Dynamite Kid

[TPB]

Thomas "Tom" Billington (born 5 December 1958 in Golborne, Lancashire), best known by the ring name Dynamite Kid, is a retired English professional wrestler who competed in the World Wrestling Federation, Stampede Wrestling, All Japan Pro Wrestling and New Japan Pro Wrestling in the mid- to late-1980s.

Career
Academics were not a priority to Tom, but he was drawn to the sport program at his comprehensive school; his adherence to it, particularly wrestling and gymnastics, helped him develop a relatively small but powerful and agile shape. In addition, he had also received training in boxing during his formative years, which helped instill toughness in him before his career. His father, the brother of Davey Boy Smith's mother, was a miner and itinerant labourer who often took young Thomas to see wrestling matches in Wigan, then as now well-known for its wrestling tradition. His first shot in the pro ranks was working for Max Crabtree, as he debuted in 1975. During his early days, he won the British Lightweight title on April 23, 1977 and the Welterweight title on January 25, 1978. He was also instrumental in starting the career of then-Judo star Chris Adams while still competing in Britain. He was scouted by Stu Hart, and moved to Calgary, Alberta, Canada in 1978.

Dynamite made a big impact in his matches for Stampede Wrestling with the increasingly popular Bret Hart, and has claimed to have helped train Hart. Despite differences between them due to comments Dynamite Kid made about Stu Hart in his autobiography, Bret still regards him as "pound-for-pound, the greatest wrestler who ever lived". Dynamite Kid began taking steroids during a tour through Germany when Big Daddy Ritter introduced Billington to the anabolic steroid Dianabol. Billington was also introduced to speed during his stay in Canada by Jake Roberts.

After doing big business in Canada, Dynamite was booked on his first tour of Japan, working for International Pro Wrestling from July 19-25, 1979. Stu Hart and Stampede Wrestling switched their business relationship from IPW to New Japan Pro Wrestling shortly after Dynamite's first tour, and he wrestled for New Japan from January 4, 1980 to August 2, 1984. Perhaps the most memorable matches that came out of Dynamite's run in New Japan were from his now legendary feud against Tiger Mask; Tiger Mask's debut was against Dynamite, in which Tiger Mask shocked the wrestling world by gaining the victory over Dynamite. The two would compete against one another several more times in a feud that is often credited as putting Junior Heavyweight wrestling on the map, as well as setting the standard for future generations.

World Wrestling Federation
Dynamite Kid made his WWF television debut on August 29, 1984, where he and Bret Hart defeated Iron Mike Sharpe and Troy Alexander in a match eventually shown on September 15, 1984 on the Maple Leaf Garden broadcast. Billington would end up teaming with Davey Boy Smith as the British Bulldogs, while Bret would team with Jim Neidhart as The Hart Foundation, and it led to matches between the two teams that usually ended in No-Contests. On April 7, 1986, accompanied by Lou Albano and Ozzy Osbourne, they won the WWF Tag Team Titles from Greg Valentine and Brutus Beefcake at WrestleMania II. Dynamite Kid was injured in December 1986 in a tag match in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada against Don Muraco and Bob Orton, Jr. and several wrestlers including Roddy Piper, Junkyard Dog and Billy Jack Haynes would substitute for him when tag title defenses were made. While recovering in the hospital from back surgery, Billington would later recount that Bret Hart showed up and stated that Vince McMahon had sent him to get Dynamite's tag belt; Billington refused. Shortly after checking himself out of the hospital (against doctors' orders), Billington met with McMahon, who requested that the Bulldogs drop the tag titles to the team of Nikolai Volkoff and The Iron Sheik; Billington refused, saying that he would only drop the belts to The Hart Foundation.

McMahon acquiesced and at a TV taping on January 26, 1987, The British Bulldogs wrestled a match to drop the titles to The Hart Foundation; the match would air on the February 7 edition of WWF Superstars of Wrestling. The match itself was an odd sight, as Dynamite could barely walk due to back surgery, and thus needed to be carried to the ring piggyback by Davey Boy Smith; Dynamite was knocked out (in storyline terms) by Jimmy Hart's megaphone early in the match, therefore avoiding his having to wrestle in the match. From that point forward, the Bulldogs would not be a top-tier team anymore, and while they would not become straight jobbers, they would mostly wrestle to double disqualifications, double countouts, or time limit draws against the top teams in the WWF. After getting into a real life backstage fight with Jacques Rougeau, the Bulldogs wrestled their last WWF match at the 1988 Survivor Series.

