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00:01I see people who emulate him, but in my mind nobody did it better than Tommy.
00:08He was the beginning of the modern style of pro wrestling.
00:13My mom told me all the time, your dad was the best.
00:17What I was most impressed with was how explosive he was.
00:23With extraordinary agility and technical mastery,
00:26the dynamite kid took the wrestling world by storm.
00:30His need to be the best was fueled by an intense desire to overcome his small stature
00:36by pushing his body to dangerous extremes.
00:39When Tommy found himself in the land of giants,
00:42the way to stand out was to make his style more realistic,
00:46harder hitting than anybody else's.
00:49You really got banged up, dynamite.
00:51What goes around comes around this doggy dog world.
00:52There's things that you can do that are going to destroy your body.
00:57And he did, he destroyed his body young.
00:59And that's the willingness to sacrifice for the sake of your art,
01:02which Tommy took to an extreme.
01:05Debilitating injuries, steroid abuse, and a dependency on painkillers
01:09made dynamite an increasing threat to himself and those around him.
01:14I'm telling you, he had a complete personality change.
01:18Outside the rain, there was a lot of questions about his character.
01:21I think he probably had the worst case of little man syndrome in the history of the world.
01:25Everybody knew not to push his buttons because you would feel his wrath.
01:30We'll outwrest you, we'll embarrass you, we'll humiliate you.
01:33He really punched me and then he ended up kicking me in the face and he was like a monster.
01:38There was terrible things that he did to me, but that was like a small chunk of it.
01:43And I can't imagine what it would have been like for her having it done at your head.
01:49Everybody else who did way worse, they get their accolades and Tom doesn't.
01:56I still have the ability to watch his matches and enjoy them, but people still praise him publicly and it's
02:02like I can't do it.
02:03He has sacrificed his body, his family, everything for wrestling.
02:17The Dynamite Kid's impact, gigantic.
02:20I think he left an unbelievable permanent mark on the business and for the most part a positive one on
02:26the business.
02:28I'm Lance Storm, a professional wrestler for 30 years.
02:3128-year-old Lance Storm.
02:34I think if you're a fan of wrestling today with the faster pace, higher impact, I think that's attributed to
02:41Dynamite.
02:42The Dynamite Kid!
02:44And all of those guys in Stampede, you know, Bret Hart.
02:47Bret Hart, there's your opponent for next week.
02:50Oh, they're both over the top!
02:52Stampede Wrestling and the Calgary Stampede, those are the two things that Calgary's famous for.
02:59My name's Michelle Billington.
03:01I used to be married to the Dynamite Kid.
03:04One day when my sister Julie and I first came to Calgary, Julie saw Bret and she was like,
03:10who's that guy?
03:11Oh my God.
03:12And it was love at first sight for both of them.
03:16I'm Julie Hart.
03:17I'm the former wife of Bret the Hitman Hart and the sister of Michelle Billington.
03:22I kind of took Michelle under my wing.
03:25I've always been very protective of her, her whole life.
03:30Julie was more like a mother to me than my mother.
03:33She was like my hero and I started living with them and when I first saw Tom in the ring,
03:39it was with Bret.
03:40They were incredible matches and Tom was like a ping pong ball just flying around the ring.
03:46Fall survivor!
03:47So then when Tom wasn't wrestling, he would stand behind me and talk to me and I would
03:51just like surreptitiously like, hey, how's it going?
03:55Good match.
03:56And he's like, yeah, thank you.
04:00So we went for a walk and it was so romantic.
04:02Like the, it was that big fluffy snow that was coming down and it was like a blanket of diamonds
04:08and I just thought he was so exotic because he had that English accent.
04:12So I had this big romantic idea of that suave debonair Englishman.
04:20I was 18 when he married me.
04:23So let's read this one.
04:26Michelle, I can tell you this little secret now because we're married.
04:29I think that you will believe me and the next thing on my mind is that we will have some
04:36babies.
04:37Growing.
04:39But only when you are ready.
04:42I wish that is soon because when I'm on the road, the babies can look after you all for
04:49now.
04:50I love you more than ever.
04:51Your ever loving yard dog, Tom.
04:56And he didn't hold Bronwyn until she could walk.
05:00Like he didn't actually pick her up because he was so scared to drop her or hurt her.
