Yesterday when I got home from work I had noticed I recieved a few new tapes in the mail that I was waiting for, and I decided that I could really watch any of them because I didn't have the time. So I sat down and checked out a little bonus match on one of the tapes that I had requested. That match was the European Tournament Final match of Owen Hart vs. British Bulldog from the 3/3/97 episode of RAW. It's been sometime that I've seen it as I had taped it and unfortunately it either got misplaced/taped over/lost, so basically it's been a long time since I've seen it. Not to mention the last time I did was basically before my smark days. So I'm sure you have all heard the prase that this match gets all over the net(which was another reason why I wanted to rewatch this) and I basically wanted to see if the hype lived up to the match. Well, I wasn't dissappointed in this to say the least and that's putting it mildly. I loved this match........and everything that it contained that seemed so different from your average everyday match. What you're asking? Well, this may be the one and only time in the history of my wrestling knowledge that someone in wrestling actually did the tag team facing off in a match thing correctly. They worked it great, as both Owen/Bulldog played off each other so well. First off, they are in England and the Bulldog is the clear face in the match......but there are points in this match where the crowd is cheering for the wrestling itself and NOT just the wrestlers. Now, this isn't the first time that this has happened in wrestling history or anything......but it's really weird for me to see a WWF crowd reacting this way. Especially because the angle at the time was making it look as if they were going to turn Davey face and keep Owen heel. They really didn't play face/heel too much in this match as both competitors would do a heel tactic(like there is a spot where Davey throws Owen to the arena floor which is a heel spot, only to hold the ropes to let him back in and NOT attacking him)and then do an immediate face tactic. It came across as both guys were trying to top each other and it honestly was awesome. I can't say enough good about this match as the match was build VERY well from start to finish with some really kick ass pin attempts and some solid grappling(which always surprised my when Davey did this as he only really did it against Owen/Bret/Michaels or better in ring guys). Owen was incredible in this match as he was bumping like crazy for the Bulldog and the Bulldog was equally making Owen look good. THAT is what surprised me here, and I didn't get that feel as much from Bulldog's series of matches with Michaels/Bret either. Those were carry jobs and he did well in those matches, but it seemed clear to me that Davey wanted to really make this one good....and he worked hard in this one. I advise anyone who hasn't seen this match to definately pick it up as I doubt you would be dissappointed.

star rating - ****1/2

I'd like to check that out. I'm not totally surprised by Davey, as I've always felt he was underrated. I think he gets some hate because how Dynamite Kid portrays him in his book, but I've seen him at various stages of his career put on consistently good performances.
Owen is one that I kind of missed the boat on. I've seen quite a bit of his work, and though I wouldn't say it was bad by any means, I just never got to see him go all out.

This was actually the last match I saw on RAW until October 1997, when I went cold turkey on WWF for no real reason. (watching WCW)

I think Bulldog was "under-rated" because once he became a singles wrestler, he got heavily roided (moreso than when he was with Dynamite, if he was on them back then), which kinda slowed him down to the point he relied mainly on rest-holds.

Honestly, I always thought Davey was rather underrated as well. Unfortunately the reasons why is because unlike Dynamite/Owen/Bret(at least those three that he seems to get lumped into the same group with) he wasn't sufficient at carrying a weaker opponent. That mixed in with injuries and lack of motivation, hurt him as a singles wrestler IMO. But being able to carry people isn't exactly 100% of what a wrestler should be judged on, so I would still put him in the underrated class. I don't think he gets shit from the Dynamite book as everyone pretty much gets the "bitter" vibe from it, so I don't think that's the main reason why people see Davey that way.

I honestly have never seen a Davey Boy match that I didn't enjoy on some level. That's not to say he didn't have bad wrestling matches, I'm just saying Davey had some sort of charisma that led me to enjoy watching him in pretty much any situation.

To make a final statement: The matches of DBS I hate are from 1995-96 (which were, oddly enough, from his heel run), where he wrestles countless matches against hacks who couldn't have a good match (Diesel, Fatu, Duke Droese, The Undertaker, Ahmed Johnson, Sid...)

I can watch most of his 1991-92 matches from WWF without a problem, although he's definitely not the highlight of the night from then.

I keep telling myself I need to pick this match up on a comp or something, but for whatever reason I never have. I'm sure I'll see it eventually. Nice review.

I definately WOULD agree that the majority of Davey's work that I didn't like was his 95 stuff and his last WWE run/WCW run. Other than that, I usually don't mind him in the least.

I also think a major reason why he is underrated is because of what CB said in his above post. He always has good/ok matches, but his matches usually weren't the best on the card in 91-92, which was Davey's first shot at wrestling singles in the WWF(aka where most if not all people remember him wrestling singles for the first time).

Let's not forget: The majority of Bulldogs matches in 1991 were with the Warlord. (insert vomit Smiley here)

Other TV matches that pop up in my mind were with Big Bully Busick, The Berzerker, and Haku to name a few.

Sad thing is, I thought Davey/Warlord at WM 7 is actually a lot better than I expected the last time I watched it.

I haven't seen the full match since 1992. All I have is the Coliseum Version where the match is clipped from around 8:00 to just a little more than 3:00.

Well, don't get me wrong.....you didn't miss anything. The match is about ** at the most, but it wasn't the horrid trainwreck that it could have been.

I think the whole Warlord feud is what soured people on Davey Boy as far as being a singles wrestler.

Well if that's the case, people are horribly stupid. Hopefully by now people realize that he was better than he was showcased in that feud by all the good stuff he's done with Owen/Bret/HBK/etc.....

I honestly wasn't much in love with the Bulldog/Michaels program from the Spring of 96. The Beware of Dog match was good, but the rematch at KOTR was horribly boring and just seemed to go on endlessly.

Personally, I always thought that people didn't give enough credit to the Bulldog/HBK matches.......by people I mean smarks.

Maybe I'll give it another shot sometime soon, but I remember a couple of months ago when I was making a copy of it on a tape for someone and was just bored out of my skull. Outside of the last 5 minutes, I really don't remember anything that stood out.

Keep in mind one thing about that match that sucks is the finish. It makes the match kinda fall right on it's ass at the end. But I enjoyed it up until that point.

I love Owen-Davey. Maybe a top ten WWF match of the 90's.

It's a near-perfect example of how to do a singles match between tag partners. Dig all those oneupmanship sequences. :)

The oneupmanship stuff is among the best I've ever seen.......and I honestly don't think I'm overrating it either.

I remember watching that match the night it aired. It still stands as one of my favourite matches of all time.