I see people who emulate him.
(indistinct commentary)
But in my mind, nobody did it better than Tommy.
The Dynamite Kid, baby.
He was the beginning of the modern style pro wrestler.
(grunts) Ah!
My mom told me all the time, "Your dad was the best."
on the top! Oh, my!
What I was most impressed with was how explosive he was.
Oh, my!
With extraordinary agility and technical mastery,
Dynamite Kid took the wrestling world by storm.
His need to be the best was fueled by an intense desire
to overcome his small stature...
by pushing his body to dangerous extremes.
When Tommy found himself in the land of giants,
the way to stand out was to make his style more realistic...
harder hitting...
than anybody else's.
You really got banged up, Dynamite.
What goes around comes around. It's a dog-eat-dog world.
There's things that you can do that are
going to destroy your body.
(cheering)
And he did. He destroyed his body, young.
And that's the willingness to sacrifice for the sake of
your art, which Tommy took to an extreme.
Debilitating injuries, steroid abuse,
and a dependency on painkillers made Dynamite
an increasing threat to himself and those around him.
I'm telling you...
he did a complete personality change.
Outside the ring,
there was a lot of questions about his character.
I think he probably had the worst case of little man
syndrome in the history of the world.
Everybody knew not to push his buttons because
you would feel his wrath.
We'll wrestle you.
We'll embarrass you, will humiliate you.
Agh!
He really punched me, and then he ended up
kicking me in the face. And, he was like a monster.
It was terrible things that he did to me.
But that was like a small chunk of it.
I can't imagine what it would have been like for her,
having a gun at your head.
Everybody else who did way worse,
they get their accolades and,
Tom doesn't.
I still have the ability to
watch his matches and enjoy them.
But, people still praise him publicly and it's like,
I can't do it.
He sacrificed his body and his family,
everything, for wrestling.
♪
The Dynamite Kid's impact...
Gigantic. I think he left an unbelievable
permanent mark on the business.
And, for the most part, a positive one -
on the business.
I'm Lance Storm,
a professional wrestler for 30 years.
28-year-old Lance Storm!
I think if you're a fan of wrestling today with
the faster pace, higher impact...
I think that's attributed to Dynamite.
The Dynamite Kid!
And, all of those guys in Stampede, you know, Bret Hart...
Bret Hart, there's your opponent for next week.
Oh, he... They're both over the top!
Stampede Wrestling and the Calgary Stampede,
those are the two things that Calgary's famous for.
My name's Michelle Billington.
I used to be married to The Dynamite Kid.
One day, when my sister Julie and I first came
to Calgary, Julie saw Bret and she was like,
"Who's that guy? Oh, my god."
And it was love at first sight,
for both of them.
♪
I'm Julie Hart.
I'm the former wife of Bret "The Hitman" Hart.
And, the sister of Michelle Billington.
I kind of took Michelle under my wing.
I've always been very protective of her,
her whole life.
Julie was more like a mother to me than my mother.
She was like my hero.
And, I started living with them and,
when I first saw Tom in the ring,
it was with Bret.
They were incredible matches,
and Tom was like a ping pong ball,
just flying around the ring.
Oh, survivor!
So, then when Tom wasn't wrestling,
he would stand behind me and talk to me,
and I would just, like, surreptitiously,
like, "Yeah, hey, how's it going? Good match."
And he's like, "Yeah, thank you, thank you."
♪
So, we went for a walk and it was so romantic.
Like, the... it was that big fluffy snow that was
coming down, and it was like a blanket of diamonds and...
I just thought he was so exotic 'cause he had
that English accent.
So, I had this big...
romantic idea of that suave, debonair Englishman.
I was 18 when he married me.
So, let's read this one.
"Michelle, I can tell you this little secret now
because we're married.
I think that you will believe me.
And the next thing on my mind is that
we will have some babies."
Bronwyne!
"But, only when you are ready.
I wish that is soon because when I'm on the road,
the babies can look after you.
All for now. I love you more than ever.
Your ever loving yard dog, Tom."
