10 Toxic Real-Life Wrestling Relationships
3. Davey Boy & Diana Smith
As Helen Hart glumly recapped on the seminal 'Wrestling With Shadows' documentary, all her sons became wrestlers, and all her children married in to the business. It was the blessing and curse of life as a Hart Family member, but the sickly-sweet family dynamic between the mammoth lot portrayed by WWE cameras was blown wide open after Bret left the organisation in 1997.
Dividing lines were quickly drawn, with the paths only becoming more jagged after Owen Hart tragically fell to his death at the Over The Edge pay-per-view in May 1999. Davey Boy Smith had been a Bret loyalist, but a nightmare WCW run left him out of pocket and out of action after injuring his back on a section of the ring gimmicked for an Ultimate Warrior surprise entrance.
His controversial WWE return later that year was a sad end to his mainstream wrestling career. Jean-clad and almost purple in colour, he was a picture of ill-health desperate to remain relevant and rich from wrestling as his personal life collapsed.
Before his death, Diana Smith wrote in her wildly discredited autobiography of the insane life Smith led as a wrestler that ultimately fed into their divorce. Amongst other allegations, she claimed Davey had innumerable drug addictions, including but not limited to painkillers, cocaine, and steroids.
Diana claimed he was physically and sexually abusive, including one occasion where he used a suplex on her. She also mentioned another case where she suggests she may have been drugged and raped by her husband in a bizarre ritual alongside Jim Neidhart and his wife Ellie.