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British Bulldog in the WWF, 1995-97


AshC

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I thought he looked the part when he was wrestling in jeans & what looked like army boots.

 

Definitely. When he stopped pissing around with his Union Jack trunks and started dressing like that he looked a proper thug who would twat you just for thinking about looking at his pint. It was the perfect look for him at that time, and it was my favourite period of his career.

I thought watching him around that time was pretty sad. He was a mess and had become so bad in comparison to what he once was that he was soon demoted to Heat and Metal duty. It felt like every second bump he took put him at risk of paralysis, i can think of about 3 or 4 occasions from those few months just off the top of my head. There was clearly something not quite right about him by then, his skin was turning a purpley colour, and he just looked ill.

 

He was good in that 95-97 run though. I don't care too much about who's calling the spots; Bret, Owen and HBK's matches vs the Bulldog were some of their best work from those years, that's got to say something about him. I think that Diesel match which gets shat on so much was pretty underrated too. And when he was in a spot lower in the card, in tags or multimans, he was always a steady hand. There's some decent stuff out there too vs the likes of LOD, Can-Ams, Gunns, Headbangers etc. And of course, as already mentioned, he was bizarre.

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There's some decent stuff out there too vs the likes of LOD, Can-Ams, Gunns, Headbangers etc.

 

Don't forget the New Blackjacks. Much love as I have for Big Barry pre-WWF comeback, and I even don't mind a touch of the character they fashioned for JBL, the only time I ever cared about a Blackjacks match is when they were wrestling Owen and Smithers.

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I remember a tremendous match with Bulldog, Owen and Yokozuna against Michaels, Diesel and Undertaker.

 

Featuring a bumload of interference from Dean Douglas fucking Shawn up with a front suplex gut-first onto the sharp end of the steps (ouch), DBS pinning the WWF Champion, and the Men On A Mission jumping in for the infamous "face crushing" where Mabes and Yoko take it in turns dropping on Undertaker?

 

They were loving it. Someone should have just shouted "PILE ON!!!" and had done with it.

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I thought he looked the part when he was wrestling in jeans & what looked like army boots.

 

Definitely. When he stopped pissing around with his Union Jack trunks and started dressing like that he looked a proper thug who would twat you just for thinking about looking at his pint. It was the perfect look for him at that time, and it was my favourite period of his career.

I thought watching him around that time was pretty sad. He was a mess and had become so bad in comparison to what he once was that he was soon demoted to Heat and Metal duty. It felt like every second bump he took put him at risk of paralysis, i can think of about 3 or 4 occasions from those few months just off the top of my head. There was clearly something not quite right about him by then, his skin was turning a purpley colour, and he just looked ill.

My only memory of that WWF run was when he absolutely blew a double hiptoss in a match on PPV. I believe it was a three-way grapple with him and D'Lo Brown and Val Venis. Venis runs the ropes and both the Bulldog and Brown absolutely blow a simple hiptoss. It was Davey Boy's fault too. The collective groaning was very audible.

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I thought he looked the part when he was wrestling in jeans & what looked like army boots.

 

Definitely. When he stopped pissing around with his Union Jack trunks and started dressing like that he looked a proper thug who would twat you just for thinking about looking at his pint. It was the perfect look for him at that time, and it was my favourite period of his career.

I thought watching him around that time was pretty sad. He was a mess and had become so bad in comparison to what he once was that he was soon demoted to Heat and Metal duty. It felt like every second bump he took put him at risk of paralysis, i can think of about 3 or 4 occasions from those few months just off the top of my head. There was clearly something not quite right about him by then, his skin was turning a purpley colour, and he just looked ill.

My only memory of that WWF run was when he absolutely blew a double hiptoss in a match on PPV. I believe it was a three-way grapple with him and D'Lo Brown and Val Venis. Venis runs the ropes and both the Bulldog and Brown absolutely blow a simple hiptoss. It was Davey Boy's fault too. The collective groaning was very audible.