05:07My name is Bronwyn Billington.
05:09I'm the eldest daughter of Tom Billington, the dynamite kid.
05:12We had a wrestling ring in our backyard, so he'd always be training his friends or just
05:17wrestling around with his buddies and we used to play in there as kids.
05:20I remember being backstage at the wrestling shows, Randy Savage and Miss Elizabeth.
05:25They loved me for some reason.
05:27I think I just wanted to hang out with them really.
05:30My dad was a really funny, goofy guy.
05:33I'd just like to tell you about this woman.
05:34She's mean, she's lean.
05:36She's 205 pounds of fighting fury.
05:38She's got a 17-inch bicep, 95-inch legs, and she's muscle steel and sex appeal.
05:43He had no teeth at one point.
05:46He had like the retainer teeth and he'd pull them out and like do tricks on me, so I thought
05:50he was magic.
05:51If you look at any of the pictures of my father and I growing up, he was always holding my
05:56hand really tight as a little girl.
05:57I think that's a sign of like how much he loved his daughter.
06:01When I was younger, my mom would tell me, oh my god, you're so much like your dad because
06:05I learned how to do flips all by myself.
06:08I thought he could fly.
06:09Like I've never really seen a wrestler that could do all that.
06:13My name's Amaris Billington and I am the Dynamite Kid's youngest daughter.
06:18And I'm just so proud of him for who he was in his career and he didn't care if someone
06:23said you're too small.
06:25He's like, watch me.
06:27By the 1980s, the Dynamite Kid is not only one of Stampede Wrestling's top performers,
06:36he's also catapulted himself to superstardom on the other side of the globe.
06:42And some of the greatest matches took place in front of small crowds in Japan.
06:48My name is Mick Foley.
06:50I wrestled from 1985 through 2000 and made several comebacks.
06:54There was a series of moves that he did with Satoru Sayama, the original tiger mask.
07:00And it looked like magic.
07:02It wasn't what they did.
07:05It was the speed with which they did it and the excellence of execution that was amazing.
07:13I perused that on VHS tape the way that most young men of my generation perused the Phoebe
07:19Cates topless scene in Fast Times at Ridgemont High.
07:22I rewound it and slow motioned it so often that it just, it broke.
07:29The in-ring product that we see today starts with him in Tiger Mask.
07:35My name's Dave Meltzer.
07:36I'm the editor of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
07:37I do podcasts at WrestlingObserver.com.
07:40There is no Jushin Liger without Tiger Mask and Dynamite Kid.
07:43You know, that opens the door for Eddie Guerrero and Chris Benoit and Owen Hart and all of these
07:47different guys who came after and patterned themselves after him.
07:51I think he always had a chip on his shoulder as far as size and, you know, he wanted to
07:54be the best.
07:55And at his size you had to overperform because it was not what wrestling turned into years
08:00later where a guy his size was acceptable.
08:04If you were looking for illusions, Tommy was a bunch of things, but a magician was not one
08:09of them.
08:10If it looked good and it looked like it hurt, it's probably because it did.
08:14It was amazing to see.
08:16In hindsight, when you think about it, it's like, oh yeah, he just had no regard for his
08:19body.
08:25In 1984, the Dynamite Kid's fearlessness in the ring pays off as he signs with the WWF,
08:32joining cousin Davey Boy Smith, brother-in-law Bret Hart, and Jim the Anvil Neidhart.
08:38In order to compete at the top, Tom continues to push the limits of his body.
08:43Tom's physical changes came once he went to WWE.
08:49You know, he'd been doing a lot of steroids at the time.
08:53The Dynamite Kid!
08:56Physically, he described Tommy as one big muscle and he's like Mighty Mouse.
09:00This guy had striations in his butt, muscles just ripping out of his ass.
09:07I mean, the guy was just nothing but a pure muscle.
09:10My name is Dan Spivey.
09:12I'm a friend of Dynamite Kid's.
09:14Danny Spivey, of course.
09:15People paid money to come see a bunch of muscular guys beat on each other.
09:21Oh yeah, we talked about steroids and did steroids, you know.
09:24Everybody was taken.
09:27My name's Gary Ports.
09:29I came over to America and started wrestling in 1978.
09:33And I'm my Dynamite Kid.
