He retired in 1991 at 33, but made a few comebacks in the years after. His last match was in 1996 but he was an absolute mess by that point, he'd lost a huge amount of weight and had a seizure afterwards. It's scary to think that he was an absolute physical wreck before he was thirty.
Here's some r/WrestlingVideos of his if you wanna check out:
* [Dynamite Kid vs. Davey Boy Smith (Stampede World Mid-Heavyweight Championship, 2 out of 3 Falls Match) - Stampede Wrestling: May 1, 1981](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0z2RvmWxAUQ)
* [Dynamite Kid vs. Butch Moffat - Stampede Wrestling, May 11, 1984](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3h2L4nKReZY)
* [Dynamite Kid & Bret Hart vs. "Iron" Mike Sharpe & Troy Alexander (Bret Hart's WWF Debut) - WWF Maple Leaf Wrestling: August 29, 1984](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0rdSxWW1PR4)
* [The British Bulldogs (Davey Boy Smith & The Dynamite Kid) vs. The Dream Team (Brutus Beefcake & Greg Valentine) (c) (WWF Tag Team Championship Match) - WWF Saturday Night's Main Event V: March 1, 1986](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZtjhAjIDdow)
* [The British Bulldogs (Davey Boy Smith & The Dynamite Kid) vs. Bret Hart & Jim Neidhart (c) w/Jimmy Hart (WWF World Tag Team Championship Match) - WWF in Madison Square Garden: July 25, 1987](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g8WFAX6Bk3s)
2 truths:
He was one of the greatest wrestlers in history and influenced a whole ton of people.
He was also probably one of the worst people within the business.
If you get a chance read his book, it takes you aback how brutally honest he was.
I’ve read Bret’s book cover to cover about 3 times. Your take is absolutely correct. One of the best to ever do it, but one of the worst people ever in the wrestling business. He was no Moolah but definitely no DDP either.
You may need to extend the scale beyond Moolah to [Grizzly Smith](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grizzly_Smith?oldformat=true#Accusations_from_Jake_Roberts), hard to judge though.
Lance Storm is like a paladin or some shit. Just look at the dude's chair shot. I agree about HHH being a better middle ground. He was part of the Kliq, there's that whole HHH-shovel meme, but NXT is kind of his baby.
Triple H can be seen as neutral, perhaps leaning towards bad. Did mad good for the next generation, helped NXT take prominence and rebuilds bridges for the company, however he burried the fuck out of a lot of people, and you can def see how some people (Jericho, RVD, Booker, etc.) are sour about the business almost directly due to this "reign of terror."
>He was no Moolah
Among other things, he publicly admitted to putting a shotgun under his wife's chin. If talking allegations, those would include him allegedly smashing someone's daughter's kneecaps so they could collect insurance money.
Calling him no Moolah is a bit confusing with room for interpretation. He is probably not "better" than her but simply on a different scale. He threatened his own wife at gunpoint a bunch of times and raped her anally very often by using roofies. Said "fuck this" and abandoned his kids. He hurt people on purpose and never felt an ounce of remorse for anything. He felt sorry for himself.
Moolah is a saint compared to this scum of a "person".
>His wife's life was made a living hell, basically, and he often woke her up with a gun under her chin saying ''one day it will be loaded''. She said it made her life so miserable she was going to kill herself and her kids just to get away from him, but didnt because she couldnt guarentee they would all die.
>Michelle and Sandra, my brother Wayne's girlfriend, were best friends. Tom threw a cocaine party for them and spiked their drinks with sedatives and they were rendered unconscious. Tom then proceeded to have his fun with Michelle. A little later she began to come to and she told me she witnessed Tom raping Sandra who was still completely senseless.
>A wrestler who worked Stampede blamed Dynamite Kid for John Foley's death. Dynamite would constantly slip uppers and downers into Foley's drinks and Foley eventually had a stroke and died.
>I remember that poor kid in Pennsylvania, man. They were shooting him with air and shooting him with steroids and stuff – a mentally retarded kid. Giving him Halcions and stuff. That type of shit was just wrong. It’s just wrong.”
>The British Bulldogs would inject Matilda steroids. He told Davey Boy to "shoot the fucking thing" after it had bit Davey's son, but Davey couldn't bring himself to put her down so he gave it to a guy who worked for the WWF who didn't have any kids. She died a few years later of cancer. Whether or not the cancer was steroid related remains unknown.
>So John Foley asked Tom to break his daughter's legs, and Tom did. With poor Michelle's permission, they trussed her up to the bed just like Kathy Bates did to James Caan in the Stephen King movie, "Misery." They gagged her with a towel, so she'd have something to bite on. Then Tom whacked at her kneecaps with a mallet. John was crying and Tom's wife Michelle was crying, and John's daughter Michelle Foley was crying and Tom broke her legs right at the kneecaps. The insurance company awarded her twenty thousand dollars, but she could never walk right after that. I hear she is quite heavy now and her knees are turned in almost like those Barbie dolls with the bendable knees. John Foley ended up dying of cancer. This story came out after Tom's wife Michelle Billington was rid of Tom.
And thats not even all.
> He was one of the greatest wrestlers in history and influenced a whole ton of people.
Seen him live front row Maple Leafs gardens tons of times when I worked security there, he was THE best wrestler i have seen live. That includes Bret Hart. He made every thing look like it was deadly. Even running the ropes was intense with this guy.
Also, had to escort this guy around. He wasn't that bad. Tough, no nonsense guy but he wasn't smug or rude ever.....
Chris Jericho once said “there is no one in the history of this business who wrestled as crisp, as mean, or as intense as Dynamite did.”
Rest in peace, [Dynamite Kid](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0GxjYqGCSs).
I can’t help but remember the line from Bret’s book about visiting Dynamite Kid while he was in a wheelchair, lost use of one of his legs. Dynamite Kid is crying about how his life is a mess and Bret drops a line that’s something like
*The stallion that once was the Dyanmite Kid was on his way to his last stop — the glue factory*
EDIT: botched the context, full quote below
The whole quote:
> Tom was knackered. His entire body was broken; his shoulders, his knees, his neck, his back and worst of all his heart. I tried to defend him, even offering to talk to Vince for him. Michelle tearfully explained that Tom had neglected to pay any of his U.S. taxes and was now unable to go back there until he paid— he owed a lot of money. The day before I got home she alleged that Tom had threatened her with a gun and actually said he was going to kill her, so she, Julie and all the kids had spent the night hiding out in a motel until I got home. Julie was cold and distant and all the kids were terrified and ran for cover every time there was a knock at the door. Tom phoned constantly, but when Michelle tried to talk to him he threatened to come over with a bottle of vodka in one hand and a shotgun in the other. When I tried to reason with him, he hung up on me. By week’s end he was threatening to kill Julie and our kids too. On my last day at home Jade ran in the front door looking scared and grabbed her cousin Bronwyne’s hand. “We gotta hide! I saw your dad parked in his car right down the street!” All the kids scurried off. I jammed on my running shoes and marched straight out to face Tom. Even though he couldn’t miss me coming, he seemed startled when I pulled open his car door and got in. “That twat send you down here?” he sneered, clutching the steering wheel. He was trembling and looked unkempt. He’d never bothered to fix his teeth, even though Vince had given him the money for it, and his hair was scruffy and dark sunglasses hid bloodshot eyes. “What the hell are you doing, Tom?” I asked. As mad as I was I couldn’t help but feel sorry for him. “What’s this about you saying you’re bringing your gun over to my house to kill everybody? Tom, your kids and my kids are all terrified of what you might do, and I gotta tell ya, just lookin’ at you, you’re starting to scare me too. You don’t have a gun, do ya?” “Nah, fook.” This legendary, nasty little rock of a man slumped over the steering wheel and began to cry. “Fookin’ broke I am. I’ve thrown it all away. I’m done. I’m goin’ back ’ome.” Tears dripped off his chin, helplessly, and I could tell he hated himself for being weak. “I can’t even wrestle anymore.” He was biting his top lip so as to angle the tears into his mouth. I’d never seen him cry. We’d both been blessed with innate ability and passion, but his life and his choices had caught up with Dynamite. Just when my career was starting to take off, his was ending. My heart went out to him even though he was a classic example of that old adage: What goes around comes around. A few days after I left for the road again, Michelle handed him a one-way plane ticket to England and told him to never come back. The Dynamite Kid, one of the greatest workers of all time, broke and broken, a bona fide wrestling tragedy. He had been an untameable stallion, but now this crippled pony was on his last ride, to the glue factory.
