Diana Hart Exposes the Truth Behind Her Husband Davey Boy Smith: PRIME TIME VAULT

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is a Prime Time with Sean Mooney production. She
is a member of one of the most legendary families
in the history of professional wrestling. So many great stories,
so many great individuals part of that family, and Diana
Hart joins us. And Diana, it has been a while
since we've seen and chatted, but I'm really really honored

(00:22):
that you're joining us today. How are you.

Speaker 2 (00:25):
I'm very well, I'm great. A little bit cold up
here in Calgary where I'm talking to you from. It's like, ah, geez,
I don't know. It's minus thirty with the wind show.
Oh boy, freezing like my door handles inside the house,
some of them are frozen, like there's ice on them.

Speaker 1 (00:46):
Oh boy. So you're still feeling the effects of that
polar vortex that we felt down here in the States.

Speaker 2 (00:52):
Yeah, that's right, yes.

Speaker 1 (00:54):
Well yeah, no, And you've been somehow that that country
keeps drawing you back, because I know you've spent time
in Florida, But what is it about being up there
that just keeps bringing you home.

Speaker 2 (01:05):
It's that darn family, That darn family.

Speaker 1 (01:10):
H Yeah, it's so much to to talk about that,
that darn family and what an incredible group of people.
I had the the the great honor of working with
a few of them during that period of time and
also meeting you as well. But I think, I guess
if we're going to start, we should start with your dad, because, uh,
you know, Stu Hart is with the uh the patriarch

(01:31):
of this family and really started it all. And I
just remember, I'll tell you, he was always so great
to me, just really nice individual. And of course I
didn't know him really well, but whenever he would come
to the events, he was just so awesome. And the
one thing I remember more than anything is that shaking
his hand was like shaking a rock with fingers. He

(01:51):
just had that you know, iron grip of you know
when you when you shook hands with him. Boy, I
think you've described him as a man's man, but that's
that's that always stayed with me.

Speaker 2 (02:01):
Yeah, he had like I saw him when I was little,
and he was you know, I didn't realize it at
the power of it at the time, but he was
holding a chainsaw and using it with one hand. And
I mean I can't even hold a chainsaw with two
hands and all, but he was operating it with with

(02:24):
one hand, just like he was. I mean, I can't
even cut a loaf of bread two hands, you know,
I have to have two hands, but he was he
needed it the other hand to hold something. And then
but yeah, he had from years of hard work, you know,

(02:44):
like being a farm boy and then the amateur wrestling,
and he was so strong and big, strong forearms. I
just always, you know, I always wanted to do a
drawing of my dad's hands or a sculpture of them.

(03:05):
There there was one picture that a really good photographer
named Jared Sitch up here in Calgary did of my dad,
and it's kind of legendary. A lot of people seem
to send it to me, so I don't know how
they got access to it. But it's a picture of

(03:25):
my dad's face and he was at the dining room
table and he just had his hands clasped together. And
it's not and my dad, it's not like a delicate
picture where he's like, it's just a very virile picture.
And his hands say as much as his face. It's
just the big pause and you know, the life that

(03:47):
they they lived. If they could talk, they would say
as much as as his heart, you know, they he
just but yeah, he had an honest, authentic persona that
that you could appreciate just from a handshake.

Speaker 1 (04:03):
Yeah, and I think that, you know, it is certainly
different times from back then, but I know growing up
and if anybody had watched the has watched the documentary
on the Hart Family, you know, it just kind of
shows how that that's that type of lifestyle, how that

(04:24):
those lessons learned early in life stayed with him forever.
And then that comes from being in that territory and
if people have ever been up there, they know how
brutal it can be. And then I think at one
point they lost the land of the family and lived
in tents in this brutal cold that had to have
stayed with him his entire life.

Speaker 2 (04:43):
Yeah, I mean, I I am sure that the winters
in the two winters in Saskatchewan that he lived in
the tent with his family were as cold as what
I'm going through right now. And he was in a
little tent like and they would bring the dogs in

(05:04):
to keep them warm and hot rocks, and they he
had a slingshot, I mean, they didn't even have a gun.
He'd hunt rabbits and you know, bring them home or
whatever he could get and they were so you know,
I heard that the rabbits had you know, so little

(05:24):
inside them. There. They were full of worms and stuff
you cook them with like stone soup, you know, whatever
you could in the winter. You wouldn't have many vegetables,
but whatever you could find and uh, you know, cook
it and eat it and make it last as long
as you could. You know, it's not like, you know,

(05:45):
you wouldn't have a can of old beans in there,
like you wouldn't have He wouldn't have had anything. It
would just been like like bitterly cold, old Western you know,
you're living and you could just picture the wind blowing
and you can't see past you know, your nose because
it's the wind is so bad. I mean that that's

(06:06):
what Saskatchewan winters are like. There's no mountains, there's no
wind barriers. Not that it's warm in the mountains either,
but yeah, it was a I believe that through those
really like unbelievably extraordinarily difficult years of his life, that

(06:31):
he must have determined that he wanted to, you know,
if he ever could get out of that, you know,
he would make the most of his life. And I
I don't know where he had this love of I

(06:52):
know he had a nice family, but he must have
really I don't know where it developed with the want
to help everybody could and help his family. And I
just don't see that anymore, you know, like I really don't.
I just if if he helped somebody, it wasn't an

(07:15):
eagle thing where oh I I want to help someone
because I want them to remember me. It was wasn't
like that. He just he really wanted to see people succeed.
And I think it was a reflection of his own
self worth, like you know, if I if I can,
I he didn't do it for credit, though, he didn't

(07:37):
do it, because there are so many things that he
did that I am still finding out about now. And
it's like, you know that my dad never capitalized on
or made a big deal about, but just anything like
you're you know, just so many stories how he how

(07:58):
he helped this family or that family, or your dad
gave me little even little things like your dad gave
me a helped us by a Christmas tree one year,
because he you know, it's like oh he you know,
I'm not surprised, but he didn't come home and say,
oh I helped I bought a Christmas Tree at the

(08:21):
you know, he just he just was and my mom too,
you know, and they found each other. And my dad
was about thirty after World War Two and you know,
had proven himself so much, you know, qualified for the
Olympics in amateur wrestling to represent Canada. And the Olympics

(08:43):
were wiped out twice, and he was I'm sure disappointed
about that. But you know, he, as my sister Ali said,
he always looked at the glasses just full, not half
or half empty. It was just the glass was full,
and my mom was sort of, uh maybe half full

(09:03):
half full.

Speaker 1 (09:04):
Kind of yeah. Yeah, well, I'm sure that those lessons
early in life, like when you live that way and
you basically you're just you're struggling for survival, that there's
nothing that ever is gonna knock you down because you
if you got through that and it seemed like, you know,
they were the worst of times and in the best
of times. He lived all of those with the you

(09:27):
know this zest for life.

Speaker 2 (09:29):
Yeah, yeah, I did. He lifted too, He did with
a huge zest for life. He did love. He loved
the when he find you know, could get nice things,
you know, good food, and and that was so important
because he was starving for a long time, and as

(09:50):
I realized when I was growing up, how important it
was for him to see that his family was fed
even when and we weren't doing well financially, and food
was kind of a premium in a way. You know,
you just get what you get. You could have pancakes

(10:12):
for you know, or bananas or sauer kraut is just whatever.
You but he wanted us to always be fed, and
he didn't. There was no negotiation with that. And school too,
That was another thing with both my mom and dad.

(10:32):
It was so important for their kids, for them to
see their kids educated. And you know, he really didn't
miss school unless there was something like really, you didn't
even when you're sick. I thought like they wanted us
to everything. And nowadays is so judged. You know, if

(10:55):
you say, well, my dad sent us to school and
we were not feeling well, someone will think, yeah, you
know you were your dad was mean or your dad
was trying to get other people sick or something. But
I'm just everything is different now. I have to re
re phrase things a little bit, but I hope you
understand what I mean.

Speaker 1 (11:14):
He's just well, education was important to him and his
kids getting that education then. And I can't imagine what
school systems were like back then. That that was really
important because you had all these all these children and
they wanted to make sure that they were going to
get a chance in life.

Speaker 2 (11:33):
Yeah, you know, when he was in school, he was
lucky to even get to school when he could, because
he had to work for whatever land. I don't know
how they were surviving, but he was the only boy.
He had two sisters, and his mom wasn't wasn't well,

(11:54):
and she ended up passing away. She had diabetes, but
they didn't know it at that at that time. It
was nineteen fifteen was when he was born. So, but
the odd days when they did get to school when
they could, the sisters and he rode to school on

(12:16):
the horse, and they would fall asleep on the horse's back,
and the horse knew how to get them to the school.
And they had bare feet.

Speaker 1 (12:23):
And I'm just.

Speaker 2 (12:27):
You know, the dungarees or the overalls and the shirt,
no shoes, and so I don't know what schooling they
could get in the wintertime. I don't know if the
horse could have made it, I'm not sure. And if
they didn't have the proper clothes. They might have frozen
to death going, but when the weather was better, the
horse would just and they would fall up. I gathered

(12:50):
that that was one of the things I had heard recently,
that he would they would just fall asleep on the
horse's back. And they must have been in there, like
I don't know, maybe eight nine and ten or something.
I'm not sure what the difference in age was between
my dad and his sisters, but anyway, they were. Yeah,

(13:14):
so you know, just to get to school and on
the horse, and how many miles away that was, I
don't know. Too far out of walk though.

Speaker 1 (13:22):
Yeah, I'll tell you. But I mean you talk about
out of stark existence. And you know, Stu was an
incredibly gifted athlete, probably like you said, because it just
timing wise. There was a couple of Olympics in there
when the World War two was happening, and then I
think he had another opportunity in forty eight and you know,
a lot was still happening, and you know he had

(13:45):
to make a choice, made a good decision because you know,
he got into professional wrestling and here we are today,
but back then, how did he end up getting into
the business I mean, and I mean, and I'm talking about,
you know, forming his own promotion because he had, you know,

(14:05):
great success as a professional wrestler. But when did the
business end of it start to come into his life.

Speaker 2 (14:13):
It was around nineteen fifty two. So he married my
mom in forty eight. And then he was kind of
tuts Mott, who was head of the I don't know

(14:33):
if it's the NWA then, but tuts Mott found out
my dad was trained by Jack Taylor, and he almost
couldn't believe it because Jack Taylor was I mean, it
just it was it was an unlikely you know, what

(14:55):
are you doing in New York and Jack Taylor's from
this part of the world and you're it was But
when he found out my dad really was all that,
all that and more, you know, he was he wasn't
just trained by him, and that was it. He was
a gifted, he was a protege. He was so so

(15:15):
just just like a dream come true. And so took
smart took my dad, I don't know to wrap it
up nicely, kind of took him under his took him
aside and said you you will go places, and you know,

(15:38):
basically go back to Canada and we will work with you,
and we have we are expanding and we'd like we
are trusting you with that. And I think there was
some some sort of promotion up in Calgary at that time,
but it wasn't or in Edmonton. It was really barely

(15:59):
doing anything thing. And my dad came back round about
through working the states Texas and then up towards northern
like Montana and then into Alberta, got back with his
old friend, best friend who spent a lot of time

(16:20):
with in Edmonton named al Oming, who I think was
another another guy that maybe doesn't get enough credit for
his influence on my dad. Al Oming was a pretty
good athlete, a really nice family and they took my
dad under their wing when he was a teenager because

(16:43):
he had become a ward of the state with the
Salvation Army after after his mother died and they lost
the land in Saskatchewan, and al Oming's family had a
game farm, you know, they had wolves and cheetahs and
buffalo and coyotes and all kinds of wild animals that

(17:07):
they were and they had this huge game farm. And
al uh Al was a great he taught I think
he taught my dad a lot of survival lessons in
survival too, Like I'm not sure where my dad had
the idea of coal or like, but he would sometimes

(17:28):
have us eat, you know, just like licked charcoal like
a briquette. And you know, now that's the big thing,
you know, like the charcoal clans or the you know. Yeah,
and I just remember that was and then when you
say that that then it was like, oh, your dad
is mean, he's got it's eating coal, But it was

(17:50):
he just would tell you to lick it. He said
it was good for your teeth. But yeah, it was
a mineral, you know, it's just from the earth. And
so anyway, al Oming and my dad were promoting, and
there was something at that time in the early fifties
where you couldn't promote and wrestle. You had you could
do one or the others. So al Oaming was the promoter.

(18:13):
And if you look up al Oaming or the Alberta
Game Farm, Owming is oe m I n G. It'll
say that he was a wrestler and a promoter. But
he was working with my dad, so that basically my
dad could promote. But it was through you know, for

(18:35):
the facade of it looking like was the so that
my dad could could run the show and wrestle. But
you know, Al was was a great guy for my
dad to he could trust him. They were best friends
and yeah, and then they you know, they worked with

(18:55):
Sandor Kovacs, Paul Bush. Sandor ended up like Sandy Kovac's
Paul Bash Chandlers or Lord Blears and my dad were
all like, I don't know what, I don't like to
say the the click, but they were like a little

(19:16):
crew out in New York. You know this this uh
four phenomenal like like Lord Blears he got the Purple Heart.
I believe it was the Purple Heart or the I
don't know if it was the Purple Heart. It was
for England. It was for rescuing. He was a phenomenally
strong swimmer and he rescued so many people that were

(19:39):
bringing them swimming out from the boat that they were
shipwrecked or the they were capsized, and he flew, he
swam back and forth, back and forth and saved so
many lives. It was just amazing what he did. And
he that's how he became Lord Lord Blears. He got

(20:01):
the honor from a particular honor from the Queen for
what he did for his services and in the art
in the World War Two. And you know, a great
friend of my mom, of my dad's. He was the
lifeguard at the beach and introduced my mom and dad,
and Sandor Kovacs and Paul Bash were there and with

(20:23):
my dad and you know, right from the beginning, and
they they went their separate ways, but they worked together.
So Sandor was in uh, Seattle, Washington, British Columbia, and
my dad had Calgary or well western Western Canada but

(20:43):
not not but he's working hand in hand with with Sandy.
And then Paul Bash was down in Texas and uh, yeah,
I think that's every and I'm not sure where Jan
Blears went right off at, but he eventually went to Hawaii.
But they started out a good, strong unit and really

(21:03):
helped to build a n w A and worked closely
with with with the plan, you know. And then Gene
Kiniski became you know, he was from BC and he
you know, uh, he played for the CFL. I don't
know if he was the BC Lions or Edmonton Eskimos,

(21:24):
but world champion and just you know, it's a really
good group. But what it didn't all start in the
eighties with uh oh yeah, with Davy and Dynamite, you know,
it started, and then guys like Gorgeous George came to
Calgary and uh uh.