09:36Scott McGee!
09:38Here he comes.
09:39Oh!
09:39We got along with Danny, myself and Dynamite.
09:44Every day was Christmas.
09:46Every day was like a party.
09:48People would come to one room and give each other shots and stuff and throw the needles into the wall
09:53like a dart board and leave them there.
09:57Me and Danny, one time we woke up.
09:59I looked at a wall and there must be 10 needles stuck in the wall.
10:07I mean, who does that?
10:09Dumb ass wrestlers?
10:11You know.
10:11With his new muscular physique, Dynamite's explosiveness in the ring makes him a breakout star in the WWF.
10:19By 1985, he and his tag team partner Davey Boy Smith are packing arenas around the country.
10:26Here are the British Bulldogs!
10:29Davey Boy Smith was his cousin.
10:31You know, in many ways emulated him.
10:33Kind of same look.
10:34People went crazy because they were...
10:37Because they were great.
10:38Davey Boy and Dynamite in a...
10:40A much harder, faster style than almost everybody else there.
10:45We all wanted to be the Bulldogs.
10:48They were gods of wrestling.
10:49I remember Dynamite doing that fast suplex.
10:52Snap suplex!
10:54Boom!
10:55You were gone, boy, before you knew it.
10:58My name is Jacques Rougeau.
10:59For 41 years, I was a professional wrestler.
11:02I was the fabulous Rougeau Brothers with my brother Raymond.
11:05The Rougeau Brothers.
11:06The Fabulous Rougeau Brothers.
11:08The Fabulous Rougeau Brothers.
11:09The Fabulous Rougeau Brothers.
11:09I remember dying to my kid one night just walking in the dressing room with a needle in his butt.
11:16Needle sticky going like this.
11:18And he'd go,
11:19I will have a good fucking match tonight!
11:21And you know, he's like a beast.
11:24And so I was afraid of him.
11:26I was afraid of those kind of guys.
11:30After years of self-sacrifice and physical strain, Tom finally earns a championship victory with Davey Boy at WrestleMania II.
11:40New 19th champion, the British Bulldogs!
11:44Now at the top of the pecking order, Tom is hell-bent on putting up-and-coming wrestlers through the
11:50same hard knocks he was once forced to endure.
11:55He was a product of the snake pit in Wigan.
11:58Guys who really knew how to hurt you in a hurry.
12:00And I don't know for a fact, but I'm assuming that Tommy had the crap beat out of him.
12:05And I think it created him a resiliency and also maybe a little bit of bitterness to people who hadn't
12:11endured what he had to make it through.
12:14And I found that out firsthand.
12:17From Bloomington, Indiana.
12:18I showed up in Providence, Rhode Island with all of one match to my credit.
12:24Jack Foley!
12:27It's me and Les Thornton against the British Bulldogs.
12:31I was excited.
12:33I'm in the ring with, you know, one of my heroes, Tommy.
12:36Tremendous ovation!
12:38I came in and I got a very, very quick education.
12:41Holds him up there for a while.
12:43Dynamite starts shaking the ropes like he couldn't wait to get in.
12:46And when he was tagged in, he sent me into the ropes.
12:49And he didn't so much clothesline me as he clubbed me with his bicep in the jaw.
12:57And that was the last time I ate solid food for three weeks.
13:02I didn't know it at the time, but he had dislocated my jaw.
13:06I almost lost my career because of that.
13:10There were no hard feelings.
13:12I said it was such an honor being there with you guys.
13:15Shook their hands.
13:17Went back to my hotel room and threw up in the toilet.
13:20Tom's appetite for violence soon spreads beyond the ring into the locker room.
13:25And eventually into his home life.
13:28Setting off a chain of events that shatters his career, his marriage, and ultimately his legacy.
13:39This is the matching cape and vest.
13:45My dad wore in WWF in the British Bulldogs tag team.
13:50It has his name on the inside while it says kid.
13:54And these were the original British Bulldogs from when I was little.
13:58I used to play Barbies with them.
14:00Yeah, this would be our Kendalls.
14:01From England, the British Bulldogs!
14:05I really loved the Bulldogs.
14:09But I saw a few things happen that changed my opinion.
14:16He was a ribber.
14:18He loved giving people a hard time, you know, jokingly.
