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Dynamite Kid

Thomas Billington (born 5 December 1958 in Golborne, Lancashire) 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. Billington was perhaps best known for being one-half (along with his cousin Davey Boy Smith) of the tag team British Bulldogs, as well as for his innovative feuds with Tiger Mask and Bret "The Hitman" Hart. Billington is regarded by many of his peers as one of the greatest pure wrestlers ever.

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. It was during a home visit that the younger Billington met and caught the attention of Ted Betley, who had been running a pro-wrestling school in his home; it was here that Billington began his training, as a way of avoiding the back breaking work of the coal mines. 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. Both the NWA and WWF Junior Heavyweight titles were vacated after Tiger Mask was injured by Dynamite Kid in a tag match on April 1, 1983. Dynamite and Kuniaki Kobayashi competed for the vacant titles, but no winner was decided. On April 21, 1983, Dynamite and Tiger Mask met for the vacant WWF Junior Heavyweight Championship, but no winner was decided after the match ended up as a draw three consecutive times.

On February 7, 1984, Billington captured the WWF Junior Heavyweight Championship by winning a tournament in New Japan Pro Wrestling; although it was a WWF Title, it was primarily defended in Japan. He defeated Davey Boy Smith earlier in the tournament, and would go on to defeat The Cobra in the finals.

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 late 1986 in a tag match in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada against Don Muraco and Bob Orton, Jr. and several wrestlers including Roddy Piper would substitute for him when tag title defences were made. On a TV taping on January 26, 1987, Dynamite wrestled a match to drop the titles to The Hart Foundation. 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 and Jacques Rougeau, but was highly respected by many for his legitimate shooting ability in and out of the ring. An example of his stiffness in the ring is when he and Smith wrestled a jobber tag team with one half consisting of 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.

After 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 Shohei 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. Since Davey Boy Smith had trademarked the term "British Bulldog" during the Bulldogs' previous run in WWF, he decided to return to the WWF as British Bulldog, and would send people to the United Kingdom to warn the promoter every time a flyer was distributed promoting Dynamite Kid as a "British Bulldog".

Johnny Smith would end up replacing Davey Boy Smith's spot in the Real World Tag League tournament, and the duo (known as the British Bruisers) continued to compete in All-Japan Pro Wrestling. The duo managed to capture the AJPW All-Asia Tag Team Championships, but the partnership was short lived; the years of steroid abuse (including an incident in which he used horse steroids), working a high impact style, and cocaine usage caught up with Billington as he suddenly announced his retirement on December 6, 1991, immediately after the Bruisers defeated Johnny Ace and Sunny Beach at Nippon Budokan in Tokyo. He returned to Japan as a special guest with Lord James Blears on February 28, 1993 and claimed that he was going to send his 17 year old little brother to All Japan's Dojo, but it wasn't realized. He returned again for a tag team match with Johnny Smith on July 28, 1993 and was planning to promote an All-Japan show in his country in 1994, but it wasn't realized either.

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 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.

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.

Legacy

Billington's English training, combined with an aerial arsenal honed during numerous tours in Japan, influenced a generation of current wrestling stars, especially those normally associated with Stu Hart's "Dungeon." His style influenced many wrestlers that followed, most notably late World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) wrestler, Chris Benoit, who idolized Billington growing up and adopted a similar moveset that included the swandive headbutt and the Snap suplex. TNA wrestler Jay Lethal often uses Dynamite's swandive headbutt, which Mike Tenay refers to as the "Diving Dynamite Headbutt", in tribute to him.

Disability

Billington is disabled and confined to a wheelchair due to problems with his spine. 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.