12 Richest WWE Matches Of All Time
6. Bret Hart Vs. Davey Boy Smith (SummerSlam '92)
The beautiful visage of a jam-packed stadium rounding on a 20x20 squared circle never gets old (even though the company shoots a new one from the air every year) but the SummerSlam spectacle that remained for many years the group's real largest paid gate was a testament to how crudely reliant Vince McMahon had become on his European marketplace during a desperately dire time domestically.
The company had been phenomenally successful in select London markets between 1989 and 1991 as starved UK crowds pounced on the product, with August 1992's Wembley Stadium gathering as much a celebration of 1992's sensational market penetration thanks to the red hot European Rampage tour confirming the country as the company's ultimate safety net as sharks circled back home.
Davey Boy Smith was the natural front-of-house representative for the movement, remaining to this day the most popular and best-known British wrestler of all time. As physically imposing as Hulk Hogan but with a Wigan dialect that humanised him beyond even a cliched take on a 'tea-sucking Brit', the Bulldog was an avatar for nearly 80,000 paying customers, even against the equally beloved 'Hitman'. SummerSlam 1992 was the first supercard sans Hulk Hogan, but remained the best visual of the World Wrestling Federation he helped grow for nearly a decade.