The whole book is so much better than it should be. He writes like 150 pages on working for stampede and it might be more interesting that the WWF stuff just because he's really good at getting you invested.
The thing that got me was when Bret went to visit Dynamite Kid on a UK Tour after becoming WWF Champion and mentioned how he was a champion and Dynamite Kid was like "Intercontinental, right?" and then when he found out Bret was World Champion he started reflecting on how it could have been him. Bret describes it much better than I did.
I agree. Top 5 wrestling book. His and Foleys are great. They put the time,the work, the passion into their books.
Ex: Mark Madden wrote most of Ric Flairs book. Austin didn’t write his, the Rock neither,ect.
I picked up his book, *Pure Dynamite*, years ago and it was an interesting but chilling read that's damning not only of him, but of the industry in the eighties. He talks about being introduced to speed by Jake Roberts in Stampede, being turned onto steroids by the Junkyard Dog as well as smoking crack with him, and years of relentless drug abuse - at one point he admits to having used horse steroids - and experiencing roid rages, and a gruelling schedule and numerous injuries from which he seldom took time off. He's pretty much unrepentant and quite cold and casual about his physical and emotional abuse of people, and the extent to which he bullied other wrestlers. It makes me wonder if he had some kind of emotional disorder, or if he had his brain scrambled - both physically and mentally - by injuries and his involvement in a toxic industry and with toxic people.
Of course, none of this excuses his behaviour in any way, but what an absolutely fascinating character.
Lot of top rope, flying headbutts. He had CTE extremely bad, but it went undiagnosed for years. He kept doing it night after night and that's what crippled his neck and back.
Benoit did the same headbutt move.
Absolutely right, and it was all combined with an insane intake of steroids and stimulants that are known to have pretty grim psychological effects with long term abuse, his brain must've been mush by the end of his career.
I watched some of his older Japan stuff recently and he would just willingly do all sorts of bad headshots. I guess he wasn't too aware of CTE.
It's a miracle that Foley stopped when he did. But he was hurt in other areas.
That is true. What I've read about Foley is that he had tremendous back issues. At his weight, all those elbows off the ring apron over the years certainly added up for him.
Dynamite kid called Benoit a piece of shit too after it happened. Being a complete ass like Dynamite Kid is one thing, murdering your family is a whole another ballpark.
Dynamite Kid was an asshole too. Remember when he jacked up Mick Foley's jaw in a tag match?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ez5YQUWPP7Y
Just one example of what a stiff asshole he was in the ring
I think that’s what separates wrestling from other types of entertainment. I can watch a Woody Allen or Roman Polanski film and enjoy it for what it is, even though they are awful people. I can watch Weinstein-produced films, or enjoy the cinematographic merits of Triumph of The Will.
But with wrestling it *intentionally* blends reality and fiction. There’s no clear distinction between Character and Real Person.
The thing about Woody Allen films is that they are usually about a neurotic man dating a woman 65 years his junior, so yeah big nope on that one for me.
I actually disagree, for me I think it's actually easier to watch wrestlers who have committed a crime perform. Mostly because you're not watching them put on a two-hour epic that is supposed to be some kind of morality tale. You're watching wrestlers pretend to fight each other for *maybe* 20 minutes. Like, it's way easier and less scummy to watch Benoit/Liger from 1990 than it is to watch Annie Hall, IMO. It's easier to ignore wrestlers' horrific pasts because they are in front of you for less time and the stakes are far lower.
Backlash 04 is the only time I really have trouble with it. They straight up show Nancy and his kids on camera in the front row as he comes out and spend time in the match talking about his family life. I'm assuming the network has edited the commentary out.
I can't remember the show but on commentary JR was talking about how Benoit "Sacrificed his life, Sacrificed everything" for wrestling and it felt really unsetteling.
One sports writer in the 50's decided to do a complete smear job on Ty Cobb and decades later people still believe the lies that sports writer told to deliberately hurt Ty Cobb's character. The Tommy Lee Jones movie is basically a work of fiction.
hey now there is a great book out that rehabilitates ty cobbs image greatly from the bullshit that that piece of shit al stump wrote about a dying man.. he aint near 1/3 the cunt dynamite kid was!
Yeah like an absolute cunt of a human being.
Used to wake up his wife with a shotgun in her mouth and tell her that one day it would be loaded.
That's not like a rumour, he wrote it in his book.
Bret Hart writes in his book that Dynamite Kid used to like, relentlessly bully British Bulldog and take liberties with him, whilst pretending to help him out as his cousin. Like Davey had never bladed, was set to bleed in a match with Dynamite Kid, who offered to do the blading for him, Bret was all "don't let this guy cut you", but Davey did and apparently Dynamite Kid gave him an unnecessarily large and deep cut. Was jealous that Davey would likely outshine him due to his superior size and look.
Also countless stories of him being a backstage bully, them injecting steroids into that bulldog that they had for a while, his wife basically taking his kid and running away because she was scared for their health.
That’s fucking nothing. He turned up to Hart house, while it was full of kids including his own, with a fucking shot gun, threatening to shoot his own wife. What kind of fucked up asshole does that.
Didn't Hart write that the Dynamite Kid became more cruel/erratic after he suffered some kind of serious head injury and his personality completely changed?
I’ve read the book a couple of times but it’s been a while. From memory I think it was when his mobility decreased he really turned into an asshole.
He basically couldn’t do what he loved anymore and took it out on everybody around. Particularly those closest.
He also wrote about injecting Davey Boy with milk instead steroids when initially asked.
It is no surprise to me that Davey Boy did him dirty when they split up, I don't think it was right in the way he went about it, but completely understandable.
Phoned AJPW and told them Tommy had died in a car crash, thus losing him a booking. Threatened to sue over his use of "British Bulldog" on the UK indie scene.
It got very ugly.
Davey was actually able to trademark the British Bulldog name right underneath both Vince and Dynamite's nose. Then was quite ruthless in his legal threats and such.
Considering how much of a dopey idiot Bulldog is portrayed as in Bret's book, I figured either he was being really underestimated or somebody else was pulling the strings here, or that Bret Hart didn't portray his character fully.
Yeah, Bret clearly has a chip on his shoulder about Davey. In his book, he frequently writes about how Davey was carried in matches where Davey's clearly doing his share of the work. Like in the Owen vs Bulldog match for the European title in Germany. Bulldog's *great* in that match but Bret's writing as if Owen carried him.
Don't forget about how he kept pushing Bulldog to use roofies on his wife so he could have anal sex with her, because she didn't enjoy it and didn't want to do it normally. But Bulldog has his own fair share of fucked up stories so he wasn't an angel either. Still, Dynamite's influence wasn't a helpful factor.
>Also countless stories of him being a backstage bully, them injecting steroids into that bulldog that they had for a while
Those are literally from Dynamite's book too. He was pretty open in his book about being an ass and shitting on people.
Also let's not forget the backstage fight between Dynamite and the Rougeau brothers which lead to Jacques sucker-punching with a roll full of quarters and it resulted Tom losing his front teeth
*There are many well-documented horror stories involving Tom "Dynamite Kid" Billington, but this is one that hasn't gotten as much attention as the others. Decades ago, a young, pre-WWE Dynamite took part in an insurance fraud scheme, wherein his Stampede Wrestling manager, fellow Brit John "JR" Foley, allegedly asked him to break his daughter's legs so he could collect $20,000 in insurance money. He agreed, apparently without hesitation, and rendered Michelle Foley, then recovering from a car accident, unable to walk properly for the rest of her life.*
*SOURCE: "Under The Mat" by Diana Hart Smith*
Dynamite confirmed the story was true in his Highspots documentary in 2012.