(sniffles)
♪
And he didn't hold Bronwyne until she could walk.
Like, he didn't actually pick her up 'cause
he was so scared to drop her or hurt her.
♪
My name is Bronwyne Billington.
I am the eldest daughter of Tom Billington,
The Dynamite Kid.
We had a wrestling ring in our backyard,
so he'd always be training his friends or,
just wrestling around with his buddies,
and we used to play in there as kids.
I remember being backstage at the wrestling shows.
Randy Savage and Miss Elizabeth.
They loved me for some reason.
I think I just wanted to hang out with them, really.
(laughs)
My dad was a really funny, goofy guy.
I'd just like to tell you about this woman.
She's mean, she's lean.
She's 205 pounds of fighting fury.
She's got 17-inch biceps, 95-inch legs.
And she's muscle, steel and sex appeal.
He had no teeth at one point.
He had like the retainer teeth,
and he'd pull them out and like do tricks on me,
so I thought he was magic.
If you look at any of the pictures with my father and I,
growing up, he was always holding my hand really tight,
as a little girl. I think that's a sign of like
how much he loved his daughter.
When I was younger, my mom would tell me,
"Oh, my god, you're so much like your dad," because
I learned how to do flips all by myself.
I thought he could fly.
Like, I've never really seen a wrestler that could do all that.
♪
My name's Amaris Billington,
and I am The Dynamite Kid's youngest daughter.
And, I'm just so proud of him for who he was in his career.
And he didn't care if someone said,
"You're too small." He's like,
(British accent) "Watch me."
By the 1980s, The Dynamite Kid is not only one of
Stampede Wrestling's top performers...
(cheering)
(Japanese commentary)
He's also catapulted himself to super stardom
on the other side of the globe.
And some of the greatest matches took place
in front of small crowds in Japan.
My name is Mick Foley.
I wrestled from 1985 through 2000 and
made several comebacks.
There was a series of moves that he did with Satoru Sayama,
the original Tiger Mask.
And, it looked like magic.
It wasn't what they did...
it was the speed with which they did it,
and the excellence of execution that was amazing.
I perused that on VHS tape the way that most young men
of my generation perused the Phoebe Cates topless scene
in Fast Times At Ridgemont High.
I rewound it and slow-motioned it
so often that it just, it broke.
Oh, wow!
The in-ring product that we see today
starts with him and Tiger Mask.
♪
My name's Dave Meltzer.
I'm the editor of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
I do podcasts at wrestlingobserver.com.
There is no Jushin Liger
without Tiger Mask and Dynamite Kid.
You know, that opens the door for Eddie Guerrero and
Chris Benoit, and Owen Hart, and all of these different guys
who came after and patterned themselves after him.
I think he always had a chip on his shoulder,
as far as size and, you know,
he wanted to be the best and,
at his size, you had to over perform because it was not
what wrestling turned into years later where
a guy his size was acceptable.
(indistinct commentary)
If you were looking for illusions,
Tommy was a bunch of things,
but a magician was not one of them.
If it looked good and it looked like it hurt,
it's probably because it did.
It was amazing to see.
But hindsight, when you think about it,
it's like, oh, yeah, he just had no regard for his body.
(Japanese commentary)
(cheering)
In 1984, the Dynamite Kid's fearlessness in the ring
pays off as he signs with the WWF,
joining cousin Davey Boy Smith,
brother-in-law, Bret Hart, and Jim "The Anvil" Niedhart.
In order to compete at the top,
Tom continues to push the limits of his body.
Tom's physical changes came
once he went to WWE.
You know, he'd been doing a lot of steroids at the time.
- The Dynamite Kid! - (cheering)
Physically, describe Tommy as one big muscle.
He was like Mighty Mouse.
This guy had striations in his butt.
Muscles just ripping out of his ass.
I mean, the guy was just nothing but a pure muscle.
My name is Dan Spivey.
I'm a friend of Dynamite Kid's.
- (match bell) - Danny Spivey, of course...
People will pay money to come see a bunch of
muscular guys beat on each other.
