10 British Wrestlers Who Had Profound Impact In America

1. Davey Boy Smith

There could only be one person at number one. Taking a similar route into the business as his cousin, the Dynamite Kid, Smith ventured from British television wrestling to Canada to Japan to the WWF. But while Dynamite stayed in Japan, Smith returned to the WWF as a singles competitor in 1990. Looking bigger than ever before, and with his hair in distinctive braids, he was known as The British Bulldog. At this time, the WWF was starting to gain in popularity in Smith€™s native Britain, and so the WWF began to feature him more prominently and move him up the card. A 1991 UK tour was based around Smith, who had taken the place of Hulk Hogan as the top draw in the country. As the WWF became a phenomenon in the UK, SummerSlam 1992 was moved from the US to the UK, and the Intercontinental Championship match between Bret Hart and Smith became the main event of the night as 80,000 fans packed Wembley Stadium. While all of this happened in the UK, the WWF, an American company, were the ones raking in the financial benefits. The match was a classic, voted Match of the Year by numerous polls as Smith became Intercontinental Champion for the only time. In 1993, Smith switched to WCW after leaving the WWF in late 1992. Again, his popularity in the UK was the driving force behind two highly successful British tours that year for a major American company. Smith was pushed very prominently in WCW, forming an alliance with Sting and headlining the Beach Blast PPV against Vader and Sid Vicious. Smith would also challenge unsuccessfully for Vader€™s World title on numerous occasions, headlining house shows. The following year, he returned to the WWF as part of the Hart family feud between Bret and Owen. He subsequently turned heel and cut his hair short. The turn reinvigorated his career and he headlined three consecutive In Your House PPVs, with a bloody World title bout with Bret being the highlight. In 1997, the WWF created the European Championship (which was defended in the US as well), which Smith became the first holder of. After the events of the 1997 Survivor Series and the Montreal Screwjob, Smith left WWF and returned to WCW, where he had a less than stellar run, buried in the midcard. An accident where he landed on a trap door hinge during the Fall Brawl 1998 PPV nearly paralysed him and he was left in hospital in a full body cast. It was at this time that the ever classy WCW fired him via Fed-Ex. He had a final run in the WWF, where he won the WWF Hardcore Championship, but his €˜Britishness€™ was stripped from him. Competing in jeans and without Rule Britannia as his entrance music, he had lost the thing that set him apart from his contemporaries. He wrestled his final match for the WWF in May 2000. Smith€™s son Harry followed in his father€™s footsteps and became a wrestler, competing in both the WWE and New Japan Pro Wrestling. The father and son duo teamed together three times in 2002 before Davey Boy€™s tragic and untimely death that year at the age of 39. His death was mainstream news, such was his popularity and instantly recognisable look.