Speaker 1 (21:44):
So was this was this of the sixties at the time.
I mean, when did that early success with the Stampede
really start because there were some really good years there
when your dad had that operation going and.

Speaker 2 (21:58):
I'd see it was around in the fifties to about
uh late fifties, and he had like three TV shows.

Speaker 1 (22:09):
Yeah, uh oh.

Speaker 2 (22:13):
Sam Menaker was was one of his uh bookers. I
guess they had and I don't remember all of the names,
but my mom was very much involved. Uh So they
had one show was for the wrestling. One show was

(22:34):
kind of all about the uh the interviews, like the
I don't quite know how they did it. And then
the third show was like a comedy hour, like a
Johnny Carson really show. Yeah, and uh they had have

(22:54):
one one very I think well Gorilla Monsoon was another
guy that was kind of a like uh Killer Kowalski.
But they had one guy that was really smart, and
then one wrestler that was really arrogant, you know, and

(23:14):
then so they'd get the letter like for example, and
my mom was some of these were legitimate letters, but
but my mom would help to write the response that
he would be, uh, you know, dear uh, dear gorilla
or something, you know, my having problems with my husband.
He just won't he won't pay attention to me or something.

(23:37):
So they read the letter on and my mom would
have written the response. So one wrestler would have the
really uh, you know, very chauvinistic uh.

Speaker 1 (23:50):
You know, put her in her place still let thee.

Speaker 2 (23:52):
And and the wrestler and I think the other wrestler
was yeah, he'd be like very you know, well what
you do you know you should take you know, buyer
you know, I don't know. He'd he'd have a very
romantic uh scenario, laid out very and very good names.
Like my mom was so smart, you know, she'd have

(24:14):
have the names of of the you know, the right
restaurant and what to order, what to the certain certain
kind of flower, ohs or whatever anyhow, and they but
it was a huge success.

Speaker 1 (24:29):
And i'm those tapes were existed today, that wouldn't that
be awesome to watch?

Speaker 2 (24:34):
With the tapes, they would send the tapes out and
then a lot of the times the tapes by the
time they got back to Calgary, they had been taped
over with some price. They just reused things back then,
you know, they didn't you know, And it's so some
of the tapes never did get come back. And you'll

(24:55):
hear about someone saying, oh, you know tape you know,
they they ran this show in some country that the
wrestling we didn't even know we were being aired in
and then but that's because the tapes went all over
the world. Some of them you get back, some would
be re recorded on before you got them back, and

(25:16):
some some remained untouched. But yeah, then somebody got mad
about something, some bastard in this area where the TV
shows were being taped. And he was just an old bastard.
I mean, I wasn't even born when he did this,
but I I you know, despise him. You know, he's

(25:39):
probably dead now, but he he put got a petition
together saying he didn't like that there was so many
park cars on his street. And this was in the
district of Calgary where it's called Rito. So it's a
very well Rito Rocksboro, very affluent district. But it happened

(25:59):
to be where the TV station was built.

Speaker 1 (26:03):
Until that killed the business. I mean that's going on.

Speaker 2 (26:06):
Out of that issue and the Yeah, and it just
closed down like basically overnight. But in that time that
my mom and dad had this, they were rolling. I mean,
they bought a plane. They were flying the wrestlers. Not
my dad didn't know how to fly it. I think
he could, but he didn't actually have a license, but

(26:28):
he was pretty handy, you know. Yeah, sat Menaker was
the one who flew the plane.

Speaker 1 (26:34):
And uh I bought the big mansion too, right to
the house.

Speaker 2 (26:37):
Yeah, that actually my dad bought that in fifty two.
He bought the territory for twenty five thousand or fifty
and he bought the house for twenty five thousand or
fifty with the christ.

Speaker 1 (26:52):
So that, I mean, those were good days and it
was unfortunately before you came along. I think you were
born in what sixty three or later, so you kind
of missed that. So as far as the wrestling part
of it goes, I mean, I know that that Stu
wasn't necessarily wanted his boys to get into the business,

(27:13):
but was it kind of always known that that was
going to happen for many of them? I mean, you know,
early on with uh, you know Bruce and and was
it like there or did he really try and encourage
them to try to go separate, you know, to a
separate part of life, you know, to a different path
of earning a living.

Speaker 2 (27:34):
That's a good question, Sean, it really is, because it
was it was important for my dad to have all
his kids get kids get at a university education. Yet
he really liked having the family part of part of

(27:59):
the promotion. And I possibly that's where the some dissension
came between my mom and dad. I believe my mom
really didn't want the boys getting into wrestling, and my dad,
I think deep down he did want them to go

(28:21):
as far as they could as amateurs and possibly then
if they were good amateurs. I think that was my
dad's thing, was if you proved your worth as a
good amateur, then you could then get into professional wrestling
as far as the inner circle went, kind of or

(28:41):
the bet because all of the or be a good athlete.
But you know, my dad did try to nurture and
cultivate everything he could out of anybody, even if they
felt they didn't have an athletic or maybe didn't have
an athletic bone in their body still still did his
best to help them. But I just think because they

(29:05):
were always around it, like you know, it kind of
like yah.

Speaker 1 (29:10):
Party of blood. I mean, that's that was the family business.

Speaker 2 (29:13):
It really was. If he didn't if he didn't want
them to be I mean, it made sense financially to
you know, have the business run out of the office
or the business run out of the house and having
twelve kids. But at the same time, it was very

(29:33):
unusual to do that. They could have had it, they
could have had an office, or they could have had
you know, my dad and now owning doing it out
of a separate place. But it was my mom and
dad running it, and it had to be done out
of the house so that the kids could all be

(29:54):
looked after. And they had to know it was gonna
through us or through desire, it was gonna rub off,
you know, and well was.

Speaker 1 (30:09):
I mean early on, did you know of course we
all all know, whether the world knows, Brett and Owen
of course were the two that really became world famous.
But were the other were the other brothers? I mean,
you were there, did you know, did Bruce seem to
have more talent at the time, or did you think
that Bruce is gonna be did you think early on

(30:31):
there like Brett, well he's really got it. I mean,
what was your viewpoint amongst all your brothers who really
had it?

Speaker 2 (30:41):
They all, they all had it. You know, I didn't
see Smith wrestle so much for some reason. I really
didn't see him wrestle. I don't recall him wrestling live.
If he did, like in front of me. If he did,
I don't remember. I remember watching Bruce and Keith and Dean.

(31:06):
But Dean was an awesome really was a phenomenal amateur wrestler,
and he was so gutsy just you know, he died young,
and he wasn't that big, but he was what. I
always felt in good hands with Dean, and I got

(31:27):
into uh. I always seemed to get be with Dean
when little altercations came up. And I saw Dean, Uh,
I saw him pick the back end of the big
Cadillac Brome, the Elegance. He was so mad and picked

(31:47):
picked the back end and and moved it over. Uh
I had only four inches he had to get out
of this spot, and a guy had blocked him in
and wouldn't move anyway. It was he was just he
had like super strength and what a personality too. But

(32:08):
as far as pro wrestling and stuff, I just felt
like when I saw Bruce, he his style was so
different than Bratson Keith's. And Keith was a great shooter
in the ring, and he had some terrific matches, like
very believable, like the Billy Robinson Dory Funk kind of match.

(32:32):
That he was a highly skilled amateur wrestler. He knew
all kinds of moves that my dad taught him that
he you know, like the secret set. I'm sure all
my brothers know some, but I think Keith spent a

(32:52):
little more time with my dad at you know, being
the age difference, like o one would have been younger
when my dad was older, so I know my dad
was still in great shape when no one was getting
into wrestling. But I think Keith got a lot of
knowledge that my dad was able to pass on when

(33:14):
he was in a slightly better position to do it
then and have other people around to like, you know,
my dad might have been demonstrating or teaching somebody like
Archie Goldie how to wrestle, and Keith would have been
like Harry's age, like you know, twelve maybe or fifteen,

(33:38):
watching from the matt and seeing all these things happen.
So Keith had quite a vocabulary wrestling, physical wrestling vocabulary.
Wayne learned a lot, but he was he he just
didn't have the interest in it. He was a little

(33:59):
defiant as far as he wanted to learn judo, which
was fine, and my dad respected all the combative disimplinants.
But Wayne just didn't didn't hang around as much Dean did.
But then we get get down to Brett. Brett learned, Uh,

(34:26):
I don't know if he learned as much as Keith was.
Keith did go on to a national level with his
amateur wrestling. He wrestled for the University of Saskatchewan and
you know, for four years she wrestled at amateur at
university level. And Owen did too. And Bratt, who's the
phenomenal amateur wrestler and technician in the ring, he only

(34:49):
went as far as high school and he, you know,
he blew them away in high school. As as an
amateur wrestler, he's just he was, you know, seamless with
but he stopped after high school and then he went
to Mount Royal College. But he didn't really carry on
with it because I think Brett was planning on a

(35:09):
career in Hollywood as a director like he was, and
then the but he got pulled back in. But Brett's
style was totally different than Bruce's, and he and Keith
had a lot of the technical similarities, but Brett kind

(35:30):
of being a little bigger and he just had a
little more. He just had his own take on things.
Like I had never seen anyone hit a turnbuckle front
face first like Brett. And then Brett's uppercots and forearms
and his stomps. He it was. It was all his own,

(35:55):
like I and I didn't really see a lot of
my dad wrestling because I get too scared when I
was little, so I wasn't allowed to see him wrestle alive.
But when I was little, I mean, that didn't happen
until like I was a teenager. But I'd watch it
on TV, and some of the stuff I saw was

(36:16):
my dad and Archie Goldie and my dad's head split open,
and I'd see in the kitchen while watch So it
happened Friday night and then the next day it's on TV.
My Dad's watching it on TV in the kitchen, and
I can see the stitches in my dad's head and
I see him on TV and he's bleeding, and I
was just I I just was too I don't know,

(36:45):
I was too stressed out about it or.

Speaker 1 (36:52):
That was all looking to work to you, No, it
was all.

Speaker 2 (36:56):
And then when kids at school would say, oh, you're
you're my dad says you're Dad's fake, or then it
was like how and I'm you know when they see
it say that. You know. The things that come into
my mind at that time were like my mom and
dad working so hard and and we're struggling. So many

(37:19):
years after that things got shut down. I took along
in the fifty late fifties. It could have been could
have been like sixties, but it was before I was born,
and I was when I was born. It was just
kind of at the worst, like we didn't but I

(37:40):
was a baby, so I didn't remember anything other than
being doted over. And then like when I started grade one,
I just remember things that that would have been sixty nine.
I was five when I started, and I was I
had no idea where I was, you know, it's just
taken to school and didn't know anybody and got picked

(38:02):
up and I was like, well, that was kind of interesting,
and that's at school, and then you know, if you
get to know a few people, and you know, I
was really shy. But then after it's like grade two
or something, someone was started telling me my dad was
a fake and I was like and then it was like,
yes they are. And it's like, can you say that?

(38:24):
My dad is so so strong and he's so good
and I'm not under any illusions. He's there at home
all you know, he's uh. I see him doting over
my mom, and I see my mom like working in
the office till you know, one in the morning, and

(38:44):
my dad getting up to make us breakfast, you know,
hot cereal, and there's no not enough milk for everyone,
and we're just and it's not because he forgot to
buy any you know, there just isn't enough. There's not
just not enough. But he cared so much, so I
just couldn't. I couldn't handle that. So I didn't see

(39:11):
you a lot of what my dad did. And then
when he would stretch guys down in the basement, I
wasn't allowed down there at all, down.

Speaker 1 (39:19):
In the dudgeon. And I was going to ask you
about that that the legend, of course, and I don't
know how much that grows, but nobody could question there
was anybody who could stretch somebody better than Stu Hart.
Do you remember hearing something?

Speaker 2 (39:34):
I do. I was there, but I was I was
upstairs and when that the there was one. I guess
that's sort of infamous because and I don't think it
was planned out the way it all came out, but
there's some country western song in the background because they

(39:55):
had a radio down there, probably an old radio with
cloth over the speakers and a big dial. Well, I
do remember it. It was a wooden radio, was really
old and kind of staticky, but you could get the
odd country western station once in a while that had
good reception. So some like you know, like you know

(40:20):
the country song that probably is of someone suffering. And
Owen was down there with the tape recorder, and I
think Bruce might have told Owen to tape it, but
the song was just a fluke. It just happened to
be playing when this was going on, and and Owen
had one of those I think Owen was like a

(40:41):
little toy for him, someone's little tape recorder set. It
was like maybe like the size of a carton of eggs,
and it had the buttons that you pushed down, and
so he was recording it with cassette tape, And where
the dungeon is is right in the basement. Well, the pipes,

(41:05):
we had hot water heating through the house. That's what
we eventually got. We got rid of the radiators. And unfortunately,
when we got rid of the radiators, that was we
were getting this new thing called hot water heating, like
the pipe heating which big commercial buildings and stuff have now.