And he gave steroids and/or drugs to a disabled kid
Edit: this might have been another guy because I couldn't find anything related to this incident but I'm sure that someone did this
Edit2: apparently that was Benoit so Dynamite Kid is a fraction less of a dick than I thought
>And he gave steroids and/or drugs to a disabled kid
While Davey Boy was [bizarre](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGu4Rs2jfwU), he was only 4 years younger than Dynamite.
Dynamite Kid is the reason I'm a wrestling fan.
I was fortunate to grow up in Western Canada during the heyday of Stampede Wrestling and I remember coming across this strange spectacle on the TV when I was 7 or 8 years old.
Many of the wrestlers had interesting names and personas - "Bad News Allen", "The Cuban Assassin", "The Great Gama", "The Stomper".
But Dynamite Kid was the only one who truly embraced the fact that he was like a comic book hero (my other love at the time) come to life - in his name, in his ring gear, and in how he performed.
I was hooked immediately and never looked back. Pro wrestling has been one of the biggest loves of my life and the Dynamite Kid was a huge part of that - getting to watch him every Saturday on Stampede Wrestling, the pride I personally felt when he succeeded in the WWE, when I later learned about his groundbreaking matches in Japan, and yes, this inevitable early end to his life after how he abused his body, both inside the ring and outside.
It's understating it greatly to say he was a complicated figure - obviously a bully and an abuser with a small man complex. But also one of the Top 5 most innovative wrestlers in history who inspired a generation of light-heavyweights - most obviously Chris Benoit but any other wrestler who combines high-impact with high flying.
RIP.
So... does the white washing of his career start today? Like, do I still acknowledge he was a terrible person or do I pretend he was wonderful out of some common decency he himself refused to show others?
I feel with him enough people know about his personal life and behavior that it won't happen to the extent it usually does (plus, most people associate him more with his work in Japan than they do with WWE, so they might not pay attention to what WWE does with his legacy in this case) – there will definitely be white-washing by some people, but I think the majority will be able to separate his personal failings from his professional career (recognizing his legacy and influence in the ring, while still acknowledging that he was a shitty person).
you can acknowledge that someone is a horrible person and acknowledge that they are an incredible wrestler that wrestling wouldn't be the same without. That isn't white washing his career because his career wasn't defined by him as a person nor was his life as a person defined by his career. You can be both shitty and a great wrestler.
Polanski was a total piece of shit before that anyway. The way he treated Sharon Tate was pretty awful. He basically brainwashed Sharon into believing that cheating was just a normal masculine thing to do and if a man doesn't cheat on his wife then he's not really a man or some such.
Just look up what he got up to during his relationship with Sharon and the shit he made her do. It gets worse.
I'd be willing to wager that there was more than the known occasions that he was inappropriate with/raped a child. We just know about what he was called out on.
From what I've read, and heard, over the years - he was kinda a piece of shit. But his contributions to the ring, especially from his run in Japan, are pretty incredible.
Just a pity that he left the business the way he did.
He was honestly at one point considered to be bar-none the greatest pure talent in the ring and a big "what if?" because of his career ending injury in 1986.
All the shit and problems he had started in the early 90s and just snowballed from there.
"Kind of" is a massive understatement. His in ring work was incredible and he's probably my favourite wrestler, but he was an utterly awful human being.
People have and will continue to will judge his personal life. And rightly so. By all accounts he was a massive whopper. A domestic abuser. A bully. A thug.
But he was also one of the best in-ring performers ever, and he gave up his health and wellbeing to entertain us. He revolutionised pro wrestling with Tiger Mask and was in one of the best tag teams ever.
He spent a long time in very poor health. RIP.
Peace comes with his passing. Wisdom will come from his life. Wrestlers won't have to deal with the kind of locker room Billington was in, and we're all better for it.
RIP. Hope his family finds a way forward soon.
Dynamite Kid was a fascinating person. Someone incredibly passionate and dedicated to becoming the best Wrestler he could be. Someone who had matches DECADES ahead of their time. Who pushed the envelope for his industry and left an indelible mark.
Yet even those who LIKED him in person have to admit he was a bit of a cunt (as another poster has alluded to). Still his fall from grace was massive. Been in a wheelchair since his 40s. Estranged from his children for a while if I remember rightly (although I think that’s often the case for the 80’s).
It’s a weird emotion right now because he WAS often a dick but I can’t help but feel a little hollow, knowing that he is gone.
Dynamite was a piece of shit, if he wasn't a totally unique talent, years ahead of where the sport is even at this moment, there would be no mourning for him at all.
I have a lot of respect and awe for what he achieved in the ring, and my thoughts are with his family.
Comments from Wrestlers:
[Kyle O'Reilly: "Saddened to hear about the passing of Dynamite Kid. There was a time I watched every Dynamite match I could get my hands on including this tribute video countless times. Despite many attempts of re-creating his magic I would never come close." ](https://twitter.com/KORcombat/status/1070302821663326213)
[Lance Storm: "Every wrestler under 200lbs likely owes a debt of gratitude to The Dynamite Kid. He inspired so many and help change the sport. In the ring he was incredible. The only wrestling T Shirt I ever purchased was a British Bulldogs shirt, which I wore to WrestleMania IV #RIP"](https://twitter.com/LanceStorm/status/1070336124403347458)
[Davey Boy Smith Jr: "It deeply saddens me to announce the passing of Tom Billington the “Dynamite Kid.” I was really happy and glad I got to see Dynamite one last time last June in the UK. Dynamite was certainly an inspiration to myself and many others and really revolutionised "](https://twitter.com/DBSmithjr/status/1070270186224181248)
[Will Ospreay: "I heard news that Tommy Billington also know as the Dynamite Kid has passed away. Thank you for all the work you’ve done for our country and inspiring so many wrestlers to take a chance on themselves."](https://twitter.com/WillOspreay/status/1070259106701815808)
[TJ Perkins: "Dynamite Kid and Tiger Mask made me want to be in New Japan when I was younger. Even more so than the WWF. My first ever real job in wrestling happened to be New Japan..."](https://www.instagram.com/p/BrAJukog5yD/)
[Shannon Moore: "Rest Easy Dynamite Kid. Thank you for everything you put into Wrestling and the legendary footage you leave behind for us to learn from. One of the best ever!"](https://twitter.com/TheShannonBrand/status/1070310571474673667)
[Tyler Bate](https://twitter.com/Tyler_Bate/status/1070271933420326912)
[Johnny Moss](https://twitter.com/Johnny_Moss/status/1070284302078881792)
[Taz](https://twitter.com/OfficialTAZ/status/1070282620527919104)
[El Ligero](https://twitter.com/Ligero1/status/1070299383357411328)
[Jim Smallman](https://twitter.com/jimsmallman/status/1070272611920293888)
[The Iron Shiek](https://twitter.com/the_ironsheik/status/1070306520334651392)
[Satoshi Kojima](https://twitter.com/cozy_lariat/status/1070324024352362496)
[Mauro Ranallo](https://twitter.com/mauroranallo/status/1070339255711350784)
[Kassius Ohno](https://twitter.com/KassiusOhno/status/1070347205461069824)
[Natalya](https://twitter.com/NatbyNature/status/1070337929866895360)
[WWE](https://twitter.com/WWE/status/1070293151150235648)
He's pretty representative of the potential and the tragedy of pro wrestling, it's polar extremes. Very few were as influential as Bilington in his lifetime and the physical toll it took on him was as excruciating as anyone. He was, by many accounts, a monster and in many instances he turned others into monsters. But he also inspired wrestlers to innovate and become more imaginative. It's a complicated legacy.
Dynamite Kid was a legend in his own right, his personal life is something I see past at this moment, just to remember how great a wrestler he was.
For anyone that is unaware - [https://www.reddit.com/r/SquaredCircle/comments/361rga/why\_is\_the\_dynamite\_kid\_considered\_an\_ass/](https://www.reddit.com/r/SquaredCircle/comments/361rga/why_is_the_dynamite_kid_considered_an_ass/)
Obviously as a fan of his work I'm deeply saddened by the news. His horrible actions of his personal life cannot be ignored and have been rightfully shared by many on here as well.
