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Thread: Wrasslin'!

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  1. #121
    El Kabong Guest

    Default Re: Wrasslin'!

    Quote Originally Posted by palmerq View Post
    Wrestling is absolutely ridiculous and it's bizarre that actual pretty talented adults choose to do this... UT wotever I like it. Got to like Drew mcintyre these days even if he is a dirty hun.. Shame he's just a glorified jobber now.
    Oh ABSOLUTELY agree it's bizarre but it's really no different than theater.... Perhaps a little more high impact

  2. #122
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    Default Re: Wrasslin'!

    These are good stuff . They should be airing all these comps instead of two guys grunting in an empty arena.

  3. #123
    El Kabong Guest

    Default Re: Wrasslin'!



    RIP to one of the best big men ever in the business! Great feuds with Hulk Hogan and George The Animal Steele. He had a hard time after his career losing both legs to his struggle with diabetes. Great gimmick and dedication to it and seemingly a real sweetheart outside the ring.

  4. #124
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    Default Re: Wrasslin'!

    On August 29 1992, Wembley Stadium hosted WWE SummerSlam, the biggest professional wrestling event on British soil. It was three-and-a-half-hours of oversized, cartoon-like men, all bellowing and bumping around, with a whopping 80,000 fans roaring in approval – mostly frenzied kids in freshly-purchased merchandise, hyped-up on the zeitgeisty craze of American wrestling.


    It was indeed American wrestling – a long way from ITV’s dingy, Saturday afternoon wrestling slot on World of Sport, typically remembered for the belly-flopping heroics of Big Daddy and legions of rabid grannies. But SummerSlam ended triumphantly for the Brits, with homegrown wrestling champ ‘The British Bulldog’ Davey Boy Smith standing victorious – decked out in Union Jack tights, his braided hair with red, white, and blue beads, and with the Commonwealth boxing champ Lennox Lewis in his corner, literally waving the flag. Davey Boy Smith had defeated his brother-in-law, Bret Hart, in the main event title fight.

    Wrestling powerhouse WWE – or the WWF (World Wrestling Federation), as it was back then – had been central to the Rupert Murdoch-led launch of Sky TV. Muscling out the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles as the fad-of-the-moment, the WWF’s popularity exploded.

    Davey Boy’s win at Wembley Stadium was the peak of that early 1990s wrestling craze. Indeed, SummerSlam at Wembley occupies a similar space in the hearts of sentimental wrestling fans as the World Cup 1966 does for English football folk. WWE is set to return for its first UK stadium event in 30 years: Clash at the Castle, held at Cardiff’s Principality Stadium on Saturday September 3. But the mere mention of SummerSlam ’92 – now re-released on a 30th anniversary DVD and Blu-ray – will make wrestling fans of a certain age go dewy-eyed with nostalgia.

    It was indeed a long way from ITV’s World of Sport, but that’s the exact road that the British Bulldog journeyed: from a working-class family in Wigan, and hit with family hardships from an early age, Davey Boy Smith wrestled his way from Saturday afternoon ITV to the main event of the WWF. He was – and remains – the biggest wrestling star this country has ever seen. More than that, Smith became a crossover celebrity – a household name, tabloid favourite, and TV regular. He even recorded a Simon Cowell-produced top five single.

    But just 10 years after his crowning moment at Wembley Stadium, Davey Boy Smith was dead. He was just 39 years old, his body ravaged from his years in the wrestling ring and the toll of steroids and pain medication.

    David Smith was born in Golborne, Wigan in 1962. He struggled at school, which ultimately led him to train as a wrestler. “He wasn’t really a scholastic person,” his daughter, Georgia Smith, tells me. “He was born with measles in his eyes and would struggle seeing things on the board. He wore glasses and kids would make fun of him. He was getting into a rough crowd. My granddad noticed and thought he needed to be doing other activities – something more positive.”

