WWF The British Bulldogs

This is a VHS release from the mid 80's designed to showcase then tag champs the British Bulldogs. Aside from some less-than-fascinating footage of Davey Boy Smith and the Dynamite Kid working out, the content is almost all match footage, which should be good. Which SHOULD be good. Unfortunately, whoever selected the matches really wanted the Bulldogs to look like crap.

The British Bulldogs vs Iron Sheik & Nikolai Volkoff
This is from late 85, at a time when Beefcake and Valentine currently held the tag-titles. Sheik and Volkoff don't really give the Bulldogs much offence here, but what little we get is pretty spectacular. Sheik's offence looks particularly milky here, while Volkoff at least looks committed with his clubbing blows, and he has a nice way of cowering off on the moments when the Bulldogs are on offence. Dynamite Kid soon becomes the face-in-peril, where Volkoff has one particularly impressive spot when he holds Kid off the ground in a choke with one hand, high over his head. The Bulldogs finally get a bit of offence when Sheik hits Volkoff by accident and Davey Boy gets two on a running powerslam on Sheik. However, Sheik is soon back on offence, leading to the camel clutch, which Kid breaks. Volkoff goes for a slam on Smith, but Dynamite gets a missile dropkick, which leads to Davey Boy landing on top for the win. Not a particularly good showcase for the Bulldogs here.

Dynamite Kid vs Bret Hart
Man, this gets good straight away, with the opening sequence so good that they go to a replay of it within two minutes of the match starting. Kid then hits Bret with a beautiful snap suplex before we get some clipping. On return, the two men are still trying to outwrestle each other to gain superiority. Bret finally takes control, including slamming Kid onto the concrete floor outside. Bret keeps control over Kid, but Kid manages to absorb the offence and keep hitting flash pins on Bret for two counts. Hart soon gets frustrated by this and chokes Kid before tying him in the ropes, but Dynamite avoids a crossbody, leaving Hart caught up in the ropes. Kid absolutely folds Bret in two with a back suplex and starts to work over the Hitman. It's great just how fluid Dynamite is here, everything looks perfect, including how smoothly he goes from offensive maneuvers to pinfalls. Bret takes control and throws Kid outside, which somehow warrants a replay. When we comes back, Kid has rolled up Bret for the win. Really fun match which they manage to almost run with shitty production errors. Anvil attacks Dynamite after the match, only for Davey Boy to make the save, This leads to...

Davey Boy Smith vs Jim Neidhart
The battle of the powerhouses. Davey Boy tries to take the Anvil down by running off the ropes, but this ends in a stalemate, so instead Davey downs the Anvil with a single-leg takedown. This pretty much sums up the match- Neidhart uses his strength to take control, but Davey Boy comes back by using his superior speed and matskills. Sadly, the match only goes a few minutes, before the Anvil drops Smith facefirst on the top turnbuckle from an attempted avalanche, and picks up the win. A bit pointless.

The British Bulldogs & Capt Lou Albano vs Greg Valentine, Brutus Beefcake & Johnny Valiant
As a WrestleMania 2 preview, the two teams meet with their managers in a 6-man tag. The first thing this match does is remind me that, as badass as Greg Valentine was, he was more than happy to stooge around to make his opponents look good. Here he flops around on missed elbows and bounces for atomic drops that make the Bulldogs look even better. However, Valentine is also happy to match both Bulldogs blow for blow, which makes the decision to have the Hammer do most of the work for his team a sensible one. There are moments when the match threatens to become a bit of a mess - the first Bulldog hot-tag is an anti-climatic moment that the fans barely notice following a brawl between all six men - but things just about keep together. Beefcake possibly spends less time in the ring here than Valiant, but he does hit a nice vertical suplex for two. The Hammer then hits an odd piledriver on Kid that ends up almost like a tombstone for two. Hot tag is made to Davey Boy, and it's Valiant who ends up bumping like a pinball for him, getting huge air on a back bodydrop and getting caught with a big running powerslam for two. All six men end up in the ring, but Valentine and Valiant get taken out, and Beefcake is rolled up for three. Beefcake must be pretty low on the pecking order that he took the fall instead of his manager.

The British Bulldogs vs The Dream Team
Sadly it's only the last two minutes of the WrestleMania 2 match. This does mean I still got to enjoy Davey Boy holding up Valentine one-handed for the running powerslam and Beefcake slamming Smith on a hammerlock in an insane bump, before the Bulldogs win the tag titles following a clashing of heads between Dynamite and Valentine

The British Bulldogs vs The Moondogs
Fun little match here. The opening shows the Bulldogs matching strength with the Moondogs, before taking control on Spot with some dropkicks. Clip to the Moondogs dominating Davey Boy. The match takes on a pretty solid formula tag match from this point, with the Moondogs keeping Davey Boy down and cutting the ring in half. Rex hits a big splash for two before Spot and Smith clash heads. Davey Boy tags Kid, but only on a false tag, allowing the Moondogs to keep control. A second-rope splash from Rex hits Davey's knees and Davey Boy then suplexes Spot to get the hot tag to Dynamite. Kid is like a whirling dervish as he dominates both Moondogs, before Rex throws him out of the ring. In a cool finish, Rex and Davey Boy brawl in the ring, allowing Kid to fly over them from the top rope onto Spot for the win. Plenty of fun and the best the Bulldogs have looked as a team thus far, might well have been even better without clipping.

Davey Boy Smith vs Greg Valentine
We kick off with even more Valentine stooging, this time taking a Flair flop off some Davey offence. Awesomely, DBS locks in a Sharpshooter on Valentine, though Monsoon and Hayes on commentary don't think the move can work as it doesn't allow you to sit all the way back. Funny how things change. Davey keeps control with more matwork. Clip to some Valentine control before DBS hits the running powerslam for 2. Valentine shows his experience advantage by luring smith to the floor before ambushing him on his way back into the ring. Valentine gets the figure four, but Davey Boy powers his way to the ropes. Valentine comes off the second rope with a blow to DBS' head, which is enough for the win. A bit short, you get the impression that all the clipped matches would be pretty good if shown in full

Dynamite Kid vs Brutus Beefcake
Short and sweet. We start with the two exchanging wristlocks, which goes as well as you'd expect for Beefcake. Beefcake uses his size advantage to get control and looks alright, especially a nice stalled suplex. Beefcake throws Kid outside and tries to suplex him in from the apron, but Kid escapes and rolls him up for the win. About 5 minutes of match tops, but everything looked good.

The British Bulldogs vs King Kong Bundy & Big John Studd
So far on this Bulldogs showcase, we've seen them win a 6 man via roll-up, get beaten down for most of the Sheik/Volkoff match, Davey Boy lose two singles matches and Dynamite win his two singles matches via roll-up. Is it likely they'll be allowed to look good in the last match? The early signs are promising: they use their comparative speed and skill as double-teams to control Studd in the early stages, but soon, when going one-on-one with Studd, Davey Boy becomes face-in-peril, as the two monsters dominate. In fairness, Studd and Bundy pull off their roles expertly, looking like beasts and clubbing away at Smith. Soon, however, Dynamite runs in and puts Studd in a sleeper. Bundy runs in and, in the ensuing melee, Studd pushes over the ref to give the Bulldogs a cheap win by DQ. Just to compound making the Bulldogs look like shit, the final shot of their showcase video has the screen freeze on a shoving match between Studd and Bundy. Rule Britannia indeed!