Was Davey Boy really all that good?

[Guest Hadley]

Was Davey Boy Smith REALLY that good? His British Bulldog days were excellent so we wont go into those, but going into his 92-00 solo stuff, was he really that good? His best WWF matches were against guys like michaels, bret, owen, but he couldnt carry guys like ahmed and/or diesel to watchable stuff. And i havent seen most of his wcw stuff, but i dont recall any memorable matches from him there, and the less said about the 99-00 run the better.

[spman 0]

British Buldog was a has been who never was. He had a few really good matches with his family members, and then a lot of really unmemorable matches with everyone else. I honestly can't think of a single good match he's ever had outside of the two matches with Bret.

[JST 0]

Keep in mind who was slated for the big solo push, before someone screwed up his back forever.

[Guest Fook]

Bulldog was very carryable in the ring, but he couldn't carry others. He could have great matches when in there with capable workers (Bret, Owen, HBK, etc.), but put him in there with slugs like Luger, Mabel, Sid, or Nash and its a guaranteed DUD.

[Lil' Bitch 0]

^ Like Edge and Cena.

[Guest wildpegasus]

^ Like Edge and Cena.

 

Except the Bulldog could do a lot more physcially in the ring. More acrobatic, more believable, more strength, a million times better offence (except for the chinlock of course) better speed and just all around more fun to watch. He had much, much more of a wow factor to him inside the ring than Edge and Cena (as well as a lot of others) ever did.

[Guest NYankees]

I remember being a big fan of the HBK/Bulldog IC title match back in the day when HBK won it from him back in 1992.

[Dobbs 3K 0]

Bulldog peaked around '92 as a solo worker, then didn't do much after that. I don't recall any of his WCW stuff being all that good.

 

Personally, I think his best stuff was always as a tag team wrestler...obviously the British Bulldogs were phenomenal, but his team with Owen Hart was one of my all time favorite tag teams.

[Hasbeen1 0]

Bulldog was very carryable in the ring, but he couldn't carry others. He could have great matches when in there with capable workers (Bret, Owen, HBK, etc.), but put him in there with slugs like Luger, Mabel, Sid, or Nash and its a guaranteed DUD.

 

 

Very few, if any of the heavily muscled guys, could ever compare to the likes of Michaels, Harts, etc, that's not really a fair comparison.

[Guest]

Bulldog's cardio was terrible. He needed to be guided, because he didn't have the stamina to guide others.

 

I liked him, but he wasn't great by any stretch.

[Guest CWMwasmurdered]

Find footage from a young Bulldog in Stampede before he started to really bulk up. He was never as good as Dynamite but he was a good to very good worker, and not just against Hart family members.

[CanadianChris 0]

He was a decent wrestler who could have very good matches with the right people. He was vastly overrated, though, due to being paired with one of the greatest workers ever in Dynamite Kid and having fantastic matches. He was never someone you'd want to build a promotion around.

[Guest wildpegasus]

Find footage from a young Bulldog in Stampede before he started to really bulk up. He was never as good as Dynamite but he was a good to very good worker, and not just against Hart family members.

 

All right, you've got to be a hardcore fan. What matches have you seen? Are we talking very early 80s here? Are we talking like a very young Bulldog vs the Great Gama and Cobra?

 

Speaking of the "old" times Davey is supposed to have had an awesome match with Finlay over in England as well. Perhaps Clive Myers too?

 

 

I find the thread title interesting here "Was Davey Boy really all that good?"

 

The very fact that this question is even asked means that Davey Boy's got qualities about him that make him awesome to watch. That fact is obvious I believe even to the non Davey Boy Smith fans. Qualities that make him stand out against most other wrestlers. The thing was that Davey was inconsistant and had some faults BUT and this is a big BUT he had all the tools necessary to have awesome, memoarable wrestling matches that stand the test of time and that will be remembered more fondly than your typical wrestling superstar. That is what Davey Boy had that most wresters did not or do not have.

[CanadianChick 0]

I don't know if it was the norm for him, but I saw a Davey match against Dynamite in Japan, and it was a pretty darn good match. Anybody else ever see his solo Japan work and would like to comment?