(41:25):
But that's when everything just shut down for my dad,
and we didn't have any heat except for one radiator
and in one room and then in this big house
and then the kitchen whatever heat you could get from
the oven. But the rest of the house was freezing.
And but so anyway the pipes went would go through
all the way through the house, and they had to

(41:47):
cut holes in the hardwood floor. So if you peeked
into the hardwood floor, like it wasn't a sealed yeah,
like it would be like, I don't know, the hole
would be about the size of a can of heinz

(42:07):
beans say, And then the pipe was a little smaller
and that would run all the way through and then
up up the wall and around the But see if
you look through that hole where the pipe was, you
could you could see the just directly below, which would
have been one corner of the dungeon, just that you
would see maybe some string and a bit of the canvas,

(42:31):
like the rope to hold the canvas down, and the hook.
And you could smell the sweat too, coming up from there.
And so I could hear quite clearly the things going
on down there, and you could hear the bumps and
feel it through the floor. But I could hear the guy,
and I think he'd been a little bit of a

(42:55):
smart alec Becau's not like it was dying to stretch him.
But I think my dad really was having a little
bit of fun with him, and this guy was just
just hysterical, like something out of a cartoon. And you
end up having to slap the guy in the face
and then he's like, oh, thank you, I needed that.
But he was just like screaming and stop stop, stop,

(43:20):
and crying and crying, and my Dad's kind of just
payfully slapping him on the stomachs there there now have
some discipline, it's just slapping him but the way it
sounds on the tape, it's almost like you know, but
it was just like there there now have some discipline here.

(43:46):
It's just and it went on for about twenty minutes.
And I'm sure the guy thought each you know, each
little bit, uh since cinching it in a little more
where he was just one step closer to me meeting
his maker. But you know he was fine, and well,

(44:10):
I'm sure ste's mine.

Speaker 1 (44:12):
It was. I mean, you had to earn your way.
It was a way to you know, whether you were
made out for this business and uh and you and
respect for the business. So he had his method. But boy,
he was you know, legendary that there's no questions about that.

Speaker 2 (44:28):
If you shook your hand or you know, he sometimes
the kind of like like want to just uh it's
kind of like he wasn't my dad was not a
bully and he wasn't uh sadistic, but it it was
kind of it's like, I don't know, it's like a

(44:51):
way of uh, you know, like if you learn this
or you go through this, you will I promise you
you'll be a better person after man.

Speaker 1 (45:00):
Yeah, well and he made a lot of meend that's
for sure that throughout the business that never forgot that.
And you know, that's that's kind of the way it
was back in the day. And which was interesting though,
because you know a lot of the wrestler handshake is
it's you barely you any pressure. It just shows him
like Butter, you know, but not Stu. Stu made you
you when you he shook your hand, I mean he

(45:21):
could drop you to your knees if he wanted to. Yeah,
but that was that way it was. I want to
move along here because I know during this period of
time and we're talking about like when Brett was coming
up and they were just becoming you know, people were
talking a lot about them. And during this period of time,
the love of your life stepped into it and h

(45:44):
and you met David Smith. How did that come about
where he ended up in Canada where you even met him?

Speaker 2 (45:56):
He well, Dynamite came to Calgary in seventy eight and
that was through Bruce. Bruce was the one who saw him.

Speaker 1 (46:06):
But over in England he saw him, I mean, or
he was over there, Yeah, Okay, Bruce.

Speaker 2 (46:11):
Was over there in England wrestling for Joint Promotions, which
was the Crab Trees Shirley and Max Crabtree and but
my brother Smith actually is the first Heart to ever
wrestle Davy, which is funny. He wrestled Davy in in
England in before he ever, before I ever knew who

(46:35):
he was.

Speaker 1 (46:37):
What was he before? We really talk about that, but
at that time, because I've seen old video of him,
and I think he was around probably fifteen or sixteen,
just this slight. He probably didn't weigh one hundred and
sixty pounds, but you could see back then the talent
he had. But he wasn't, you know, as many people

(46:58):
remember him as being this as a superstar, but yeah,
when you met him, he wasn't right.

Speaker 2 (47:04):
No, he was about one hundred and eighty five pounds
and solid, like like a gymnast. Yeah, and uh, you
know I always hear that, oh you're you know Davy
was you know, Davy and Dynamite were these two little
you know, one hundred and forty pounds. It's like, no,

(47:25):
he was like one hundred and eighty five pounds. It
was eighteen. Like I don't know how big you want
a guy to be when he's eighteen, and uh, but uh,
he was solid. Dynamite was the same. Dynamite was lighter
though he wasn't as bulky as Davy, but that was

(47:46):
I think just Davy was just a bigger the bigger
always of the two.

Speaker 1 (47:50):
Right.

Speaker 2 (47:52):
Yeah. Bruce, Bruce was my brother. Bruce went over there
and did he enjoyed going to England and he saw this,
you know, Tommy Bellington, you know, Dynamite, the Dynamite kid,
and he was like, oh my god, this guy is unbelievable.
He is he is. And he called my dad and
it was like something out of like like the movies

(48:15):
where you hear the voice like Back to the Future
when Michael J. Fox is saying, you know, or someone saying,
you got to hear this guy, right, yeah, you know.
And and my dad was hesitant to bring Dynamite over
because he was about one hundred and seventy pounds maybe,

(48:39):
but when you saw him work, wow, what solid? Uh
he may they all did, I mean when you watched it,
it's not they all did, like Dory Funk and Terry
Funk and Billy Robinson and watching my dad and Archie Goldie,
you know, like it was you just you knew that

(49:01):
there was this was a hard fought match, you know,
like you don't want to, you know, kill the guy
in there, but you know that they're working, they're working
for that, they're working tight. Yeah yeah icen snug snug Yeah.
And so dynamite made the impression and that did help

(49:26):
for a couple of years. That was seventy eight and
eighty one. I was in the office at my dad's
and you know, they took you know, they took everything serious,
you know, very sincerely. So when someone would send the
pictures in, you know, they would they would look at
everyone's pictures and it didn't just get put in a

(49:47):
pile or my mom and dad you know, gave thought.
I mean, it could have been their son that was
you know. So I just appreciated that because there were
a lot of handwritten letters and letters from parents. And
speaking of that, Davy's dad is the one that wrote
the letter, handwritten on little sheets of paper from like

(50:11):
like the traditional English writing pad that you would get
at the Woolworth over in England or the little corner
store or the shop, like like kind of like blue
paper with the lines on it, and and it was
just a nice handwritten letter. You know, I'm I'm David's

(50:34):
father and you you know, his his cousin, that Tommy Billington,
and and then there were some pictures inside and I
saw Davy's picture and I just was what, I what
a handsome guy.

Speaker 1 (50:49):
And I was.

Speaker 2 (50:52):
Honest to god, I was saw his picture and then
I saw the letter that his dad wrote and and
I and I knew he was coming over. And then
they put that picture in the program. And I took
the program to school a lot, and I just think, maye,
you know, I had my best friend, Allison, Allison Hall

(51:14):
was on board with this. How how was I going
to get this to happen? You know, me meeting Davy
and knowing my mom and dad had the rule about
the daughters don't fraternize with the wrestlers. And but Davy's
trainer in England was Ted Bentley, who had also trained Dynamite,

(51:36):
and Dynamite's dad was a boxer, and Dynamites and Davy's
grandfather they shared the same grandfather, Joe Billington. He was
a boxer as well. And there's an interesting thing. If
you go on Wikipedia and you look up I think

(52:01):
Thomas Billington, it takes you to the great great grandfather.
And he was an executioner. He was a hangman. He
was the head number one hangman of England and apparently
he was, uh he was good at it, yes, and

(52:21):
and he was notorious for like like he had almost
an obsession with he was. It's an interesting thing when
you look it up and then you look up in
Wikipedia has different you know, personal life and stuff, and
then it does later talk about Davey and Dynamite went
on two to become famous wrestlers. But uh, great great

(52:48):
grandfather was I guess he was. He was quite a
beast and very hard on his his wife and and
then he had the grandfather Joe Billington, who I never
met him, but I remember his wife Nelly who Ellen
but they called him Nelly. I remember meeting her in

(53:11):
nineteen eighty two, and what a sweet little thing. But
I think she went through hell with Joe billing Joe
Billington the grant her husband, and he probably learned what
he did from the grandfather or like down, yeah, like

(53:32):
this is how you treat treat your wife. And but anyway,
it was just almost it was like a shocking startling
astonishing that the that they're uh, you know, not that distant,
not that far away relative was a hangman and apparently

(53:55):
loved it. So anyway, Davy's mom this was a sweetheart
and like her mother, Nelly was sweetheart. And I think
David Dynamite's dad, I think took after the grandfather because
I think he was He might have been a little
more uh, just cut and dry, you know, and to me,

(54:21):
you're going to be a boxer and that that's it.
And as I gathered, Dynamite was phenomenal footballer in England.
But yeah, he was. I guess he had a great
future if he wanted it with any rugby, any football
or soccer team. I think it was Manchester United at

(54:43):
the time. That was was the sure thing for him.
But he was getting into boxing and then Ted Batley
trained him, and you know, and he went to Canada,
and so following in the footsteps was little David. The
little wasn't uh, you know, living across the street from
Dynamite and got trained by Ted and uh, I don't

(55:07):
know that much about Dynamites training with Ted, but I
do know what Davies. Ted was pretty pretty route, not ruthless,
but pretty disciplined. Like he had an immaculate acreage and
an orchard and he grew all his own fruits and vegetables,

(55:28):
and he had a fruit round and for work to
repay the tuition for his training. Davy and the other
lads would clean the yard up so and you had
to push mo. It wasn't an electric mower or gas
more where you push mode the and it was like

(55:48):
five acres and you do it all by hand and
it yeah, and and uh, you know he'd want tree
branches cut. You know, he's like you you get up there,
you know, you climbed the tree by hand, like even
if it was a big tree and they had no
branches to you gotta climb it like you know, headlock

(56:08):
it with your legs, scissor lock it and pull yourself
up and then get up there and saw the branch
off and then they and and Ted would pull what
do little tricks like to see if you were doing
the work. Like he put one leaf behind a bush
and he'd know if you had if that bush was
if that leaf was still there, he'd know that you

(56:31):
you know, and I don't know what what extra work
he'd make you do. But Davy said he had to
be on his toes. You know, he never took any
short cuts because Ted would always figure it out. But
the other guys that was Bernie Right, That's Steve Wright's
brother Bernard, but Bernie Right was one that seemed to

(56:52):
always get caught doing the shortcuts. And anyway, you know,
Bernie and Steve, Bernie and Davy were kind of married
to each other in the early days with Ted's training
in the barn, and I think Davy got his front
teeth knocked out from Bernie doing a drop kick, and

(57:12):
then he got Bernie had him in a full nelson,
and they're wrestling on this old matt in the in
a barn on Ted's property, and it just had like
straw underneath it and some thin foam rubber, I don't know,
or cotton like that old cotton mattresses were, but it

(57:33):
was really unforgiving, and the canvas was like that old
cotton like sailcloth. And Bernie tripped and he had Davy
in the full nelson, and Davy they went down. Davy's
head went flat in and he he pulled all his
neck muscles, but he couldn't move him. He thought they

(57:57):
thought he broke his neck. He just told ripped all
Bernie's weight on top of Davies even though they were kids,
and then Bernie ran ran out. I mean, I'm not
making fun of Bernie at all. I gather though he
was just terrified that he had broken Davy's neck and
he didn't know what to do, and so he he

(58:19):
ran off. And I don't know if he ran off
to get help or he was just terrified of what
was going to happen, but he left Davy in the
barn and then dave Ted came in and you know,
Davy is okay, just said you tore all your muscles
around your neck, but you know he And then when

(58:40):
Davey had his very first match in England, he didn't
know all this time. He didn't know that a winner
was determined beforehand. He was every thing was a shoot.
So so when I met Davy in in in the
doorway at my dad's, in the front room of my
dad house, Bruce brought him by just by coincidence. It

(59:05):
wasn't so I could meet him or anything. It was
Bruce just brought him by to I gu show him
the house and they were on their way to Red
Deer and I made pork chops and like, I think
that's what we were there was a it's just me
and Owen and actually things were a lot better with

(59:26):
wrestling at that time. Yeah, so I was I was
making pork chops. I made Davy pork chops, corn and rice,
I think, and apple sauce. And he had this big
infection on his left arm. And he had just come
from Africa, wrestling in South Africa with and his partner

(59:49):
down there, with Stephen Peacock, who took Davy to Soweto,
and because Stephen was married to a girl from Soeto,
so he was actually living there. But this was in
nineteen eighty one. It's a really you know, diicy time
for white guy to be in Soweto. But he he

(01:00:11):
had that instant the instant camera you take a picture
and the film develops. He was taking pictures and and theyep.
Some of these people in Soeto were like almost thought
he was magic. And but he was just eighteen and
just you know, seeing the world, maybe like my dad

(01:00:32):
in uh in a way. But he got bitten by
something down there and he had this infection. He came
back to Calgary and I spotted it like because I
love you know, little infections and getting slivers out and
ingrown hairs. It kept Davies in my marriage. Yeah, it did.

(01:00:57):
I was like, like the little bird on the back
or whatever cleaning. So I said, oh, do you do
you want me to? And you know, I seohan, I
couldn't understand what he was saying. He talked so fast
that strong uh Lancashire accident, and but he was what

(01:01:20):
he was saying was I make him sound like he
was illiterate, But I just maybe maybe he was speaking
fast too, because he was told he wasn't supposed to
talk to Stu's daughters. Dynamite apparently given him this right
from for whatever reason.

Speaker 1 (01:01:39):
I a house rules.

Speaker 2 (01:01:41):
Yeah, I said, you don't talk to theo's daughters. And
so Davey said, could you get me a plaster? And
I said, yep, like I'm on it. But I had
no idea what a plaster. And I was like yeah,
And I ran upstairs and asked my mom what is
a plaster? And that young wrestler downstairs has a and

(01:02:03):
my mom, of course, because she was so smart, she
knew what she said, Oh, it's a bandage. And a
band aid is different than a bandage. A band aid
has the sticky and the bandage is the cloth. And anyway,
I went down and fixed him up, and uh, he
seemed grateful, and I mean I I it was love

(01:02:25):
at first sight, honest to God, Sean. It was before
I ever met him. I saw his picture and the
letter from his dad and thought, wow, he's what a
handsome guy. And then I met him and it just
like intensified. And then I saw him wrestle, and then

(01:02:46):
it was there was no no turning back.

Speaker 1 (01:02:50):
When was the first time though, that what you kind
of realized that he was had sparked a little interest
in you as well.

