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JBL Says Davey Boy Smith Would Have Been World Champion If Streaming Existed Back Then
Image Credit: WWE
On the latest episode of Something to Wrestle, JBL brought up Davey Boy Smith and his SummerSlam match with Bret Hart at Wembley Stadium while talking with Conrad Thompson about how the pay-per-view business used to work. JBL explained why the company’s reliance on North American buys capped what Davey Boy could be, and why he thinks a promotion could build a base overseas today. You can check out his comments below:
On Davey Boy Smith and what streaming would have changed:
“It’s interesting, Conrad. I just did an A&E Rivals thing all last week with Booker T, and Miz was the host. Had a great time. We’re talking about Davey Boy and the match he had with Bret Hart. And this reminds me, I thought about this with Peacock. If we’d had streaming back then, Davey Boy probably would have been world champion, because they sell out Wembley for the Intercontinental Championship. And the problem that you had, though, was you had to come back to North America to sell pay-per-views, so you had to be in the United States and Canada to sell pay-per-views, and so we always had to have something that was kind of in that time frame. You couldn’t do stuff in England, not regularly. So that was really where, if we’d had streaming back then, where it doesn’t matter where you are as far as the PLEs they call them now, I think Davey Boy probably would have been a world champion.”
On whether a promotion could build itself overseas today:
“I do. It’s kind of like bands. WWE or whatever else will go over to Europe, and the Bay City Rollers go over there and sell out arenas over there that couldn’t really sell out arenas in North America, and I think that’s kind of what we’re talking about with some of these wrestling groups. You’ve tried some of these homegrown wrestling groups, and for whatever reason, the American version of it tends to draw better.”
If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit Something To Wrestle With an h/t to 411mania.com for the transcription.
