We previously visited the greatest stables of all time, but what about the top two man teams to grace the squared circle? Tag team wrestling was once a focus of television tapings and story lines, but the past number of years have been pushed to the back burner or simply used as filler.

Well lets venture back to when duos meant something and tag team gold was still a great honour. This edition we will focus on…The British Bulldogs.

Tom “Dynamite Kid” Billington and Davey Boy Smith were legitimate cousins from England whos pure athleticism lit up the international wrestling stage.

Billington was the oldest and was already an accomplished singles star in Japan and Calgary’s Stampede Wrestling when he brought his teenage relative over to Alberta. An interesting side note on Davey Smith is that his legal middle name was ‘Boy’ as his mother thought she was filling out what sex the child was on the doctor’s form.

Stu Hart paired them up in his Stampede promotion and the rest they say is history. Stu gave The British Bulldogs leniency to go on tours of Japan where they got over huge because of their stiff, athletic style and won many a tournament in both All Japan and New Japan Pro Wrestling. Billington and Smith made good money overseas and also helped to rejuvinate Stampede Wrestling, where they also picked up numerous tag team championships. The Bulldogs battles with various members of the Hart clan were legendary and they were widely considered as the most talented duo for a good chunk of the 1980′s.

1985 came knocking and as part of the deal where Vince McMahon bought Stampede Wrestling he had to sign Billington, Smith, Bret Hart, and Jim Neidhart. The British Bulldogs vs. The Hart Foundation produced some classic match ups mainly due to the fact that the foursome were so used to working with one another in Stampede. The Bulldogs became fan favourites and were eventually given their actual British Bulldog mascot Matilda, which Smith was mainly responsible for outside the ring. In Billington’s outstanding biography, ‘Pure Dynamite’, he commented how amusing it was for him to be a babyface because in reality he was a foul mouthed, smoking, steroid taking tough guy.

In any case the British tandem tore up the tag divison in the WWF with phenomenal matches and chased the tag straps for nearly a year that were being held by The Dream Team of Brutus Beefcake and Greg Valentine. WrestleMania 2 was their crowning moment where they finally beat The Dream Team to become tag team champions.

The Bulldogs were riding high until late 1986 where several back injuries caught up with The Dynamite Kid (partially because of his high impact moves and because of heavy steroid usage). Davey Boy was forced to defend the tag gold with different partners while Billington recuperated. However, it was soon clear that Dynamite’s rehab was going to take much longer then expected and the pairing were forced to drop the titles on January 26, 1987 to the only team Billington agreed to lose to…The Hart Foundation. Dynamite’s back was in such bad shape that a pre-match attack had to be staged so that it would not look strange that Davey Boy was carrying him to the ring.

Billington returned prematurely in 1987 in time to have a 6 man tag against The Hart Foundation and Danny Davis (the Bulldogs teamed with Tito Santana) at WrestleMania 3. Billington’s bad back continued to hamper him, but he refused to alter his intense in-ring style and took more pills and steroids to cope. Smith took on a bit more of the match workload, however, they were not given another run as tag team champions. The Bulldogs left the WWF in late 1988 after a locker room altercation with real life enemies The Rougeau Brothers where Billington was sucker punched and lost some teeth. Dynamite was so furious with how management handled the situation that he resigned himself and Smith, vowing never to return.

The years of steroid abuse and near crippling back injuries began rapidly catching up with Billington, however the two returned to Stampede Wrestling and All-Japan where they captured championship gold. This legendary tag team came to an end when Davey Boy Smith pulled the pair out of an All-Japan tournament in 1990 without his partner’s knowledge, lying to the promoter by claiming that Dynamite had been in a car crash and could not compete. Smith was on his way back to the WWF and actually copy righted the “British Bulldogs” name during his first stint with the promotion and had lawyers ensure that his cousin could not use the name when he wrestled. Tom Billington never forgave Smith and refused to accept any charity or office job offered by the WWF.

Billington was forced to retire in 1991 as his back injuries were too much. He is now confined to a wheel chair, recently had part of a leg amputated, and lives in poverty back in England. Davey Boy Smith went on to have a successful singles career in the WWF until steroid and drug abuse finally caught up with him as well. Smith died tragically from heart failure on May 18, 2002.

A strong case can be made for The British Bulldogs being the top tag team of all time. The Bulldogs combination of speed, athleticism, and power as well as championship success on an international level truly makes their contributions to tag team wrestling both undeniable and unforgettable.

***I highly recommend picking up Tom Billington’s biography ‘Pure Dynamite’. It is a no holds barred look at his life and provides amazing insight to the backstage goings on of the 1980′s wrestling scene.***

Andy McNamara is a SLAM! Wrestling writer, and is the play-by-play broadcaster for Toronto Maple Leafs inter-county league baseball on Rogers TV. Along with baseball Andy does play-by-play for hockey, basketball, and volleyball on Rogers Television in Toronto as well as being a show host and sideline reporter for hockey and football on TV Cogeco. Contact Andy at andymcnamara@hotmail.com

After a 14 year reign as President of WWE Canada, and more recently of Latin America and China as well, Carl DeMarco has resigned having given full notice.

Mr. DeMarco orignally was the agent of Bret ‘Hitman’ Hart and leveraged those business connections to become the top dog in Canada. He made quite the impact with notables including bringing WrestleMania X8  to Toronto and negotiating numerous television deals to make sure Canadian fans could see all the WWE’s brands every week.

I had the chance to actually work with Mr. DeMarco as a finance intern of all things back in 2003/04 at the WWE Canada office and always found him approachable and friendly. It is said that the former President is leaving to pursue other business ventures, however, nothing specific has been mentioned.

