10 Hometown Heroes That Were Embarrassed By WWE
6. The British Bulldog In Birmingham
Okay, fair enough, The British Bulldog wasn’t a Birmingham native. He was born in Wigan and trained in Winwick prior to relocating to Canada to train with the Hart family, but his character was defined by his nationality, not his specific town of birth. Thus, Bulldog was treated like a homecoming hero every time he stepped on British turf, and England played host to one of his career’s biggest triumphs at SummerSlam 1992.
80,355 people crammed into London’s Wembley Stadium to witness Bulldog wrestle Bret Hart in the night’s main event. In what is widely regarded as one of the best matches of his career, Bulldog defeated Hart to become Intercontinental Champion, and while his reign didn’t last, Bulldog felt like the biggest star on the planet that night.
Sadly, Bulldog fared much worse during his third run with the company. In 1997, Bulldog was set to defend his European Championship against Shawn Michaels in Birmingham, and he failed. HBK made him pass out through pain thanks to a DX-assisted Figure Four, and while that gave the loss a convenient asterisk, the damage was already done.
Compounding the misery, Shawn’s post-match promo saw him not only run Bulldog into the ground, but the entire Hart family. Backstage whispers suggest that Bulldog was set to go over, but the ever-manipulative Michaels used his backstage pull to change the result, and send his opponent home red-faced.