Davey Boy Smiths legacy...as good as he could have done?

[Zen411]

Reflecting on bulldogs legacy. Was he considered an all time great or could he have had a more solid track record?

It seemed bulldog had everything...maybe except really good promo skills. He held all the titles except the wwf title. Brief ic title run. Tag title reigns with Owen and dynamite. First European champion. Yet somehow it felt he never accomplished all he should have.

Maybe it was the jumps back and forth between wwf and wcw. Maybe it was his attitude behind the scenes or looking juiced at times they didn't want that. Did he accomplish all he was suited to or did he somehow get held back?

[chazraps]

I think he's an all time great and a definite hall of famer, but his addictions kept him just short of reaching his full potential.

[Mozenrath]

He spent so much of his career f***ed up, it's kind of hard to tell. Maybe if he was more reliable, he'd have had a brief world title stint in one of the companies, but he wasn't, and didn't.

[2coldMack is even more baffled]

Yeah, sadly, we'll never know how good he COULD have been, as he started getting f***ed up way too early in his career, and by the time he hit his prime, he was a pretty hopeless addict who was only really functional with guys like Bret or Owen to reel him in.

[edgestar]

Summerslam 92 is one of my favorite shows, and even now, seeing him win, is awesome. Plus, dude had a bitchin theme.

[DiBiase is Good]

I loved Davey but I think he went about as far as he could have. Main-eventing a 80,000+ attended PPV isn’t to be sniffed at and I would say that puts him on a level with some World Champions (and higher than some). SummerSlam 92 was sold out before a single match was announced for it and he was a big part of that.

[Crappler El 0 M]

Could have been bigger if had stayed clean, motivated, and focused, particularly in the early/mid 90s.

[Wieners=$$$]

He was bizarre, so it'll always remain a topic of great debate.

[Kevin Hamilton]

Yeah. His charisma and look were great, and he could give you a really good match, but he was never gonna give ya a good promo or much of a character at all

The things he did well he was great at, but he only had like 1/3rd of what makes ya a "complete" wrestler. He excelled at that third though.

[Deleted]

In addition to his addictions hampering him, I think that he wasn’t really ever in the right era. For the first part of his run it was the land of giants, his best shot was when Bret and Shawn were on top, but once the Attitude era hit he just didn’t have the personality to be any more than he was.

[Aceorton]

To be an elite wrestler, he had to be working with an elite wrestler, and I think that was the case regardless of whether he was clean or not. When you look at his best work, who was on the other side of the ring with him? Bret, Shawn or Owen, generally. Throw him in the ring with someone less capable, and you'd end up with something between passable (Warlord, Shamrock) and awful (Diesel). Bret and Shawn could get an awesome match out of Diesel. Davey couldn't lift up others' performances, and that was part of his ceiling.

[riseofsetian1981]

He definitely should've beat Shawn for the championship at King of the Ring.

[Deleted]

He went as far as he could, if not further than his ability level, taking into account his addictions..

Without them he might have done more bit it kind of became part of the package.

[chazraps]

I like to imagine an alternate universe exists where he got totally clean and had a concurrent resurgence with HBK in the aughts. Those two were made to wrestle each other.

[Deleted]

some of his injuries were brutal like the staph infections

[David-Arquette was in WCW 2000]

Mar 1, 2019 20:05:42 GMT -5 chazraps said:

I think he's an all time great and a definite hall of famer, but his addictions kept him just short of reaching his full potential.

Definitely. He had a brilliant run from his tag team days through to the 90s. Some major accomplishments and big moments. His addictions definitely prevented him from reaching higher, but I don't think jumping to WCW helped either.

[SmashTV]

His career is nothing to sniff at, a lot of wrestlers would love to accomplish the things he did. However, even as a Brit I never saw him as world title material. He seemed to be lacking that final ingredient that makes a world champion, but his legacy isn’t diminished because of that. Some guys are born world title material, and Davey wasn’t one of them.

[OVO 40 hunched over like he 80]

His own worst enemy. If it wasn’t for the crack and steroid abuse he would still be alive and would’ve retired a multiple time champion.

Davey had a very bad childhood very similar to Dynamite’s. It didn’t helped that Davey started wrestling when he was fifteen. The locker room lifestyle isn’t meant for children.

A clean Bulldog would’ve ran the wwf, but the drugs and brushes with the law killed his momentum.

[TGM]

His match with Bret Hart at Season's Beatings is a bloody and violent mess, I love it. 1995 sucked except for that awesome match.

[atgnatpodcast]

Sometimes I wonder if he hadn’t got let go in 92.... what it would be like bulldog beating flair for the world title and having a run that ends with him losing to Bret in a rematch from SS