Oh, yeah, we talked about steroids and
did steroids, you know.
Pfft, everybody was taking them.
♪
My name's Gary Portz.
I came over to America and started wrestling, 1978.
And, I met Dynamite Kid.
Scott McGee!
Here he comes... Oh!
We got along - Danny, myself, and Dynamite -
every day was Christmas. Every day was like a party.
People would come to one room and give each other
shots and stuff, and...
throw the needles into the wall, like a dart board.
And leave 'em there.
Me and Danny, one time we walk up...
I looked at a wall and there must have been
10 needles stuck in the wall.
I mean, who does that?
Dumbass wrestlers, you know.
With his new muscular physique,
Dynamite's explosiveness in the ring makes him
a breakout star in the WWF.
By 1985, he and his tag team partner Davey Both Smith
are packing arenas around the country.
Here are the British Bulldogs!
Davey Boy Smith was his cousin.
You know, in many ways emulated him,
kind of same look.
People went crazy because they were...
(cheering)
Because they were great.
Davey Boy and Dynamite!
A much harder, faster style
than almost everybody else there.
We all wanted to be the Bulldogs.
They were gods of wrestling.
I remember Dynamite doing that fast suplex.
Snap suplex!
And he'd do like, boom, you were gone.
Boy, before you knew it.
My name is Jacques Rougeau.
For 41 years, I was a professional wrestler.
I was the Fabulous Rougeau Brothers
with my brother, Raymond.
- The Rougeau Brothers. - Fabulous Rougeau Brothers.
The Fabulous Rougeau Brothers.
I remember Dynamite Kid one night just walking in the
dressing room with a needle in his butt.
Needle's sticking, going like this and...
and he'd go, (shouting)
"I'm gonna have a good ing match tonight!"
And you know, he was like a beast.
And the... so, I was afraid of him.
(laughs)
I was afraid of those kind of guys.
Look out!
After years of self-sacrifice and physical strain,
Tom finally earns a championship victory with
Davey Boy at WrestleMania II.
Tag team champions! The British Bulldogs!
Now at the top of the pecking order,
Tom is hell-bent on putting up and coming wrestlers
through the same hard knocks he was once forced to endure.
♪
He was a product of the Snake Pit in Wigan.
Guys who really knew how to hurt you in a hurry.
And, I don't know for a fact,
but I'm assuming that Tommy had the crap beat out of him.
And, I think it created in him a resiliency and also
maybe a little bit of bitterness to people who
hadn't endured what he had to make it through.
And, I found that out firsthand.
From Bloomington, Indiana...
I showed up in Providence, Rhode Island,
with all of one match to my credit.
Jack Foley!
It's me and Les Thornton against The British Bulldogs.
(cheering)
I was excited. I'm in the ring with, you know,
one of my heroes, Tommy.
[commentary] Tremendous affection!
I came in and I got a very, very quick education.
Dynamite starts shaking the ropes
like he couldn't wait to get in.
And when he was tagged in, he sent me into the ropes,
and he didn't so much clothesline me as
he clubbed me with his bicep, in the jaw.
Oh, wow! Whoa.
And that was the last time I ate solid food for 3 weeks.
I didn't know it at the time,
but he had dislocated my jaw.
Almost lost my career because of that.
There were no hard feelings. I said,
"It was such an honour to be in there with you guys."
Shook their hands, ah...
went back to my hotel room and threw up in the toilet.
Tom's appetite for violence soon spreads beyond the ring
into the locker room, and eventually into his home life,
setting off a chain of events that shatters his career,
his marriage, and ultimately, his legacy.
♪
So, this is the matching cape and vest...
my dad wore in WWF...
in the British Bulldogs tag team.
It has his name on the inside.
Well, it says, "Kid".
And these were the original British Bulldogs
from when I was little.
I used to play Barbies with those.
Yeah, these would be our Ken dolls.
From England, The British Bulldogs!
I really loved the Bulldogs.
But, I saw a few things happen that...
Changed my opinion.
He was a ribber.
He loved giving people a hard time,
you know, jokingly.
