at Bret, then at the Bulldogs, then at Jimmy. Suddenly, a thought clicked in his mind.
“Wait a second…wait just a second!” he practically shouted. “I just had some inspiration! Jimmy, I know you’ll have no problem managing Hart and Neidhart, but didn’t you used to have like a big group of men under your…’managerial services’ back when you worked in Memphis?”
Jimmy thought back, and nodded. “Yeah, the First Family. We feuded with Jerry Lawler a lot. [8] But why…wait, you’re not thinking we could try and do that again?”
“Why
couldn’t we?” McMahon asked, smiling. “You’re managing Neidhart already…all you have to do is take Bret under your wing, then we turn the Bulldogs heel and have them join up with your group!” Vince turned to Dynamite and Davey. “How do you two like the idea?”
Smith nodded. “I like it! We’re all related anyway, by marriage or blood…all except Jimmy. We’d be one big, happy family!”
Dynamite thought for a few seconds, but then cracked a smile—a rarity for him. “It sounds great. But how about the other guys Jimmy’s managing?”
Everyone in the room was silent as they thought for a few seconds. “Well, Valentine just lost the Intercontinental strap, right?” Jimmy said, speaking up. “I could dump him to the curb, saying that I only manage champions. Bundy we could keep around a while, but then he could get jealous of how I’m treatin’ you new guys, so he gets rid of me as manager. That would just leave the five of us…the real ‘Hart Foundation’.” [9]
A slow smile crept across McMahon’s face. “Perfect! ‘The Hart Foundation’, the first major force in tag team wrestling today! Hell, we could even have one of you feud with Steamboat or something now that Piper’s the Intercontinental Champion.”
Jimmy chuckled slightly. “Aren’t you gettin’ a little ahead of yourself, Vince?”
“Maybe,” McMahon replied. “But you should know better than anybody that I dream big. I made Wrestlemania, didn’t I?”
Dynamite rose from his seat, laughing to himself. “Sometimes, McMahon, you amaze me.” He held out his hand for McMahon to shake. “It’s a pleasure working for you, my man.”
Smith just smiled and shook his head. “When do we debut?”
“How about the taping tomorrow?” McMahon asked.
“That sounds great. We'd better get ready for it, then,” Jimmy replied.
At this, Bret spoke up. “We could all meet this evening and decide what we’re gonna do, then Jimmy can run it by Vince later on. Come on, let’s go find Anvil…we’ve got a lot to catch him up on.”
With that, the four men exited McMahon’s office, and Vince smiled to himself. “I can’t believe how much things are coming together. What’s next, a Saturday morning cartoon?”
April 16, 1985
On an episode of
WWF Championship Wrestling that will later air on May 4th, Bret Hart & Jim Neidhart team up for the first time to defeat Mario Mancini & S.D. Jones. After the match ends, Hart & Neidhart continue to beat up Mancini & Jones. Jimmy Hart climbs into the ring and is about to bash a prone Mancini in the head with his megaphone when the British Bulldogs come out and shield the defenseless jobber from the attack. They stare at Jimmy, then at Hart & Neidhart, then at Jimmy again, when Dynamite holds out his hand for the megaphone. Jimmy reluctantly hands it over, and Smith begins to help Mancini to his feet. To everyone’s shock, however, Smith holds Mancini in place as Dynamite rears back and smashes the smaller jobber over the head with the megaphone. As the crowd boos, Bret & Neidhart climb into the ring, followed by Jimmy. All four wrestlers hit the turnbuckles, raising their hands in the air as Jimmy yells through his megaphone “
We are the Hart Foundation!”
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[1] IOTL, Valentine held the Intercontinental Title until July 6, 1985, when Tito Santana recaptured the belt in a Steel Cage Match at a house show. Here, the belt switches to Piper because of his popularity/heat.
[2] As OTL.
[3] IOTL,
Wrestlemania I only garnered 398,000 buyrates. It’s slightly higher here because of all the pushing McMahon has done due to the lack of Hulk Hogan on his product.
[4] Amazingly, this is the truth! Jimmy Hart was the lead vocalist for the Gentrys, a Memphis-based “garage rock” group who had a Billboard Top 5 hit in 1965, “Keep on Dancing”. Several other songs by the band also charted on the Hot 100, but they never had another Top 40 hit, and split up in 1972.
[5] This is the same gimmick Bret Hart was offered (and turned down) IOTL.
[6] IOTL, Hart & Neidhart first started teaming together in March 1985. Because of all the turmoil surrounding the Hogan/Steamboat situation ITTL, their team’s formation comes slightly later.
[7] Dynamite Kid was considered irritable, bad-tempered, and at times, impossible to reason with backstage. He’ll be a bit easier to get along with later on ITTL due to certain circumstances, but for now, he’s just as much an asshole as he always has been.
[8] Often considered the first true “stable” in modern wrestling, Jimmy Hart’s First Family of Wrestling first came about in the late 1970’s by Jimmy, and included such names as Eddie Gilbert, Austin Idol, Kamala, King Kong Bundy, Randy Savage, and yes, even Jim Neidhart.
[9] Up to this point, Jimmy had used the “Hart Foundation” moniker as a catch-all term to refer to all the wrestlers he managed onscreen (Bundy, Valentine, and most recently, Neidhart). Not until later, in both OTL and TTL, was it used solely to refer to the tag team of Bret Hart and Jim Neidhart.
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And there you have it: the birth of TTL's Hart Foundation. I told you Dynamite would play a more important role, didn't I?
Coming up, we take a look at the very first
Saturday Night's Main Event on NBC. And later, we see how NWA is responding to the WWF's recent changes, when we look at
Starrcade 1985.
