As confirmed by the WWE, wrestler Jim “The Anvil” Neidhart—a two-time WWF Tag Team Champion and former member of the Hart Foundation tag team duo with his brother-in-law Bret “Hitman” Hart—has died. According to a report from ESPN, Neidhart died after falling at his home and hitting his head, with authorities saying he “succumbed to his injury.” Another brother-in-law, former wrestler Ross Hart, said that Neidhart had been suffering from Alzheimer’s and had a seizure before his death. Neidhart was 63.
Born in 1955, Neidhart had a brief career in the NFL (playing in preseason games for the Oakland Raiders and the Dallas Cowboys) before moving to Canada to train with Stampede Wrestling founder Stu Hart. At Stampede in the ‘80s, Neidhart won several tag team championships and an anvil-tossing competition (giving him his nickname, “The Anvil”), and he married Stu Hart’s daughter Elizabeth Hart. In 1985, Vince McMahon bought Stampede, bringing Neidhart and his brother-in-law Bret Hart to the WWF (as it was known at the time). Unhappy with the cowboy-themed gimmick he had initially been given, Bret Hart petitioned McMahon to let him form a duo—The Hart Foundation—with Neidhart.