Bulldog was certainly worthy of a title reign in my eyes. He looked like a star, was over as hell with the fans and could if he had ever been given the title, the popularity of the WWE in the UK would have skyrocketed, making McMahon even more money. We have all seen how big SS 92 was at Wembley, now multiply that by about 5x if Bulldog had been World Champion, he was a hero on these shores.
I always enjoyed seeing Davy Boy in the ring, he was extremely capable and could hang with the best of them. When you look at people like Sid Vicious and others who were pushed to the moon, it is very disappointing that Smith never got that opportunity. If he was in the WWE today, he would be champion, simple as. The belt didnt switch from wrestler to wrestler like a hot potato then, making title reigns much more infrequent, therefore as Davey was not one of the biggest names in the company, he never got the belt. He was always behind the bigger names. I also always thought Davey was decent on the mic, not on the level of someone like The Rock, but he was certainly good enough to handle himself well, and the English accent was something different to anyone else. Plus he was perfectly capable of working to a very high standard as both a face and a heel, something many wrestlers struggle with.
It was his personal demons that also prevented him from fully realising his potential, although he still had a great career even without a world title reign. His friendship with the Dynamite Kid led to some of the best tag team matches of all time as The British Bulldogs, a legendary team, but sadly down the road of drink, drugs and steroid abuse. Bret Hart mentioned in his autobiography, that he had to carry the IC title match at SS92 between himself and Davey as Smith couldnt remember any part of what they had agreed to do, having been up all night doing crack. It was things like this that stopped Bulldog from being the best.
I really enjoyed his later work in the WWE too, I remember the 1st ever European title match between Bulldog and Owen Hart, that appears on the Raw 15 year anniversary DVD set, that was a fantastic match, and the tag team with Owen was also brilliant. I think had they remained together, that they could have been up with the greats as one of the best tag-teams ever. The combination of Smith's power and Harts technical ability gave us an incredibly well-balanced tag team with great chemistry. This, and his earlier work with Dynamite Kid in the British Bulldogs, showed Davey's ability as not only a great singles wrestler, but one of the best tag-team competitors of all time. However, his final short run in the WWE where he had short hair and dressed in jeans for his matches was appalling. He just looked like he could not be bothered and it disappointed me to see him in that state. I remember seeing him slowly running across the ring and taking a hiptoss from someone, (possibly The Rock) and landing on his head, he just couldnt do it any more. Very sad and hard to watch.
It is truly sad Davey is no longer with us, I would have loved to have seen Davey and DH Smith teaming up as a one-off, it would have been a great moment and maybe Davey could have been the manager for his son if he wasnt able to wrestle any more. I think he would have been very good in that role.
Overall though, I think that although Bulldog had a really good career, he could have done more. I defintiely do believe that he did deserve a World Title run, he was easily good enough to hold the title and could have had some great feuds. I would have paid good money to see Bret and Davey lock up again, only this time for the World Title, not the IC belt. However, if you are abusing drugs like Smith did, and have severe personal demons as he did, then this is always likely to prevent you from fully realising your potential, not to mention all the injuries he suffered which severely slowed him down.
I think Bulldog is a definite case of "what might have been", he was extremely successful and is remembered on a level far above most other wrestlers, who would have loved a career like Davey's, but it could and maybe SHOULD have been alot more, had he been able to control the demons and had that little bit of luck with a bigger push from Vince.
