Stats 2x champion (253-day combined reign) Davey Boy Smith, aka, the British Bulldog, was WWEs original European Champion, being awarded the strap after pinning Owen Hart during the companys inaugural tournament during a taping of Raw in Germany in February, 1997. According to Smiths brother-in-law, Bret Hart, the WWE created the European Championship specifically for the Bulldog as a way to appease him after breaking other backstage promises made to him during the politically tumultuous late 90s. The Bulldog went on to have the longest single reign as champion, holding the belt for 206 days before backstage politics struck again. He lost the title to Shawn Michaels at 1997s One Night Only event in Birmingham, England, a pay-per-view special that never aired in the United States. Smith was reportedly supposed to retain the title, but Michaels pulled a power play and convinced the powers that be that he should be champion as a way to advance the Heartbreak Kids feud with Hart. The Birmingham crowd was so irate by the result, they littered the ring with garbage. A few months later, the Bulldog defected to WCW with Hart. Smith eventually returned to the WWE in 1999 with a new look (his Union Jack tights were replaced with edgier blue jeans), and outside of a feud with the Rock, never found himself near the top of the card again. He did however defeat DLo Brown for his second European Championship on the October 26, 1999 episode of Smackdown. He lost the belt about a month later to Val Venis at the December 1999 Armageddon PPV. Smith suffered from a painkiller addiction and was admitted into rehab in 2000 before being released by the WWE shortly thereafter. He died from a heart attack in May 2002, tragically ending one of the greatest wrestling careers from the past 30 years. Smith achieved every major title in the WWE besides either "World" championships. In terms of the European Championship, he has the longest individual and combined-reigns in WWE history. He was a fighting champion who made the title mean something. Hes the greatest European Champion of all-time.
Mark is a professional writer living in Brooklyn and is the founder of the Chasing Amazing Blog, which documents his quest to collect every issue of Amazing Spider-Man, and the Superior Spider-Talk podcast. He also pens the "Gimmick or Good?" column at Comics Should Be Good blog.
