Dyanmite Kid bio falls short
By JOHN F. MOLINARO -- SLAM! Wrestling
During his wrestling career The Dyanmite Kid was renowned for his stiff
working style. A bit of a loner, his fellow wrestlers would often
complain of his jaded, abrasive demeanour. He had few friends in the
business and pulled no punches when dealing with people, be it other
wrestlers or promoters.
How appropriate then that his book, "Pure Dynamite: The Autobiography Of
Tom "Dynamite Kid' Billington", would be just as hard edged and broodish
as the man himself.
Billington paints a brutal portrait of the wrestling business in the
1980s, recounting with great detail stories of life on the road. From
his start in England, to his tenure in Stampede Wrestling, his time in
Japan and his career during the height of the WWF's popularity in the
80s, Billington provides a historically and chonologically accurate
record of his career.
Billington doesn't sugar-coat anything, openly talking about his abuse
of steroids and drugs. As a small, diminutive man in a big man's
business, Billington injected himself almost on a daily basis with
steroids to gain much needed bulk. Living in the fast lane, he talks
about spending money faster than he made it on drugs, alcohol and other
distractions necessary to cope with the rigors of travelling on the
road.
The book boasts several tales of hardships that Billington and his
fellow wrestlers had to endure. Treated like chattle by promoters,
Billington recalls countless stories of how promoters were always
cheating him and other wrestlers.
The reader is bombarded by Billington's frank and honest commentary,
allowing them to peer beyond the glitzy surface of the wrestling
business and to get a glimpse at its seedy, dark side.
Perhaps the most sobering story came in 1986 when he and Davey Boy Smith
were WWF Tag team champs. After suffering a career threatening injury
during a match in Hamilton's Copps Coliseum, Vince McMahon called him up
wanting him to work a TV taping in Florida so that they could get the
titles off them and onto the Hart Foundation.
Against his better judgement Billington flew down to Florida, swallowed
a handful of pain pills and worked the match. After the match, he was
handed an envelope with his payoff for the night. Dyanmite had risked his life to work the match and help out the company.
And for his efforts, he was paid a paltry $25. That was the standard
fee wrestlers got paid to work TV tapings. But Billington's effort was
anything but standard.
Aside from that harrowing tale, the book offers little more. He refuses
to challenge the reader by analzying his steroid and drug use, and
instead offers story after story of the jokes he pulled during his
career. Billington was a noted ribber and had a real panache for
pulling pranks on other wrestlers.
Billington writes with great verve over how he relished pulling cruel
and demeaning pranks on some underserving wrestler, as if to reaffirm
some morbid sense of manhood he had.
And speaking of which, Billington makes sure the reader knows how tough
he is to the point of nausea. He constantly reminds us he's the
toughest s.o.b in the business, how nobody ever dared crossing him up in
the ring and how he never lost a fight in the locker room or in a bar.
It gets tired and old real quick and makes it difficut for the reader to
sympathize with the hardships he had to endure.
The book also offers little insight into his personal life. He barely
touches on the strain the WWF's gruelling touring shedule had on the
ending of his first marriage. Away from his home and family in Calgary
almost all the time, Billington doesn't share his feelings about being
away from the people who loved him the most.
Equally curious is his questionable attempt at portarying his wrestling
in Japan as real. Writing about his matches for New Japan and All Japan
Pro Wrestling, Billington writes as if the matches were not
predetermined, giving the reader the illusion that he won his matches
because he was he was just tougher than his opponent. He inexplicably
blurs the lines between what what was a shoot and what was a work in
Japan, something he didn't do when writing about his stay in the WWF.
The book is also marred by his continuous jabs and shots and cousin and
tag partner Davey Boy Smith. Dynamite constanty reminds us that he was
the one that got Davey Boy into Japan and Calgary and takes credit for
his career. He considered him as a lap dog, always putting him in his
place. We get it Dyanmite, you made Davey Boy Smith into what he is
today. He had nothing at all to do with it!
Billington does clear up the mystery over the source of bad feelings
between the two. The bitter feelings stem from Davey Boy failing to
tell Billington he was going back to the WWF, days before the Bulldogs
were booked to work All Japan's annual World League Tag Team Tournament
in 1991. Billington called up Johnny Smith to fill his cousin's spot
and the two have been estranged ever since.
Billington also claims that Davey Boy ratted him out to his parents back
home in jolly ol' England about his steroid and drug abuse. As a
result, Billington goes to great lengths to slag his cousin every chance
he gets. Billngton seems to be trying to draw empahty from the reader
over how his cousin "screwed him over" but manages the exact opposite.
You end up feeling sorry for Billington as it's obvious he's a bitter
man.
Billington is one of the most influential wrestlers of all time.
Splitting his time between Calgary's Stampede promotion and New Japan
Pro Wrestling, Billington popularized a new style of pro wrestling,
providing a blueprint for the junior heavyweight style wrestling match.
He was the archetypal junior heavyweight wrestler, a true pioneer whose
influence can be seen directly in the work of such wrestlers as Owen
Hart, Jushin "Thunder" Liger, and most notably Chris Benoit. His series
of matches with the legendary Tiger Mask in Japan between 1981-83 were
the precursor to Rey Misterio Jr versus Psicosis and Eddie Guerrero versus Dean Malenko matches that thrilled audiences in the 1990s.
It's just a shame that his autobiography doesn't match up to his legacy
and legend.