14:22What some people wouldn't think was jokingly.
14:24Some of the stuff was pretty stiff that he did.
14:27He used to love to housey on people.
14:30One time, he housey on my mother.
14:35Putting a sleeping drug into their drinks.
14:39There was a guy called Mitch Snow.
14:43It's our first look at Mitch Snow.
14:45And the kid had a big mouth on him.
14:47He just talked shit.
14:48So Tommy gave him the house on gimmick.
14:55Dynamite and David Boy went on the balcony to get into his room.
15:04And he crapped in his bag.
15:09Shaved his eyebrows.
15:11Shaved his head.
15:12The kid went back to his home in South Carolina somewhere
15:15because he was in fear of his life.
15:17I think he almost had a nervous breakdown or something.
15:21It's supposed to be a joke.
15:22And it's supposed to make people laugh.
15:25Okay, it's funny now.
15:26But it's not funny when you're 23 days on the road.
15:29It's not funny when you lost your bags earlier that week.
15:31It's not funny when you haven't seen your kids in 20 days.
15:33It's not funny.
15:34It's not easy.
15:36Well, he wasn't like that when I first started going out with him.
15:40Our first five years of our marriage.
15:42There was none of that sadistic behavior.
15:45It started happening after his back operation.
15:48During a non-televised match in 1986,
15:52Dynamite does a seemingly harmless drop down with his opponent.
15:56After years of being pushed past its limit,
15:59Dynamite's body finally breaks down.
16:02Tom is rushed to the hospital with a severe back injury,
16:06requiring immediate emergency surgery.
16:09When they opened him up, his fourth and fifth lumbar was just shredded.
16:14And his discs were all tangled in his spinal cord.
16:19So they removed the disc, right?
16:21Two discs.
16:22He wasn't supposed to work anymore, you know, after the surgery.
16:26And I think he was back in the ring two weeks later.
16:29Vince, you know, needed to take the titles off of him.
16:32He could not wrestle.
16:35Davey carried him in the ring.
16:37This is off-camera.
16:38The television audience never saw this.
16:41I think he gets hit by the megaphone or something,
16:43but he got taken out right away.
16:45Jimmy Hart on the other side of the ring.
16:46Just striking.
16:47Dynamite hit from behind.
16:49Davey worked the match, got pinned.
16:50They got the belts off of him.
16:52No! No! No! No!
16:56Two!
16:57The King champion!
16:58He got carried back to my car.
17:00When he got to my house, he went back in the wheelchair.
17:04And he stayed with me for a couple of days.
17:07He'd sleep on the floor.
17:09Not because I didn't have a bed,
17:11but because that was the most comfortable place for him.
17:15My wife used to hear him crying.
17:19Crying.
17:20In the middle of the night, he was like a whimper.
17:26I can't imagine how much pain he was in.
17:30Contrary to doctor's orders,
17:32Dynamite rushes a return to the ring
17:34just months after the surgery.
17:37Wrestling in constant agony,
17:39his temper begins to spiral out of control,
17:42creating chaos at home.
17:44When the times were good with Michelle and Tom,
17:47that was good,
17:48but did you ever see times when they were bad between them?
17:56Yeah.
18:00I've seen it.
18:03There was one night when he was taking me out
18:05to show me a nice time.
18:07I didn't want to drink alcohol,
18:08so instead of saying I'm not drinking,
18:11because that would have been like a diss to Tom,
18:13I ordered a tonic water and put lemon in it.
18:16He'll think it's a vodka tonic.
18:18He grabbed my drink and he drank it
18:20and he spit it out like as if it was poison.
18:23He's like, what the fuck is this?
18:25And I was like, it's tonic water.
18:27And he's like, tonic water?
18:28How come you're drinking tonic water?
18:30He just wouldn't let it go.
18:32Like, he was so mad.
18:34And then all the way home,
18:36he was playing chicken on the road.
18:38A car would be coming
18:39and he'd act like he's going to hit the car.
18:41And he's like, how could you fucking lie to me?
18:43And I was like, sorry, I just didn't want to like drink.
18:46What's the big deal?
18:47When we got home, I'm just about to go to sleep
18:50and he's like, fucking get up.
18:52And I was like, what? What?
18:55He's like, get up, get up.