    David’s father, Sid, who worked for the gas board, took him to a tough, old-school grappling coach. According to Georgia, Sid offered to do some brickwork as payment for David’s training. David was just 13. The same coach trained David’s cousin, Tom Billington, known as the ‘Dynamite Kid’ – a lightning quick, high-impact wrestling pioneer. “He was like a pinball,” says Georgia.

    Later, Davey Boy and the Dynamite Kid formed a tag team, the hugely influential British Bulldogs. Their story is told in a new book, Dynamite and Davey, by British author Steven Bell.

    Smith made his professional debut aged 15. He wrestled on World of Sport just four months later. Sid would drive him to wrestling shows around the country. “He was doing World of Sport,” says Georgia, “and when he’d return to school, kids would say, ‘Oh my god, that’s where he’s been! He’s on TV!’” Smith remained a Wigan lad at heart. “He loved going to the Wigan nightclubs,” says Georgia. “And he loved the fish and chips and the curries. He loved that life. Every chance he got, he would always go back.”


    Matchmakers put Smith – wrestling as ‘Young David’ – into a tag team with perennial favourite Big Daddy. Smith’s job was to do the actual wrestling, or get to thrown around and clamped into various holds by villains, before tagging in Big Daddy to dispatch the villains, such as Giant Haystacks or Mick McManus.

    “By that point, Big Daddy was rather rotund and immobile,” says Steven Bell, author Dynamite and Davey. “Big Daddy couldn’t wrestle for more than a few minutes. But the show was built around him being the winner, with everybody laughing and cheering and singing along at the end. So, they would put a fresh, fit, young lad with Big Daddy as his tag team partner.”
    Do not let success go to your head and do not let failure get to your heart.

  5. #125
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    Default Re: Wrasslin'!

    Watching his Young David matches now, it’s remarkable how slight Smith was – a pale, skinny, almost gaunt lad – half the man he’d later become. Seemingly insecure, he hid his physique under a vest.

    Smith followed the Dynamite Kid to Calgary, Canada, where he wrestled for a promotion owned by the Harts, a famous Canadian wrestling family. Smith met and eventually married Diana Hart. Diana’s brother, Bret Hart, remembered Davey Boy as “a shy, skinny, simple-hearted kid with big dimples”. Davey looked up to his cousin, though Dynamite had a reputation as a behind-the-scenes prankster with a nasty streak.

    The cousins travelled to Japan, where they formed a tag team. They were a hit on primetime TV, at a time when Japanese wrestling scored big TV ratings. Davey was a solo star in Japan, too. Following Dynamite’s style and move-set, Davey Boy was fast, instinctive, and immensely powerful in his own right.

    Joining the WWF in 1985, they were renamed the British Bulldogs and came to the ring with an actual bulldog. Led by chairman Vince McMahon and beefed-up champ Hulk Hogan, the WWF was in the process of a national expansion in the US – a smash-hit, cartoonish TV product that tapped into Reagan-era Americana.

    American wrestling was also fully-pumped on steroids. Davey, naturally strong, was introduced to steroids by Billington. In his early 1990s pomp, Davey was billed at 270lbs – an incredible amount of muscle to carry on a 5’11”, naturally slender frame. At one point, he was involved in a serious car crash. He required 100-plus stitches in his head, but his giant neck muscles likely saved his life. Davey was also suffering from back problems. Pain pills and muscle relaxants were endemic in wrestling, which – back in those days – demanded that its wrestlers were on the road 300 days per year and performed through injuries.

    The Bulldogs left the WWF on bad terms, but Davey decided to return as a solo wrestler. That’s where the big money was. Dynamite Kid – who refused to return out of pride – was bitter at the supposed betrayal. They never spoke or saw each other again. The split, explains Georgia Smith, weighed on Davey Boy. “It’s too bad they passed away and could never make amends,” she says. Billington’s big bumping, frenetic style was influential – it also did irreparable damage to his back and put him in a wheelchair by his thirties. He died in 2018.

