[1992-04-13-WWF-London, ENG] Ric Flair vs Davey Boy Smith

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

Seeing Davey Boy get the superstar reaction in England is always awesome! This is a handheld where Davey Boy gets a huge upset, probably to help build Summerslam, where they may have already had ideas about what they were wanted to headline that show. Not really that great a match, but it does put over the big picture very well. Flair puts Davey Boy over pretty strongly. The moment where he turns the tide in his favor with a kick to the balls is great, and the heat is great when Flair is in control, with the audience rallying big for Davey's comeback. It's pretty standard fare, but the crowd and surprise finish make it memorable. I notice here that one thing Flair is maybe the best ever at is timing his kickouts to the very last second to get the big crowd reaction. He almost immediately rolls out of the ring so Davey Boy can have his moment.

[Tim Evans]

Always nice to see a hometown guy win in WWE cause that's rare. Not a big fan of handheld matches but this was good. Crowd was red hot throughout.

[shoe]

I liked this. DBS with the huge superstar reaction made it. Flair really is a total pro in doing the job.

[Kevin Ridge]

It is refreshing to see the hometown guy go over. Crowd sure did love Davey. Bulldog wins clean with the powerslam. Pretty big win with Flair just being champion.

[MikeCampbell]

I don't think Summerslam in London was a sure thing yet. The Ladder match with Michaels didn't happen till July, and that was supposed to be a tryout of sorts for Vince, since the plan for the IC Title was Bret dropping to Shawn at Summerslam if it was held in WA.

 

Bulldog's reaction is great though, and I'm sure this was designed to help make him into an even bigger draw for their European tours.

[WingedEagle]

Davey Boy has a huge pop in the intros in a match totally made by the crowd. Bulldog wins clean with the powerslam. Flair really put him over strongly and the crowd loved every bit of it.

 

**3/4

[PeteF3]

Hey, it's Tony Chimel. This is Flair by numbers, but fun to watch because it's so heated, with soccer-style chants for Davey Boy and big heat for Flair's low blows and cheating. Hardly balls-to-the-wall, but the closing stretch is laid out with two really good false finishes.

[garretta]

What a tremendous win for Davey Boy. It didn't really come out of nowhere, either; Flair was off his game except for a few flashes right from the start, and had you been in the booth for this, you could easily tell the story of a former champion still hurting from losing the title just a week before who now had to go into his opponent's backyard and take on not only him, but every single one of his fans too.

 

None of this is to take away from Davey's victory, though. He looked unstoppable, and seemed to be pumped at the idea of taking on a former champion in front of his own fans. (It was almost certainly a title match before Flair lost at Mania, which no doubt contributed to the atmosphere.) Nothing Flair tried worked, and he did stupid stuff like chopping Davey in the chest (his strongest point by far) and setting himself up for numerous press slams, which Davey of course executed with ease to a huge pop. In a sense, Davey's the perfect Flair opponent; most of his signature spots fit with Flair's like a hand in a glove, unlike some guys who in order to wrestle Flair competently have to do things they'd never do in a match against anyone else.

 

Of course, the atmosphere was insane, with the chants Pete mentioned, and the air horns blowing like it was a World Cup final. How Vince could remember crowds like that and still have the idea he supposedly has today that all of his "superstars" have to not only be beaten, but humiliated, in their hometowns is something I'll never understand. The best part to me was Davey posing on the apron afterward with a Union Jack draped across his shoulders. There's nothing that could have possibly topped that.

 

The only other similar win I can recall was Tito beating Taker in October of '91, and that doesn't really count since it was in Barcelona, Spain, not a town in Mexico. (It couldn't have happened in Tocula, because there's no such place.) Anyway, this win certainly led to bigger things for Davey than that win did for Tito, whether his match with Bret at SummerSlam was being planned at this time or not.

[dawho5]

Loved seeing the hometown guy go over!

This match put Flair as a whole in perspective for me.  Everything he did was 100% meant to work for audiences like this.  Hot hometown crowds who came to see the guy he was wrestling beat him.  And based on the reactions he gets, it definitely works.  If Flair has one great failing in his career it is that he never adjusted what he was doing due to the national television exposure.

[flyonthewall2983]

Did Flair ever work the UK or anywhere else in Europe before going to the WWF?