What some people wouldn't think was jokingly.
Some of the stuff was pretty stiff that he did.
He used to love to Halcion people.
One time, he...
he Halcion'd my mother.
Putting a sleeping drug into their drinks.
There was a guy called Mitch... Snow.
It's our first look at Mitch Snow.
And the kid had a big mouth on him.
He'd just talk shit.
So, Tommy gave him the Halcion gimmick.
♪
Dynamite and Davey Boy went on the balcony
to get into his room.
♪
And they sh... crapped in his bag.
Shaved his eyebrows and shaved his head.
The kid went back to his home in South Carolina
somewhere because he was in fear of his life.
I think he almost had a nervous breakdown or something.
It's supposed to be a joke and
it's supposed to make people laugh.
Okay, it's funny now, but it's not funny
when you're 23 days on the road.
It's not funny when you lost your bags earlier that week.
It's not funny when you haven't seen your kid in 20 days.
It's not funny, it's not easy.
Well, he wasn't like that when I first started
going out with him.
Or, in our first 5 years in our marriage.
There was none of that sadistic behaviour.
It started happening after his back operation.
During a non-televised match in 1986,
Dynamite does a seemingly harmless drop down
with his opponent.
After years of being pushed past its limits,
Dynamite's body finally breaks down.
Tom is rushed to the hospital with a severe
back injury requiring immediate emergency surgery.
When they opened him up,
his 4th and 5th lumbar was just shredded.
And his, his discs were all tangled in his spinal cord.
Two discs.
He wasn't supposed to work anymore,
you know, after the surgery.
And I think he was back in the ring two weeks later.
Vince, you know, needed to take the titles off of him.
He could not wrestle.
Davey carried him to the ring - this is off camera...
the television audience never saw this.
I think he gets hit by the megaphone or something,
he got taken out right away.
Jimmy Hart on the other side of the ring,
just striking Dynamite Kid from behind!
Davey worked the match, got pinned,
they got the belts off of 'em.
- No, no, no! - 1, 2, 3!
- (cheering) - (match bell)
New tag team champions!
He got carried back to my car.
When he got to my house, he went back in the wheelchair.
And, stayed with me for a couple of days.
He'd sleep on the floor, not because I didn't have a bed,
but because that was the most comfortable place for him.
My wife used to hear him crying,
crying, in the middle of the night.
It was like a, a whimper.
♪
I can't imagine how much pain he was in.
Contrary to doctor's orders, Dynamite rushes a return to
the ring just months after the surgery.
Wrestling in constant agony, his temper begins to spiral
out of control, creating chaos at home.
Yeah.
I seen it.
♪
There was one night when he was taking me out
to show me a nice time.
I didn't want to drink alcohol,
so instead of saying, "I'm not drinking,"
because that would have been like a dis to Tom,
I ordered a tonic water and put lemon in it and
he'll think it's a vodka tonic.
He grabbed my drink and he drank it,
and he just spit it out, like as if it was poison.
He said, "What the... is this?"
And I was like, "It's tonic water."
And he was like, "Tonic water!
How come you're drinking tonic water!"
He just wouldn't let it go. Like, he was so mad.
And then, all the way home,
he was playing chicken on the road.
A car would be coming and he'd act like
he's gonna hit the car. And he'd,
"How could you ing lie to me?"
And I was like, "Sorry.
I just didn't want to like drink.
What's the big deal?"
When we got home, I'm just about to go to sleep and
he's like, "...ing get up!"
And I was like, "What, what?"
He's like, "Get up, get up!"
♪
Then he shoved me in a closet.
And he goes, "You ...ing stay in there,
you little yard dog."
I just, I slept on the floor in there.
And I was glad that he wasn't bugging me.
I was like, I'll sleep in the closet.
Anyway, I find out I'm pregnant with our son.
So, after Marek was born, he was,
you know, going to great lengths for what he did
in the closet incident.
And Marek was such a difficult child.
Like, he was just really high maintenance.
But Tom was so patient with him.
So, I think he really wanted to make up for that with Marek.
