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RIP Dynamite Kid: A Complicated Legacy

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Dynamite Kid

The passing of Dynamite Kid hits many wrestling fans hard. As a fan of all things old school, Steve Cook gives you his thoughts on the impact made by Tom Billington.




Having started watching professional wrestling in 1990, I barely missed seeing Dynamite Kid as an active performer on the biggest stages of the artform. Like many of you, I’ve seen the compilation tapes & DVDs of many of his Japan matches. I’ve watched whatever British Bulldogs matches I could find on WWE DVDs & the WWE Network. What he did as part of a tag team with Davey Boy Smith, and as a singles competitor against the likes of Tiger Mask & Bret Hart, stands the test of time from where I sit. As much as some like to say that wrestlers have never been more athletic & the workrate has never been better, I believe that Dynamite Kid in his prime would stand out even among this pack.

His book is part of my wrestling library. Unfortunately he doesn’t come off like a particularly good person in his own book. There are plenty of online legends that back up the idea that Dynamite Kid was a bit of a jerk. His later years held a lot of physical suffering, and there weren’t too many among his peers that felt sorry for him.

The only wrestler I could think of that spoke highly of the Dynamite Kid before he passed was Mick Foley, and the Hardcore Legend was too busy trying to get over with WWE-contracted women on Twitter to note Dynamite’s passing. I mean, that is Vintage Foley, but it means something. Some random wrestling folks did offer their condolences, but it’s not like they were putting Dynamite over beforehand.

The Dynamite Kid has a complicated legacy. I feel his death makes it more likely that he & his longtime tag team partner will get into the WWE Hall of Fame. There’s a pretty good chance we’ll see it at the 2019 ceremony. It’s well-deserved, and there’s little chance we would have seen it before Dynamite’s passing.

There are some complicated aspects to the legacy of the Dynamite Kid. As much as some of us Internet fans may have loved his work & consider him one of the all-time GOATs, those who lived through experiences with him may feel otherwise.



The Ribbing

Two of the most famous jokesters in wrestling history are part of the same family through marriage. Owen Hart is fondly remembered by all of his peers as a ribber of the highest order. He & Davey Boy often teamed up to pull jokes on other wrestlers during their time together, and they were typically of the fun nature. Nobody got mad at them. If they did, it didn’t last long because Owen & Davey were lovable scamps.

Dynamite was also prone to pulling pranks on his fellow wrestlers. Davey would join in, as it was always his nature. But people reacted differently to the Bulldogs’ pranks than those that Davey would pull with Owen in the 90s. The Bulldogs’ jokes were more mean-spirited. They were cruel. Some of them weren’t even jokes. Dynamite was so hard on Jacques Rougeau that some kind of retribution was in order, and it turned out that Jacques had some friends in high places in certain parts of Canada, so Dynamite was kinda screwed once he went too far. Jacques probably shouldn’t have knocked some of Dynamite’s teeth out, but the Kid had pushed him to a breaking point.

There was also an incident with Honky Tonk Man that Dynamite tells in his book that I thought might have been a misunderstanding. Dynamite got mad at HTM due to something he heard from Randy Savage where Honky was waving his check around in a car & saying “I bet the King wishes he had this.” See, Harley Race was the King in the WWF at the time, but I always wondered if Honky was actually talking about his cousin, Jerry “The King” Lawler. Would have made more sense for Honky to be poking fun at Lawler than Race. Especially in front of Randy Savage, who was in the car & decided to relate the tale to Dynamite. Maybe Honky was talking about Harley, but his open disdain for Lawler at the time I read the book for the first time always made me wonder.



His Biggest Fan

One of the things that hurts Dynamite’s legacy is the fact of who his biggest fan happened to be. There was one man in particular that took Dynamite’s career to heart. Dynamite Kid inspired this man to be a professional wrestler. He even looked like the Kid to a degree. His snap suplexes were right on par with Dynamite’s, as were his diving headbutts. He never figured out how to cut that money promo, but neither did Dynamite.

Chris Benoit was Dynamite Kid Version 2.0. There’s no denying that. He idolized Dynamite & worked his ass off to do what his idol did…but even better. Dynamite was stuck in a tag team in the WWF, but Benoit had no such shackles. He could be a singles star, and could rise to the point where the company had no choice but to push him on top for a period of time. Benoit’s success in WWE was proof that the Dynamite Kid was way ahead of his time. If Prime Dynamite was in the 2000s WWE, there’s no doubt in my mind that he would have held the WWE or World Heavyweight Championship. It absolutely would have happened.