Speaker 2 (01:03:01):
It was about a month after six six weeks after
he came to Calgary. I drove him home from the wrestling.
I wasn't supposed to be at the wrestling, but my

(01:03:22):
friend Allison and I suddenly started going as she was.
She was a good sport about all that. And I
had this my dad had given me this nineteen seventy
two Eldorado convertible. It was light blue, in pretty much
perfect condition. And I went to the wrestling and Davy

(01:03:46):
had wrestled I don't know, maybe second match or something.
He was just still making his you know, getting to
get getting going in the promotion, and it wasn't like
he just was you know, handed main events. You know,
he was just working his way through. And he said
he wanted to watch The Longest Yard on TV. Then

(01:04:09):
he loved Burt Reynolds and that the movie was on
on CTV or local TV. And I said, I'll drive
you home, and so I drove him home. It was
pouring rain, and he I don't know if he had
been in a car so big. I don't know what

(01:04:29):
he drove around in with brat to or if he
was just you know, putting me over. But it was
pouring rain, and he's like, oh god, I can't believe
you can drive a car this big. This is this
is massive. And and I drove him home and he
seemed to really appreciate it and asked me some questions

(01:04:51):
about his match and just nothing nothing like not Hollywood
is here.

Speaker 1 (01:05:02):
You knew something he was interested.

Speaker 2 (01:05:05):
Yeah, and then you.

Speaker 1 (01:05:06):
Guys had to sneak around because nobody could really know
this romance was starting to blossom. And how did you
do that?

Speaker 2 (01:05:14):
That was hard. I had to get Brett's help with that. Yeah,
his Davy was at this point living at Brett's house.
He had been at Dynamite's house. But I don't think
Dynamite was honestly. I mean, you know, I'd like to

(01:05:34):
speak because I I I think so much of Dynamite
in some ways. And that's when he and Davy were together,
and how they they had each other's backs and stuff
in the dressing room and stuff. But there was always
that Dynamite had that Dynamite was the older brother almost

(01:05:59):
in dave he was the sod. And then that was
that that kind of mentality of that of their family.
And I don't think Dynamite was always right in some
of the things that he expected of Davy. And he
pulled little tricks on Davy that were not nice, and

(01:06:20):
some of them were absolutely horrific. But and this one
I don't find horrific. I just think it was really mean.
But you know, like he would get uh, you know,
get it, make Davy a cup of hot chocolate. And

(01:06:41):
this was when Davey was living with him, and he
thinks his cousin is looking after him. You know, he
like loves him, he's like idolized him. He pretty much
did for his whole life. But you know, it would
be a whole block of xlax melted into the hot
chocolate and it's it's like Tom, why why? And he
started to and then and then Tom would give him

(01:07:04):
a the kind of danger well really dangerous things. He'd
give him a helsey on or his sleeping pill, and
then tell him to drive the van up to my
dad's house. And that's when he would see me. And
he'd get up there and he'd be like barely able
to keep his eyes open, and my dad was wondering
what the hell was wrong with him, And almost like

(01:07:27):
I kind of wondered if Tom was trying to Because
when when Davey came to Calgary, when he first came Dynamite,
I mean, it wasn't a big it's not it wasn't
well known, but there was this little feud between the

(01:07:49):
Billington's and the Smiths, and Dynamite's dad didn't want Davy
getting into wrestling, and he said there's only one wrestler,
and that's our Tommy and dave And so Sid went
ahead and took Davy to see Ted Badley anyway, and
Davey learned with Ted Batley, and he also learned beyond

(01:08:10):
what Dynamite did. He also learned from the snake Pit
at Billy Riley's which was in Wigan. But it was
that that all that catches catch can wrestling. You know,
it was really hard. Marty Jones went there Billy Robinson

(01:08:31):
and they called it the snake Pit. And Ronnie Wood
was another one that was part of that. And uh
so you know Davy did you know, have in my opinion,
had more education in wrestling than than Dynamite did. But Dynamite,

(01:08:55):
you know, they always see pound for pound, the best
wrestler ever, and he was. But I there were things
you know, just like there were things that Brett knew
that Owen didn't know when vice versa. But there were
things that Davey knew just because he he always wanted
to learn more. Everything that he did, he tried to like,

(01:09:18):
he wanted to get bigger, He wanted to learn how
Arnold Swarzenegger did it. And you know Tom wasn't that
interested in that. He just did is he liked his
He didn't want to experiment that much more than he
you know, so.

Speaker 1 (01:09:33):
Do you think there was some resentment that was always
there because uh, you know, he had a reputation for
uh for doing some of those things like you mentioned
that was just over the line. It wasn't. They weren't
like Owen was a great had a great reputation as
a as a river. But it was so good natured.
It was you know, funny. But there were some people
and uh, you know, Billington had that reputation where it

(01:09:55):
was it was cool. There were things that he did
were just cruel.

Speaker 2 (01:09:59):
So that's right, Sean.

Speaker 1 (01:10:00):
But you think there might have been something though between
those two that because of Davy Boy's talent and uh
you know and how he and and certainly in the
end too when he would be you know, with his
but he achieved.

Speaker 2 (01:10:14):
Yeah, Tom had that opportunity and he didn't want it.
When they were they left again. You know, you do well,
Davey left in eighty eight after the Rugo thing, and
you know, Davey, if you ask Jack and Raymond about that,
you know, Davy wasn't the one that had the heat.

(01:10:35):
I mean they did have an action in the dressing room,
but it wasn't that Davy. They did play play ribs
on people, but Davey just didn't have that.

Speaker 1 (01:10:49):
Yeah. I think Tom had some of that executioner in him.

Speaker 2 (01:10:52):
He did. Yes, I don't I believe that, and Davey didn't.
He got the grandmother's So I think Tom, if Davy had,
you know, ended up going back to England because he
just you know, hated it, I think Tom would have
been quite happy with that. And I do think there

(01:11:13):
was some motivation in the in the beginning, even though
you know they Tom always seemed to you know, incorporate
Davy and some of his promos and stuff because they
were Tom was the heel and Davy was the baby
face and they didn't right off the bat wrestle each other.
But it was like boy Smith when you I know,

(01:11:36):
you're sniffing around here for looking for a match for me,
I'm the world's champion, the junior heavyweight champion, and get
in line, baby, and then you go on to talk
about who the guy he was wrestling that week was
probably Brad or Bruce or But you know he did
he kept you know, he was clever, you know, he

(01:11:58):
kept it maybe on the surface looking like, you know, Davy,
I'm you know, pulling for you. I can always mention
you in my But at the same time, you know,
he didn't hesitate to shoot fly him as they call it,
which was exlaxing him or giving him, you know, a halcyon.
So he's driving where he can barely keep awake, and

(01:12:22):
lots of speed, and he didn't know sometimes whether he's
coming or going. And I saw him like that, and
I didn't understand at the time. I was like, what,
I don't know what's wrong with you? And he's But
I did figure it out. And but when so, Davey
was living at Dynamites, which was about five streets over
from Brett's place, and Brett was living with Julie, who

(01:12:46):
was ended up being his first wife, and Julie's sister
to Michelle, who was Dynamite's wife.

Speaker 1 (01:12:54):
And so.

Speaker 2 (01:12:57):
I would go and see Davy, and you know, it
was Brett would never tell my dad well that I
was over there, but a few you know, I did
start asking if Davy could come for Sunday dinners, and
my mom and dad were gracious and would say yes.
But you know, then at the end of the night,

(01:13:18):
it was like, well Brett will drive him.

Speaker 1 (01:13:20):
Home, right. But I mean, did Stu like him? Though?
He did like.

Speaker 2 (01:13:26):
Him as he liked him as as a performer and
always thought Davy was very straightforward with if he ever
had a problem, he'd go right to my dad, and
he knew Davy wasn't a troublemaker in the dressing room.
He didn't have any bad habits. He was he was

(01:13:49):
a good a good kid, you know.

Speaker 1 (01:13:51):
And then and Sue, but Stu, probably because he knew
the business. He knew how tough a business it could be.
I imagine, just as a father, regardless that he's like, oh,
you know, I don't want my kids to marry wrestlers.
But at the same time, what else does he expect
to happen when that's your world? You know, you know,

(01:14:12):
I know it was. It was.

Speaker 2 (01:14:17):
I wonder sometimes what went on in my mom's and
dad's bedroom when they finally at the end of the
night when they could talk privately, because sometimes I would
come in late at night and my dad would be
so mad, and you I don't have them anymore. But

(01:14:38):
he know he'd left me a note once on my
door because I got in late, and he was just
on a piece of paper in my dad's handwriting about
I am very disappointed and you forgetting you know, I
rat what your mother and I raised you to be.
Uh uh, you know, have more dignity and you're getting

(01:15:04):
in the time of night. I mean, it must have
been obvious. Well in his mind, you know, what else
would we be doing other than you know, maybe having
a hot and heavy petting session in the in the
car like what. But but we we were pretty we

(01:15:30):
did have like it was Ah, it's not like right
right right off the bat, you know, we were there
was a long a long there was there was and
it didn't and uh where it finally got, you know
where my dad was saying, suggesting things that hadn't even

(01:15:52):
happened yet. But it may be in his eyes, my
mom's imagination that you know, Davy and I were, you know,
trying to start a family in the back seat of
the car or something. And it's like, that's not that's
not where where we we are. And you know, I
was really defensive of Davy. And the more the more

(01:16:18):
intense it got, the more it pushed me to Davy.
And I did eventually fly to England because Davie's visa
expired and he had to go back to England and
he went to Australia to do some work for Steve
Rackman and then came back and I flew which I

(01:16:39):
knew I was going to do in November one day
for Davy's birthday in nineteen eighty one, when he turned nineteen.
It's a funny, weird birthday present, but I gave him
a ticket for me to come to England in yeah,
for Easter, because I knew it. You know, it was I,
you know, a weird hasn't kind of a conceded one

(01:17:01):
and if you maybe didn't want me coming to England
to see him, but I had saved up and I
had the present brought to him at a Chinese restaurant
in a under the tree and I was under this
like silver dome and I was trying to explain to
the waiter to give this ticket and he's like what,

(01:17:23):
like he hardly spoke English, and were it Finally did
get to the table, but I was like getting almost
like ready to.

Speaker 1 (01:17:36):
Almost rode your own surprise. Yeah, yeah, what was it
like there to be a WWF SuperStar's wife at the time,
because I remember those schedules those guys would would get.
And I had a you know, a wonderful conversation with
Harry from his perspective of growing up. But a lot
of people don't know what that life was like in

(01:17:57):
many ways because these guys would be on the road
and he said, you didn't get to travel some but
I imagine once you had the kids, it was tougher
and they would be what I don't know, they'd be
three weeks on, they'd be home for a few days
and they're back out there and they had to ride
that that wave. Yeah, what was that like for you?
And I imagine you were still in Calgary.

Speaker 2 (01:18:18):
Yeah, it was. It was hard, particularly after Georgia was born.
I got really bad postpartum, but you know, I didn't
know that's what it was then, but I just missed Davy, like.

Speaker 1 (01:18:41):
Like it was what was the schedule like?

Speaker 3 (01:18:43):
Then?

Speaker 2 (01:18:45):
It was so hard, like they they'd try, you know,
like you come home and he you know, try to
be uh, you know like put I don't see was
it wasn't real, But you don't put a game face
on for you know, because I made macaroni. It's like,

(01:19:06):
you know, it's it was hard because they they're eating
in restaurants all the time, like they need things right
away and then they come home and and in a
way it is like relaxing. But they had it was
a lot of yeah, you know, like you you have

(01:19:28):
to get to say, you know, well, this is real life.
Like that's not fair to say that to to Davy
because that actually wasn't his real life, his real life,
so to say, well, you know what, you know, but
he was he was really good with you know, he'd
spend as much time as he could with Harry and Georgia,

(01:19:50):
and like he was a doting dad and you know,
he wanted to he was there for everything he could be,
you know, changing diapers of course, that was never any
any issue for him, giving Harry and Georgia baths and stuff.
But but.

Speaker 1 (01:20:13):
I schedule was brutal though. I mean, I'm trying to
remember back because I didn't I wasn't on the road
like they were. But I know that they would do
you know, two weeks on and then they might be
home for three days and then they're back out for
uh oh. And Calgary wasn't an easy place to get
to and a lot of guys lived in the United
States that was easier to get the cities, but to
try and a lot of their dates were in the States,

(01:20:35):
and then to try and get to Calgary, I can't
imagine that was easy.

Speaker 2 (01:20:39):
Yeah, I and I'm not making excuses for the Joe thing,
but I have a feeling that everybody was at their
wits hand around that time. And then you know, and
I believe the Ruginals were trying to get get a
flight out. They wanted to. They arranged so they could

(01:20:59):
get on earlier so they could get their right red
eye to get back to Montreal, which and Davy and
Dynamite couldn't. They had to stay for the last match
or the main event or something, or they had the belts.
So I can't remember what if they had the belts
at that time or not, probably probably not jet Jim
and Brett might have, but anyway, you know, and they

(01:21:21):
didn't get the red eye, they'd have to stay overnight
and then get the flight in the morning and then
get themselves home to Calgary and you know, later that day.
So they've they've lost to one day if they're you know,
three year, a week off that they've got, and you know,
time is of so much value, so they just it

(01:21:43):
was so hard and their bodies didn't get a chance
to recuperate, and it was just so so stressed out,
and then you know, they they just didn't they were
like machines, you know, just work, worked them till till
they can't go anymore. And it was and then that's

(01:22:04):
not any negativity towards it. It was how it was
for everyone. You know. I think moving to Florida was
a very good idea. And by that time, the schedules
in the nineties, the schedule had kind of taken had
been revised a little bit. But boy that there was

(01:22:26):
only a handful of them, brett On, Davy and Dynamite
that that lived up here, you know, and they it
was hard getting in and out of Calgary, and I
I just don't know how they did it, you know.
And then for anyone that you don't knocks them or

(01:22:48):
what they they did, how they survived on the road
at that time, it's like, well, I don't know how,
you know, how how anyone else would have done it?
And I'm not, well.