But, you know, that didn't last.
The Dynamite Kid's home and work life
have become increasingly volatile.
After being forced to surrender the championship,
Tom takes out his rage on another rising tag team
in the WWF.
Vince called the Bulldogs and the Rougeaus.
And he said, "Guys, I'd like to go ahead and have a great
match with you 4 guys and I'd like to have
a 20 minute Broadway."
- (match bell) - The time limit has expired.
This contest is ruled a draw.
It was a draw.
So, for me, that was a victory because,
you know, it's like putting us in the same league as them,
which we were not.
And, lord knows, after that match,
I was so happy and everything was good, and...
I never, I never thought
I'd encounter problems with the Bulldogs.
Oh, the Rougeau thing? I'm tired of it.
I don't want to hear about it anymore.
Like, is that the only thing that ever happened to him?
When the Rougeaus came to WWF,
they seemed to have this prestige right away.
Tom had the old school way.
You earn your right to have privilege.
[Jacques] I've always had an arrogance in me that
made me succeed in the business.
I never was a mean person, but I was a person
who talked a lot and joked a lot,
and not everybody liked to hear jokes, you know.
And that may not have helped my cause either.
♪
And I came in, I walked in the dressing room.
And Perfect was sitting completely at the other end
of the dressing room, against the wall.
As soon as I walked in, "Hey, Jacques, Jacques,
let's play cards!"
And he knew he got me because I'm a card player.
Next thing you know, it's like, pow!
And, I fell down. And then I got back up and
then he really punched me in the face.
Then he ended up kicking me in the face.
I was swollen up like the Elephant Man.
♪
Made him look bad in front of the guys,
to the point where he told Mr. McMahon...
...after the fact.
Like, he could no longer shave because
he couldn't look himself in the mirror.
I was in bad shape, mentally,
much more than physically.
I didn't want to do what was coming.
I just knew I had to.
Get revenge.
♪
In the days following Tom's brutal locker room assault,
Jacques Rougeau anxiously plans his retaliation.
I had lost 10 pounds during that week,
since Wednesday to Sunday,
because I couldn't eat anymore.
I was throwing up every time.
I think I had to fight.
I... I wasn't sleeping well.
I was afraid of what was coming.
Jacques was not a tough street fighter or anything.
He just felt that he needed to get his respect back.
And you know what my father said?
"Before going to the building tomorrow,
go to the bank.
And get yourself a roll of quarters."
Just hours before a television taping,
Jacques lies in wait for Dynamite's arrival
at the arena.
I saw that curtain open.
And I know Dynamite's coming.
For the first time in a week,
I looked at him in the eyes.
And I said, "Hey, how ya doing?"
He had a coffee in his hand and he went...
And I went...
Pow!
You know when you're young and you see those
monster movies, where the blood is throwing out,
like a river? It's true.
4 teeth came out.
And then I remember Dynamite Kid,
(muffled speaking) "I'm gonna... you!
I m gonna... you up!"
Then I said, "The next time I'm gonna put you
in a ...ing wheelchair!"
♪
Was it a roll of quarters? I don't think so.
I think it was a pair of brass knuckles.
I just didn't think what Tom had done
deserved getting his teeth knocked out.
His reputation had been damaged.
I mean, here you got the guy that's tougher than nails
get physically abused like that.
Tommy couldn't handle it. It bothered Tommy.
You know, he wanted to beat the shit out of him,
and then some, probably.
Tom's plan for revenge comes to a halt.
Well, there's Dino!
As Dino Bravo, a wrestler with alleged ties to
organized crime gives him a cautionary warning.
Tom bought a 9 mm handgun with a clip for me.
I was like, "I don't want that gun."
Like, I was so scared of it.
He goes, "Look, I don't want to ...in' scare you.
I talked to Dino Bravo," and he said he saw an envelope
with Tom's name, our address,
and inside of it had a picture of our house,
me and the kids, like, if there's any retaliation,
like, anything, your family's gonna be dead.
♪
We sold our house 'cause we were worried that the mafia,
they knew where we lived and everything.