[Guest wildpegasus]

I don't know if it was the norm for him, but I saw a Davey match against Dynamite in Japan, and it was a pretty darn good match. Anybody else ever see his solo Japan work and would like to comment?

 

He had a couple of matches against DK there in Japan.

 

He did have a fun match against Cobra. It was his first match in Japan and he actually underneath a mask before he decided to take it off at the beginning of the bout. To tell you the truth I honostly can't remember too many single Davey Boy matches from Japan.

[GODSON 0]

I don't know if it was the norm for him, but I saw a Davey match against Dynamite in Japan, and it was a pretty darn good match. Anybody else ever see his solo Japan work and would like to comment?

 

Both of his WCW runs was not good. I think like the Undertaker and Bret Hart to a certain degree his flaws was cover up in the WWF and he was booked to the best of his abilities.

[cabbageboy 0]

His WCW 1993 run is underrated mainly because he never really won a major belt. He actually had some very solid power matches with Vader for the title.

 

This question is a bit unfair because I think Davey Boy was caught in a Catch 22. Being the power man of the Bulldogs he was pushed solo as a power wrestler, thus he got seriously juiced.

 

Davey Boy was a unique hybrid capable of working power matches with the big stiffs (not necessarily good but who was having classics with the Warlord?) and also having classic matches with the technically sound guys on the roster.

 

He was also my favorite wrestler from roughly 1992-97. Once he was in WCW (circa 1998) he seemed a shell of himself though and it saddened me.

[Guest CWMwasmurdered]

All right, you've got to be a hardcore fan. What matches have you seen? Are we talking very early 80s here? Are we talking like a very young Bulldog vs the Great Gama and Cobra?

 

This would have had to be early 80's. The matches I've seen were with Gama and Cobra, as well as stuff with Dynamite. I'm not too hardcore (mostly because I don't have the extra cash for wrestling anymore) but I just lucked across Volumes 1-5 of a Best of Stampede set.

[JustJoe2k5 0]

I always thought his In Your House match against Bret Hart from late '95 was very underrated.

 

I felt he was a pretty solid mid-carder. Definitely better than all of the cartoon characters McMahon tried to introduce from '92-'97.

[UseTheSledgehammerUh 0]

He was always the most boring member of the 1997 Hart Foundation to me, especially anywhere near the stick.

 

Both WCW runs were absolutely horrible.

 

Solid tag worker with a better championship partners in Dynamite and Owen.

 

Carried by Bret, Shawn, and Hennig in his early singles run.

 

Yep, I'd say he's overrated. He's better than most of the current WWE roster, though, with very few exceptions.

[Bruce Blank 0]

Overrated? I'm sorry but outside of his team with Dynamite who raves about how great Davey Boy was? He's not regarded as a legendary wrestler is he?

 

I liked him, he was a good power guy with more mobility than most of the stiffs of that time - I always thought he was GOOD but not a great wrestler

 

Solid midcard, occational world title challenger with the right story behind him.

[World's Worst Man 0]

You don't have matches as good as the 1995 match vs. Bret unless you're somewhat of a good worker yourself. Carry jobs only go so far. His matches vs. Bret also smoked Bret's matches vs. HBK, for whatever it's worth.

[cabbageboy 0]

Would it be that hard? Bret and HBK didn't like each other or want to make the other look good. I personally think the Iron Man match from WM 12 sucks ass. Montreal is a curio due to the finish but it's not much as an actual match.

 

Davey Boy was never a guy I'd build a US promotion around though. The thick English accent always hurt his interviews. He was one of the biggest worldwide draws the WWF had however, especially Europe. Hell, if you believe Meltzer and his assertion that WM 3 only had 78,000 then Davey Boy drew the biggest crowd in WWF/E history for SS 92 (which had 80,000).

[Annabelle 0]

anything he did with owen was great. i'd say he's much better than mostly anyone in the wwe right now.

[Guest wildpegasus]

Would it be that hard? Bret and HBK didn't like each other or want to make the other look good. I personally think the Iron Man match from WM 12 sucks ass. Montreal is a curio due to the finish but it's not much as an actual match.