18:59And he shoved me in a closet.
19:03And he goes, you fucking stay in there,
19:05you little yard dog.
19:07I just, I slept on the floor in there.
19:10And I was glad that he wasn't bugging me.
19:12I was like, I'll sleep in the closet.
19:16Anyway, I find out I'm pregnant.
19:19This is our son.
19:20So after Merrick was born, he was, you know,
19:23going to great lengths to make up for what he did.
19:27The closet incident.
19:29And Merrick was such a difficult child.
19:32Like, he was just really high maintenance.
19:34But Tom was so patient with him.
19:37So I think he really wanted to make up for that with Merrick.
19:41But, you know, that didn't last.
19:44The Dynamite kids' home and work life
19:46have become increasingly volatile.
19:49After being forced to surrender the championship,
19:51Tom takes out his rage on another rising tag team
19:55in the WWF.
19:56Vince called the Bulldogs and the Rougeaus.
19:58And he said, guys, I'd like to go ahead
20:01and have a great match with you four guys.
20:03And I'd like to have a 20-minute Broadway.
20:05The time limit has expired.
20:08This contest is ruled a draw.
20:11It was a draw.
20:13So for me, that was a victory because, you know,
20:15it's like putting us in the same league as them,
20:16which we were not.
20:18A draw indeed is a time limit.
20:20It was a draw or nose after that match.
20:21I was so happy and everything was good.
20:22And I never thought I'd encounter problems with the Bulldogs.
20:28Can you just tell us, since we were talking about this,
20:29what your understanding of the incident with the Rougeaus was?
20:33So the Rougeau thing, I'm tired of it.
20:35I don't want to hear about it anymore.
20:37Like, is that the only thing that ever happened to him?
20:42When the Rougeaus came to WWF,
20:45they seemed to have this prestige right away.
20:48Tom had the old-school way.
20:49You earn your right to have privilege.
20:53I've always had an arrogance in me
20:55that made me succeed in the business.
20:58I never was a mean person,
20:59but I was a person who talked a lot and joked a lot
21:02and not everybody liked to hear jokes, you know.
21:05And that may not have helped my cause either.
21:10And I came in, I walked in the dressing room
21:12and Purfolk was sitting completely at the other end
21:15of the dressing room against the wall.
21:18As soon as I walked in,
21:19Hey, Jacques, Jacques, let's play cards.
21:21And he knew he got me because I'm a card player.
21:25The next thing you know, it's like,
21:27Pow!
21:30And I fell down.
21:33And then I got back up
21:34and then he really punched me in the face.
21:38Then he ended up kicking me in the face.
21:43I was swollen up like the Elephant Man.
21:50It made him look bad in front of the guys
21:52to the point where he told Mr. McMahon after the fact,
21:55like, he could no longer shave
21:57because he couldn't look himself in the mirror.
22:00I was in bad shape mentally much more than physically.
22:03I didn't want to do what was coming.
22:05I just knew I had to.
22:06What do you mean?
22:08Get revenge.
22:14In the days following Tom's brutal locker room assault,
22:19Jacques Rougeau anxiously plans his retaliation.
22:22I had lost 10 pounds during that week since Wednesday to Sunday
22:26because I couldn't eat anymore.
22:27I was throwing up every time I think I had to fight.
22:30I wasn't sleeping well.
22:32I was afraid of what was coming.
22:35Jacques was not a tough street fighter or anything.
22:37He just felt that he needed to get his respect back.
22:41And you know what my father said?
22:43Before going to the building tomorrow,
22:45go to the bank and get yourself a roll of quarters.
22:51Just hours before a television taping,
22:55Jacques lies in wait for Dynamite's arrival at the arena.
22:58I saw that curtain open.
23:02And I know Dynamite's coming.
23:05For the first time in a week I looked at him in the eyes.
23:08And I said,
23:09Hey, how you doing?
23:12He had a coffee in his hand and he went...
23:17And I went...
23:20Pow!
23:22You know when you're young and you see those monster movies
23:24where the blood is throwing out?
23:28Like a river, it's true.
23:33Four teeth came out.
23:38And then I remember a dynamite kid.
23:40I'm gonna fuck you!
23:41I'm gonna fuck you!
23:43I'm gonna fuck you!
