Dynamite Kid Inducted Into Hall O Fame

He was a man who came 20 years before anyone in the United States could properly appreciate him. His unique skills, agility, and fearlessness in the ring made him a legend in Japan and Canada, but few in the United States ever knew of this 5'8" man.

Though easily forgotten, no one can list the greatest workers of all-time without putting The Dynamite Kid at or near the top, but so many do.

Born Tom Billington, the Golborne native made his professional wrestling debut at the tender age of 17. Billington, the son of an amateur boxer, gravitated towards professional wrestling after meeting Ted Betley who was running a school near Tom's home.

After wrestling for a few years on the British independents Tom was scouted by Stu Hart to come work in Calgary for Stampede Wrestling. It was while working for Stampede Wrestling that Billington soon became known as one of the greatest performers of his generation.

Billington has been very candid in recent years about his experiences in Stampede Wrestling. Aside from competing in the European hard-style that made Stampede unique, Billington claimed that it was while working for Stu that he first used steroids. Billington came to Calgary in 1978 when he was just 20 years old and weighing no more than 160Lbs. Feeling that he needed to get bigger to work in such a prominent territory, Billington turned to steroids and a death-defying style of wrestling that would later cripple him in the future.

While working in Stampede, Billington had famous matches with Bret Hart and Bad News Allen. It was working in the Alberta territory that Billington would go on to inspire a generation of Canadian wrestlers. Stars such as Lance Storn, Edge, Chris Jericho, and Christian were all young adolecants while being inspired by the fast-paced and athletic style of Billington.

After making a name for himself in Stampede Wrestling, Billington would go on to tour Japan several times for New Japan Pro Wrestling. It was while performing on these tours that Billington would solidify his growing reputation as a top-tier performer. However it was his feud with Satoro Sayama, better known as the original Tiger Mask, that Billington would make waves. Billington and Sayama would have a series of matches over their respective careers that put Junior-Heavyweight wrestling on the map in Japan. Even after this series of matches in the early 1980s, it took 20 years later for smaller competitors to get a fair chance in the Untied States.

As Vince McMahon purchased small territories in the mid-1980s in his plan to have a national wrestling property, Stampede Wrestling would go on to be swallowed by the WWF. In exchange for purchasing the Calgary territory, Vince singed Stu's four best young stars; Bret Hart, Jim Neidhart, Davey Boy Smith, and The Dynamite Kid. Billington was quickly partnered with his cousin Davey Boy Smith to form the tag-team known as The British Bulldogs. The British Bulldogs would go on to feud with the other two Stampede Wrestling graduates known as The Hart Foundation. Having worked with each other before, the two teams went on to have a legendary feud that made tag-team wrestling in the WWF an important part of the promotion.

As Billington was having physical and athletic matches all over the world, the tole it was taking on his body was soon to be realized. Billington's back was deteriorating slowly from his years of high risk action, but this did not slow down his style one bit. At the time The British Bulldogs were the WWF Tag Team Champions when Billington was diagnosed with a broken back. Vince McMahon ordered the British Bulldogs to drop the titles to The Rougeau Brothers even though Billington was not capable of wrestling.

The title switch took place in sad fashion. As The British Bulldogs were making their way to the ring for their match The Rougeau Brothers attacked them from behind Billington was left on the entrance ramp as Davey Boy was brought into the ring for a quick squash and title switch. The dropping of the titles and exiting from WWF was especially bad for Billington as he legitimately didn't get along with Jacques Rougeau who had been bitter enemies for years.

Billington would wrestle sporadically in Japan over the next several years, but was limited in the kind of matches he was able to have because of his serious back injuries. Amazingly, Billington ignored most of his injuries until he could no longer. In 1997, Billington was told by doctors that he could no longer walk and would be bound to a wheelchair for the rest of his life.

In the years since his retirement, Billington has grown very distant from today's wrestling. Billington was a notoriously private man and continues to live in such solitude in England. Billington has been so distant from today's wrestling scene, he did not make a public statement after Davey Boy Smith passed away in 2002.

With the advent of the internet, fans of today are now able to go back and watch some of Billinton's most famous matches. Though Billington has not been fully forgotten, his legacy and effect he had on wrestling should never be taken in vain. Billington came 20 years too soon to be ever fully appreciated in the United Sates. His style inspired a generation of talent and popularized an entire weight division in Japan. To this day, many of today's top stars are considered "Junior Heavyweights", a path that Billington and Satoru Sayama blazed for generations to follow.

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