The ending to Benoit’s career & life leaves an irreparable mark on his legacy. As great as his matches may have been, as much as some of us enjoyed watching his career for many years, there’s always the fact that he murdered his family & killed himself. We can speculate as to why, but the most likely answer is due to the irreparable brain damage he inflicted on himself during his wrestling career. Due to his desire to be like the Dynamite Kid. One wonders how much Benoit’s case weighed on Dynamite in the years afterward.



There were more successful cases

There was one wrestler that came after Benoit that idolized both the Rabid Wolverine & the Dynamite Kid. I saw him come to the forefront in Ring of Honor, and he was one of those guys that inspired diverse reactions. Some people loved his work, and some people thought it was too much. I just hoped he came out of it alive.

I’d heard the rumblings that Davey Richards wanted to be an EMT for years. He ended up in the wrestling business because he grew up on it, but being an EMT was always the endgame for him. He had an interesting career in wrestling where he managed to rub a lot of people the wrong way, but he seems to have ended up where he wanted to.

As you’ve likely noticed, the average professional wrestler is shorter than they were thirty years ago. A lot of this is due to the fact that bigger athletes can make more money at things like football & basketball. Folks like Wahoo McDaniel & Ernie Ladd ended up in wrestling because they could make more money at that than football. That isn’t the case now. Somebody the size of Hulk Hogan is trying to become a football player now instead of a pro wrestler.

The people that are wrestlers now grew up watching comp tapes of people like the Dynamite Kid. They watch him doing things & think “If somebody his size can do that, so can I!” They don’t have the size to be in the NFL or any other sports league, but via wrestling training they can end up doing amazing things.



Dynamite Paved The Way

Without the Dynamite Kid going out there and having those amazing matches with Tiger Mask & forming that incredible tag team with Davey Boy Smith, I doubt that wrestling promoters would have taken notice of men that weren’t 6’5 & 300 pounds. It certainly would have taken a longer time. Somebody like Daniel Bryan might still be working as a referee because somebody his size never could have wrestled.

Was Dynamite Kid an asshole? Probably! But like other famous men that have passed away recently, you have to take the good with the bad. You can recognize that Dynamite Kid was a tremendous asshole and most of his peers hated him. You also have to respect the fact that a generation of junior heavyweights watched his matches & followed in his footsteps.

If you judge a wrestler based on how many people he inspired to join the profession, Dynamite Kid would be among the top guys that ever performed the craft.




What do you think?
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Opinion

TheChairshot.com PRESENTS: WWE Bash In Berlin Immediate Reactions

Join DJ and Tunney for their immediate reactions to WWE Bash in Berlin. For the latest, greatest and up to datest, ALWAYS #UseYourHead and visit THECHAIRSHOT.COM

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prowrestlingtees.com/TheChairshot – TONS of Great designs…MAKES A GREAT GIFT!

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Opinion

AJ’s Top 3 Favorite SummerSlams

AJ is back with his annual opinion article, and this time the SummerSlam buzz got him wondering about his personal Top 3.

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It’s been a while since I have done any form of writing and SummerSlam is this Saturday. Of all the SummerSlams I’ve seen over the years; which ones are my favorites? While it’s not a revolutionary idea, I figured everyone loves to debate favorites of well, anything. Don’t worry though because this isn’t just going to be pure recency bias. I’ve watched the majority of them so with the ones I put on the list, it hit me more in some way shape or form whether it was story, a really good match or it just felt like a solid event.

At least this proves WWE is trending in a good direction for me, when it gets the ol’ brain juices flowing just because a show is around the corner!

#3: 2022 (Ol’ Brock Lesnar Has A Farm)

r/Wrasslin - when did Brock lesner begin his farmer and cowboy gimmick and when did he stop doing the gimmick ? is it worth watching I believe it was 2021 but not sure when he stopped the gimmick
Starting off the show, we get Bianca looking for a rematch against Becky from last years SummerSlam and it was better than the 21 second affair that everyone claims was a squash. This time Bianca holds her own and beats the Man in a fairly decent match, good way to get the event started. Next up is the heat seeking missile, Logan Paul against the former heat seeking missile because, well he wasn’t cut out for it and wasn’t a guy in everyone’s eyes, The Miz. After they had their blow off at Mania with Logan coming out on top which… isn’t awful, I just don’t like Logan Paul because he has that dude bro aura and swagger to make him more hateable than any other person on the card. Which I suppose is his gimmick…so…kudos?