 

Davey Boy was never a guy I'd build a US promotion around though. The thick English accent always hurt his interviews. He was one of the biggest worldwide draws the WWF had however, especially Europe. Hell, if you believe Meltzer and his assertion that WM 3 only had 78,000 then Davey Boy drew the biggest crowd in WWF/E history for SS 92 (which had 80,000).

 

WM12 was a good match with a great ending that makes even more sense at the time if you were watching the buildup to the bout. We can debate all day about the Ironman match and wether each man didn't want to make the other look good but besides that the fact remains that before that Bret and HBK got along a lot better. They had a very good match at SS92 and several great tag matches with the Hart Foundation going up against the Rockers.

 

So yeah, it'd be diffucult to top preformances like that as by no means were any of those Bret/Shawn preformances bad. The Bret vs Davey matches are among the better matches in WWF history so that says something right there about Davey Boy. Man, just thinking about it Davey Boy vs Benoit would be a super dream match.

 

If I were a wrestler, Davey Boy would be one of my top dream opponents.

[cabbageboy 0]

WM 12 is one of the weaker Iron Man matches I've seen. I'd put it below HHH/Rock (which I saw in person), Steamboat/Rude, even Lesnar/Angle from SD. Those matches actually had (gasp) pinfalls and action.

 

One note that I heard about the WM 12 match was Shawn telling Bret "Get the fuck out of the ring, this is my moment" when Bret was going to present him with the belt or whatever he had in mind. On first glance it's easy to say Shawn was being a dick, but given the Hogan/Warrior match and the way Hogan cleverly made the post match less about Warrior winning than about him losing, I can't say I blame Shawn if he said that.

[Guest wildpegasus]

WM 12 is one of the weaker Iron Man matches I've seen. I'd put it below HHH/Rock (which I saw in person), Steamboat/Rude, even Lesnar/Angle from SD. Those matches actually had (gasp) pinfalls and action.

 

One note that I heard about the WM 12 match was Shawn telling Bret "Get the fuck out of the ring, this is my moment" when Bret was going to present him with the belt or whatever he had in mind. On first glance it's easy to say Shawn was being a dick, but given the Hogan/Warrior match and the way Hogan cleverly made the post match less about Warrior winning than about him losing, I can't say I blame Shawn if he said that.

 

Didn't like HHH/Rock. Steamboat/Rude was great. Fav ironman is Bret vs Owen.

 

 

The Warrior/Hogan thing is Hogan reviosionist history and really doesn't make any sense at all.

 

 

If Michaels wanted to hog all the spotlight for himself (and I think the mouthing bit's been confirmed; correct?) than he should've mentioned it beforehand and not in the ring after the match.

 

Anyway, I don't know if Bret was going to do something extra before Michaels told him to get the f**k out of the ring. I mean, Bret vacating the premises after the match was an awesome planned moment (that looked totally legit) but was there something else planned that was supposed to happen before Michaels wanted him out of there? GREAT professionalism by Bret there though just not to clobber Michaels right on the spot after Michaels ordering him around. Even cursing at him on top of that.

[Dobbs 3K 0]

On first glance it's easy to say Shawn was being a dick, but given the Hogan/Warrior match and the way Hogan cleverly made the post match less about Warrior winning than about him losing, I can't say I blame Shawn if he said that.

 

The Warrior/Hogan thing is Hogan reviosionist history and really doesn't make any sense at all.

 

 

I agree with this. I don't know how you can go back and watch that match and say Hogan was stealing the spotlight at the end. It was pretty obvious he had been defeated, and him guesturing to Warrior made sense in the context of the face vs face matchup. I don't think it was some evil plan Hogan had to steal the spotlight or something. I mean, it was pretty obviously Warrior's moment, with him hoisting two titles, and everything.

[cabbageboy 0]

To clarify I have no problem with Hogan doing what he did at all. I think it made the match and moment all the more special and if anything it would have seemed strange for Hogan to have simply walked away after his first clean pinfall loss in forever.

[Black Lushus 0]

I don't see it as Hogan grandstanding either...as he rode off to the back, his body language suggested that he lost to the better man and was giving that better man the praise he was due. I thought presenting the belt and then hugging was a great touch. Besides, the final scenes were Warrior celebrating with both belts...this argument is old and tired.