During a tag match against Don Muraco and Bob Orton, he was injured. He would be substituted by several wrestlers which included Roddy Piper, Junkyard Dog and Billy Jack Haynes when tag title defenses were made. When he was recovering in the hospital from back surgery, he recounted that Bret Hart had showed up and said that Vince McMahon had sent him to get Dynamite's tag belt but Billington refused. He would shortly check himself out of the hospital (against doctors' orders) and met with McMahon, who requested that the Bulldogs drop the tag titles to the team of Nikolai Volkoff and The Iron Sheik but Billington refused and said that he would only drop the belts to The Hart Foundation.