First Championship match is for the US Championship and it’s as expected that in Theory, he should never beat someone to the caliber of Bobby Lashley which is no surprise. Dominik and Rey still back when Dom wanted the good fight against the Judgement Day before joining them later. The former Colts players, which they hammered it dahn in this match up showed that the canal swimming, trash talkin’, podcastin’, current RAW Color Commentatin’ goofball we all love, Pat McAfee came out on top again Bum Ass Corbin.

Usos putting the Street Profits on lockdown in the penitentiary since I believe this was peak Bloodline with the belt collecting and running all of WWE. Liv beat Ronda Rousey which isn’t astonishing but it’s not something people had on their bingo cards for anything with WWE so it was a nice little shock factor. The most memorable part of the night is obviously the Main Event, Lesnar brings the tractor, Roman catching the Microphone and Brock stands on top of the vehicle. Damn good match that showed off what they do in the ring since Roman caught his stride as the main bad guy and Brock… liked people after all of this? That is still a weird statement in my head. Brock being a good guy people person. If Liv wasn’t on bingo cards for wrestling, that is not on bingo cards in any aspect of life really.

That is more of the event that had solid matches and story going for it. No weird double count out, multiple people involved, 5 tag matches on the card. Things made sense and weren’t convoluted, had shocking moments that were great to see like Liv actually getting a title defense and there were the results we all expected at the time like Theory losing in 4 minutes to Bobby Lashley.

#2: 2009 (Are You Ready for The Return?)

10 Greatest Summerslam Entrances in WWE History - GameSpot
This event wasn’t that strong. It was strong with the star power involved in 2009 with guys like Rey Mysterio as Intercontinental Champion, Orton and Cena for the WWE Championship as it was becoming as stale as month old chips and CM Punk was facing Jeff Hardy before he ultimately returned to TNA at the beginning of 2010 after this PPV. For me, it’s not so much of the show itself, it was more of the memories because the Balai as our friends Chris Platt and Rey Cash like to call my brother and I, we were just coming back into wrestling and we were TNA Fans. We didn’t watch WWE that much really, it was just what came on after another channel had old ROH shows before they moved to three hours and swallowed the 8pm Eastern Slot. No, the reason why this has so many memories for me is three main reasons. First, Orton and Cena. They have had their rivalry since the beginning it seems, being each others foils like Hogan and Piper before them and there had to be a stipulation where if Randy was Counted Out or DQ’d, he’d lose the championship regardless. This was prime Viper Randy and the obvious joke we had of Super Cena where he very rarely lost, unless it was SummerSlam surprisingly enough.

Number two reason was CM Punk and Jeff Hardy. Hardys known for the Ladder and TLC matches in the past and this being the penultimate match for this feud and it was a banger of a match. If you didn’t know Punk before, it was a great introduction to his wrestling. I used to like Punk a lot because of this match because he could talk, wrestle… and not insanely personal with things in wrestling. In all seriousness, this was a great match. Ultimate risks, high reward for Punk grabbing the World Heavyweight Championship and he was given his next feud because of the final boss of SmackDown at that time. Thanks, Teddy Long.

The main and final reason though why this match gave me the memories flowing back is more of the fact that one of my closest and longest termed friends of 23 years, also loves wrestling. Back when we were younger, he’d do MoCap videos on YouTube with his figures. We’d have friends come over for parties at his house and we’d do the one thing WWE always told us not to do and that was try it at home. He was always stronger than me, I was always more charismatic. He had the power aspect and did things with brute force, I could talk my way out of trouble with parents if we did something wrong. There was always one thing that our respective mother’s always called us though… it’s on the tip of my tongue… oh right, ‘Degenerates’.

As soon as we were called that, we kind of parodied the DX line. I was limber enough to do the HBK pose and do a Superkick before it became the new DDT and he would just Spinebuster people and knew how to do the water spit. So what do you think was the main reason we even ordered this PPV for his 13th Birthday? I think the two guys we were pretending to be were set to return on a tank and toss out some glow sticks. The return of DX, Shawn Michaels coming back after Mania with Triple H to deal with the Legacy problem was an amazing return for them and made everything so much fun.

So we have the solid card and this one has a personal story… what’s my number one SummerSlam? Is it personal? Well yes but not going into that. Is it a good card? To me, it was a phenomenal card! Is it memorable? Seeing how wrestling fans still mention at least three matches to this day.

#1: 2005 (Octopus in the Washer, Lover’s Quarrel and Where the F%#$ is Vickie?)

