The British Bruisers were a

professional wrestling Professional wrestling is a form of theater that revolves around staged wrestling matches. The mock combat is performed in a ring similar to the kind used in boxing, and the dramatic aspects of pro wrestling may be performed both in the ring o ...

tag team who competed in Stampede Wrestling and

All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW/AJP) or simply All Japan is a Japanese professional wrestling promotion established on October 21, 1972 when Giant Baba split away from the Japanese Wrestling Association and created his own promotion. Many wrestlers had left with Baba, ...

. The team consisted of The Dynamite Kid and

Johnny Smith Johnny Henry Smith II (June 25, 1922 – June 11, 2013) was an American cool jazz and mainstream jazz guitarist. He wrote "Walk, Don't Run" in 1954. In 1984, Smith was inducted into the Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame. Early life During the Great Dep ...

. The Bruisers were created by Stampede Wrestling as part of a promotional angle in which Kid turned heel on longtime tag partner

Davey Boy Smith David Smith (27 November 1962 – 18 May 2002) was an English professional wrestler. Born in Golborne, Lancashire, Smith is best known for his appearances in the United States with the World Wrestling Federation under the ring names Davey Bo ...

History

Dynamite Kid and Johnny Smith formed The British Bruisers in Stampede Wrestling in May 1989, after the breakup of The British Bulldogs, feuding with

, until the promotion's closure in December 1989. In September 1990, Davey Boy Smith pulled out of the yearly World's Strongest Tag Determination League to return to the

World Wrestling Federation World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc., d/b/a as WWE, is an American professional wrestling promotion. A global integrated media and entertainment company, WWE has also branched out into other fields, including film, American football, and vario ...

. For the upcoming tag league, The British Bruisers reunited, for the 1990 WSTL, and they would ultimately finish in 9th place with 6 points. For the rest of 1990 and all of 1991, The Bruisers continued to team in All Japan. For the most part, the Bruisers were used in the midcard and never made challenges for the World Tag Team Championship. On April 6, 1991, the team won their only title when they defeated Kenta Kobashi and Tsuyoshi Kikuchi to win the vacated All Asia Tag Team Championship. The Bruisers would hold the titles for 2 weeks before they lost the titles to Doug Furnas and Dan Kroffat on April 20, 1991. During their title reign both Dynamite and Smith took part in the 1991 Champion Carnival with Dynamite finishing 3rd in his block while Smith finished 6th in his block. After losing the titles, the Bruisers would continue to remain in the midcard as they would never win another title and were left off several Budokan shows. In late 1991, Dynamite's body began to fall apart to years of injuries and steroid use. The Bruisers wrestled their last tour for All Japan by competing in the 1991 World's Strongest Tag Determination League. The team would finish in 10th place with 6 points. On December 6, 1991, Dynamite Kid wrestled his retirement match teaming with Smith to defeat Johnny Ace and Sonny Beach.

Aftermath

Dynamite's retirement wouldn't last. A year and a half later on July 29, 1993, the Bruisers teamed one last time as they lost to Tsuyoshi Kikuchi and

Jun Akiyama is a Japanese professional wrestler signed to DDT Pro-Wrestling, where he is a former KO-D Openweight Champion. He is best known for his time working for All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW), where he was the president, representative director, co-he ...

. Dynamite would continue to wrestle in his native

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

between January to April 1994. He would wrestle one more time in

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

on October 10, 1996 for

Michinoku Pro Wrestling (originally known as North Eastern Wrestling) is a Japanese professional wrestling promotion founded by The Great Sasuke on October 1, 1992. It was the first independent wrestling promotion in Japan to not base its operations in Tokyo, but rather ...

in a six man tag team match teaming with Kuniaki Kobayashi and Dos Caras to defeat Tiger Mask, The Great Sasuke, and Mil Mascaras before needing to use a

wheelchair A wheelchair is a chair with wheels, used when walking is difficult or impossible due to illness, injury, problems related to old age, or disability. These can include spinal cord injuries ( paraplegia, hemiplegia, and quadriplegia), cerebr ...

. Smith continued to wrestle in All Japan for another decade winning the All Asia Tag Team Championship a second time in 1998 with

Wolf Hawkfield The following is a list of characters from the ''Virtua Fighter'' fighting game series released by Sega. Starting with ''Virtua Fighter'', this series has spanned five games (not including updates) and has been released on arcade systems as well ...

and winning the Unified World Tag Team Championship in 2001 with Taiyo Kea before eventually retiring after a much-publicized April 2003 hospitalization.

Championships and accomplishments

** All Asia Tag Team Championship ( 1 time) **World's Strongest Tag Determination League Fair Play Award (1990, 1991) * Tokyo Sports **Special Achievement (1991) - Dynamite Kid

References

External links

Dynamite Kid profile at Online World of WrestlingThe British Bruisers profile at Cagematch.net
{{DEFAULTSORT:British Bruisers All Japan Pro Wrestling teams and stables