The British Bulldog:Davey Boy Smith appreciation.

I was a huge fan of Davey Boy Smith, and the British Bulldogs just in general.

It took me years of old school tape trading over the internet many many years ago to finally snag the British Bulldogs coliseum video. It wasn't a master copy of it, but it didn't matter to me.

I remember finally getting the British Bulldogs LJN figures at a yard sale for like $2 each. It was worth it. They won the tag belts that day I brought them home.

I remember having my mom order me the hasbro British Bulldog figure from Christmas, from a over priced store back in 1996, and I made him and Bret Hart become a tag team.

I remember going to a store in 1997 and seeing Series 3 of Jakks BCAs and spotting The British Bulldog and Bret Hart. Those figures were bought that day (along with an Ahmed Johnson).

His matches with Mr. Perfect, Shawn Michaels, Bret Hart, Owen Hart, and Diesel were pretty entertaining and fun to watch.

His tag matches with the Hart Foundation, Demolition, the Dream Team as the British Bulldogs, and later on his tag matches with Owen against Smokin' Gunns, Furnas & Lafon, and LOD were pretty good too.

I remember I was such a hardcore British Bulldog fan in 1992 that my parents bought a puppy dog that year, and I named him "Winston" after Davey Boy naming his bulldog that.

It's a shame he's passed away, but he was definitely one of the great wrestlers to never win the World Title. And still to this day, I felt he should have been a WCW Champion in 1993 in his feud with Vader.

I always liked British Bulldog.

My favorite period of his was his run as Tag Team Champion with Owen Hart. They were great together and could work awesome matches. They brought a lot of credibility to the Tag Team Championship and legit looked like they were having fun in the ring.

My favorite Bulldog match is the finals of the WWF European Championship Tournament in Germany against Owen Hart on Raw. Fantastic match.

Plus, this:

Loved Bulldog, was cool seeing a uker do what I loved to watch growing up. Summerslam vs Bret is my fav match of his!

Some reason 1 memory I always remember is the dog poop match, dunno why :L

I loved the Bulldog. As many have stated, he's one of the best stars to never win the World Title. I remember making him a World Champion with my BCA figures years ago.
Then a couple of years back when I was playing GM Mode on SVR 2006 for hours and hours every week, I had him win the WWE Title.

He had some great matches. Some of my favorite matches are Davey Boy Smith vs Shawn Michaels. Both men were great wrestlers and could have a good match with just about anyone, but when they wrestled each other I was always glued to my seat. They always had something that stood out with their matches. (For example: The first time I had ever seen the mexican surfboard stretch was Davey vs Shawn...I think it was from early 95, it may be the one on Shawn's My Journey dvd come to think of it).

One of the things that I really like about Davey was that he I wouldn't really classify him as just one style of wrestling. He was a powerhouse, no doubt about it. But even with all his feats of strength, he had some moves that your typical powerhouse didn't do.

His match against Owen in Europe on RAW was amazing, matches in Japan with Dynamite against and as part of the Hart Foundation in the WWE were brilliant.

RIP Davey.

Unfortunately, I was too young to really remember The British Bulldogs at the time. Luckily the WWE has released some of their matches and I've viewed some on youtube, and I've been givin the chance to see them wrestle. They were a great tag team, if only I had gotten into wrestling earlier I probably would like them even more if I had lived the memories the first time around instead of having to experience them years later on DVD.

When Davey came back in 90/91, this is when I first remember seeing Davey. I remember them making a big deal out of Davey and the Warlord, who was the strongest...or something along those lines. For some reason I keep thinking of Davey vs Perfect....although I don't know if that match actually happened.

When Davey returned in 1994 was when I really started to get behind him. It was great seeing him back in a WWF ring. Was actually surprised he didn't get another Intercontinental Title run around this time.
For some reason I really liked the Allied Powers when they teamed the Bulldog with Lex Luger...although I've never really liked Luger. The team kinda made sense since they had decided Luger wasn't going to work as the top singles face and since Davey wasn't going to get the IC title back with Razor and Jarrett fighting over it. Was again surprised that they didn't have the Allied Powers win the tag titles. Also while talking about the APowers, I remember somewhere during this time Davey lifting Mabel on his shoulders out of the corner. I'm sure Mabel helped him by pushing off the corner but this was one of the most amazing feats of strength I had seen since the Warrior catching Savage off the top rope.

The heel turn and tag run with Owen were great, and the Hart Foundation is one of my all time favorite stables. I believe honestly if not for the Screw Job, Davey could have eventually went for another singles run and possibly score the IC title again or maybe even the World Title.

I didn't follow WCW enough to comment on Davey's run there, but during his short return in 1999 I thought we may have seen a rejuvenated Davey become a major player in the World Title picture but it didn't happen.

Bulldog was in a position where he could have held the title in 91, 92, 95, 96 or 99.

In 91 he was hugely popular, constantly winning battle royals and probably the most over international star. If it wasn't for Hogan, I'm betting he would have held the title.

In 92, he was still really over. The crowd actually let out a disappointed sigh when he was eliminated from the 92 rumble. Unfortinately it only led to an IC title. In theory the match Davey and Bret had at Summerslam should have been for the world title.

In 95 and 96 he was a top carder, frequently having title matches with Diesel, Shawn and Bret. He just never quite got the victory, very close in a match with Shawn Michaels though, he was actually declared the winner and had the title before Gorilla Monsoon declared the match a draw.

In 99 he was straight into the main card (6 pack challenge) but after that his drug use really held him down.

In my opinion he's the top person who never held the title who was in the spot to.

The closest Bulldog got to winning a world title was in 1996 during his feud with HBK. If there was ever a time for him to be champion it was during that summer. It just wasn't in the books for Davey.

^ I said that if not for Hogan he would have held the title in 91.

99 he definately came in as a main eventer, he was moved to the mid card because of his drug problem.

If you watch some late 91 and 92 matches of his, he was SUPER over. He definately could have held the title in 92, especially around the Rumble to Summerslam months. The reason that Summerslam was held in England was because of how popular Davey Boy was.