One MIND-BLOWING Secret From EVERY Month Of The WWE Attitude Era

20. September 1999 | The Tag Team That Never Was

The British Bulldog
WWE Network

There are very few things more depressing, in wrestling history, than the British Bulldog’s return to the WWF in 1999. 

If you were a youngster watching the Attitude Era, everything was class. It was disruptive, it was horny, it was violent: it was perfectly calibrated to appeal to the under-sexed, over-hormonal teenager. Even the bad stuff, the matches that were hardly going to get discussed in-depth at school, were so insanely short that they didn’t matter. Then the Bulldog rocked back up. 

Wearing jeans in a sad attempt to fit back in, something was badly wrong, and even a Methods Of Mayhem fan with a pubescent persecution complex sensed it. It was difficult not to be empathetic. The man who looked like he was in a perpetual state of agony. He was. His back had been destroyed in WCW. People watched his dying days in the WWF. It was awful. 

The run was a bleak disaster. Bulldog couldn’t work even a throwaway four-minute TV match without appearing to be in intense pain. He needed help in every area of his life. He almost got it in the ring at least; per the September 6 edition of the Observer, Jim Neidhart’s name was discussed. Loose plans for a potential tag team were drafted before Neidhart was asked to help out with the nascent developmental system. 

This New Hart Foundation act wouldn’t have been any good, realistically, particularly since Edge and Christian, the Dudley Boyz, and the Hardy Boyz were weeks away from setting a new bar. But it might have saved Bulldog a few bumps.

Contributor
Contributor

Michael Sidgwick (Creative Writing BA Hons) is an editor, writer and podcaster for WhatCulture Wrestling. With over a decade of experience in wrestling analysis, Michael was published in the influential UK institution that was Power Slam magazine, and specialises in providing insights into All Elite Wrestling - so much so that he wrote a book about the subject. You can order Becoming All Elite: The Rise Of AEW on Amazon. Possessing a deep knowledge also of WWE, WCW, ECW and New Japan Pro Wrestling, Michael’s work has been publicly praised by AEW World Champions Kenny Omega and MJF, and Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes. When he isn’t putting your finger on why things are the way they are in the endlessly fascinating world of professional wrestling, Michael wraps his own around a hand grinder to explore the world of specialty coffee. Follow Michael on X (formerly known as Twitter) @MSidgwick for more!