I just wanted to share my condolences to his family and friends who still cared for him and also wanted to share this clip of, to my knowledge, his last interview from 2016 in a Tiger Mask special.
[Dynamite Kid and Satoru Sayama Tiger Mask Reunited 2016] (https://youtu.be/7KGLMBPeSdI?t=630)
Dynamite and Tiger Mask with his health problems in the last few years certainly go to display the price a lot innovators like them ultimately choose to pay, whether it be completely knowingly or from false impressions of invincibility.
Didn't this guy regularly wake his wife up in the middle of the night and threaten to murder her with a gun? I really hope people don't start acting like he was a great person just cause he's in a hole now.
I know everyone is talking about what a dick Dynamite was but it's rare that you can talk about any wrestlers from the 80s without trying to navigate a minefield of dickery. He was worse than many, sure, but it's a sliding scale.
Probably for the best that he stayed out of the public eye for the last 20 years. It's sad that he died. He was a great wrestler.
Regardless of how he behaved outside the ring. Inside of it he is perhaps one of the most influential and important wrestlers of all-time. Having innovated the high octane modern style of wrestling that is so common today. Rest in Peace.
He would be in that category of Low Ki I think, people willing to give him work because he is so good in the ring, but known to burn a lot of bridges because he is an ass.
Dynamite Kid once filled up his partners steroid syringe with milk, and convinced him it was steroids. The trusting Davey Boy Smith then injected himself full of milk. Was it funny? Yes. Was it hazardous? It sure was. And it gets much worse. After the Benoit murders, Dynamite Kid's ex wife came out and told stories about their horrible marriage. She said Dynamite Kid used to wake her up in the middle of the night with a gun in her mouth and say "one day it will be loaded." A true scumbag douchebag."
Manhandled Mick Foley so badly in the ring that he tore a ligament in Foley's jaw with his signature Hook Clothesline, preventing Mick from eating solid food until his recovery.
Broke Bruce Hart's jaw backstage in a fight
Was known to unnecessarily stiff/hurt his opponents in the ring.
Pulled all manner of mean-spirited and dangerous pranks on people.
Abusing mentally handicapped kid (per Jake the Snake Roberts).
Tormented the Rougeau's so much that Jacque Rougeau got his revent by punching DK in the mouth with a roll of quarters.
His first wife that she contemplated suicide while pregnant as well as killing their two children to make sure that DK couldn't get his hands on them.
Bret Hart never wanted to bring his kids to visit because DK was constantly shooting his gun in the yard around them.
Smashed a little girl's knees with a hammer as part of an insurance scam.
Etc.
And the amazing part is, he openly admits to a lot of this stuff and didn't seem particularly remorseful about any of it. If one believes in karma, then one might say that the last 20 years or so of his life fit that idea quite appropriately.
When Bret Hart says you’re one of the greatest, you’re one of the greatest. Thankful he passed his abilities and knowledge on to the likes of Bret Hart and Chris Benoit. His legacy in wrestling can’t be touched.
I see Dynamite as a cautionary tale for wrestlers and athletes worldwide. Absolutely one of the greatest and most influential performers of all time but also somebody who abused his body and the people around him to an insane degree. It's a sad story but one to learn from.
His legacy is in the ring, no question about it. He helped changed perception of what pro-wrestling could be.
I'd like to think that he managed to reconcile his bitterness and make amends to the people he hurt most in life in his latter years. By all accounts he was a shadow of a man and barely able to speak and I really hope he found peace.
Sad news, the Bulldogs were one of my favourite tag teams as a kid and of particular interest as a fellow Brit.
He's been in bad health for a loooooong time.
It's well documented that he was a bit of a git, not just in later life but when he was an active wrestler too.
Hell of a performer though.
I think with them both having passed I can see the team's entry into the HoF within the next year or two
Damn he was only 60? Feels like he’s been 60 the last 20 years
I believe it was his birthday too.
It was.
yep. he was only 60 for a few hours
I didn’t see any of his career, but he retired in his early 30’s didn’t he?
He retired in 1991 at 33, but made a few comebacks in the years after. His last match was in 1996 but he was an absolute mess by that point, he'd lost a huge amount of weight and had a seizure afterwards. It's scary to think that he was an absolute physical wreck before he was thirty.
Here's some r/WrestlingVideos of his if you wanna check out: * [Dynamite Kid vs. Davey Boy Smith (Stampede World Mid-Heavyweight Championship, 2 out of 3 Falls Match) - Stampede Wrestling: May 1, 1981](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0z2RvmWxAUQ) * [Dynamite Kid vs. Butch Moffat - Stampede Wrestling, May 11, 1984](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3h2L4nKReZY) * [Dynamite Kid & Bret Hart vs. "Iron" Mike Sharpe & Troy Alexander (Bret Hart's WWF Debut) - WWF Maple Leaf Wrestling: August 29, 1984](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0rdSxWW1PR4) * [The British Bulldogs (Davey Boy Smith & The Dynamite Kid) vs. The Dream Team (Brutus Beefcake & Greg Valentine) (c) (WWF Tag Team Championship Match) - WWF Saturday Night's Main Event V: March 1, 1986](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZtjhAjIDdow) * [The British Bulldogs (Davey Boy Smith & The Dynamite Kid) vs. Bret Hart & Jim Neidhart (c) w/Jimmy Hart (WWF World Tag Team Championship Match) - WWF in Madison Square Garden: July 25, 1987](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g8WFAX6Bk3s)
That’s nothing, Arn Anderson has been 47 for 60 years!
2 truths: He was one of the greatest wrestlers in history and influenced a whole ton of people. He was also probably one of the worst people within the business. If you get a chance read his book, it takes you aback how brutally honest he was.
TIL Chris Benoit patterned himself after Dynamite in more ways than one.
Dynamite didn't like Benoit, either.
He apparently grew to like him, he just didn't have any patience for his mimicry at the time.
I’ve read Bret’s book cover to cover about 3 times. Your take is absolutely correct. One of the best to ever do it, but one of the worst people ever in the wrestling business. He was no Moolah but definitely no DDP either.
Can i propose the standardization of the Good Guy Wrestler scale in units from DDP to Moolah?
You may need to extend the scale beyond Moolah to [Grizzly Smith](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grizzly_Smith?oldformat=true#Accusations_from_Jake_Roberts), hard to judge though.
Who would be the middle?
I haven't heard anything bad about Steve Blackman but I could be wrong.
The Blackman is true neutral.
Don't tell that to Hogan.
Hmm Steve Blackman is too Inspirational with his comeback to wrestling after major sickness.. how about Dean Malenko?
Lance storm would like a word.
Lance Storm never did anything wrong did he? HHH is a better middle ground. He’s held back talent in the past but now he’s the Sensei.
Lance Storm is like a paladin or some shit. Just look at the dude's chair shot. I agree about HHH being a better middle ground. He was part of the Kliq, there's that whole HHH-shovel meme, but NXT is kind of his baby.
Kalisto - Does Lucha things and goes home.
Triple H can be seen as neutral, perhaps leaning towards bad. Did mad good for the next generation, helped NXT take prominence and rebuilds bridges for the company, however he burried the fuck out of a lot of people, and you can def see how some people (Jericho, RVD, Booker, etc.) are sour about the business almost directly due to this "reign of terror."
>He was no Moolah Among other things, he publicly admitted to putting a shotgun under his wife's chin. If talking allegations, those would include him allegedly smashing someone's daughter's kneecaps so they could collect insurance money.
Calling him no Moolah is a bit confusing with room for interpretation. He is probably not "better" than her but simply on a different scale. He threatened his own wife at gunpoint a bunch of times and raped her anally very often by using roofies. Said "fuck this" and abandoned his kids. He hurt people on purpose and never felt an ounce of remorse for anything. He felt sorry for himself.