Jacques got his respect back.
Dynamite never was allowed to get his respect back,
I suppose, you could say.
His life was never the same. He was never the same guy.
That is funny.
But there's something I gotta tell you guys.
I forgot about that. Now you're bringing it back.
♪
I didn't like Dino Bravo, but I knew he was a stooge.
I knew he was a stooge for the Bulldogs.
That whatever I said to him,
he was gonna bring it back to the Bulldogs.
I took a piece of paper and I wrote a name down.
I wrote a fictive name...
an invented name. And I told Dino, I said...
I said, "You see this name here?
I gotta call him every night."
And I said, "If I don't call him one night,
things will be taken care of."
And I'm glad to hear that it worked.
♪
Finding out about the mafia possibly coming to kill
his wife, that really made him not want to be
a part of that company anymore.
At the 1988 Survivor Series Pay Per View event,
Tom decides to end his career in the WWF.
I don't think Dynamite was ever happy in WWF.
He liked the respect he had in Japan,
so it was like, we can cut a deal in Japan,
we can get away from this thing.
(Japanese commentary)
Tommy was really hurting on that tour in Japan.
But, you would not have known it if you were a fan
because he was still giving 100%.
(cheering)
Yeah, he started to say his, his arm was "bothering him".
But later I found out his ligaments
weren't even on the bone.
He got his shoulder operated on.
It was terrible.
About a week later, he was upset with me
'cause my girlfriend came over and he was like,
"You're just ...ing talking to Sandra.
You don't even ing care about me."
And I was like, "Yes, I do, Tom."
He starts going...
He takes his supporting arm band thing off.
I was like, "Stop it!" And he's like...
I was like, "Stop it!"
All the shit we've been through and you're like
trying to set us back and wreck your arm?
I didn't understand, like, what the hell?
♪
With countless injuries from years of self-inflicted
abuse in the ring, Tom's best days
are now behind him.
Tom was slipping deeper and deeper,
I'd say, into pills and drinking.
This one night, he invited me to come and watch wrestling.
♪
It was hours watching him and Tiger Mask.
He said, "Watch this. Took a 'F' of a bump."
(cheering)
Just him and Tiger Mask, all night long.
(cheering)
That's my last memory of Tom,
being with him and watching...
the end of greatness.
(Japanese commentary & crowd chanting)
Well, after that, he hit quite a few other people.
You know, he...
they broke a few jaws.
♪
It was New Year's Eve.
It was about 10 o'clock, and Tom came in with his brother
and couple of friends that he went out with.
And he had this white sweatshirt on,
and it was just full of blood.
And his cheek is like cut, and it's just the flap,
it's just open. Like, you see his cheekbone.
And he's got his sunglasses on.
Like, Bronwyne's crying, "Daddy, daddy, what happened?"
I remember, I was scared.
I was like, "What happened to daddy?"
He's like, "I ...ing fell down, little girl.
Daddy's gonna be okay."
Bronwyne never saw this stuff,
but she was seeing it. And I was like, oh, my god.
I was feeling like such a failure,
like as a, as a mother.
And now I'm pregnant and I'm gonna bring
another child into this horrible life.
I just couldn't take it anymore.
And that's when I got, like, suicidal,
and I'm walking around going like,
I just can't live another...
fricking minute like this.
♪
And, I finally deiced that was it.
And I gave Tom a one-way ticket to England.
And I said, "Tom, I would like you to leave now.
Take whatever you need and just go."
And then, that's when the shit went down.
And my dad dragged my mom by the hair across the floor.
♪
He lost his mind. He was like,
he had me in some kind of hold on my jaw, my mouth.
He let me go and I was like...
(crack) I put my jaw back.
The kids were there.
They have never seen anything like this.
And they were crying.
I'm trying to act like, you know,
Daddy's having a moment. It's gonna be fine.
He's gonna leave.
He goes, "No, I think you should ...ing go."
And I was like, "I'm the one pregnant.
I'm the one with a toddler." Marek was still in diapers.
You know, all my stuff is here,
all their clothes are here."