Speaker 1 (01:23:01):
You wonder why, you know, you have to understand why
how many of them ended up being having chemical problems
and working problems, because you mentioned how their bodies are
beat to crap there, you know, that means it's like
it I always describe it. It's like getting in a
car accident every day and then you've got to you know,
you got to keep your body ships, you've got to

(01:23:22):
find a gym, uh, you know, get on these flights,
and then you've got to get yourself up so that
you can perform that night. And then you've got to
come down so you get some sleep, because if you
don't get some sleep, you know, it's just this continuous cycle.
And it it does, it takes its toll. And uh,
it's it's amazing that it certainly isn't. I mean, why
we've lost so many because they can't you can't keep

(01:23:45):
doing that to your machine. And and but you know,
it's like you sold your soul to the devil that
you know, it's it's the most unbelievable time in your life.
You're gonna make the money, the more money that you
could ever imagine. You're gonna have fame that that few
in a lifetime will ever experience. But there is a price.

Speaker 2 (01:24:04):
Yeah, yeah, that's very well said. That's that's that's true.

Speaker 1 (01:24:11):
And you had to and talking about your children too,
And then I mentioned the conversation with Harry. You had
to feel for him. I mean, you knew kind of
about the business. I'm sure you didn't you know, I
had never experienced what you had to with Davy as
far as his travel schedule. But you know, Harry just
wanted his dad, and I'm sure that Georgia was the
same way that you know, they want their dad around,

(01:24:31):
but he's earning a living, he wants to take care
of them. How tough was that? I mean, in some ways,
I guess you had to be the dad too.

Speaker 2 (01:24:40):
Yeah, that's true. I am I and I always referred
to Davy as Davy, and when we see him on TV,
it's like, oh, there's Davy, and you know, you hear
Gorilla Monsoon or Billy red Lion saying Davy. So Harry
and Georgia always called him Davy. And a few people

(01:25:03):
have said that they thought that was you know, you
always hear just whatever the one negative thing is and
then everyone else is saying good things. But you know,
they thought that was a bit disrespectful to Davy. It
wasn't meant to be disrespectful. Just always knew him as
as Davy. And but yeah, I was the kind of

(01:25:28):
the disciplinarian and the the one that you know was
evidently feeding them. Well, I was the one feeding them
the cod liver oil and at the school meetings and
trying to, uh in a way, I was desperately trying

(01:25:49):
to be my mom, you know, hold it all together.
Except like my mom was well, she had my dad there,
and my dad helped with a lot of things. You know,
Davy just was not was not home and that, you know,
like things like trying to do the right things with

(01:26:12):
money and trying to invest it properly. And we did
do a lot of good things with our money. But then,
you know, the economy fell apart in the eighties up here,
and no matter what we could have done, it just
seemed like, you know, and people are you know, you

(01:26:33):
get the Monday morning quarterbacks that you know, what did
you do? And then you know whatever, we got back
on top again in the nineties, and then things again
went went took a downward spiral. But some things that
we did do that I was really proud of, and

(01:26:53):
I thought Davy was so innovative and well, I you know,
I was a part of it. Again, like I'm trying.
I was always trying to have us be like my
mom and dad, and you know, we're too different. We're
different than my mom and dad. So it wasn't a

(01:27:15):
fair role for me to expect Davy to just just
fulfill the role of my dad, because you know, it's
just different, you know, to think that, well, my dad
never never took a never drank or never took a

(01:27:35):
pill or never. You know, it's it's not fair to
put that on anybody else. My dad was that. That
was my dad. And you know, I'm not my dad.
I've taken things and that my dad wouldn't or didn't,
and I've done things that my dad didn't and wouldn't.
I'm the same with that my mom like I'm not.

(01:27:56):
I'm not. I couldn't fill their boots. But we started,
Davy and I started a clothing line business. It was
called Bulldog Gear, and that was a big you know,
like we were always trying things. You know, Davy was
quite supportive. And this clothing line was all with Velcrow,

(01:28:20):
which like a velcrow waistband so you could control the waistband,
only there were no buttons or zippers or anything. It
was just just velcrow. And in the middle of the
waistband was a logo of a bulldog and it said
Bulldog Gear. And then the the cuffs of the pants

(01:28:41):
were Velcrow too, so you could get them on and
off your your shoes if you didn't want to take
your shoes off, like if you had combat boots or
or I don't know. It's just something that seemed neat
at the time. And they were a cotton and then

(01:29:02):
we had the shirts that were everything was very boxy
and loose, loose fitting other than the waistband was you
could tighten it.

Speaker 1 (01:29:13):
Kind of like remember how popular so did it? It
wasn't successful, It did go.

Speaker 2 (01:29:22):
We got it in a few stores up here. At
one store is called sports Check and they they kind
of liked that it was a homegrown or you know,
a local product and a different and and also a
local celebrity, you know, the British bulldog. And then we
also got and then we did some autograph sessions which

(01:29:45):
were really funny with Davy, Chris Benoit, Bruce and Ross
and that was and b F. Wellington you know on there.
The only two alive now are Bruce and Ross. The
rest are gone. But Japan, Missus Baba took took them on.

(01:30:06):
She said she would let Davy bring bring them to
Japan and sell them. So we had got it. Found
somebody in Calgary to make them and you know, we
we if we had kept going with it, it's just
we it was just a hard thing. It was at

(01:30:28):
the kind of the end of the end of Davies
and Dynamites time together in Japan. And then Davey was, um, yeah,
it's kind of like their divorce in a way, and
we decided we were going to move to Florida.

Speaker 1 (01:30:46):
And are you talking about the mean eighty eight that
period one after the show incident.

Speaker 2 (01:30:51):
That eighty eight to ninety and you.

Speaker 1 (01:30:54):
Know you talk about I mean that that they had
this meteorite meteoric rise in the w w F. I mean,
it was just incredible and then that happened and it
was kind of came crashing down. Uh. Were you disappointed
that that Davey left as well? It maybe felt this
loyalty to Tom or was it time?

Speaker 2 (01:31:16):
No? I was. I. I don't know how this will sound, Shohn,
I don't. I don't want to sound like I'm a
diva anything. But I was thinking of of my family
of Harry and Georgia, and I had talked to my
dad about it, and I did not want Davy to

(01:31:39):
I didn't want either of them to leave w w
F and Davy and Dynamite or Davy said, I have
to do what Dynamite says. I was like, well, why,
uh yeah, why do you guys? You know, why why

(01:32:00):
does he get you know, one thousand dollars a week
more than you get in Japan? And like that was
that came later after WWF. They were WWF. I imagine
they were getting the exact same salaries, but I didn't.
We had over three thousand dollars mortgage a month. Well

(01:32:21):
in Calgary. I don't making us money, but we're paying
in Calgary because that's how it was. And you pay
more for taxes up here. You pay forty percent if
you're in a certain income bracket unless you're incorporated. And
we didn't know any of these things. And we just

(01:32:42):
got involved with somebody that around eighty six that was
trying to end of eighty six, so this would be
going into eighty seven with helping us with our money.
But he was he was the shit. He was. He's like, well,

(01:33:02):
you pay forty percent and we'll get you incorporated. And
that's when Davey did trademark the name Bulldogs and Dynamite
didn't want to. It's like well, you know, it's going
to cost as much money and it takes like a
year more than that, and he he Tom wanted no
part of it. He thought we were wasting our time

(01:33:23):
and money. But we did do it. And but boy,
we were just you know, Davy spending as much on
the road as we're spending on the mortgage. So the
end of the month, like you know, if you're bringing
ten thousand a month home and you're spending you know,

(01:33:45):
seven thousand just in expenses, yeah, expenses, you know, home
and road, and then that's like being conservative, like like
our phone bill was one thousand a month because she
didn't that that's there was one full company in Calgary
at that time, Alberta Government Telephones. And Davy and I

(01:34:07):
were like, you know, always having these heart to hearts
every night. We were close and we missed each other,
and it was like if we spend a thousand a
month to talk, but it keeps us together versus wrestlers
that don't even call their wives. And then like so anyway,
you know, you're left with, you know, with a couple

(01:34:28):
of thousand dollars at the end of the month, and
it's like we're and and they're breaking their necks, you know,
on this brutal schedule. So they but at having said that,
I didn't our mortgage wasn't going to change just because
they left WWF and Davey and dian White said, well,

(01:34:52):
Davey kept saying I have to do it because Tom.
You know, I owe this to Tom. And I was like,
well you don't, you know you owe it to us too,
but he said no, no, it'll no. But listen, you know, Diana,
it'll be all right because we're gonna work for your
dad and we're going to bring the territory back up
where it used to be. And then my dad, on

(01:35:15):
the other hand, is saying, you know, as much as
I appreciate their help and the territory is struggling, I
don't want their help. I want them to stay because
for their own good, they need to stay in with
Vince and get over this, you know, as my dad
called it, the horse shit ribbing, and he said it's

(01:35:38):
and just get get back to business, and you're not
going to get a better deal than what Vince is
gonna is giving you, and just stick with him, you know,
it's gonna and what what and Dynamite was so goddamn
headstrong at the time and had about everything. And so

(01:36:00):
so they finished up and you know, and then things
they came back to Calgary and you know, they had
these guarantees I think a thousand a week which each
and my dad was trying his best to you know,
give them. You know that that was a lot of money.

(01:36:20):
Then you know, like I don't know guys nowadays in these.

Speaker 1 (01:36:24):
But they were making more than that with wh.

Speaker 2 (01:36:28):
By far right, more double that and then you get
the royalty check and you know, it's just it was
it did not make any financial sense to have them
do that. But Tom was, uh, I think it was
kind of like, you know, he wanted to show that
he didn't need w w F and he was so

(01:36:49):
mad about the thing with the Rugos and you know
it actually, I mean it did affect Davy, but Davy
isn't the one who had his teeth knocked out. I
know that, uh did a lot of mental damage to Tom.

Speaker 1 (01:37:04):
But well the humiliation of that too, and that's so
then it was gone. So what what led to that
final divorce with those with the two of them, but
finally got Davy away from him?

Speaker 2 (01:37:17):
Oh you know what it so you know Thomas, so
you know, like so many things. It's like even when
they got accused of the whole rib thing, that was
Kurt Hanning who did it, but with the Rougeos in
the bag, and but it's like just get over it,
like don't worry about it. It's like, but again, you know,

(01:37:39):
the schedule and stuff, like everybody was thinking with such
They're just like wound up so tight. So they went
to New Japan. They're doing a tour over there, and
I know Tom is getting more, I guess lighter as
the months go on, and he's just not And I

(01:38:02):
think that all had to do with the Rougeo thing.
He had this mental block. But he sold his land
in spring Bank. He had I think twenty acres. He
had a big ranch out there, and he sold it
amazingly that he was able to sell it. He got
a good price for it, and he and Michelle bought
a house for cash. And that's Michelle, Dynamite's wife, bought

(01:38:28):
a house for cash out in Cochrane, this little town,
his beautiful little town outside of Calgary, paid cash and
had a good chunk in the bank. And meanwhile, Davy
and I are you know, have this house that we
bought when we were you know, in the houseyon days,
sort of making all this money, but three thousand dollars

(01:38:51):
a month mortgage and it's like, okay, well, Tom, that's
okay for you making one thousand a month because you
you own your house cash and you got a a
big like a quarter or a million dollars or something
in the bank. Like we we don't have that. We're
like living, we don't have it, you know. So and
also Tom, I don't know if he had been up

(01:39:16):
to date with his income taxes and he just didn't
seem bothered. I don't know, but we it was just
that came back to get him too. So he he
had his idea of how this would end, and I
think in his idea didn't include Davy and But at
the same time, I think Tom's idea was I'll leave Canada.

(01:39:40):
But that wasn't gonna work for Davy and me, and
Tom came out right with that. He didn't say, you know, Davey,
I'm leaving Canada. I'm not gonna pay my taxes, and
you know, good luck that that that didn't happen. But
I'm just reading in between the lines. So they're in
Japan in the dress room and for all Japan, I

(01:40:04):
think I don't know if Baba was alive or if
it was just Missus Baba. I think it was Missus Baba. Anyway,
Vince McMahon flew out there to do a to do
a they were doing a show out there or something,
or he was scouting or I'm not sure what brought

(01:40:25):
Vince there, but he was in the dressing room and
saying hi to everyone, and probably a business meeting with
the promotion. And he goes over to Dynamite and I
think that was just because Dynamite was there first, and
he said something along the lines of I hello Tommy,
and you know, and you know, I would you ever

(01:40:48):
like to come back to work with the company? And
Tom said, I guess Tom Blitt just blatantly said fuck off,
like just like that in front of everyone, and Vince
just its like, all right, he didn't. You know, it's
just like water off the duck's back. But in my opinion,
it's even if you did have a Actually, I don't

(01:41:11):
even know what Vince did to Tom. You know, he
took care of him when he got the teeth out.
He he tried to pacify everybody as well as he could.
I don't know what Vince actually did that. Tom had
such bitterness, but Vince just was like, okay, I think
that that was in not I just think it was
in bad taste to do that. But so Tom made it,

(01:41:34):
made his u took his stance there, and I guess
he figured Davy, as usual, would have to do it,
you know, following Tom's footsteps. So Vince goes over to
Davy and you know, hey, hey, Davy and all you're
looking good. You know, how has it been? And he said, uh,
you know, do you ever think about coming back? You know,

(01:41:56):
the door is open? And Davey said, yeah, I like that,
you know, thank you, thank you, Vince, and basically that
you know, it wasn't like he was, you know, kissing
Vince's feet or you know, you know, running up and
you know, hey, Vince, you know that can I like,
he wasn't, but.

Speaker 1 (01:42:15):
I bet he missed it. I mean, I'm sure that
he knew that that was that was the place to be.

Speaker 2 (01:42:21):
Yeah, you know, going over to Japan and you know,
and that was hard over there too. Instling, Terry Gordie
and Stan Hansen and Steve Williams and these Japanese that
want to you know, have a shoot with you every
night because you know, the guy jeans, you know, the
whites and and uh oh, you know, it's just just

(01:42:43):
uh it was it's hard everywhere. You know, don Hight
were really they they did did put their bodies out
there for for the professional wrestling business. You know, they
really want. It meant a lot to them to have
people believe them. They know that you wouldn't they wouldn't

(01:43:05):
be accused of having a you know, you know a
little delicate little match, you know that.

