Last Tuesday saw the long-awaited induction of Davey Boy Smith into the WWE Hall of Fame. Following years of fan petitions and incredible efforts from his children Harry and Georgia, as well as his wife Diana Hart-Smith, the British Bulldog was announced as part of the 2020 Hall of Fame class; however, the COVID-19 pandemic wiped out last year’s ceremony, forcing Davey’s fans and family to wait over a full year for the induction to become official on April 6, 2021. The extended wait only served to make the ceremony more emotional, with Smith’s immediate family clearly thrilled to accept the induction on his behalf.
However, to the benefit of millions of wrestling fans worldwide, the Hall of Fame induction won’t be the only honour bestowed upon the British Bulldog in the near future. While a release date is yet to be announced as of this point, Smith will be the subject of one of WWE’s upcoming Icons documentaries. Thus far, the series has done an incredible job telling the stories of WWE legends such as Yokozuna and Beth Phoenix, with Smith’s being one of the most highly-anticipated of the scheduled upcoming episodes.
When we recently chatted for Love Wrestling, Georgia Smith filled me in on a few details of the upcoming film.
“They picked the Icons for it, and I remember that Terry Funk was originally supposed to be in it,” she began. “They just wanted to just cover Davey’s life, really. I always wanted to do a documentary on my dad, whether it was with WWE or an independent project. I’m glad it’s with WWE, because obviously, they’ve got all the footage and the rights. My dad’s best career memories and greatest moments, I believe, was in WWE, so it just overall worked out. And, you know, I just talked about my memories of Davey, like my favorite – I don’t think we talked about favorite matches! I think they just asked me like what I thought of Wembley, and the European title and just his big moments.”
Georgia continued to speak to the emotional impact that the documentary had during the filming process.
“It was very therapeutic pretty much from start to finish. I was just very emotional about it. I just told the guy that was filming first thing I was like, you know, this means a lot to me and I want this to be as real and as genuine as possible. I want you and people to understand and know the man and the husband my mom had and the father I had and the wrestler that people looked up to. I want him to really shine I said because he deserves all the credit in the world. It’s super important to me to do this because I said, I don’t know if I’m going to have this chance to do it again. So I want to say as much as I can, really.”
“So, they filmed me last, and it was very, very late. I was crying for a couple of days, because I felt like I purged a lot. I just got a lot out. I heard Harry and my mom talk, and you know, we don’t really talk about it too much. We talk about Davey, but the whole, you know-“
“Circumstances?” I interjected.
She nodded and continued.
“We don’t talk about [that]. So the fact that I was in the next room and I could hear their sides and their perspectives. It was really interesting. I’m just curious to see how WWE is going to piece it all together and edit it and they create the final package. I don’t know how WWE is going to condense all of this into an hour, or an hour and a half, because it is a lot of content. I’m just very grateful that they did this.”
While it would be expected that Smith’s wife and children would be included in what can be considered his definitive documentary, there were still some surprises to be had as far as interviewees for the film.
“They went to England to interview my dad’s dad and my dad’s sister and a guy named Walter, who owned a gym that my dad trained at in his younger years,” Georgia revealed. “Walter was a bodybuilder, he’s in his 70s. But, he was a big motivator and inspired my dad when he was growing up and was my dad’s – I would say probably my dad’s best friend. He’s never talked about it either. Talking to my granddad, I think the last time they spoke to him was – God, I think it was 1991 or 1990.”
I was incredulous. Obviously, Georgia could tell, smiling before continuing.
“Oh, yeah. Yeah. When my grandmother was still alive. That was for when they did the UK Rampage tour. They interviewed my dad, my grandmother and my grandfather outside. So, it’s gonna be nice to see him talk again and get that. If I did anything, if my dad’s stuff has caught WWE’s attention, and you know, with Harry wrestling as Davey Boy Smith, Jr. led this to happen. I’m like, great!”
Tune in to the full conversation with Georgia Smith on Love Wrestling. Please credit Spencer Love with any of the above quotations used.
