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RIP to Tom 'Dynamite Kid' Billington


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I think everyone has a negative opinion on the type of human he was, but in death lets remember him as a superstar way ahead of his time who broke his body to entertain.

His WoS matches with Rollerball Mark Rocco still hold up to this day.

 

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I have nothing good to say about Dynamite as a person and little good to say about him as a wrestler. But I know a lot of you feel otherwise, so I'll post a match that was only unearthed earlier this year from 80s NJPW handhelds that someone got off of Japanese ebay and that most of you probably haven't seen.

Enjoy.

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As a human being, fuck'em. As a wrestler, eh...positives and negatives on the business future that's for sure. For anyone who actually cared about the man, best wishes to them.

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1 hour ago, LoneWolf&Subs said:

A huge piece of shit(lot of that stuff was in the sleaze thread), 

For some reason, whenever talk of pro wrestling comes up here at work, people always ask me am I a contributor to DVDVR and I just shrug my shoulders.

In the distance, I can hear Dean say, "Before the rooster crows, you will deny me three times."

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This is me going way too school teacher on everyone but feel like saying it.  Sorry in advance.

I read Pure Dynamite and everyone else should even though it makes you feel pretty shitty a lot of the time.  Good wrestling stories too but that's not what I pulled out of it.

It kind of shows how just being miserable as a personality trait just fucking destroys you.  We all get kind of shitty sometimes but you gotta get yourself out of it before it defines you.

Almost every post here is about how shitty a person Tom was.  Don't let that be all everyone says about you.  Get help, do what you gotta do, but don't remain miserable and shut out everyone who cares.

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10 minutes ago, Tromatagon said:

This is me going way too school teacher on everyone but feel like saying it.  Sorry in advance.

I read Pure Dynamite and everyone else should even though it makes you feel pretty shitty a lot of the time.  Good wrestling stories too but that's not what I pulled out of it.

It kind of shows how just being miserable as a personality trait just fucking destroys you.  We all get kind of shitty sometimes but you gotta get yourself out of it before it defines you.

Almost every post here is about how shitty a person Tom was.  Don't let that be all everyone says about you.  Get help, do what you gotta do, but don't remain miserable and shut out everyone who cares.

Solamen miseris socios habuisse doloris.

- Mephistopheles, Faustus Act 2; Scene 1.

The problem with being miserable is that you want others to be as miserable as you are.  It would not be so bad if you were just miserable on your own and kept the life breakage to the bare minimum.

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When I got into tape trading in the late 90's, one of the first tapes I got was a Best of Dynamite Kid comp, as my only exposure had been his WWF work prior to that. I think I read Pure Dynamite in about two days. It still might be my favorite wrestling book, although the Pillman book is almost neck and neck with it. Needless to say, Dynamite was one of my favorites. He was a pioneer of the style I would grow to love, and a major influence on many of the wrestlers I still love today.

It's always disappointing when you learn someone whose artform you enjoyed turns out to be a shitty person. It doesn't matter if it's Dynamite, Pete Rose, OJ, Roman Polanski, or whomever. These stories about Kid being a shitbag person have been out there forever. It's to harder process and accept when it seemingly comes out of nowhere, like Benoit. This is one of those cases for me of admiring the work, not the man behind it. I'm not trying to change anyone's mind. We're all going to feel how we're going to feel, and that's ok. 

Rest in Peace, Dynamite Kid

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If Dynamite wasn't such an asshole, he wouldn't have achieved what he did. It drove him. It basically drove him and hundreds of guys who followed him off a cliff, but they were sure going fast in a bright red sports car along the way.

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I'm trying not to be too negative about Dynamite considering everybody's said it better than I can.  But while he influenced so many I can't help but wonder if it was truly worth it.  Could he have been a little safer?  Or was this his only option to stand out from other "smaller" guys in that era.  Either way while his stuff was really great I just can't appreciate it due to the toll it took on him.  And since he greatly influenced Benoit which led to what happened with him that makes it even worse.

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It's easy to look and back and say that Dynamite should've toned it down in the ring. But in most fields of sports and entertainment, being afraid to go too far often means you won't go far enough. I mean, let's be honest. How many people would pay to see a guy who's 5'8 do nothing but stomps and headlocks? It would seem that the only reliable means of getting over without taking significant risks in the ring are to possess freakish size/strength or a physique that's impossible to maintain year-round through natural means. And going either of those routes will most likely lead to your body turning on you eventually. Bottom line, if you want to make it in wrestling, you're going to have to pay the piper one way or another. Hiroshi Tanahashi said it best: people won't buy into wrestlers who want to have a long and healthy life.

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38 minutes ago, LoneWolf&Subs said:

Look on the bright side. He greatly influenced Davey Richards.

For all the jokes we've made about Davey I can't help but like him.  Say what you will about his wrestling/attitude but he hasn't come close to what Dynamite/Benoit have done.  And he retired instead of destroying his body further so good for him.

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44 minutes ago, NikoBaltimore said:

For all the jokes we've made about Davey I can't help but like him.  Say what you will about his wrestling/attitude but he hasn't come close to what Dynamite/Benoit have done.  And he retired instead of destroying his body further so good for him.

Same here. Not only retired, but retired to go into a field trying to save others.

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Without wanting this to turn into a sleaze thread, what are the arguments against Dynamite Kid as a person? I know I've always been aware of his surly reputation, but I'm not sure I've ever known why he is disliked so much. Was it just cruel ribs like Fuji? Or was he a racist old shit?

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RIP. He wasn't a good guy, and in that he had a lot of company in the wrestling business. That does not absolve of it, and it is what it is. He was a pioneer, and he wrote one of the classics of wrestling books, and did it in an era when only a few came on the market. Hopefully his soul has found some peace. . . 

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