Speaker 1 (01:43:12):
But but Tom took this as a slight that that
Davy would even you know, consider or talk not do
the same thing he did to Vince.

Speaker 2 (01:43:21):
That's right, and he just it was almost like he
was sleeping with the enemy, and Vince wasn't the enemy.
He's actually offering them both an alternative or a way
out or whatever you want to however you want to
look at it. But in my eyes, it was a
way out because I don't know how much time Tom

(01:43:44):
had actually in wrestling, Like if you if you look back,
that was like eighty nine to ninety, you know, he
didn't he didn't wrestle much more. After that. He had
a few few tours over there with Johnny Smith, but
he didn't do much. And then Davey had had a
whole life ahead of him, and he had Summer ninety two,

(01:44:07):
he had the UH European title, and he had the
Heart Foundation, and he had the big angle with Warlord
and Berserker, and you know, he he had a whole
other life ahead of him.

Speaker 1 (01:44:26):
Singles he did so tremendously well.

Speaker 2 (01:44:29):
And and and we got the idea. So when Dynamite
and Davey got off the airplane, we were all we
were there. Michelle was there, and I was there, and
at that time you could see them pretty much as
they were different set up at the older airport that's
fixed up differently now, but you you could see them

(01:44:51):
pretty close after they got off the plane. And so
I said hi to Tom, and you know, gave Davy
Hogan had Harry in Georgia with me. And then Tom
was kind of a little you know, high and made
out like things were fine, but I could tell he
was just a little bit had his nose out or

(01:45:13):
joint about something. And I pretty much knew because Davey
told me on the phone from Japan that Vince had
been there and Tom didn't like it that Davy had
talked to Vince, you know, and was indicating that he
wanted to go back there and he but I didn't,

(01:45:36):
you know, I just figured Tom would come around. But
at the same time, you know, if Vince had said
at that point, well I don't want Tom, I just
want Davy, I went to blame Vince. But whatever. Well,
when they got off the plane, Tom just seemed a
little bit cold with me. But he was fine, you know,

(01:45:58):
you know, polite but short. And then I never saw
him again. And then he went home and he decided
he was going to raise turkeys. It's like, you know, okay, Tom,
if you want to raise turkeys, but whatever, and he
just seemed to know and that was it. And then

(01:46:20):
then they I read it. I read it in Dynamite's book.
He has something about me hiding Davy's passport because they
had a big Saudi Arabia tour or something, and it's
like that never happened. I don't recall that at all.
But my last recollection of Tom was at the airport
after the tour, which was when Vince approached them in

(01:46:44):
the dressing room, and I don't recall Dynamite Davy doing
doing much after that together. They might have had the
odd phone call, but that was the end of it
and there was no big fight or harsh words or anything.
It was just just like that, we're we're done. And

(01:47:06):
then Davey did run some tours after Wembley. When he
left WWF, he did his own thing over there for
a while, and Tom showed up at one of the
shows and before Davey got there and maybe a fool
of himself by you know, calling out Davy's mom and

(01:47:28):
dad at the merchandise table, and I think he was
inebriated and just not you know, it's just being stupid.
And then he had a beat up Davy's brother, Terrence
over you know, just again not being of a sound mind,

(01:47:49):
saying I'm the real wrestler in the family, and it's
like what and said, yeah, stupid things, just you know.
But then at the at the end of of it all,
you know, and I think about, you know, I give

(01:48:09):
Davey hadn't died as young as he had, you know,
I think he would have gone over to see Dynamite,
and especially when Dynamite got sick to see that he
was doing Okay, I really do believe that even if
Tom had never phoned him or I just think that

(01:48:30):
Davy would have just that's maybe I'm romancing things too much,
but I I don't think that Davy had the same
animosity or bitterness that that Dynamite had at the And

(01:48:50):
then as dyna Might got worse and worse, I think
he started to feel like maybe he had made some
bad choices. But you know, maybe at that point he
wasn't even able to verbalize it because his speech and
stuff was gone. I just have a lot of I'm
grateful to Dine White for so much, but I do

(01:49:14):
remember a lot of things that just you know, how
how light lives could have been different if but you know,
sal It.

Speaker 1 (01:49:26):
Yeah, and you know you mentioned those years when he
went back and really some great, great times. But you know,
I've kept you for so long as it is, But
I did want to talk about that that year in
ninety two in Wembley, and there's so much there's so
many stories about what happened that summer, and of course
the match itself, but I don't really know what Like

(01:49:50):
Brett's version is that he had tried to get a
hold of Davy all summer because they had, you know,
had visualized this match and he knew it could be
one of the greatest matches ever. I want to hear
it from you, but I know that I think that,
you know, they talked that he had a staff infection.
I don't know if he was doing painkillers, if that's
what was keeping him not communicating. But what happened that summer,

(01:50:15):
and then we'll get into that match, because to me,
people ask me, what do I think the greatest matches
I ever saw? That to me is one of the greatest.
And I don't know how they pulled it off, but
boy did they. So first till me tell me what
happened that summer, what was going on with Davy, because
you know, according to Brett, he kept trying to get
a hold of him and they did not speak about

(01:50:38):
this match until I guess the day before in England.

Speaker 2 (01:50:42):
So yeah, well, I don't know what Bratt is talking
about with that. I really I don't know where he
came up with that.

Speaker 1 (01:50:54):
And I mean you've heard this story, right, I mean
he said that he didn't talk to him really the
whole summer, So that they didn't even go over this
match till that, like the day before.

Speaker 2 (01:51:05):
So well that that may that may be true, they
didn't go over the match the day until the day before.
But I don't know that back then that guys were
going over matches like I remember hearing about Ricky Steamboat
and Randy Savage needing to go, you know, rehearse their

(01:51:26):
big match for the Pontiac Silverdome, and Davy and Dynamite
and Brett well, okay, I won't speak for Brett. I'll
just Davy and Dynamite were scoffing about that that you know,
professionals don't need to be uh, you know, and that
they never did. And you know that was you know,
Dory Funk didn't need to fly in and rehearse the

(01:51:48):
match with Billy Robinson to go an hour. You just
go out and do it. So I wasn't not aware
of anybody back then needing especially when they, you know,
we're familiar with each other for as long as bretton
Davy been that they would need to go over the match,

(01:52:09):
you know.

Speaker 1 (01:52:09):
But what was going on with David that at that
time during that summer was.

Speaker 2 (01:52:13):
Well, it was it was horrible. I had flown up
to Calgary to do promos for the the Fight or
you know, the big match. And I've been waiting all
summer or all waiting to go up to Calgary because
I was living in Florida and I was homesick. And

(01:52:33):
it was like July fourth or something, and we just
Harry and Georgia finished school and we had barely been
in Calgary long at all. And it was like Monday,
and Davey called me and he said it called me

(01:52:54):
at my moms and dads and said he didn't didn't
feel well, and he thought maybe I should come home.
And I was. He said, I wrestled Mike Sharp yesterday.
This was in uh, Salem, Massachusetts, and he said, I
I I banged my knee. But I don't know, I
don't know what I did. You know, if it's you know,

(01:53:17):
he's just so really vague and kind of clueless. And
and then so then they drove over to Portland, Maine.
I think that's where they were doing. Salem, Massachusetts. And
then they were going to Portland, Maine or something like that.
It was Salem, Massachusetts where he hit his banged his knee.
What happened when he banged his knee. Is that he

(01:53:38):
triggered he got a staff infection, which it doesn't You
don't have to have your skin broken open to get
us as I'm an internal staff infection. It kept growing
from the inside, which is like the flesh eating disease,
and inneteen ninety two, no one knew what that was

(01:53:59):
and who knows how it could have happened. I mean,
it could have gotten into him from that, like the
strain could have gotten into him from you know, all
the times that he got caught in his time wrestling,
or it could have been from that mosquito or the infected
insect bite and Africa or something that happened when he

(01:54:19):
was growing up in England. But they say it's dormant
and everybody, you've got this, and you know it's it
can infester, it can ignite, and no, you know, if
we knew why, then we could figure out how to
stop it. But anyway, he just he told me when
he did the power he did running power slam on

(01:54:40):
Big Iron Mike Sharp, who's a giant, and he said
he could feel his knee and it's like, oh, kind
of like when you bang your elbow and it goes
hot and he thought, okay. So the next day he's
just got this like terrible fever. He's sweating. He goes
to TV and Vince was like, what what's wrong with you?

(01:55:01):
You don't look well at all, and Davy's a, I
don't know, and he goes, We'll go to the hospital
because Davy's saying, I think I banged my knee yesterday.
We'll go to the hospital and get it checked out
because you you And so he went. They did x rays,
they didn't see anything, and they said, well, you know,
you seem fine. He gets back and he's just getting

(01:55:22):
like like it's compounding how sick he's getting getting worse
and worse. So Vince sees him and he said, Davey,
you better go home. You you look terrible. Go home
and get some rest. And so he goes home. And
so Davey had called me from on Monday and now
he's home on Tuesday and Jim Knightheart picked him up

(01:55:46):
at the airport. Jim wasn't with WWF at that time.
I'm not sure what he was doing, but he wasn't.
He wasn't on their roster. And Jim's noticed Davy feels
Davy looks terrible and his leg is really hot, and
his he looks like he's got like scarlet fever or something.

(01:56:09):
And Jim takes him right away to his his friend,
doctor Doug Price, who's a chiropractor, but he's right off
the airport when they when they drive home, and so
Land of Lakes is is like an hour from the
airport and this is kind of on the way home. Uh,
stop paying at Doug Prices all American chiropractor, and Doug

(01:56:34):
it's like, oh, man, you know, he's he's a really
smart guy. He's a you know, he's a chiropractor, but
that doesn't mean that he you know, doesn't know a
sick person just because he fixed his backs. He's like, man,
you look, there's something really wrong with you. And he
did X rays again and couldn't see anything out of

(01:56:54):
the ordinary, but he said, I'm going to take you
to see my friend doctor Blackburn and Brooksville or spring Hill.
So that's another hour past Land of Lakes and uh
but they so this is all being arranged and I so, anyway,

(01:57:15):
Davey gets home and he calls me and he says,
you've got to come home. And I said, why, what? What?
What's happened? I just talked to you. You were getting
X rays on your knee and now now you're and
he sounded so weak, and he said you need to
come home. And then Ellie, my sister, Ellie called me
and she's like, Die, I don't know what's wrong with Davy,

(01:57:37):
but you better come home. And should I. I think
he's dying. He's got something wrong with him. So uh,
we Harry Georgia and I got on a flight, went
back to Florida, and then went out the next day
to see this doctor in uh spring Hill, doctor Blackburn.

(01:57:58):
And he looked at Davy and it was almost like
like you could see it in his face, like it
was almost like he had this like, wow, this is
what I read about my textbook and you know second
year of med school. You know the fasciitis. Uh, you
know streptococcali a B or something. And he's like he

(01:58:22):
didn't know, actually, but he just like suspected something. Yeah,
And he said, uh, I don't know. And you could
I could tell that the doctor was concerned. And he
didn't even know Davy, but he knew Doug Price, Doctor
Doug Price, and Jim was there, and we're all in

(01:58:44):
this little room and he gets this big syringe and
he filled it up. He might have had more than one,
but it was full of antibiotics and it was like
a horse syringe. And he he said, I'm putting every
every antibiotic in here that I can, because you got
to like, you know, a badass infection. And I hope,

(01:59:08):
I pray to God one of these will work, because
so he and when he was going in with the needle,
his big long needle, it was I fainted, yeah, and
knee was was quite fat, but but I fainted. That
That's how it was because I'm not squeamish about things

(01:59:32):
like that. I I love and you know, I like,
you know, and infections and helping out with that. And
I passed out. I I and you know, I don't
know what happened. You know. They someone picked me up,
and then they carried on and and put more stuff
in and and then doctor Blackburn said, I just hope,

(01:59:55):
he said, I got about twenty antibiotics in there, and
I just pray to God one of them will work
until we find out what is going on. And I've
taken samples and I'm going to get them back from
the lab as soon as I can, which was another day,
but I just and then the next day he said,

(02:00:15):
you got the flesh sheeting disease, Strep deacockye bee or something,
nectar necatterizing. So it's it eats from the inside inside
out and it's trying to get to your heart. So
it's uh eats the like it starts like so where

(02:00:40):
the infection was, is that the knee, but it's it's
racing its way up to your heart. So it's it's
like gobbling up like it's a bacteria. And he said,
you can't exercise because if you do, that's going to
stimulate the knee and you're going to feed the bacteria

(02:01:00):
like you know, give it blood and oxygen or whatever.
I don't know what what goes what's in your blood
that if like oxygen isn't but anyway the blood goes,
is going to get down there and then it's going
to start like like oh lunch, Like oh we got
food again. So he said no, yeah, like wow, he's uh,

(02:01:23):
you know, he's he's running, he's doing weights, he's walking.
He said, you gotta lay be, you know, as still
as you can. No hot don't don't take a hot shower,
don't do anything to stimulate it. Maybe go in your
pool if it's cool, which it was okay because it

(02:01:43):
was summer of Florida. It wasn't like like how it
would be in the winter. But so basically Davy was
on a diet of these of some of the antibiotics
that he got in the first place that I think
there were a couple that were working, thank god, and
then a bunch of other ones, and then he kept

(02:02:04):
a kind of tinkering with them, with them, and and
that that's what happened. And I don't recall Brat phoning
our house in Florida. It was summer, so Harry and
Georgia weren't in school, and we would have been home
because Davy wouldn't, and I was there. I wasn't. I

(02:02:26):
wasn't anywhere else but home with Davy, and I would
have heard the phone ring if Brett had phoned, I
would have answered the phone. And you know, there's absolutely
no way that if Davey had been out doing drugs,
you know that I would have just been like, you

(02:02:47):
know a lot, you know, the biggest match of your career.
And and Vince wouldn't have been that complacent about it either.
He had phone calls, but I don't recall you know,
any you know, where the phone was ringing and we
just weren't answering it. And I don't recall Davy not
taking calls from Brett. I just don't recall, you know,

(02:03:10):
Brett making a habit of phoning it and you know,
every every other day to go over the match or
even see how Davy was. It was just like, you know,
Davey was recovering and we were back and forth to
uh spring Hill to see doctor Blackburn and we were
just at home with him, and then we flew to

(02:03:32):
England when his leg was well enough for him to fly,
but again he couldn't he couldn't exercise. So Davy was.
You know, if I'm what.

