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‘I was extremely honoured’ – Boxing legend Lennox Lewis reflects on walking out British Bulldog to face Bret ‘The Hitman’ Hart at WWE UK stadium show 30 years ago
WWE is returning to the UK for a major pay-per-view event for the first time in 30 years for Clash at the Castle in Cardiff this weekend.
Drew McIntyre remains the first and only British world champion and he will look to recapture WWE’s top prize in 74,500 fans at the Principality Stadium in Wales.
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On August 29, three decades ago, Wembley Stadium played host to the last major WWE pay-per-view to take place in Britain, when SummerSlam 1992 came to London.
All this time later, the evening’s main event remains one of the greatest matches in company history. Bret ‘The Hitman’ Hart defended his Intercontinental Championship against local hero The British Bulldog AKA Davey Boy Smith.
At this point, Lennox Lewis had just moved to 21-0 as a professional and had won the Commonwealth, British, and European heavyweight titles.
Of course, he’d go on to become a world champion, boxing legend, and arguably the greatest heavyweight of all time but at this point, he was already a big deal and a man more than capable of making SummerSlam 1992 an even bigger event than it already was.
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So, he walked British Bulldog to the ring and waved the Union Jack flag in an epic moment for professional wrestling in the UK that the 56-year-old looks back on fondly all these years later.
“I was extremely honoured to walk British Bulldog out that night. May he rest in love,†Lewis replied to a throwback post of his WWE cameo.
As Lewis alluded to in his reply, Dave Boy Smith has since passed away. The British wrestling legend died in 2002 aged just 39 after suffering a heart attack while on holiday in Canada.
While Smith’s career and life were cut short, he managed to leave behind a monumental legacy and his match against ‘The Hitman’ may have been the greatest moment of his legendary career.
The bout was a technical wrestling masterclass from start to finish. It ended when Smith countered a Hart sunset flip to secure the pinfall and his first Intercontinental Championship.
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