Bret Hart has spoken for the first time since the passing of Jim Neidhart, posting a long and emotional tribute to his best friend on Instagram.

Pro wrestling may continue to get better and better between the ropes in 2018, but the last couple of months have been tough for many in the industry outside of the ring. Fans and wrestlers alike have been mourning the losses of a number of great names from the industry's past like Brickhouse Brown, Nikolai Volkoff, and Brian Christopher who was better known in the business as Grandmaster Sexay.

Just two weeks after we tragically lost those three men in the same weekend, Jim 'The Anvil' Neidhart passed away. One half of the iconic tag team The Hart Foundation and the father of current WWE Superstar Natalya, the loss of Neidhart will have hit many in the industry pretty hard. Perhaps no one will have found the news of his passing more difficult to process than his best friend and brother-in-law, Bret Hart.

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On the day that Neidhart passed, The Hitman tweeted a photo of the two of them together stating that he was stunned and saddened and that he "didn't have the words right now." He also posted a photo of some Hart Foundation gear on his Instagram the day after without comment. On Tuesday of this week, the WWE Hall Of Famer finally found the strength to speak out about the loss of his long-time tag team partner.

Hart posted a photo of him and Neidhart as The Hart Foundation on Instagram along with a lengthy statement about exactly what The Anvil meant to him. "He was the best friend I ever had and I owe him for everything good that ever came my way as a pro wrestler," the former WWE Champion wrote. Hart also used some meaningful quotes in the post, which you can check out in its entirety above, and that when he one day meets again with all the loved ones he has lost, he hopes God leads him straight to Anvil.

Any wrestling fan who has been around for a while will know all too well that having to deal with the loss of your heroes on a semi-regular basis is part and parcel of the industry. Bret Hart knows that better than anyone. The Hitman is now the only member of the later iteration of the Hart Foundation left standing following the passing of Jim Neidhart, and that must be an extremely difficult truth to come to terms with.

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