7 Reasons The British Bulldog Must Be Inducted Into WWE Hall Of Fame 2017
6. He Solidified WWE’s British Fan Base For Future Generations
Everyone accepts that Hulk Hogan made professional wrestling what it is today, and the WWE would not be where it is now if it wasn’t for the star power of the Hulkster in the 1980s into the 1990s. But the WWE’s popularity in the UK would not be what it is in 2017 without Davey Boy Smith.
In the 1980s, as the ITV’s World of Sport Wrestling was left to fizzle out, our cousins across the Atlantic emerged to fill this void in UK households in the form of the colourful, larger than life WWE superstars - with their huge PPVs, action figures, Sega games and even pop chart singles (‘Slam Jam’ anyone?). WWE became mainstream, and the UK was to become one of its most lucrative markets.
What was the pinnacle moment of this initial mainstream takeover you ask? It was Summerslam ’92. held at a sold out Wembley Stadium to 80,000 rabid UK fans. Who headlined this event? Not Hulk, not Macho Man, not Ultimate Warrior...it was Davey Boy. Of course the awesome IC champ Bret Hart helped make the match what it was, but Davey Boy was the main star. The Bulldog gave British fans an immediate ‘in’, a stake in the game. Summerslam ’92 was a catalyst from which the UK fan base built to fever pitch, and then exploded even further during the Attitude Era with Stone Cold and The Rock.