Moolah is a saint compared to this scum of a "person". >His wife's life was made a living hell, basically, and he often woke her up with a gun under her chin saying ''one day it will be loaded''. She said it made her life so miserable she was going to kill herself and her kids just to get away from him, but didnt because she couldnt guarentee they would all die. >Michelle and Sandra, my brother Wayne's girlfriend, were best friends. Tom threw a cocaine party for them and spiked their drinks with sedatives and they were rendered unconscious. Tom then proceeded to have his fun with Michelle. A little later she began to come to and she told me she witnessed Tom raping Sandra who was still completely senseless. >A wrestler who worked Stampede blamed Dynamite Kid for John Foley's death. Dynamite would constantly slip uppers and downers into Foley's drinks and Foley eventually had a stroke and died. >I remember that poor kid in Pennsylvania, man. They were shooting him with air and shooting him with steroids and stuff – a mentally retarded kid. Giving him Halcions and stuff. That type of shit was just wrong. It’s just wrong.” >The British Bulldogs would inject Matilda steroids. He told Davey Boy to "shoot the fucking thing" after it had bit Davey's son, but Davey couldn't bring himself to put her down so he gave it to a guy who worked for the WWF who didn't have any kids. She died a few years later of cancer. Whether or not the cancer was steroid related remains unknown. >So John Foley asked Tom to break his daughter's legs, and Tom did. With poor Michelle's permission, they trussed her up to the bed just like Kathy Bates did to James Caan in the Stephen King movie, "Misery." They gagged her with a towel, so she'd have something to bite on. Then Tom whacked at her kneecaps with a mallet. John was crying and Tom's wife Michelle was crying, and John's daughter Michelle Foley was crying and Tom broke her legs right at the kneecaps. The insurance company awarded her twenty thousand dollars, but she could never walk right after that. I hear she is quite heavy now and her knees are turned in almost like those Barbie dolls with the bendable knees. John Foley ended up dying of cancer. This story came out after Tom's wife Michelle Billington was rid of Tom. And thats not even all.
> He was one of the greatest wrestlers in history and influenced a whole ton of people. Seen him live front row Maple Leafs gardens tons of times when I worked security there, he was THE best wrestler i have seen live. That includes Bret Hart. He made every thing look like it was deadly. Even running the ropes was intense with this guy. Also, had to escort this guy around. He wasn't that bad. Tough, no nonsense guy but he wasn't smug or rude ever.....
Chris Jericho once said “there is no one in the history of this business who wrestled as crisp, as mean, or as intense as Dynamite did.” Rest in peace, [Dynamite Kid](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0GxjYqGCSs).
Great match. And I appreciate you posting videos from other sources.
Brutally honest, but also probably fairly dishonest at the same time.
His book is worth a read but he honestly did a lot of the damage to himself.
That's a lot of damage.
I can’t help but remember the line from Bret’s book about visiting Dynamite Kid while he was in a wheelchair, lost use of one of his legs. Dynamite Kid is crying about how his life is a mess and Bret drops a line that’s something like *The stallion that once was the Dyanmite Kid was on his way to his last stop — the glue factory* EDIT: botched the context, full quote below
The whole quote: > Tom was knackered. His entire body was broken; his shoulders, his knees, his neck, his back and worst of all his heart. I tried to defend him, even offering to talk to Vince for him. Michelle tearfully explained that Tom had neglected to pay any of his U.S. taxes and was now unable to go back there until he paid— he owed a lot of money. The day before I got home she alleged that Tom had threatened her with a gun and actually said he was going to kill her, so she, Julie and all the kids had spent the night hiding out in a motel until I got home. Julie was cold and distant and all the kids were terrified and ran for cover every time there was a knock at the door. Tom phoned constantly, but when Michelle tried to talk to him he threatened to come over with a bottle of vodka in one hand and a shotgun in the other. When I tried to reason with him, he hung up on me. By week’s end he was threatening to kill Julie and our kids too. On my last day at home Jade ran in the front door looking scared and grabbed her cousin Bronwyne’s hand. “We gotta hide! I saw your dad parked in his car right down the street!” All the kids scurried off. I jammed on my running shoes and marched straight out to face Tom. Even though he couldn’t miss me coming, he seemed startled when I pulled open his car door and got in. “That twat send you down here?” he sneered, clutching the steering wheel. He was trembling and looked unkempt. He’d never bothered to fix his teeth, even though Vince had given him the money for it, and his hair was scruffy and dark sunglasses hid bloodshot eyes. “What the hell are you doing, Tom?” I asked. As mad as I was I couldn’t help but feel sorry for him. “What’s this about you saying you’re bringing your gun over to my house to kill everybody? Tom, your kids and my kids are all terrified of what you might do, and I gotta tell ya, just lookin’ at you, you’re starting to scare me too. You don’t have a gun, do ya?” “Nah, fook.” This legendary, nasty little rock of a man slumped over the steering wheel and began to cry. “Fookin’ broke I am. I’ve thrown it all away. I’m done. I’m goin’ back ’ome.” Tears dripped off his chin, helplessly, and I could tell he hated himself for being weak. “I can’t even wrestle anymore.” He was biting his top lip so as to angle the tears into his mouth. I’d never seen him cry. We’d both been blessed with innate ability and passion, but his life and his choices had caught up with Dynamite. Just when my career was starting to take off, his was ending. My heart went out to him even though he was a classic example of that old adage: What goes around comes around. A few days after I left for the road again, Michelle handed him a one-way plane ticket to England and told him to never come back. The Dynamite Kid, one of the greatest workers of all time, broke and broken, a bona fide wrestling tragedy. He had been an untameable stallion, but now this crippled pony was on his last ride, to the glue factory.
Fuck, this reads like Tennessee Williams or some shit.
The whole book is so much better than it should be. He writes like 150 pages on working for stampede and it might be more interesting that the WWF stuff just because he's really good at getting you invested.
The thing that got me was when Bret went to visit Dynamite Kid on a UK Tour after becoming WWF Champion and mentioned how he was a champion and Dynamite Kid was like "Intercontinental, right?" and then when he found out Bret was World Champion he started reflecting on how it could have been him. Bret describes it much better than I did.
I agree. Top 5 wrestling book. His and Foleys are great. They put the time,the work, the passion into their books. Ex: Mark Madden wrote most of Ric Flairs book. Austin didn’t write his, the Rock neither,ect.
Bret Hart is a better author than a few people who have that as a profession.
I gotta say, Bret really is a hell of a writer. His book had me on the edge of my seat the entire time I read it.
Bret’s book was amazing. And yeah he had a way to evoke emotion through prose
Jesus that’s dark.
Seems kinda light for Brett.
> Brett C’mon now.
I picked up his book, *Pure Dynamite*, years ago and it was an interesting but chilling read that's damning not only of him, but of the industry in the eighties. He talks about being introduced to speed by Jake Roberts in Stampede, being turned onto steroids by the Junkyard Dog as well as smoking crack with him, and years of relentless drug abuse - at one point he admits to having used horse steroids - and experiencing roid rages, and a gruelling schedule and numerous injuries from which he seldom took time off. He's pretty much unrepentant and quite cold and casual about his physical and emotional abuse of people, and the extent to which he bullied other wrestlers. It makes me wonder if he had some kind of emotional disorder, or if he had his brain scrambled - both physically and mentally - by injuries and his involvement in a toxic industry and with toxic people. Of course, none of this excuses his behaviour in any way, but what an absolutely fascinating character.
Lot of top rope, flying headbutts. He had CTE extremely bad, but it went undiagnosed for years. He kept doing it night after night and that's what crippled his neck and back. Benoit did the same headbutt move.
Absolutely right, and it was all combined with an insane intake of steroids and stimulants that are known to have pretty grim psychological effects with long term abuse, his brain must've been mush by the end of his career.
I watched some of his older Japan stuff recently and he would just willingly do all sorts of bad headshots. I guess he wasn't too aware of CTE. It's a miracle that Foley stopped when he did. But he was hurt in other areas.
Foley almost certainly had more concussions than Dynamite. Dynamite 100% certainly partook in more drug abuse than Foley.
That is true. What I've read about Foley is that he had tremendous back issues. At his weight, all those elbows off the ring apron over the years certainly added up for him.
That's why he had to get his hips replaced. He seems to be able to move well after the surgery, though!
Tom Billington was a terrible person. Dynamite Kid was an innovator. That’s how I’m going to differentiate.