Um...
And he went downstairs and he got a gun.
♪
And he said, "If you're not out in 15 ...ing minutes,
I'm gonna blow your in' head off."
♪
And I was like, "No, you're not."
He was like, "I ...ing am."
And my dad then put a shotgun up to my mom's head.
And I was holding my little brother,
screaming, "Daddy, no! Daddy, no!"
They're hysterical.
I'm not though 'cause I'm like calling his bluff and
I'm like, "No, you're not blowing my head off.
If you're not gonna leave, I'm calling the police."
So, I called the police and, I said,
"My husband's threatening to blow my head off and
I'm pregnant and I have children."
And she goes, "Well, honey,
if he said you could leave, just leave!"
Oh, god. I was like, not again.
Like, I didn't want to go to Bret and Julie's 'cause
I just didn't want to bring our bullshit over there, again.
But I did. I...
I packed up my little bags and I left.
She was terrified that
he was gonna come and,
who knows, do what...
to her or any of us, you know.
His headspace was not good. Not good at that time.
Michelle's harrowing experiences would stay
a family secret for years, until they were eventually
exposed to the world, forever altering the legacy
of the Dynamite Kid.
♪
In a final act of violence after holding his wife
at gun point, Tom leaves his family behind in Calgary and
returns to England.
He moved back to England in 1991.
My mom was about 8 months, 7 months pregnant with me.
I wanted a girl because I had the perfect name...
- I had the name Amaris. - (sneezes)
And it means, "Gift from God,"
and I believe Amaris saved my life.
I believe she saved all our lives.
That kid has been a blessing since the day she was born.
(cheering)
He just had his retirement match in Japan.
Now he'd wrote a letter to Michelle saying
that he was gonna come to Calgary.
I really believed that Tom would come and see his baby.
And thank god he didn't because
in the end, I think he did the...
you know, like, he man'd up and let us be.
I think he knew there was something wrong with him,
like... he wasn't the same person.
Like, this violence was out of control.
I don't think he had control of it anymore.
After he finished wrestling, he was fighting in garages.
You know, he was like a, like a dog.
Like a pit bull.
There was just cars parked in a circle with lights on.
And it was just bare knuck fights.
And he was doing those to survive.
I knew you were gonna ask me that.
And no, he didn't, because...
that was just Tommy, you know.
His personal stuff was...
he wouldn't let people in.
He didn't let me in because he didn't want to show me
any sign of weakness.
It's a macho thing, I know, but...
you know, you had to keep that reputation,
you know, not being a wimp, hm.
(Japanese commentary)
5 years after his retirement,
Tom returns to Japan for a comeback match.
The comeback match was real sad.
He looked like a shell of the Dynamite Kid.
I think all of us like kind of willingly suspend that
state of belief in order to believe in a,
a different reality, that we are who we're portrayed as being.
And that we are that tough,
and that we are immortal in some way.
One time he went to ambalate it
and he just hit the deck.
Went to hospital and he said,
"What about my ing legs?"
And, they told him he had too much scar tissue.
Too much scar tissue to operate. So...
♪
You know, guys came to see him and...
for the most part, he didn't want anyone to see him.
The greatest wrestler who changed the business and
everything like that, and this guy who at times
could be an absolute monster...
and then, the absolute tragic ending.
Way too young, you know, in your 40s in a wheelchair.
It's just a sad thing from
being this incredible athlete.
I just, I felt so sad for him.
Of course, I still loved him.
I mean, god, you don't get married and
have children and not still love him.
Just didn't love what was going on.
She always talked about him
like he was like a prince charming.
She never said anything negative about him.
It was always positive.
And then, the Chris Benoit documentary came out.
I think I was about 16 years old.
And, that was the first time my mom talked about
any kind of abuse in the relationship.
As part of a media frenzy spark by the 2007
Chris Benoit tragedies, a CNN expose airs with focus
on domestic violence perpetrated by wrestlers.
Michelle is interviewed, and for the first time ever,
details her stories of abuse at the hands of Tom Billington.
Michelle says at home the Kid was out of control.
