Showing posts with label Tom Billington. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Tom Billington. Show all posts

Saturday, May 16, 2015

Review: Pure Dynamite By The Dynamite Kid Tom Billington

Pure Dynamite: The Price You Pay For Wrestling Stardom
Tom "The Dynamite Kid" Billington with Allison Coleman
SW Publishing (Original) Winding Stair Press (Reprint), 1999
Hardcover, Paperback

The Dynamite Kid, born Tom Billington, is best remembered as one half of the British Bulldogs. Paired with his cousin, Davey Boy Smith, the Bulldogs were the pre-eminent tag team team during the early part of the WWF Hulkamania era. Whereas many of their contemporaries were big men who worked formulaic matches with limited moves sets, the British Bulldogs were a smaller team (by mid 80s WWF standards) that combined an array of unique tag team spots with cutting edge individual repertoires that gained them praise from critics and fans alike. Despite the fact that their main stream North American run last slightly over three years, the pair are widely regarded as one of the best teams of all time. In the early 90s the team parted ways.  While Smith went on to singles success in the WWF, The Dynamite Kid vanished from the North American scene. For a number of years, to the casual fan he was little more than a seldom mentioned footnote.