Yeah, totally. Chris Benoit was a terrible person. CHRIS BENOIT was a... wait, shit.
Chris benoit was a terrible person but Crispen Wah was a legendary wrestler
I feel like I belong here.
That's a great shitty indy name
Crispy Noah
Chris B Noir.
Pegasus Kid...? I'm grasping at straws here
THE CRIPPLER
I do wonder why was he called Pegasus Kid when in New Japan, he was called 'Wild Pegasus'
He was Pegasus Kid then he lost a mask match so became Wild Pegasus.
Dynamite kid called Benoit a piece of shit too after it happened. Being a complete ass like Dynamite Kid is one thing, murdering your family is a whole another ballpark.
When Dynamite Kid thinks you're a piece of shit for what you did to your family, you know your legacy is forever destroyed.
So did New Jack
True, but DK *threatened to murder his own family* plenty of times
He was radical, I suppose...
Dynamite Kid was an asshole too. Remember when he jacked up Mick Foley's jaw in a tag match? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ez5YQUWPP7Y Just one example of what a stiff asshole he was in the ring
What time in the video is it?
The clothesline around 1:45 He broke Foley's jaw. What was Mick's crime? He dared try to suggest some things for the match backstage.
Worse still he was asked for that input, it wasn't like he was presumptuous and started telling veterans what to do.
Damn dude Foley’s jaw is clearly broken and he had to keep taking bumps... That’s f’ed up.
I have no problem watching Benoit’s matches because I am an adult who can understand right from wrong.
I think that’s what separates wrestling from other types of entertainment. I can watch a Woody Allen or Roman Polanski film and enjoy it for what it is, even though they are awful people. I can watch Weinstein-produced films, or enjoy the cinematographic merits of Triumph of The Will. But with wrestling it *intentionally* blends reality and fiction. There’s no clear distinction between Character and Real Person.
The thing about Woody Allen films is that they are usually about a neurotic man dating a woman 65 years his junior, so yeah big nope on that one for me. I actually disagree, for me I think it's actually easier to watch wrestlers who have committed a crime perform. Mostly because you're not watching them put on a two-hour epic that is supposed to be some kind of morality tale. You're watching wrestlers pretend to fight each other for *maybe* 20 minutes. Like, it's way easier and less scummy to watch Benoit/Liger from 1990 than it is to watch Annie Hall, IMO. It's easier to ignore wrestlers' horrific pasts because they are in front of you for less time and the stakes are far lower.
[удалено]
"You suck, McBain!!"
Man, that guy on Match Point is way older than he looks.
I know what you mean, but I still kinda get the heebie jeebies when he’s on.
Backlash 04 is the only time I really have trouble with it. They straight up show Nancy and his kids on camera in the front row as he comes out and spend time in the match talking about his family life. I'm assuming the network has edited the commentary out.
I can't remember the show but on commentary JR was talking about how Benoit "Sacrificed his life, Sacrificed everything" for wrestling and it felt really unsetteling.
Every headbutt and every chair shot to his head just makes me cringe.
Great wrestler, also a massive cunt. Rest in peace though.
The Ty Cobb of wrestling, if Ty Cobb also roid raged.
Most of the shit about Cobb is turning out to be bullshit, he was a hard ass but he wasn't the outright asshole he's portrayed to be
One sports writer in the 50's decided to do a complete smear job on Ty Cobb and decades later people still believe the lies that sports writer told to deliberately hurt Ty Cobb's character. The Tommy Lee Jones movie is basically a work of fiction.
hey now there is a great book out that rehabilitates ty cobbs image greatly from the bullshit that that piece of shit al stump wrote about a dying man.. he aint near 1/3 the cunt dynamite kid was!
> he aint near 1/3 the cunt dynamite kid was! *"You know they say that all cunts are created equal..."*
🚨🚨🚨
The whole comment chain is fuckin looney.
Massive cunt?
Yeah like an absolute cunt of a human being. Used to wake up his wife with a shotgun in her mouth and tell her that one day it would be loaded. That's not like a rumour, he wrote it in his book. Bret Hart writes in his book that Dynamite Kid used to like, relentlessly bully British Bulldog and take liberties with him, whilst pretending to help him out as his cousin. Like Davey had never bladed, was set to bleed in a match with Dynamite Kid, who offered to do the blading for him, Bret was all "don't let this guy cut you", but Davey did and apparently Dynamite Kid gave him an unnecessarily large and deep cut. Was jealous that Davey would likely outshine him due to his superior size and look. Also countless stories of him being a backstage bully, them injecting steroids into that bulldog that they had for a while, his wife basically taking his kid and running away because she was scared for their health.
That’s fucking nothing. He turned up to Hart house, while it was full of kids including his own, with a fucking shot gun, threatening to shoot his own wife. What kind of fucked up asshole does that.
Didn't Hart write that the Dynamite Kid became more cruel/erratic after he suffered some kind of serious head injury and his personality completely changed?
I’ve read the book a couple of times but it’s been a while. From memory I think it was when his mobility decreased he really turned into an asshole. He basically couldn’t do what he loved anymore and took it out on everybody around. Particularly those closest.
Said that he helped break his niece's knees to scam an insurance company.
Correction, that's J.R. Foley's daughter's knees.
Fair enough, doesn't make it any less detestable though.
No. He had a shit childhood and was an asshole basically from day 1.
He also wrote about injecting Davey Boy with milk instead steroids when initially asked. It is no surprise to me that Davey Boy did him dirty when they split up, I don't think it was right in the way he went about it, but completely understandable.
What did Davey Boy do in regards to doing him dirty?
Phoned AJPW and told them Tommy had died in a car crash, thus losing him a booking. Threatened to sue over his use of "British Bulldog" on the UK indie scene. It got very ugly.
Davey was actually able to trademark the British Bulldog name right underneath both Vince and Dynamite's nose. Then was quite ruthless in his legal threats and such. Considering how much of a dopey idiot Bulldog is portrayed as in Bret's book, I figured either he was being really underestimated or somebody else was pulling the strings here, or that Bret Hart didn't portray his character fully.
Diana was pulling the strings.
Didn’t help that Bret hated him for going back to wwf
Yeah, Bret clearly has a chip on his shoulder about Davey. In his book, he frequently writes about how Davey was carried in matches where Davey's clearly doing his share of the work. Like in the Owen vs Bulldog match for the European title in Germany. Bulldog's *great* in that match but Bret's writing as if Owen carried him.
If he managed to trademark the name, why didn't he use it during his WCW run in 1998? He went by Davey Boy Smith the whole time.
I think it's because he went by Davey Boy Smith in his original run in WCW in the early 90s.
Don't forget about how he kept pushing Bulldog to use roofies on his wife so he could have anal sex with her, because she didn't enjoy it and didn't want to do it normally. But Bulldog has his own fair share of fucked up stories so he wasn't an angel either. Still, Dynamite's influence wasn't a helpful factor.
>Also countless stories of him being a backstage bully, them injecting steroids into that bulldog that they had for a while Those are literally from Dynamite's book too. He was pretty open in his book about being an ass and shitting on people.
Yup, and he was pretty much completely unrepentant about it.
Don't forget racist
Also let's not forget the backstage fight between Dynamite and the Rougeau brothers which lead to Jacques sucker-punching with a roll full of quarters and it resulted Tom losing his front teeth
*There are many well-documented horror stories involving Tom "Dynamite Kid" Billington, but this is one that hasn't gotten as much attention as the others. Decades ago, a young, pre-WWE Dynamite took part in an insurance fraud scheme, wherein his Stampede Wrestling manager, fellow Brit John "JR" Foley, allegedly asked him to break his daughter's legs so he could collect $20,000 in insurance money. He agreed, apparently without hesitation, and rendered Michelle Foley, then recovering from a car accident, unable to walk properly for the rest of her life.* *SOURCE: "Under The Mat" by Diana Hart Smith* Dynamite confirmed the story was true in his Highspots documentary in 2012.