Throughout his time in the WWF, Dynamite Kid made several enemies, including Brutus Beefcake (for being the only wrestler to refuse to sign an autograph for Billington's coach, Ted Betley) and Jacques Rougeau (who Dynamite sucker punched after being blamed for a prank he didn't do), but was highly respected by many for his toughness and legitimate shooting ability in and out of the ring. For example, after getting assaulted by Rougeau and taking 3 shots in the face(including one in the mouth that knocked out 4 of his teeth), Billington never went down; no less than Vince McMahon himself marveled at the fact that Billington took the shots and stayed on his feet. An example of his stiffness in the ring is when he and Smith wrestled the team of Les Thornton and a young Mick Foley. By Foley's account, Billington manhandled him so badly in the ring that he couldn't eat solid food for a time, and tore a ligament in Foley's jaw with his trademark Hook Clothesline. Outside of the ring, WWF-champion Randy Savage once specifically asked for him to watch his back when he went drinking in a hotel bar frequented by NWA wrestlers, including Ric Flair.

Post-WWF

After leaving the WWF, the Bulldogs returned to Stampede Wrestling to win the International Tag Team Titles. The Bulldogs also competed frequently in All-Japan Pro Wrestling where they were paid $20,000 each by Giant Baba, along with the liberty of choosing which tours they wanted to participate in. In 1990, Davey Boy Smith abruptly withdrew the Bulldogs from AJPW's annual Real World Tag League Tournament by returning to the WWF, and fabricating a story to the All-Japan office that Billington was in a serious car accident and was unable to compete.

Also around his later period with All-Japan, he was divorced from his first wife Michelle (the sister of Bret Hart's ex-wife Julie), with whom Billington had one son and two daughters. As a result, he moved from Canada back home to Wigan, England with his parents. Before embarking on another All-Japan tour, he visited Dan Spivey and stayed in his home in Florida for a week, while Spivey went on vacation. When Spivey came back, he and Billington took hits of LSD, which resulted in Billington coming close to death twice in one day, but he was revived with adrenaline shots by paramedics both times.

His final match took place on October 10, 1996 at a Michinoku Pro event called These Days. The match was promoted as a "Legends of High-Flying" 6-Man Tag featuring Dynamite paired with Dos Caras and Kuniaki Kobayashi against The Great Sasuke, Mil Máscaras, and his greatest rival, Tiger Mask. Dynamite's body was clearly degenerated to the point where he was practically skin and bones, as the bottom portion of his tights were very loose. In the end, Dynamite delivered his trademark tombstone piledriver on Great Sasuke, leading Dos Caras powerbombing Sasuke for the pin fall. While at the airport to return home on the next day, he had a second seizure (as the first one was in 1987, while traveling with the Ultimate Warrior) and was sent to the hospital immediately.

In 1997, after marrying his second wife Dot and ignoring the great deal of complications he was experiencing with walking, he was told by a specialist in a local hospital that he could no longer walk; the doctors couldn't do anything for him, as a result of complications from his back surgery from 1986 in Calgary. This left him wheelchair-bound and with a paralyzed left leg. Billington is cared for by his wife Dot.

Billington was backstage at the WWF's pay-per-view Rebellion in Sheffield, England and visited with WWF superstars such as Eddie Guerrero, Chris Benoit, and Mick Foley among others.

His autobiography, Pure Dynamite, was published on October 1, 1999 (and reissued as a paperback on August 15, 2001). The book remains a testament to his style: a no-nonsense approach in which he pulls few punches about drug use, cruel ribs, and even his opinions towards other people in the wrestling business. Billington has gone on record as saying that he regrets nothing from his career, and has stated in his autobiography that he would do everything the same way all over again. Recently, he appeared in the 2007 CNN documentary, Death Grip Inside Pro Wrestling. He discusses the effects professional wrestling had on his life.

Disability

Billington is disabled and confined to a wheelchair due to his years of drug abuse and the high-impact style of performance he engaged in. Harley Race, the inventor of the diving headbutt has stated that he regrets ever inventing the move, due to the fact it appears to cause spinal problems, and may have contributed to Billington's disability.

Dynamite Kid's Youtube Index

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