Tonight Raw was live in Toronto with guest general manager…Toronto’s own Trish Stratus! Trish looked phenomenal, but at least on television it sounded like the home town crowd was not that interested. As part of her GM announcements she made a WWE title rematch between now champion John Cena vs. Randy Orton in Hell in a Cell. The former 7 time women’s champion also put herself in a tag match, which then turned into a 6 person tag team battle- MVP, Trish Stratus, & Mark Henry vs. Chris Jericho, Beth Phoenix, & Big Show. Trish shoswed no ring rust and picked up the win for her time by hitting Stratusfaction on Phoenix.

In other Raw notes: Batista came out to start the program and teased that he was retiring. It actually was a set up to draw out Randy Orton, and The Animal was able to get his paws on the man who put him out of action for the past 3 plus months. Batista also stated that his match with Orton this evening would be his last on Raw as he is making the move back over to Smackdown.

Andy McNamara is a SLAM! Wrestling writer, and is the play-by-play broadcaster for Toronto Maple Leafs inter-county league baseball on Rogers TV. Along with baseball Andy does play-by-play for hockey, basketball, and volleyball on Rogers Television in Toronto. Contact Andy at andymcnamara@hotmail.com

The theme, for the most part, of this pay-per-view is around submissions with 3 of the 6 matches being based around that stipulation. We see the return of The Undertaker as well as D-Generation X continuing their latest reincarnation. Lets see what the WWE’s September PPV has to offer.

World Heavyweight Champion CM Punk vs. Undertaker (Submission Match)

This feud is so new and fresh that it will not end right now. I would like to see these two rekindle the rivalry at WrestleMania and have Punk break Undertaker’s streak. But back to present day- Some distraction or interference occurs and Punk sneaks out a victory by cheating to retain his gold.  PICK: CM Punk

WWE Champion Randy Orton vs. John Cena (“I Quit” Match)

Cena was totally punked out by Orton during SummerSlam so I’m expecting some revenge. Orton retains with the help of Legacy. Cena passes out from the severe beat down and the match is stopped… however, mighty John does not say the words “I Quit”. This finish will result in the storyline continuing. PICK: Randy Orton

D-Generation X vs. Cody Rhodes & Ted DiBiase (Submissions Count Anywhere Match)

Great build for this storyline. Rhodes and DiBiase looked great in defeat last month, but need a win here for the and to continue. If anyone taps it will be HBK, however, I have a feeling the youngsters get the raw end of the deal again. I’m hoping that future development thinking prevails. PICK: Legacy

ECW Champion Christian vs. William Regal (with Ezekiel Jackson & Vladimir Kozlov)

Hopefully we actually get a match longer then 7 seconds like at the last pay-per-view so that these two ring generals can put on a wrestling clinic. Regal steals the gold thanks to some outside help from Jackson and Kozlov. PICK: William Regal

Mark Henry & Montel Vontavious Porter vs. Unified Tag Team Champions Chris Jericho & Big Show

Henry and MVP were both successful against the tag champs in singles action this past Monday, which usually means that the losing pair will prevail. Big Show and Jericho are too new and too good of a team to break up as champions right now. As long as Henry’s ring time is limited this should be a decent match. PICK: Big Show and Jericho

The Great Khali vs. Kane (Singapore Cane Match) 

Why oh why does this ‘rivalry’ go on? This will be as wretched a confrontation as all their others. Maybe they can beat some wrestling skill into one another with those canes.

PICK: The Great Khali 

Andy McNamara is a SLAM! Wrestling writer, and is the play-by-play broadcaster for Toronto Maple Leafs inter-county league baseball on Rogers TV. Along with baseball Andy does play-by-play for hockey, basketball, and volleyball on Rogers Television in Toronto. Contact Andy at andymcnamara@hotmail.com

FAN Wrestling Nation I am at a cross roads in my opinion of the guest GMs on WWE’s flagship program Raw.

On the one hand, shaking up the stale role of the same general manager plodding out each week and making matches could be a good thing. However, on the other side Raw looks to be coming more like Saturday Night Live with these mainly celebrity hosts performing in cheesy skits and plugging their latest project.

When wrestlers take the reigns (save for the awful Sgt. Slaughter performance) the show has a good wrestling based flow and provides some nice nostalgia with the likes of The Million Dollar Man and Dusty Rhodes being put in charge. Especially when the senior Rhodes and DiBiase gave the spotlight to their Legacy member sons.

Now the celebrity appearances do not have to be a bad thing if done correctly. From my view the Seth Green and Shaquille O’Neal hosting gigs were slam dunks that helped add to a feud and were entertaining. Jeremy Priven also gained some mainstream media exposure when he lept off the top turnbuckle into John Cena’s arms.

Those are the positive experiences now lets look at the head scratchers. My first coment would have to be…why the hell did they bring in ZZ Top??? 1. the target market for WWE either hasn’t heard of the band or doesn’t care about them, and 2. they were awful! All the pair did was make awkward segways into singing their past hits. Painful to sit through.

Freddie Prinze Jr. would have to fall in the middle for me as he spoke quite well, but came across far too aggressive in speaking to WWE champ Randy Orton. He did sell Orton’s vicious back breaker, but having Maculey Culkin from Home Alone show up for a moment in a backstage segment involving Chavo and Hornswaggle made me die a little inside.

The rotating general manager angle has been going since June 29 when Batista kicked it off. How much longer will it and should it go for? If the guest host idea does end then who should be crowned the new full time head of Raw?

I give these questions to you the readers: is the guest GM good or bad for Raw; and who would you want to see at the helm permanently?

Andy McNamara is a SLAM! Wrestling writer, and is the play-by-play broadcaster for Toronto Maple Leafs inter-county league baseball on Rogers TV. Along with baseball Andy does play-by-play for hockey, basketball, and volleyball on Rogers Television in Toronto. Contact Andy at andymcnamara@hotmail.com