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#4. A hardcore return
We fast-forward some eight years to 2000 and we’re back once again in majestic London, England.
Some 16,000 fans are packed into Earl’s Court for WWE’s Insurrextion event, a show headlined by a WWE Championship triple threat match featuring The Rock, Triple H and Shane McMahon.
Despite such a stellar line-up, it was actually a relatively unplanned match that will live longest in the memory of many of those who were there. The perfect contrast the Bulldog’s 1992 Intercontinental title win over Bret Hart, the culmination to months of build-up and anticipation, this show featured the perfect, and very British, surprise when the British Bulldog appeared to a hero’s welcome.
Crash Holly, then the Hardcore Champion, was readying himself for a night off, lamenting the fact that he “couldn’t find” an Englishman who was tough enough to take him on and battle for his title. Enter Davey Boy Smith, who surprised everyone by rushing to ringside and quickly dispatching the trash-talking Holly, snaring his gold in the process.
It would be the Bulldog’s last major victory on home soil before his untimely death at the age of just 39, two years after the event.
