Sho'nuff

Now, as a guy that remained in WWE for nearly 12 years, aside from a brief WCW stint in 1993, why wasn't Bulldog a permanent main event star in WWE?

I mean, he had a good taste of it in 1996 while feuding with HBK but in various other points in his singles career, he was always overshadowed by someone else. IMO, he could have been a good heel champion in 1996 or even been given a brief title run by beating Bret in 1995 after his heel turn.

So, do you think Bulldog would have been a great main event guy in WWE and what do you think are the reason(s) why never got to become a permanent main event star?

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Cynic

From Vince's perspective, I assume it's because he didn't want an English guy as champion.

Aside from that, I personally just don't think Davey Boy had the "it" factor of a main eventer. Fine wrestler, but a bland talker and not overly charismatic. Unless he's wrestling in Great Britain there really wasn't a whole lot of big money potential in the British Bulldog.

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Mike Zybyszko

I thought back then that Davey Boy would eventually beat Bret Hart for the title, but I guess it just wasn't in the cards.

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jonoaries

I wish I could delve into Vince's brain and wonder why he didn't feature Bulldog more as a singles guy. He didn't have much on the charisma and didn't show much personality but he had everything else in a time where Vince needed anything he could get he should have taken advantage.

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the modern myth

There is actually an article about this in this month's Fighting Spirit Magazine (it's been ten years since he died). In Britain Bulldog was a really big draw for the company - although the artificial boosting of numbers from Wrestlemania III stops the WWE from acknowledging it, Summerslam 1992 drew the largest verified paid attendance ever at a pro-wrestling event. Equally impressive was the merchandise sales from the show: $1,456,203 (of which a large percentage was Bulldog merchandise) which, to this day, stands as a record for any WWE live event. Bulldog was also the face of WWF for the British fans when Sky TV really began to push and promote WWF programming in the early 1990s. In 1991-1992, WWF was the biggest thing going in Britain, and Bulldog was our homegrown hero.

I think that the problems with Bulldog were numerous, though. First of all, after the steroid scandal, Bulldog wasn't seen as a safe bet to push. His chemically enhanced physique and his penchant for drug abuse (Hart claims that Bulldog had been smoking crack for weeks prior to their Summerslam 1992 contest) made him a liability. Secondly, despite his immense popularity in Britain, I don't think that he was a particularly big draw anywhere else. I guess they were worried that, when the wrestling bubble burst in Britain and people began to lose interest, would Bulldog be able to draw in foriegn markets?

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Greenlawler

The easy answer is that Davey Boy's "personal demons" always short circuited his career. I think there was a pretty heavy background with substance abuse which made him unreliabe as a top draw.

The Mercenary

He definitely had the skills in the ring. I think it was just because he wasn't a particularly great talker.

zep81

Indeed, after reading Bret's book, this is the conclusion IMHO, he was in and out of the WWF numerous times, hired and re-hired, still one of my faves i used to love his matches

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tducey

The guy was a heck of a talent and could have made a believable world champ in the mid 90's. That said as others have said the guy had some serious issues with substance abuse, thus why he wasn't given the belt IMO.

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LBGetBack

I think his personal issues hurt him. I mean, according to Bret, Bulldog was barely around in the summer of 92 when he was about to main event Summerslam with Bret. He was getting high with Anvil, and showed up to Summerslam out of it and couldn't remember the match.

Anyone who would do that before they are finally getting their chance to main event a major PPV has to be looked at as unreliable. Then he got himself fired shortly after winning the IC title.

There's YouTube videos of him seemingly completely out of it, later in his career too. Major drug issues don't make for a reliable main event guy.