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GEORGIA SMITH DISCUSSES THE LEGACY OF HER FATHER DAVEY BOY SMITH, CURATING HIS LEGACY ONLINE, WHAT HE WOULD BE UP TO TODAY AND MORE

Georgia Smith Interview w/ Spencer Love: Transcript & Links  

Spencer Love is joined by Georgia Smith, a former MLW correspondent, media personality, and  daughter of the legendary British Bulldog, Davey Boy Smith. The two chat at length about her  efforts to honour her father’s legacy, culminating in Davey Boy’s induction into the WWE Hall of  Fame on Tuesday, April 6th. Tune in as the pair chat about growing up in Calgary, memories of  her father at home, underrated moments from her dad’s career, and more. Highlights from the  interview can be found below. 

Being a part of her Dad’s WWE Icons documentary 

SL: “And it's very, very cool, because for me, there's so many individual little cool pieces that I  want to touch on that you have been doing as far as your Dad goes. But, it's especially cool for  me that you've mentioned before, right, bonding over movies with them and having those  experiences with Subway in theaters. It must have been so cool for you to be able to take part  in the filming of the [WWE] Icon documentary. I know you can't say much about the actual  what's taking place in the documentary, but give me as general thoughts you can give without  getting me in trouble with the WWE."  

GS: “They picked the Icons for it, and I remember that Terry Funk was originally supposed to  be in it. They just wanted to just cover Davey's life, really. I always wanted to do a documentary  on my dad, whether it was with WWE or an independent project. I'm glad it's with WWE,  because obviously they've got all the footage and the rights. My dad's best career memories  and greatest moments, I believe, was in WWE, so it just overall worked out. And, you know, I  just talked about my memories of Davey, like my favorite - I don't think we talked about favorite  matches! I think they just asked me like what I thought of Wembley, and the European title and  just his big moments. It was very therapeutic pretty much from start to finish. I was just very  emotional about it. I just told the guy that was filming first thing I was like, you know, this  means a lot to me and I want this to be as real and as genuine as possible. I want you and  people to understand and know the man and the husband my mom had and the father I had  and the wrestler that people looked up to. I want him to really shine I said because he deserves  all the credit in the world. It's super important to me to do this, because I said, I don't know if  I'm going to have this chance to to do it again. So I want I want to say as much as I can,  really.” 

GS: “So, they filmed me last, and it was very, very late. I was crying for a couple of days,  because I felt like I purged a lot. I just got a lot out. I heard Harry and my mom talk, and you  know, we don't really talk about it too much. We talk about Davey, but the whole, you know-" 

SL: “Circumstances?" 

GS: (nods) "we don't talk about. So the fact that I was in the next room and I could hear their  sides and their perspectives. It was really interesting. I'm just curious to see how WWE is going  to piece it all together and edit it and they create the final package. I don't know how WWE is  going to condense all of this into an hour, or an hour and a half, because it is a lot of content.  I'm just very grateful that they did this.” 

GS: “They went to England to interview my dad's dad and my dad's sister and a guy named  Walter, who owned a gym that my dad trained at in his younger years. Walter was a  bodybuilder, he's in his 70s. But, he was a big motivator and inspired my dad when he was  growing up and was my dad's - I would say probably my dad's best friend. He's never talked  about it either. Talking to my granddad, I think the last time they spoke to him was - God, I  think it was 1991 or 1990." 

SL: “Wow!"  

GS: “Oh, yeah. Yeah. When my grandmother was still alive. That was for when they did the UK  Rampage tour. They interviewed my dad, my grandmother and my grandfather outside. So, it's  gonna be nice to see him talk again and get that. If I did anything, if my dad's stuff has caught  

WWE's attention, and you know, with Harry wrestling as Davey Boy Smith, Jr. led this to  happen. I'm like, great!” 

Starting her father’s Instagram account and beginning to curate his legacy 

SL: “What inspired you to sort of become the curator, I guess for lack of a better term for it, of  your father's legacy? You started the Instagram account, I think, just over two years ago now if  my math's correct, and since then, obviously, it's exploded. It is so cool for me to follow along  and see, like you say, all of these photos that aren't your typical WWE promo photos, some  

behind the scenes stuff, and, of course, some very, very cool stuff outside of that as well. What  inspired you to make the jump, I guess?"  

GS: “Well, I remember it was January. Yeah, it was after New Year's, and I had some personal  stuff going on in my life. And I just kind of was feeling a bit low on things and I don't know. I  just remember saying to my boss, I was like, 'what do you think about if I started like an  Instagram page for my dad?' I follow Shannon Lee, Bruce Lee's daughter, and I follow Bruce  Lee's page, and I see like all the cool things she does on Bruce Lee and keeping his legacy  alive. I thought that's really cool. I wasn't expecting anything: I just thought it was just a cool  platform, or a platform for my dad, because I didn't think there was anything really out there.  There were some Facebook tribute pages, and I was just like, 'well, I've got all the stuff,' I  thought I was the best person to do it. So I started it, and it was pretty therapeutic and fulfilling  to every day see my dad post something. As you know, you follow, every day I post something  about him. There's not a day that goes by that I don't post something.” 

GS: “It really helped me get through what I was going through at the time. I don't know if my  dad, if like that was him from afar trying to help me because it wasn't good. I just kept it kept it  going and I think people saw [and] jumped on board with it because they saw how much I  cared about it. You know, as you've seen, it's just exploded. It wasn't verified and WWE  followed it and you know, Kieran, the guy who made the documentary coming up, the Icons, he  brought it up [that] it was a major point of discussion, the Instagram and why it's so popular  and why I thought it's really taken off. It's crazy, because I didn't - there's no like rhyme or  reason reason or recipe. I just feel like because I care and people see the love that I've got, and  they just want to see Davey, in a nutshell.”

Davey Boy’s post-retirement plans 

SL: “Well, and I was gonna say, I don't think it would be right if your dad went in [under]  traditional circumstances. Of course, we've all been waiting so long and now we got to wait an extra year. Of course, he'd be a guy that everybody would just be so enthusiastic about, and  there's no audience. Butm it's just so cool that he's gonna win, and I'm so, so happy for your  family. I know I speak for a lot of Albertans here that I've spoken to that can also say the same  thing. I know you've talked about your dad wanting to open a gym and wanting to run a  wrestling school and that sort of stuff after retiring from wrestling. Do you have any more ideas  on what he maybe would have wanted to do or how he would have felt about this honor?"  

GS: “He was actually, in the autumn of 2002, he was supposed to do a tour in England. I think  he was going to be gone for like a year, if not a little less. He was going to be doing that. I think  he was going to be doing a lot of events, tours, whatever shows, because that’s all he wanted  to do was wrestle. [He] definitely wanted to open up a like a gym or a wrestling school, and I  remember he was looking at properties. He was actually looking in Inglewood in Calgary at  some spots. I know he wanted to get into film. I think I posted his headshots and his media  package that he had, but he really wanted to get into that or stunt work, because he was like,  ‘I’ll take the pain. I don’t care!’ Those were the top things he wanted to do. I didn’t see him  really becoming like an agent or anything with WWE. I didn’t, I but I think I would see him  training the people at like the Performance Center.”

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