    Returning to the WWF in late 1990 – now billed as ‘The British Bulldog’ – Davey Boy cut a superhero-like figure: long braided hair extensions, a Union Jack cape, and giant muscles. In 1991, with the wrestling craze in full swing, the WWF toured UK arenas. Davey Boy Smith featured prominently. He headlined the Royal Albert Hall, winning a battle royal, a match with 20 men packed into the ring at once, all attempting to throw each other over the top rope. Davey Boy was the last man standing, with the rousing sound of Rule Britannia filling the Royal Albert Hall.

    The Times took notice of the WWF’s rampant success and attended a show. “Whatever happened to wrestlers like Mick McManus and Jackie Pallo?” wrote the reporter, generally bemused by the amped-up silliness. WWF wrestlers, said The Times, “look like they were fed steroids from birth”. The article noted that the WWF had sold 12,000 tickets for Wembley Arena in under an hour – the venue's fastest ever sell-out, beating Madonna and New Kids on the Block – and that WWF Magazine, which then featured Davey Boy on the cover, sold 200,000 copies per month.

    Events promoter Martin Goldsmith was responsible for bringing live WWF shows to the UK and for licensing merchandise. “Every high-street group had WWF merchandise,” he says. “It was there in your face. Davey was the poster boy.”

    In some ways, Davey Boy Smith was an unlikely celebrity. Though highly proficient in the wrestling ring, he was not a natural trash-talker – a wrestling skill as crucial as any submission hold. But there was an endearing awkwardness to the Wigan accent, always a joy on the extremely-American WWF TV.

    Like any superstar, Davey Boy Smith’s success was an intangible charisma: the right man for the right moment. “It was of its time – a pop culture phenomenon,” says Steven Bell. “I think his look has a lot to do with it – draped in the Union Jack, the braided hair, the muscles, the larger-than-life almost superhero look, and having the dog with him. He was aimed at children of that generation. It was the perfect package. I think it’s also the fact that it was built around Britishness.”

    Do not let success go to your head and do not let failure get to your heart.

  6. #126
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    Default Re: Wrasslin'!

    Davey Boy’s look saw him interviewed in the Telegraph Magazine’s “Men Who Wear Tights” feature, alongside other professional tights-wearers, including Danny La Rue and RT Hon Bernard Weatherill. “People like my gear and my hair, it makes me different from everyone else,” he told the magazine. “Certainly, no one has ever made fun of me.”

    “The London press loved him,” says Martin Goldsmith. “Whenever he came back home, they were there. Any snippet of a story, they published it. Being a Brit was highly important… He helped sell a lot of tickets. Especially up north.”

    In the United States, the WWF’s popularity was on the decline. Its family friendly image was rocked by several bad headlines – most notably a steroids scandal. The UK suddenly became its hottest market. According to Georgia, it was Davey Boy who suggested holding SummerSlam in England on the August Bank Holiday weekend.

    Davey Boy would face Bret Hart for the Intercontinental Championship at Wembley Stadium, a battle of brothers-in-law, with Diana – Davey’s wife and Bret’s sister – caught in the middle. The fictitious family feud was covered by the British press.

    Davey Boy – who served a suspension for steroids earlier that year – contracted a crippling staph infection in his knee. “He was in bed a lot,” recalls Georgia, almost five years old at the time. “I remember being that age and thinking, ‘I don’t know how he’s gonna do this match.’” The event sold 60,000 tickets in a single day and drew around 80,000 in total – one of the WWF’s biggest ever crowds. It also made £1.3 million in merchandise – a record at the time. Much of it was British Bulldog-branded.

    The match – in wrestling terms – was a masterpiece. Fans who were there describe a once-in-a-lifetime atmosphere at Wembley – never experienced before or since. “We soaked up the atmosphere,” says Martin Goldsmith. “Most of the time I was standing there with my mouth open. I could not believe what I was watching. It was the biggest main event you could possibly have. The audience were crazy for it.”

    Bret Hart’s 2007 autobiography, Hitman, made a damning claim: that Davey Boy had been smoking crack for weeks beforehand, and was in such a state that he forgot the pre-planned routines once they got in the ring. Georgia refutes the story. “I know what I saw and what I experienced, and what the whole world and the fans saw,” Georgia says. “I had never heard that story until after his book came out… My dad doesn’t deserve that. That was the biggest moment in his career and if somebody wants to try and take it away from him, that’s really sad. Especially when the person’s not alive to say their side of the story.”