At one time, dragging her by the hair,
holding a gun to her face.
He certainly wasn't the guy you fell in love with.
No.
The night before her interview,
Michelle reveals to her children the complicated
truths about their father.
I was just so mad. I was...
I was mad at my dad for hurting my mom
because she is like...
the best woman ever.
And I was mad at my mom because I felt like
she lied to me about who my dad was.
♪
So, when I found that there was actually abuse and a gun...
she was pregnant with me at that time.
That was...
the beginning of a very dark time in my life.
♪
Despite promising Michelle he would visit his family,
Tom would never return to Canada.
When I had my first child, I finally felt whole.
I thought that she was everything that
I was looking for.
And eventually, that started to change again and
I didn't feel whole again.
And, I knew that it was my dad that I was missing.
She was like, "Flight's booked. I'm going.
Are you coming with me?" And I said, "No."
I decided I was just gonna go see my dad,
without him knowing.
♪
15 years after Tom last saw his eldest daughter,
Bronwyne travels to England to pay him a surprise visit.
Walked into the living room, that's where my dad was
sitting in his wheelchair, and that was the first time
I'd ever seen him in a wheelchair.
And I immediately just broke down crying.
He acted like no time had passed and he said,
"Why are you crying?"
I said, "'Cause I haven't seen you in 15 years."
By the third day, it was just my dad and I,
and I'm sitting on the couch and my dad's in his wheelchair.
And I was just looking at him, like,
I want to be close to him.
So, I took a chair and moved it and just sat right next to him.
We held hands and we started crying,
and he said, "I'm sorry."
♪
And that was the only time
he'd ever apologized for anything.
I knew in that moment what it meant.
He didn't have to say anything else and
I just felt it.
And it was a really beautiful moment that
we shared and, I'm so happy that I went.
♪
At the end there I understand that, you know,
he was very sick.
Yeah, I just know it was bad.
Yeah.
I...
♪
I can't. What do you want me...
sit here and cry?
You know, he was a great friend and...
Somebody I cared about a lot.
And, I miss him.
♪
He loved his friends and he loved his kids.
And, I love the Dynamite Kid.
I knew it was coming,
but I didn't cry for like a week.
I was in shock.
I got a call from my mom.
I think I was consoling her more.
And then, right before we hung up, she said to me,
"Well, now you know that he's right beside you."
And I hung up the phone and I just started...
(sniffles & sighs)
'Cause that's all I ever wanted,
was for him to be beside me.
The week before, Danny had tried to talk with him.
And, Danny said, "I love ya."
And, Dynamite said, "Why?"
It, it...
you know, brought home a lot of memories, when he died,
of what an integral figure he was in the
history of wrestling that probably he'll never
get the full credit for because telling that story
is a, is a sad story, not a happy story.
♪
You don't have that happy ending story.
Let it go. Let my kids heal.
My kids can't heal with this kind of stuff.
You know, and if you do talk about the violence,
talk about CTE.
Talk about the signs of depression.
Don't knock him.
Like, he could 'a came back.
We could have perpetuated it.
But we ended it, we did the right thing.
And my kids did better without, you know, him around.
Even though it pissed me off that he said,
"I hope my children are so proud of my body of work,"
and I said, in my head, why, why don't you be a father?
They don't need a wrestler.
♪
But, now that I'm older, I understand that
that's what he wanted to give the kids.
You know, he's largely been forgotten by the hands of time,
but those who witnessed him in his prime,
they'll never forget it.
What is this?
Never seen this, both men on the top!
Oh, my god!
I remember Bruce Springsteen saying,
"Trust the art, not the artist."
And, Tommy had a canvas and he was brilliant.
- They love it! - (cheering)
The Dynamite Kid!
He's not the first, nor will he be the last
to suffer for the sake of his art.
And, there's a sense that a lot of people who are
great at something are not necessarily great at all
aspects of their life and they find solace
in doing what they do.
But they pay for that brief time.
You become a bigger star than you ever imagined,
and then you pay for it every day
for the rest of your life.
♪