Vickie Guerrero on Rey vs. Dominik Mysterio: 'I wish I was part of it' -  Cageside Seats
Quite possibly some of the best matches I’ve seen and one that was just the most hilarious moments of overselling in wrestling history, I know why I love this SummerSlam but it’s also a really good card at the same time. Redacted beats Orlando Jordan in 25 seconds for the US Title and they made jokes about it like, he can make a coffee faster than he beat Orlando and stuff like that, it’s pretty funny. Angle getting sick of Eugene’s antics for his Gold Medal was also a great bit they had play up, the Year long feud of Randy Orton and Undertaker was still going on where Orton comes out on top this time around to get the win back from Mania, Jericho returning for the match with Cena in a whole promotional thing for each other’s groups, Fozzy for Jericho and the Chain Gang doing Bad, Bad Man for Cena leading up to a match for the WWE Championship. JBL won a 20 man battle royal on SmackDown to win the Championship…… Opportunity to face the newest member of SmackDown, Batista but the three main matches that a lot of people talk about to this day; Edge vs Matt Hardy, Rey vs Eddie for Dominik and Hogan vs HBK in the Main Event.

I have reasons to enjoy the Hardy/Edge match but it looked like a real fight, it really made us believe that Matt Hardy was going to kill Edge because real names were dropped during this tirade from Hardy. It wasn’t Edge and Lita, it was Adam and Amy. Matt was so dead set on beating the hell out of Edge that they made a situation into gold and it was a great moment for this match to happen, I believe it was also an Unsanctioned Match too which added the intensity until matt got concussed and knocked senseless that it looked like he couldn’t fight for anything but the build up was what made it seem like a marque match. It made it feel real, it made it feel awesome and it made it feel personal.

Eddie kept tormenting Rey Mysterio about Dominik not being Rey’s but Eddie’s for the summer. That’s all you heard from Eddie being the weasel he was is hanging out with Dominik, making the world believe it’s his son and what not (Let’s not do a fast forward to today where he has the mullet, mustache and everything like Eddie) but they settle this in a Ladder Match where the top of it is a document for the custody of Dominik and my god, this match is better than it should have been. I expect nothing else from Eddie because the man hated having a bad match, Dom got involved and stopped Eddie, Vickie was late and stopped Eddie. The whole match was good it was just very weird with the premise but was a great match. I wonder if Rey regrets his decision to win the match now…

Octopus in a Washing Machine… those five words have resonated with Shawn Michaels’ performance in this match, forever. It was supposed to be an amazing match up between Hogan and Michaels, Icon vs Icon it said and suddenly Hogan’s back gives out, can’t do a trilogy of matches so we can only do the one and then pull out of everything after. This match was set up to be a classic and instead turned into the most unbelievable sell fest ever. A Hogan big boot caused Shawn to tumble 3 or 4 times, getting crotched on the ropes had HBK bouncing higher than he should have, being tossed out of the ring made it look like Shawn never broke his back in 1998 from how much he flopped and flipped around like crazy. It’s bad… or maybe even good that a lot of current wrestlers watched this match that went, “I can sell like that, I want to be a wrestler” and did. So good or bad, I don’t know but for some reason this PPV has always had a place in my heart for how memorable it was.

Those are my top three SummerSlams so far but who knows, 2024 has potential to maybe bump something or at least get me to consider a shift. Should be fun to see how the show plays out! What are some of your favorite SummerSlams?

About Chairshot Radio Network

Launched in 2017, the Chairshot Radio Network presents you with the best in sports, entertainment, and sports entertainment. Wrestling and wrestling crossover podcasts + the most interesting content + the most engaging hosts = the most entertaining podcasts you’ll find!

 MONDAY - Bandwagon Nerds (entertainment & popular culture)

TUESDAY - Musical Chairs (music) / Hockey Talk (NHL)

WEDNESDAY - The Greg DeMarco Show (wrestling) 

THURSDAY - Keeping the news ridiculous... The Oddity / Chairshot NFL (NFL)

FRIDAY - DWI Podcast (Drunk Wrestling Intellect)

SATURDAY - The Mindless Wrestling Podcast

SUNDAY - The Front and Center Sports Podcast 

CHAIRSHOT RADIO NETWORK PODCAST SPECIALS

Attitude Of Aggression Podcast & The Big Five Project (chronologically exploring WWE's PPV/PLE history)

TheChairshot.com PRESENTS...IMMEDIATE POST WWE PLE REACTIONS w/ DJ(Mindless), Tunney(DWI) & Friends

Patrick O'Dowd's 5X5

Classic POD is WAR


Chairshot Radio Network Your home for the hardest hitting podcasts... Sports, Entertainment and Sports Entertainment!

All Shows On Demand


Powered by RedCircle


Let us know what you think on social media @ChairshotMedia and always remember to use the hashtag #UseYourHead!
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