    Watching the match now, it’s hard to believe he was that out of it. Davey Boy is explosive and up to speed – the performance is simply too good.

    Davey Boy’s celebrity in the UK continued. He appeared on Gamesmaster – shilling the new WWF video game – and the Saturday night gameshow, You Bet, hosted by Matthew Kelly. Davey Boy surprised a young winner – a stunned, gawky 13-year-old from Bath – with the new British Bulldog VHS. Davey also joined other wrestlers on the novelty single Slam Jam, produced by Mike Stock, Peter Waterman, and Simon Cowell (Cowell, of course, being a long-time maestro of the cash-in single). Davey recorded the classic line: “I’m the British Bulldog, and you’re going down!”

    By the time Slam Jam hit the charts in November 1992, Davey Boy was fired from the WWF – part of an ongoing crackdown on performance-enhancing substances. Davey Boy joined rival wrestling promotion WCW, which then sold-out UK arenas on the strength of Davey’s star muscle. Davey’s defection whipped up significant publicity, with a Daily Mirror running a rolling exclusive on his life story – while also giving away a free Davey Boy-endorsed Burger King.

    Later that year, Smith was involved in an altercation at a Calgary nightclub, when a drunk student named Kody Light made a drunken pass at Diana. Davey put the 20-year-old in a headlock and walked him to the bouncer, but Light fell and hit his head, causing a permanent brain injury. Tried for aggravated assault, Davey faced 14 years in prison. He had to admit on the stand that “every single thing in wrestling is fake”. The revelation was front page news at the time. Smith was acquitted, but the stress and cost took its toll. Going to trial in 1996, the case had hung over Smith for three years. “It affected him in so many ways,” says Georgia. “I know who Davey Boy Smith was. He wasn’t some kind of trouble maker. He didn’t deserve that bad rap.”

    Now back in the WWF, Davey Boy played a top bad guy and was crowned European Champion. The fame could be intense: “Sometimes he would say, ‘I just want to be David Smith,’” recalls Georgia. “I remember going to the mall and people waiting for him in the restrooms – outside the stalls.”

    Reports of Davey Boy’s drug use go back to the 1980s – particularly painkillers, a common addiction in wrestling at the time. But, according to Georgia, Davey Boy’s real demons didn’t take hold until the late 1990s, after a series of family tragedies. His sister, Tracey, who was born with brain cancer, and then his mother, Joyce, both died. And his brother-in-law, Owen Hart, died in the ring at a WWF event, plummeting from the rafters in a stunt gone wrong.

    Back with WCW again, Davey looked like a physical wreck – a bloated, broken-down shadow of the former Bulldog. In 1998, he fractured his spine after being slammed on a trap door that was rigged beneath the ring mat. He later contracted a dangerous staph infection in his spine, which risked paralysis or death, and put him in a full body cast.

    Overcoming the injury, he returned to the WWF for one final run, wrestling the at-his-peak Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson. But the comeback was short-lived. Davey Boy’s final years were marred by him spiralling into darkness: addiction and rehabs, a near-fatal motorcycle accident, and well-publicised arrests for making threats against Diana and Hart family members. Preparing for another comeback, Davey teamed with his son, Harry Smith, who’s still a wrestler. Davey Boy died on May 18 2002. The verdict was natural causes – a post-mortem discovered an enlarged heart.

    Georgia Smith has been working to successfully reclaim his legacy. She has launched a petition to get Davey Boy Smith’s name added to the Wigan Walk of Fame and is campaigning to get a blue plaque recognising him in Golborne. Last year, he was finally inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame.

    “I don’t care what anybody says,” she says. “He was the biggest British wrestling star of all time.”

    https://www.msn.com/en-gb/entertainm...f85aa512482f1c
    Do not let success go to your head and do not let failure get to your heart.

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