BATTLE WITH DRUGS LOST

Family Says Painkillers Likely Took Wrestler's Life

CALGARY -- Family members feuding over the memory and the remains of Davey
Boy Smith are able to agree on two things:

He had desperately wanted to turn his life around -- and drugs likely
killed him.

But while a friend of Smith and his girlfriend Andrea Hart said
prescription painkillers to mask the pain of training for his planned
wrestling comeback ultimately ended Smith's life, his ex-wife said that
addiction was the least of his woes as he fought to be a better husband and
father.

"Davey was desperately trying to get off drugs and get his life back," said
Diana Hart, Smith's ex-wife and mother of his two teenagers, Harry and Georgia.

Hart family members said Smith -- who was broke -- was living a nightmare,
hitting rock bottom before grasping to save himself and his relationship
with his kids.

"We saw him on Friday before he left and he said he wanted to be closer to
us and spend more time with us," Georgia said, adding she will always
fondly remember her dad for his kindness and his lust for life.

'CESSPOOL OF NONSENSE'

Smith died Saturday morning inside his Fairmont, B.C. hotel room as his
girlfriend Andrea lay beside him.

But Andrea's husband Bruce Hart -- Smith's brother-in-law -- said Smith's
life was complicated as the victim of a sordid love triangle further
corrupted by drugs.

"Davey was caught up in a cesspool of nonsense," he said, referring to the
story of Smith's relationship with his wife as "an unfortunately contrived
Camelot fairy tale."

Longtime friend of Smith's and former fellow wrestler Ben Bassarab said
Smith's comeback was meant to be brief and was a last ditch effort to clear
his reputation, enabling him to retire from the wrestling world with dignity.

"He wanted to show everybody he could still do it and that he wasn't washed
up," Bassarab said, adding that plight may have eventually killed him.

"He wanted to prove to people he wasn't a drug addict and a loser." Smith,
who rose to fame as one of the British Bulldogs, fought his last match at
the Southdale Community Centre in Winnipeg on May 11.

The night before, he wrestled with his teenage son Harry in Brandon. Diana
also said young Harry plans to continue wrestling in his father's memory,
motivating him to become one of the best the wrestling world has ever seen.

"Harry has such a gift and Davey was so proud of him," she said. The
matches were Smith's first in 16 months, after the wrestler was involved in
a near-fatal motorcycle crash.

Autopsy results from Cranbrook B.C's medical examiner are expected to be
released today.

Funeral arrangements for Smith have not yet been finalized.