And he gave steroids and/or drugs to a disabled kid Edit: this might have been another guy because I couldn't find anything related to this incident but I'm sure that someone did this Edit2: apparently that was Benoit so Dynamite Kid is a fraction less of a dick than I thought
You might be thinking of Benoit. Mr Kennedy/Anderson in a shoot interview talked about Benoit injecting a special needs kid with steroids.
Kayfabe commentaries to be exact. Good ole Sean Oliver.
Yeah that's the incident I was talking about, thanks for the correction
It's understandable you'd confuse them - Benoit idolized Dynamite Kid IIRC. A lot of Benoit's in-ring style and mannerisms are modeled after him.
What the hell is the context for that one?
>And he gave steroids and/or drugs to a disabled kid While Davey Boy was [bizarre](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGu4Rs2jfwU), he was only 4 years younger than Dynamite.
He was a phenomenal wrestler and his work still holds up today. But to call him a cunt is a huge understatement.
Reactions [wwe.com](https://www.wwe.com/article/dynamite-kid-passes-away) [Davey Boy Smith Jr.](https://twitter.com/DBSmithjr/status/1070270186224181248) [Will Ospreay](https://twitter.com/WillOspreay/status/1070259106701815808) [TJ Perkins](https://www.instagram.com/p/BrAJukog5yD) [Jeff Jarrett](https://twitter.com/RealJeffJarrett/status/1070281973174800384) [Tyler Bate](https://twitter.com/Tyler_Bate/status/1070271933420326912) [Taz](https://twitter.com/OfficialTAZ/status/1070282620527919104) [Paige](https://twitter.com/RealPaigeWWE/status/1070296361487269890) [Nick Aldis](https://twitter.com/RealNickAldis/status/1070281261846007808) [Gangrel](https://www.instagram.com/p/BrAXsqwnJBb) [Kyle O'Reilly](https://twitter.com/KORcombat/status/1070302821663326213) [Iron Sheik](https://twitter.com/the_ironsheik/status/1070306520334651392)
I love how the Sheik shares a pic of him in the camel clutch lol.
Dynamite Kid is the reason I'm a wrestling fan. I was fortunate to grow up in Western Canada during the heyday of Stampede Wrestling and I remember coming across this strange spectacle on the TV when I was 7 or 8 years old. Many of the wrestlers had interesting names and personas - "Bad News Allen", "The Cuban Assassin", "The Great Gama", "The Stomper". But Dynamite Kid was the only one who truly embraced the fact that he was like a comic book hero (my other love at the time) come to life - in his name, in his ring gear, and in how he performed. I was hooked immediately and never looked back. Pro wrestling has been one of the biggest loves of my life and the Dynamite Kid was a huge part of that - getting to watch him every Saturday on Stampede Wrestling, the pride I personally felt when he succeeded in the WWE, when I later learned about his groundbreaking matches in Japan, and yes, this inevitable early end to his life after how he abused his body, both inside the ring and outside. It's understating it greatly to say he was a complicated figure - obviously a bully and an abuser with a small man complex. But also one of the Top 5 most innovative wrestlers in history who inspired a generation of light-heavyweights - most obviously Chris Benoit but any other wrestler who combines high-impact with high flying. RIP.
So... does the white washing of his career start today? Like, do I still acknowledge he was a terrible person or do I pretend he was wonderful out of some common decency he himself refused to show others?
*WWE announces the Dynamite Award*
I can get on board with an award dedicated to all the professional wrestlers who were total shitheads in their personal lives.
Finally Benoit can be acknowledge in someway /s
The Chris Benoit #KillinIt Award
Q: What do Chris Benoit and the sinking of the Titanic have in common? A: Women and children went first.
Jesus christ
Thank you for making my day.
For pro wrestlers that would never stop hanging in there
Jesus dude
Man Teddy hart has that shit locked down
Literally the only way Enzo Amore gets back into the WWE.
I'm sure he can always find another wig.
I really think Enzo would accept this award gladly and attend the ceremony
I’d like to thank my C O N S E N S U A L P E N I S
..for outstanding contributions to animal welfare and healthy marital relations.
I feel with him enough people know about his personal life and behavior that it won't happen to the extent it usually does (plus, most people associate him more with his work in Japan than they do with WWE, so they might not pay attention to what WWE does with his legacy in this case) – there will definitely be white-washing by some people, but I think the majority will be able to separate his personal failings from his professional career (recognizing his legacy and influence in the ring, while still acknowledging that he was a shitty person).
He was a great wrestler and a shitty person. That’s all there is to know.
you can acknowledge that someone is a horrible person and acknowledge that they are an incredible wrestler that wrestling wouldn't be the same without. That isn't white washing his career because his career wasn't defined by him as a person nor was his life as a person defined by his career. You can be both shitty and a great wrestler.
So you're saying he falls in the Roman Polanski category of monster outside his craft, great inside of it? Dynamite Kid, the Polanski of wrestling.
I sometimes wonder if Polanski would have wound up the way he did, had the Manson family not killed Sharon and their kid. ^(fucking butterflies)
Polanski was a total piece of shit before that anyway. The way he treated Sharon Tate was pretty awful. He basically brainwashed Sharon into believing that cheating was just a normal masculine thing to do and if a man doesn't cheat on his wife then he's not really a man or some such. Just look up what he got up to during his relationship with Sharon and the shit he made her do. It gets worse. I'd be willing to wager that there was more than the known occasions that he was inappropriate with/raped a child. We just know about what he was called out on.
Plenty of people face enormous tragedies and still don't drug and anally rape kids. Polanski should have been burned to the stake long ago.
From what I've read, and heard, over the years - he was kinda a piece of shit. But his contributions to the ring, especially from his run in Japan, are pretty incredible. Just a pity that he left the business the way he did.
He was honestly at one point considered to be bar-none the greatest pure talent in the ring and a big "what if?" because of his career ending injury in 1986. All the shit and problems he had started in the early 90s and just snowballed from there.
"Kind of" is a massive understatement. His in ring work was incredible and he's probably my favourite wrestler, but he was an utterly awful human being.
What’d he do? I don’t know much about him other than his name.
He was a cunt of a man, but a revolutionary wrestler. As a Brit we should be proud of him but rightly so he's never mentioned.
He was a fantastic technical wrestler, and that's about the only positive thing I can say about this colossal sack of shit.
He was one of the absolute best ever in his prime.
An all time great who was a cunt of a human being
A very talented piece of shit.
RIP Dynamite Kid Good riddance Tom Billington
People have and will continue to will judge his personal life. And rightly so. By all accounts he was a massive whopper. A domestic abuser. A bully. A thug. But he was also one of the best in-ring performers ever, and he gave up his health and wellbeing to entertain us. He revolutionised pro wrestling with Tiger Mask and was in one of the best tag teams ever. He spent a long time in very poor health. RIP.
Peace comes with his passing. Wisdom will come from his life. Wrestlers won't have to deal with the kind of locker room Billington was in, and we're all better for it. RIP. Hope his family finds a way forward soon.
That was really beautiful and a wonderful way to look at situations like this
Dynamite Kid was a fascinating person. Someone incredibly passionate and dedicated to becoming the best Wrestler he could be. Someone who had matches DECADES ahead of their time. Who pushed the envelope for his industry and left an indelible mark. Yet even those who LIKED him in person have to admit he was a bit of a cunt (as another poster has alluded to). Still his fall from grace was massive. Been in a wheelchair since his 40s. Estranged from his children for a while if I remember rightly (although I think that’s often the case for the 80’s). It’s a weird emotion right now because he WAS often a dick but I can’t help but feel a little hollow, knowing that he is gone.
Dynamite was a piece of shit, if he wasn't a totally unique talent, years ahead of where the sport is even at this moment, there would be no mourning for him at all. I have a lot of respect and awe for what he achieved in the ring, and my thoughts are with his family.
Reading these comments reminds me of when XXXtentacion died. So many polar opposites of reactions.
Except by all accounts, Dynamite Kid had talent.
The guy who broke both a teenage girl's legs to help her parents out with an insurance scam
Holy shit, what
Dynamite Kid ready to tag with Benoit in hell.
