Ranking the 5 best factions in wrestling history

3. The Hart Foundation helped shape wrestling history in 1997

Whenever I look at other lists of the best wrestling factions in history, I am often alarmed by how low the Hart Foundation are ranked. I would think that a faction based around great in-ring storytelling and technical ability would have their impact age better over time, as opposed to factions like, say, D-Generation X and nWo that were based on in-the-moment popularity and, uh, crude segments. (I’ll leave it at that).

The Hart Foundation took wrestling’s greatest family – and there are quite a few great wrestling families who have become factions – and turned them into an unstoppable force.

Originally starting off as a tag team comprised of Bret Hart and Jim “The Anvil” Neidhart (with Jimmy Hart as their manager until the duo turned babyface in 1988), the Foundation received an update in 1997 that coincided with Bret’s heel pro-Canada character shift. Between him, Neidhart, Owen Hart, Davey Boy Smith, and Brian Pillman, the group had quite the collection of talent.

Every wrestler named above is one of the best in-ring technicians of the era. There is perhaps only one other faction in wrestling history that can boast having a similar level of in-ring talent within their ranks – and we’ll get to them later.

In total, the Hart Foundation, through all its iterations pre-2000, won three tag titles. Its members also won a world title, two IC Titles, the King of the Ring, and the European Championship.

Along the way, they were a part of some of the most important moments of the 90s. You cannot tell a history of pro wrestling without the Hart Foundation, including Bret’s star-making feud with “Stone Cold” Steve Austin or, yes, the Montreal Screwjob.

You can only imagine what this faction’s legacy would be without that infamous Survivor Series event, which led to the end of the true Hart Foundation.