Yeah, that was one instance i had in mind, granted the likely outcome would probably have been a dislocated shoulder rather than a broken neck. D-Lo clearly asks him "are you alright?" and JR has to to try to cover for it by saying he was asking mockingly and sarcastically.

 

I can remember a couple of times he barely rotated on taking a back body drop which was extremely scary looking, and another couple of times he messed up that signature somersault bump into the turnbuckle he occasionally busted out by landing square on his head.

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That last WWF run was sad, he was never the same after the trapdoor bump in WCW.

 

I do remember though that night in the National Indoor Arena when he interrupted the Rock/HHH steel cage match for the title, the white heat he received was incredible. They did a fine job in making the crowd hate him that evening, even though he was on home turf.

 

I remember very late in his career a match with Eddie Guerrero that was half-decent and went to a draw, which made me think that they were considering giving him one last reasonable push. Alas, it wasn't to be.

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And here it is!

 

 

 

That's how you do tv wrestling! Straight into a match, loads of guys, loads of storylines, explosive from the get-go. Impact last week started with a 15 minute (no joke) Karen Jarrett promo.

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Don't forget the New Blackjacks. Much love as I have for Big Barry pre-WWF comeback, and I even don't mind a touch of the character they fashioned for JBL, the only time I ever cared about a Blackjacks match is when they were wrestling Owen and Smithers.

 

Off topic but have you seen that New Blackjacks match over in Japan against some people whose names I forget now. Its quite good, and from what I've read they were allowed to go because Vince laughed off the notion that they could actually get any bookings as the New Blackjacks.

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I remember reading that Davey was supposed to be going back to WCW sometime around 96 and was intended to be the fourth member of the NWO, any truth to that?

 

As for Davey boy, his 95-97 run, for me was pure class. The IYH match with Bret was another classic, although I disagree with those who think it was better than their SummerSlam outing. The match with Owen in Germany remains one of my most favourite Raw bouts. I also think the role he played in the reformation of the Hart Foundation was also overlooked a little. During the episode of Raw in which they reformed, the whole thing was gripping TV and built perfectly. I remember my dad coming home from the local club talking about the moment where Bret came out during Owen and Davey's match and breaking it up which of course led to the reunion, with them all crying in the ring, my dad and all of the old fellas in the club had it on the big screen and although they took the piss, I could tell they still enjoyed it, and it remains the only time they gave it such attention.

 

I didn't like the jeans phase at all, though, and thankfully (for me) it isn't the way I remember Smith.

 

The match with HBK at One Night Only was another cracker, although I'm still a little miffed that wrestling law was violated, and Smith lost in the UK. The main memory I have of that show, was how over Smith still was as a babyface here, even after the Canada Vs USA stuff. Yes, I know that fits in with the angle, but when watching the show live and when watching it now, it's clear to see that quite a fair portion of the crowd were booing Bret, and seemed to follow the USA fans lead. Still, I know that Davey would of had to go some way to be viewed as a true heel over here at any time, particularly then, but I think the reaction to the end of the HBK match and subsequent beat-down with the bottle throwing, was still an impressive feat and something to behold. Along with being one of the very last heel reactions of it's kind and magnitude.

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I remember reading that Davey was supposed to be going back to WCW sometime around 96 and was intended to be the fourth member of the NWO, any truth to that?

Yeah. He'd given them his word as well (might be a reason why Bischoff was so against using him when he did resign). WCW even set up an angle for his debut. Ted DiBiase was at ringside on Nitro and said "next week five". So everyone expected a new nWo member. When Davey Boy resigned with WWF during the week WCW had to act fast, so the Giant turned heel. Davey Boy would have looked good in a cut off nWo shirt. Unlike 1998, he could still go with the best of them. And being one of the key members in the original nWo, he would never have been lost in the suffle. As fast and as good as he was in 1996, imagine how class he'd have been wrestling the likes of Benoit, Malenko, Guerrero etc.

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