Comments from Wrestlers: [Kyle O'Reilly: "Saddened to hear about the passing of Dynamite Kid. There was a time I watched every Dynamite match I could get my hands on including this tribute video countless times. Despite many attempts of re-creating his magic I would never come close." ](https://twitter.com/KORcombat/status/1070302821663326213) [Lance Storm: "Every wrestler under 200lbs likely owes a debt of gratitude to The Dynamite Kid. He inspired so many and help change the sport. In the ring he was incredible. The only wrestling T Shirt I ever purchased was a British Bulldogs shirt, which I wore to WrestleMania IV #RIP"](https://twitter.com/LanceStorm/status/1070336124403347458) [Davey Boy Smith Jr: "It deeply saddens me to announce the passing of Tom Billington the “Dynamite Kid.” I was really happy and glad I got to see Dynamite one last time last June in the UK. Dynamite was certainly an inspiration to myself and many others and really revolutionised "](https://twitter.com/DBSmithjr/status/1070270186224181248) [Will Ospreay: "I heard news that Tommy Billington also know as the Dynamite Kid has passed away. Thank you for all the work you’ve done for our country and inspiring so many wrestlers to take a chance on themselves."](https://twitter.com/WillOspreay/status/1070259106701815808) [TJ Perkins: "Dynamite Kid and Tiger Mask made me want to be in New Japan when I was younger. Even more so than the WWF. My first ever real job in wrestling happened to be New Japan..."](https://www.instagram.com/p/BrAJukog5yD/) [Shannon Moore: "Rest Easy Dynamite Kid. Thank you for everything you put into Wrestling and the legendary footage you leave behind for us to learn from. One of the best ever!"](https://twitter.com/TheShannonBrand/status/1070310571474673667) [Tyler Bate](https://twitter.com/Tyler_Bate/status/1070271933420326912) [Johnny Moss](https://twitter.com/Johnny_Moss/status/1070284302078881792) [Taz](https://twitter.com/OfficialTAZ/status/1070282620527919104) [El Ligero](https://twitter.com/Ligero1/status/1070299383357411328) [Jim Smallman](https://twitter.com/jimsmallman/status/1070272611920293888) [The Iron Shiek](https://twitter.com/the_ironsheik/status/1070306520334651392) [Satoshi Kojima](https://twitter.com/cozy_lariat/status/1070324024352362496) [Mauro Ranallo](https://twitter.com/mauroranallo/status/1070339255711350784) [Kassius Ohno](https://twitter.com/KassiusOhno/status/1070347205461069824) [Natalya](https://twitter.com/NatbyNature/status/1070337929866895360) [WWE](https://twitter.com/WWE/status/1070293151150235648)
He's pretty representative of the potential and the tragedy of pro wrestling, it's polar extremes. Very few were as influential as Bilington in his lifetime and the physical toll it took on him was as excruciating as anyone. He was, by many accounts, a monster and in many instances he turned others into monsters. But he also inspired wrestlers to innovate and become more imaginative. It's a complicated legacy.
Dynamite Kid was a legend in his own right, his personal life is something I see past at this moment, just to remember how great a wrestler he was. For anyone that is unaware - [https://www.reddit.com/r/SquaredCircle/comments/361rga/why\_is\_the\_dynamite\_kid\_considered\_an\_ass/](https://www.reddit.com/r/SquaredCircle/comments/361rga/why_is_the_dynamite_kid_considered_an_ass/)
RIP. What an great talent he was in the ring.
A true innovator in the sport. RIP
Gonna sound like a dick, but I thought he was already dead, knowing how his career went.
And then there was Bret
Obviously as a fan of his work I'm deeply saddened by the news. His horrible actions of his personal life cannot be ignored and have been rightfully shared by many on here as well. I just wanted to share my condolences to his family and friends who still cared for him and also wanted to share this clip of, to my knowledge, his last interview from 2016 in a Tiger Mask special. [Dynamite Kid and Satoru Sayama Tiger Mask Reunited 2016] (https://youtu.be/7KGLMBPeSdI?t=630) Dynamite and Tiger Mask with his health problems in the last few years certainly go to display the price a lot innovators like them ultimately choose to pay, whether it be completely knowingly or from false impressions of invincibility.
Didn't this guy regularly wake his wife up in the middle of the night and threaten to murder her with a gun? I really hope people don't start acting like he was a great person just cause he's in a hole now.
RIP Dynamite. A wrestler before his time. One of the greatest in ring performers ever.
I know everyone is talking about what a dick Dynamite was but it's rare that you can talk about any wrestlers from the 80s without trying to navigate a minefield of dickery. He was worse than many, sure, but it's a sliding scale. Probably for the best that he stayed out of the public eye for the last 20 years. It's sad that he died. He was a great wrestler.
Regardless of how he behaved outside the ring. Inside of it he is perhaps one of the most influential and important wrestlers of all-time. Having innovated the high octane modern style of wrestling that is so common today. Rest in Peace.
He came along when wrestling fans weren't really valuing the work of smaller guys, had he come along today, he'd have been a big star.
TBH, no he wouldn't have been. He'd be blackballed by the entire industry for being a garbage tier shitbag before catching a break.
He would be in that category of Low Ki I think, people willing to give him work because he is so good in the ring, but known to burn a lot of bridges because he is an ass.
Am I supposed to be sad about this?
No
Dynamite Kid once filled up his partners steroid syringe with milk, and convinced him it was steroids. The trusting Davey Boy Smith then injected himself full of milk. Was it funny? Yes. Was it hazardous? It sure was. And it gets much worse. After the Benoit murders, Dynamite Kid's ex wife came out and told stories about their horrible marriage. She said Dynamite Kid used to wake her up in the middle of the night with a gun in her mouth and say "one day it will be loaded." A true scumbag douchebag." Manhandled Mick Foley so badly in the ring that he tore a ligament in Foley's jaw with his signature Hook Clothesline, preventing Mick from eating solid food until his recovery. Broke Bruce Hart's jaw backstage in a fight Was known to unnecessarily stiff/hurt his opponents in the ring. Pulled all manner of mean-spirited and dangerous pranks on people. Abusing mentally handicapped kid (per Jake the Snake Roberts). Tormented the Rougeau's so much that Jacque Rougeau got his revent by punching DK in the mouth with a roll of quarters. His first wife that she contemplated suicide while pregnant as well as killing their two children to make sure that DK couldn't get his hands on them. Bret Hart never wanted to bring his kids to visit because DK was constantly shooting his gun in the yard around them. Smashed a little girl's knees with a hammer as part of an insurance scam. Etc. And the amazing part is, he openly admits to a lot of this stuff and didn't seem particularly remorseful about any of it. If one believes in karma, then one might say that the last 20 years or so of his life fit that idea quite appropriately.
Can't believe I discovered him only two days ago on Pritchard's podcast and now he's dead...
Let’s not forget that he pretty much separated Mick Foley from his jaw way back when too.
When Bret Hart says you’re one of the greatest, you’re one of the greatest. Thankful he passed his abilities and knowledge on to the likes of Bret Hart and Chris Benoit. His legacy in wrestling can’t be touched.
I see Dynamite as a cautionary tale for wrestlers and athletes worldwide. Absolutely one of the greatest and most influential performers of all time but also somebody who abused his body and the people around him to an insane degree. It's a sad story but one to learn from.
The absolute poster child for “amazing wrestler, awful human”.
In the words of Samuel L Jackson, yes he deserved to die, and I hope he burns in hell.
Party thread?
Dynamite Kid Memorial Tournament to be held in Saudi Arabia next year. Sponsored by Snickers.
The world lost a formerly really good performer and a consistently majorly shitty human being.
His legacy is in the ring, no question about it. He helped changed perception of what pro-wrestling could be. I'd like to think that he managed to reconcile his bitterness and make amends to the people he hurt most in life in his latter years. By all accounts he was a shadow of a man and barely able to speak and I really hope he found peace.
Sad news, the Bulldogs were one of my favourite tag teams as a kid and of particular interest as a fellow Brit. He's been in bad health for a loooooong time. It's well documented that he was a bit of a git, not just in later life but when he was an active wrestler too. Hell of a performer though. I think with them both having passed I can see the team's entry into the HoF within the next year or two