Speaker 1 (02:03:43):
Kind of condition was he? You know, I look at
the you look at the match. He doesn't look really
out of shape. I mean he still looked good, but yeah,
but I can't what kind of shape was he? Like
you said, he couldn't do anything.

Speaker 2 (02:03:58):
You he he was, he just it was like like
he was bedridden and uh, you know, he he didn't
get fat. I don't recall him really wanting to eat
that much. But you know he did. I think with
all the hard work he did when he was training

(02:04:19):
all those years, when he would get sick, it didn't
just he didn't go down to nothing, you know, in
a matter of a couple of weeks. Like he's his
muscle masks and stuff. Was well armed. And then when
we we got to England, I think we Harry Georgia,

(02:04:42):
me and Davy, his mom and his dad, and we
just oh yeah, we had he had some new gear
made that was kind of in the works that we
got picked up just before we went to to England.
And then we spent about ten days over there beforehand

(02:05:06):
with Sid and Joyce that's Davy's mom and dad. And
again he was he was just not able to work
out or do anything. And he kept saying, you know,
I hope I don't you know, blow up in the ring,
you know, like that. That was his big concern. And
then when we were in England, I don't recall Brett
phoning more than once.

Speaker 1 (02:05:28):
But then yeah, but Dana, when you look at that
that match and regardless of how it really went down,
I mean, Brett, uh, you know, Davey had not been
in the ring for a while. That besides the fact
you know that he was professional for so long. But
when you're not in the ring, it's it's tough to
just step back in there. And you know, Brett says

(02:05:49):
that he kind of called the match or and that Davey,
you know, said I'm fooked when he went in there
and said, but how do you think because I've watched
that match a couple of times and he didn't miss
a spot. It was I mean, you and I was,
you know, you're looking and I don't you could see
there might have been a few times worry, uh, Brett

(02:06:10):
talks to or whatever, But how do you think he
pulled that match off? Because it really I know it
was match of the year for many, but that to
me was one of the greatest performances I've ever seen
on both their parts. But it was just how do
you think he pulled it off?

Speaker 2 (02:06:26):
Well, you know that's twofold. I go down to my
go to my grave testifying or whatever, swearing that Davy
was not on drugs in that match, and if he

(02:06:46):
was on drugs, the way Brett says, how does I mean,
how great does that make Davy? Like?

Speaker 4 (02:06:54):
I mean, I don't even if it wasn't even just
the physical condition that he I mean this coming off
what that period of time of being that sick as
you described he was.

Speaker 2 (02:07:06):
I just think, you know, Brett, get Davey had a
lot of great matches, So don't act like, you know,
the only great match he ever had was because you
apparently called every spot in the ring. And you know,
shame on you for getting caught on camera talking because
if you're the you know, great pro, you don't you
don't get seen talking. You know, you just but he

(02:07:31):
I don't recall Davy saying I'm folked. I don't recall that,
and there's no way for me to ever know that
that was said. But Brett makes out like Davy was
a complete zombie and he carried him through that. It's like,
well if he was look at the what a job like,
look at like, oh, you know that guy was on

(02:07:51):
drugs and he did that match. He was suffering from
a staff infection for six weeks and and complete out
of it and he had that match. Like I would say,
hats off to Davy boy Smith more than hats off
to Bratt. But it takes two.

Speaker 1 (02:08:09):
That's exactly right. And those two. I mean it was today.
It's one of my favorite matches of all time. And
as we mentioned, and I was there and I did
that the interview at Briggside, and I have to tell
you though, genuinely, I could see the stress on you. Yeah,
because of everything, you got your your brothers in there.

(02:08:32):
It is the biggest stage in the world. Davy boy
was one of the not just I mean he was
none around the world, but he was probably the greatest
known UH superstar athlete in England at the time. And
you know, he didn't want to look bad. And I
remember at the end of that seeing you in there

(02:08:55):
and as that that is as genuine as it gets.
That And maybe you can describe the moments when that
thing was over, but what were you thinking at that
time when when it was over and that place just
went insane?

Speaker 2 (02:09:10):
Ah, I was couldn't believe it was over because I
didn't know how it was going to end. And then
when it was finally over, it was like, thank God,
you know, Dave Davey's still standing and Brat's okay, and
you guys pulled it off so immaculately and perfect is imperfect,

(02:09:33):
you know, like it's like it was flawless, but there
I liked that there were you know, little things like
I think Davy dropped Brett on the top turn buckle
and it was sort of a ouch and Davy didn't
see Brett coming off the through the ropes to jump

(02:09:55):
on him and he got I mean it just it
was so real. I love like, like, you know, the
I wish there was more of that in wrestling now.
And they went for such a long time and they
and it was so well paced and there was a
legitimate storyline there too, Like you know, I was torn

(02:10:16):
between my brother and my husband and I did did
want Davy to win, but I you know, I did.
I did hear things at home in Calgary before anything
happened with before the staff infection, just stuff from my
mom about you know, like it's too bad that you know.
I don't blame my mom, it was, but she just

(02:10:39):
she said it's too bad that, you know, Brett won't
be winning the belt And I said, are you guys
going to come to England and she said no. Brett
said it wouldn't be worth it for us to go.
And I was like, why what would go? It would
be and you know why why like, but you know,

(02:11:00):
there was there was some tension there because I do
think my mom was a little bit m I don't
know how to say it, but I think she kind
of wished it was She didn't always see things the
way my dad did from the like the promoters, even

(02:11:20):
though my mom was so such an integral part of it,
she didn't She wasn't involved in that part of wrestling.
She knew every you know, everything else about you know,
running the business. But my dad could see the you know,
the obvious, you know. But but as Brett said, it

(02:11:41):
was a match where two guys went in and you
honestly didn't know who was gonna win. But I you know,
my dad, I think would love to have been there
to see to see Davey win, or see Brett Wynn,
just to have been there and watched it from ringside,
and that kind of thing would really have appealed that
much to my mom. You know, she did get quite

(02:12:03):
involved with things later with Brett, but uh, kind of
with the rest of us, it was a little she
didn't seem to quite have that passion for it for
whatever reason, I'm not sure, but you know, she was
at behind the scenes sort of uh part of the wrestling.

(02:12:24):
So but I I was torn though, I really was,
and thats what that's not just a line to so
I can legitimate legitimize things. I really was concerned about
both and you can't have them both win. And I
did want Davy to win. I thought that would be,
you know, so fantastic to have it happen in England

(02:12:47):
and his mom and dad there to see it, and
they had struggles of their own, and they you know,
they had a hard life and for Harry and Georgia,
and I just thought, you know, it's you know, I
didn't know Brett would later get the World's Belt, so
I did kind of feel bad that we were taking,
you know, this coveted prize away from Bratt to put

(02:13:09):
on on Davy. But at the end, when it was
all done, I went in and I wasn't aware of
anything where Brett told Davey not to get out of
the ring, you know, not to look to the crowd.
I don't know what he's talking about. Dar. I heard
some interview with him talking to Steve Austin, and you

(02:13:32):
know he even called Davy stupid and said, you know,
he was being so stupid He's looking to the crowd
and it's like, well what this was? What?

Speaker 1 (02:13:41):
What?

Speaker 2 (02:13:42):
Yeah? What? What the heck?

Speaker 1 (02:13:44):
Well? Hell, how this works too them? I mean him
taking Brett's bell. I mean it just enhanced Brett's career too.
I mean it was great for both of them.

Speaker 2 (02:13:54):
Yeah, it really was the way that it finished. It
wasn't like Davy that Brett robbed or anything that the
fans were were like right on Brett, like they were
so happy for him. You're not happy that he lost,
but they had so much respect for how you know
that he and Davy did this, you know, did this

(02:14:15):
and first main event ever that wasn't a world title,
and their first pay per view not main event, but
first pay per view that wasn't world's title. And there
was some uh you know, nitpicking in the background leading
up to that about that Brett and Davey shouldn't be

(02:14:36):
main event and the world felt always always his main event,
and uh so I knew that they had a lot
to prove, and I was also so worried about Davy's leg,
and I just I was a nervous wreck.

Speaker 1 (02:14:52):
I always I remember, I remember, but they stole the show.
I mean, it was it was just amazing. You know,
we could go on to you know, talk about Davey
still had a lot to do. He did, he did
much more. But one of the casualties in this is
that you guys eventually drifted apart. And I don't know

(02:15:15):
what happened. I don't know if you want to talk
about it, but it's the This business is tough and
it is really difficult on relationships. Most don't last as
long as yours did. And what was it that happened
between you two, if you want to talk about.

Speaker 2 (02:15:32):
It, Well, he he got you know, he was so
banged up and that, unfortunately, I kind of was I
had Davy as the you know, if my dad didn't

(02:15:55):
take a painkiller to get through his pain, you don't
need to. I wasn't at at that time that sympathetic.
I really was, but after a point, like after a
few years, then I was a Davy, you need to
get some help. And I really think things went. It

(02:16:19):
was a mental and physical thing. I mean, he could
have been on pain killers for the rest of his
life based on how bad his body was banged up.
I mean they said in his thirties, after he had
the car accident that he had the neck of a
like an eighty year old man. That's you know. They said,
your neck is you know, even though he you know,

(02:16:42):
had a big, strong neck. They just said, your neck
is and is not in good shape. But I mean
it was strong. He's just like, Wow, I can't believe you're,
you know, as young as you are and stuff. So
physically he could have been on painkillers and justifiably for
the rest of his life. But the painkillers became out

(02:17:03):
of control, and that was I think things started to
really go bad for Davy when after he left WWF.
And again I I'm not trying to sound like, you know,
a broken record here, but again I did not want
him to go to w CW, just like I didn't

(02:17:24):
want Davy to leave WWF when Dynamite said we're leaving
why you know, And I kept listening to my dad again,
who he said, you know this, this will all blow over,
and you know what, I I don't understand. My dad
was very upset about what happened with Brad at the

(02:17:47):
Survivor series, but it was just my dad had so
much insights, like you know this, this will all blow over,
and you know, we don't need to you know, tip
the entire Apple card over here. This is awful what
happened to my son and what happened to Bratt, Like,
you know, he did so much for Vince, and that's true,

(02:18:08):
you know, like Vince was like a father to Brett,
and you know, it's just it wasn't right. But at
the same time, I kept saying to Davy, it's not
like pick and choose your battles, and he was like, no,
well this this is this is bad or what they
what they did to Brett, And it's like but at

(02:18:31):
the time, and again I might sound selfish like I
did when I said I didn't want Davy to leave
the money and stuff with and after Dynamite wanted to quit,
but we had just spent sixty thousand dollars on a
workout video. And again I think Davey was ahead of
his time there too. We produced and started our own

(02:18:53):
workout video and Vince was going to promote it and
that was all like just we had just finished it
like in September, and you know, this thing started to
get funny with England with that one uh one night
only when Davey got his knee brace smashed by Sean

(02:19:16):
and and Davy's sister Tracy walked down to the ring
with him, and then she died shortly like a like
a year after that or less than a year after that.
She was dying then, but we didn't know it was
going to be that fast. And lots of things playing

(02:19:36):
on Davy's mind as it gets time to what you know,
when he when things just finally were severed with us
and then they they became intertwined again. But he said
he had to had to do this, you know, And uh,

(02:19:57):
I must say. There was a lot of u pressure
and nagging and I was like, I, you know, I
did not want Davy to go to w CW. And
I was really close to my dad, and my dad
kept saying that's not the thing, not what Davy should do.

(02:20:17):
And he wasn't saying what Bratt was doing was was
wrong at all. He just was telling me as a
because he cared about about me, and I cared about Davy,
and he just but Davy left and it was a
real really bad mentally, very bad for Davy, and he

(02:20:44):
after being there a couple of months, he said, my
career is going down the toilet with this company and
they don't care about me. They they you know, they don't.
They don't care at all about me. And this was
before he had heard his back, and he just said,
the only the only one they cared about is Brett.

(02:21:05):
And I don't think they even cared about Brett. I'm
not sure what was going on there, but he said
they And then.

Speaker 3 (02:21:12):
He he started, uh, hanging out with people that I
wasn't At this point we had we were living back
in Calgary again and there were just a few times
where he didn't come home when he normally would have
flown home, and I thought that was strange.

Speaker 2 (02:21:31):
And then uh, he ended up breaking his back. You know,
it was the straw that broke the camel's back. He
had the injuries that and it's just probably was going
to happen, but it was ended up being wrestling in
Fall Brawl against Disco Inferno, and uh, there was a

(02:21:54):
trap door and he got and nobody knew that the
trap door was there, so no one's avoiding it and
you're just you know, it's like, oh, it's like getting
dropped on on cement, you know, without knowing it. Like
when you're in the ring, you know, guys will just
slamm you as hard as they can because but yeah,

(02:22:15):
and you're thinking yeah, yeah, but when you know, not
knowing it, it's like somebody in a movie telling you
to drink the poison and pretend you're hurt, but it's
not really poison. It's just you know, colored seven up.
And then you find you're drinking it and it was poison.
It's like, oh, you know, I feel really sick. You know,
I'm so that that turned into an infection in his

(02:22:40):
back where the trauma was that we didn't know about
for several I don't know, maybe three months, and Davey
did go into a rehab and he came out. Oh,
his sister died just around the time that is, she
died like November of nineteen eight, and then he did

(02:23:02):
rehab in January for six weeks. He came out and
he's like, I can't believe the pain I'm in. He
didn't feel like he was rested or better at all,
but he did the rehab. He went back to England,
like almost the day after he got out of rehab,
he went to see Harry, amateur Russell. Harry got his

(02:23:23):
arm smashed or broken, not smashed, the big arm and
his bicep just broken in half. And they put Harry
in with the national champion and they were trying to
show Davy. They didn't know where Davey had been for
six weeks, but trying to show him how how far

(02:23:45):
you know, young Harry had come. And Harry's on his
hands and knees, and the guy's got his fist like
flat out on the back of Harry's arm, like just
where the tricep would be, and he's just pushed and pushing,
and Harry won't because he's so stubborn, won't won't roll over,
and his arm snapped and it just sounded like ice

(02:24:06):
breaking on as just and then Harry went, fuck it was.
It was really bad. And then we took Harry to
the hospital. And then while this is going on, he
gets Davy gets a call from his mom or someone
in England and they said, your mom is she was

(02:24:27):
waiting for you to get out of rehab. So I
didn't know this either, but his mom had cancer, and
I think his mom maybe knew when Tracy died a
few months before, but she didn't want to say anything.
And then she waited for Davy to do the rehab
and they said your mom is dying. She's got, you know,

(02:24:48):
just a matter of a couple of days or so left.
So he flew flew to England, and in England or
where where they're from, and it's a common practice to
have the dead body and the house for people to
pay their respects to. And so Davy was there and
I think he was just heartbroke, heartbroken about his mom

(02:25:11):
and his sister and his career and his back and
you know, what am I going to do? And I
heard that he had saw her Deluded. I guess it's
a really strong morphine, super strong painkiller they give to
cancer patients in their last couple of days. And he

(02:25:35):
took some of her Deluded, but he didn't like go overboard.
I think he just took it because it was so
hard to handle seeing his mom and he was close
to his mom. Anyway, he came back and he was heartbroken.
He just never really got over that. And then he's
still walking, like figuratively speaking, walking around with this terrible

(02:26:01):
back problem. He doesn't know what it is. And he
went to the doctor and the emergency and they threw
him out. They said, you're just looking for drugs and
get out of here and he was having coffee with
my mom. I think we used to meet her for
the coffee sometimes Monday, Wednesdays and Fridays. And he got

(02:26:26):
a call from the hospital and they said, wherever you are,
stay where you are. We're sending an ambulance. You've got
a serious infection in your back. We finally got the
white blood cell count, so this was like like two
weeks had gone by since he and they said, your
white blood cell count is like crazy. I don't know

(02:26:49):
how bad, but it was way way way over the
whatever it should have been. And they picked him up
in an ambulance at the coffee shop, took him to
the Rocky View Hospital and there he stayed for over
a month in this body cast. And then he got
let go from w CW because they said, you're basically

(02:27:12):
hadn't been to work for them since he went into
rehab so well, since he had I think not long
after fall brawl. He just couldn't couldn't function, but his
pill increase was going up and up and up, and
he was doing more and more and worse and worse,

(02:27:33):
and it's just getting so then he went into the
rehab came out fine anyway, where we get into May.
Now he's been released from w CW by FedEx. It
was very cold, you know, I mean, I don't know
how you do it, but it was like, according to
your doctors, you're no longer your back injury says you

(02:27:57):
will not be able to wrestle, so we are terminated,
your your services are no longer required. And this you're
you're fired. You know, you're you're done. And then Owen
came to see him. Uh, Owen, Davy was just he
was so mad and now he's on again. He's on
a morphine drip now that he's you know, that's what

(02:28:20):
he went in to rehab for. But they said, you're
on a morph you need to go on morphine because
this back injury, it's really bad. You know. We were
not quite sure what to do, and Davey kept saying,
I don't want you to operate, and you know, let's
just isolate my back and see if it heels or
recovers or repairs or I don't know. I'm I'm desperate,

(02:28:42):
but don't operate. So he's sitting in it. It looked like
a turtle shell for like a good month in the
Rocky View, hof and Owen came in. Owen had visited
him a few times, and you know, he'd Davy would
be gone for I don't know, scans and stuff, and
then Owen would leave a note and he's like, hey, bulldog,

(02:29:05):
you know, I'm sorry I missed you. I'm getting a
phone in your room, so we're gonna get you back
with W W E and you know, just not long
letters or anything, just a couple of sentences, but you know,
sure enough there's a phone in the room. And sure
enough the phone call happened, and Vince said to Davey
in summary, bulldog, you know we'd love to have you back.

(02:29:27):
You know, you get well and we'll find something for you.
And Owen says, you're looking good and you know, you know,
you know, just short and sweet, but you know we'll
be in Calgary and in at the end of the month,
you know. So so that that was that Noway. Then
Davey was like like he got the shot of adrenaline,

(02:29:51):
like Popeye with the spinach, like, oh, I don't know
what I'm gonna do, but I'm getting out of here
and I've got you know, my I uh my ex wife,
and I'm just saying that as though it's Vince, my
ex wife and I are getting back together. We're we're
on again. And he was so happy. And then Owen died.

Speaker 1 (02:30:13):
Yeah, And I was going to say, a lot going
on with you too, I mean, here you guys are
I try to get through what's going on with you guys?
And then you lose Owen.

Speaker 2 (02:30:23):
Yeah, I was. I was a mess too. I was
not in a good place. I mean, I was lucky
he did some of the things that happened prior to
Davey going into rehab, because I just had a had
a breakdown and a really bad one and I'm I

(02:30:46):
feel terrible about it to this day. I mean what
it put my mom and dad through and my kids
through it. It was just day. It was a combination
of so many things and nobody listening and everything falling apart,

(02:31:08):
and just my whole world was and nobody was listening,
like I you know, that's it's such a terrible thing
with you know, being depressed and stuff when people don't
take you seriously and then you do you do something
one day to like you know, okay, I guess this
is you know. It was a combination of thinking. I

(02:31:33):
really I was at the root of all these problems,
and also that I didn't matter and that no one
was listening, and uh, the world would be better off
without me, like I really did, because with everything I
seem to say, no one was listening, Like it's like,
you know, Davey needs help, no one would. It's like anyway,

(02:31:56):
I was just I was mentally unwell, We're really really bad,
and it was you can't take those decisions, you know,
instant decisions away. But that's what what persuaded I guess

(02:32:21):
Davy to go into rehab because he it was everything
was exposed. I mean everything I'd been saying, but everything
was exposed, and he was Brett had a talk. Brett
and his wife Julie talked to him and said this
you need and Owen did talk to him a little

(02:32:41):
bit too. Owen was was good with me. Brett was
more handling Davy, and he went into the rehab and
he didn't fight it or anything. He was it was
he went in like I don't say, like a champ,
but you know, he went in like like yeah, I'm
I'm doing this, I'm gonna do it, and and he

(02:33:04):
did it, and he was sick as hell when he
got out and his back was killing him and nothing
was really better, but he did it, and then his
mom died and so anyway, Sean, then it gets back
to uh, he got he did go back to w
w F and now we're WWE with no one is gone,
and then there's all this family fighting and I don't

(02:33:31):
know what happened. I don't know who got him started
on it again or he just was just didn't have
that same like Undertaker said that. He said, he just
didn't have that same spark. But I you know, so
we we split up and because he started to use

(02:33:54):
use again and I was sick about that, and then
I and then when I said you have to go
to rehab and Vince said you had to go to rehab,
he didn't go, Like he didn't not with that same ambition.
I guess that he went to you know, in nineteen
ninety nine when he went just before his mom died.

(02:34:15):
He he fought at every step of the way. You know,
He's just like, I'm not going, there's nothing wrong with me.
And you know, he was mad at everyone in the
world and didn't and I got I think he just
got Uh. It went down. It went with some bad

(02:34:38):
people or made some bad choices that people were telling him,
you know, you don't need like I don't know. It
reminds me a little John in Pinocchio in that cartoon.
You know that they take him. You know, you can
smoke cigars and don't worry if your nose is growing
and you've got a tail and ears like you know,
it's just you know, if your family he doesn't like

(02:35:00):
that you you know, you're tough for them. And but
whoever was with Davy when he was at that point,
they didn't have the best of Davy they got. And
then he he started to come around after my mom died,
which again was another boat for him too. But me

(02:35:23):
and and uh, it's just such a horrible string of events.
And he maybe felt some compassion for me because my
mom died and he knew what it was like. But
he and I started to talk. There were a lot

(02:35:43):
of there was a lot of turmoil too. He was
still hanging around with some people he really that weren't
that didn't care about him or his kids. But a
little by little, you know, he'd run into like my
sister Alley at the you know, at the store, and

(02:36:05):
you know, he maybe thought she was gonna tell him off,
but instead she was like, you know, you should come
down and see, uh see, you know my dad sometime.
And you know you think, so woulds do want to
see me? And yeah, of course you would. I be
knowing that if he went and had like an hour
talk or five hour talk with my dad, it would

(02:36:25):
him a lot of good. And you know, just little
by little there was the thawing and then you know it,
then he you know it the end of his life.
I we were talking on the phone from my where
I was living to the WWF to bets oza On

(02:36:47):
that was Vince's secretary then, and you know it was
all arranged again. It's like this month of May. You know,
it was nineteen ninety nine with Owen and then two
thousand and two with Davy, but again then May. You
know they were coming up to do SmackDown and they
were Davey was setting it up. He said, I'm gonna

(02:37:08):
be coming down with with Stu and Diana and the
kids and everything is. We've got it worked out and
and and so it was like, you know, great Or
and all this, who knows what's in store? You know,
what's the next chapter, but you know, we're we're gonna,
we're gonna start again and everything's so we were pretty happy,

(02:37:31):
and you know, I went to some movies. Davey took
Georgia to some movies, took her out of school and
was spending some time, you know, just I don't know,
a little things out. Georgia was so thrilled that he
came and took her out of school to take her
to see Batman or something like. And then anyway, you know,

(02:37:53):
I got the call that he was he was, he
was gone, and I was like, no, I just him
last night, that that's not like, what are you talking about?
And yeah, and that it was just and nothing nothing
was nothing has ever really been the same. I mean,

(02:38:19):
they're I've you know, every life has to go on,
you know, you live in different houses and you have
different animals, and you have your favorite moments. But I mean,
I I just remember those days, like like the Summer
Slam ninety two. I'm not like, you know, stuck like

(02:38:41):
in Quagmire in the past. You know, I can't get
past you know, I never you know, she like Delta
DN or something. You know, she never got over it.
Summer slams she always thought she was a somebody because
she you know, raised her brother in her husband's hands.
That that's not it. It was it was so much
of times, yeah it was. And then you know we

(02:39:02):
went on and the stuff with Owen joining and then
buying pillment, you know, just and then all over the
years how the affection for my family is has just
grown so much, and it's it's just I really miss

(02:39:23):
I just miss it so much. And you can go
through what is normal for other people, it's not normal
for me. So it's just not a it's like, you know,
it might be not the hardest work in the world,
but going through a nine to five job is just

(02:39:46):
like hell, it is. It's just hell, you know, but
you know, but maybe things will turn around. It's just
I just miss sit so much, and that that such
good times, like when my dad had the stampede wrestling,

(02:40:07):
you know, going from way back when we started the
interview about me watching my dad when I was little
and seeing the stitches on his head and seeing him
bleeding on TV from but it was so everything was
just just such I don't know, like even though it's wrestling,

(02:40:28):
it's the real, the real thing. And then all the
animals and the characters, and you know the everything that
the food and the old ring vans and my dad's
rings and ropes, and it's it's all like of another era.

(02:40:48):
You know that no one wouldn't know what you're talking about.
To say, the turnbuckles were were just taped with athletic tape.
Like they don't even know what you like, They can't
even fathom it. It's like, no, they're but anyway, Yeah,
it's just been I would love to be so I
you know I do. I go on and on sometimes, Sean.

(02:41:09):
I just I love to to talk about how what
an extraordinary life I had, but all because of you know,
everybody from when I was little too, you know, to
this moment, and you know, a lot I wouldn't have
had some of the best things if it weren't for Davy,

(02:41:32):
like Harry and Georgia, and like the Summer Slam ninety two.
If that had been anybody else but those two, that
night wouldn't have been the same, but it was. It
was Davy and the Brits, and you know, the United
Kingdom didn't get behind some some half baked they got

(02:41:56):
behind somebody who was who was really a champion, like
he was a real He's the real thing, you know, well.

Speaker 1 (02:42:04):
When you look back on it all, I mean just
being part of that heart legacy and Davy Boy, and
there's been a lot of tragedy, but so many other
triumphs and awesome at times. Would would you trade a
moment of it all?

Speaker 2 (02:42:22):
Uh? No, no, no, not not not any of that
that happened with through wrestling. Some of those nine to
five jobs, Yeah they can hit the bricks, but no

(02:42:45):
I wouldn't because they all, they all made a part
of h I didn't, you know, long for the hardships,
and I certainly didn't go through things that the generation
before me went through. But I do think it seeing

(02:43:06):
what I did see and hearing what I saw from
the the the people before me, and to be able
to look at wrestling now and know that know what
I know, I just I just feel like I'm kind
of privileged. Like I don't know, if I don't want

(02:43:27):
to sound arrogant, but I look at a wrestling match,
some of these ones now, I don't like to pick
them apart, but I can just I can see like
I feel like I'm so educated because I know that

(02:43:48):
I don't know, it's it's maybe like watching a really
good chef, watching somebody making something and they know that. Yeah.
I just it's just really I just feel like when
I see wrestling now, or when I see wrestling on TV.

(02:44:12):
I've been around some people in the last little while
that are quite familiar with the NFL and the CFL,
and they're really, uh, really nice guys. And when they
were watching football, like the Super Bowl yesterday and leading
up to it, all the games, the way they know things,
I'm in awe of how much they know I feel.

(02:44:35):
And then when I'm watching wrestling they said that about
me that I have and I'm not like, you know,
oh this is wrong, that's wrong. But I just just
will say things and they they said, you're we like
they they kind of made me feel like I was.

(02:44:58):
Well anyway, I just fel well like like wow, I
felt I feel like I'm privileged to know what I
know about wrestling, and I wouldn't know that if I
had been brought up any other way, So he took
anything away from my wrestling life, it wouldn't be the
same for me now. So yeah, including you.

Speaker 1 (02:45:24):
Very good, well, Diana, thank you so much for joining us.
I mean really, and being so candid and telling us
the story about this incredible family, the ups and the downs.
But boy, I'll tell you what a ride. What a ride?

Speaker 2 (02:45:38):
Oh thank you. I am. I really appreciate you letting
me talk. I came from the heart shown

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Diana Hart Exposes the Truth Behind Her Husband Davey Boy Smith: PRIME TIME VAULT

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