23:43I'm gonna fuck you!
23:44And then I said,
23:46The next time I'm gonna put you in a fucking wheelchair!
23:54Was it a roll of quarters?
23:55I don't think so.
23:56I think it was a pair of brass knuckles.
23:59I just didn't think what Tom had done deserved getting his teeth knocked out.
24:06Tommy couldn't handle it.
24:07It bothered Tommy.
24:09His reputation had been damaged.
24:11I mean, here you got the guy that's tougher than nails get physically abused like that.
24:16You know, he wanted to beat the shit out of him.
24:19And then some, probably.
24:22Tom's plan for revenge comes to a halt.
24:25Brother Dino!
24:27As Dino Bravo, a wrestler with alleged ties to organized crime, gives him a cautionary warning.
24:34Tom bought a 9mm handgun with a clip for me.
24:39I was like, I don't want that gun.
24:41Like, I was so scared of it.
24:43He goes, look, I don't wanna fucking scare you.
24:45I talked to Dino Bravo, and he said he saw an envelope with Tom's name, our address, and inside of
24:54it had a picture of our house, me and the kids.
24:56Like, if there's any retaliation, like anything, your family's gonna be dead.
25:06We sold our house, cause we were worried that the mafia, they knew where we lived and everything.
25:13Jacques got his respect back. Dynamite never was allowed to get his respect back, I suppose you could say.
25:19His life was never the same.
25:21He was never the same guy.
25:25Dynamite's ex-wife says that Dynamite didn't get revenge on you because the mob would come after them.
25:30Is this a Christian or is that true?
25:35That is funny.
25:37But there's something I gotta tell you guys.
25:39I forgot about that, now you're bringing it back.
25:44I didn't like Dino Bravo, but I knew he was a stooge.
25:49I knew he was a stooge for the book dogs.
25:51That whatever I said to him, he was gonna bring it back to the Bulldogs.
25:54I took a piece of paper, and I wrote a name down.
25:58I wrote a fictive name, an invented name.
26:02I told Dino, I said, you see this name here?
26:05I gotta call him every night.
26:07And I said, if I don't call him one night, things will be taken care of.
26:13And I'm glad to hear that it worked.
26:18The British Bulldogs!
26:21Finding out about the Mafia possibly coming to kill his wife, that really made him not want to be a
26:28part of that company anymore.
26:31At the 1988 Survivor Series pay-per-view event, Tom decides to end his career in the WWF.
26:39I don't think Dynamite was ever happy in WWF.
26:42He liked the respect he had in Japan.
26:44So it was like, we can cut a deal in Japan, we can get away from this thing.
26:49Tommy was really hurting on that tour in Japan.
26:53But you would not have known it if you were a fan, because he was still giving 100%.
27:01He started to say his arm was bothering him.
27:06But later I found out his ligaments weren't even on the bone.
27:12He got his shoulder operated on, it was terrible.
27:16About a week later, he was upset with me because my girlfriend came over and he was like,
27:23you're just fucking talking to Sandra, you don't even fucking care about me.
27:26And I was like, yes I do, Tom.
27:30And he starts going...
27:33He takes his supporting armband thing off.
27:36I was like, stop it!
27:38And he's like...
27:39I was like, stop it!
27:40Dad!
27:42All the shit we've been through.
27:44And you're like, trying to set us back to wreck your arm?
27:50I didn't understand, like, what the hell?
27:53No!
28:02With countless injuries from years of self-inflicted abuse in the ring, Tom's best days are now behind him.
28:10Tom was slipping deeper and deeper, I'd say, into pills and drinking.
28:16This one night, he invited me to come watch wrestling.
28:23It was hours watching him and Tiger Mouse.
28:28He said, watch this.
28:30Took a F of a bump.
28:33Just him and Tiger Mouse, all night long.
28:37That's my last memory of Tom.
28:39Being with him and watching.
28:43The end of...
28:45Greatness.
28:52Do you think after the incident was shocked that something changed emotionally for Tom?
28:58Well, after that, he hit quite a few people.
29:03They broke a few jaws.
29:07It was New Year's Eve.
29:09It was about 10 o'clock and Tom came in with his brother and a couple of friends that he
29:14went out with.
29:17And he had this white sweatshirt on.
29:20And it was just full of blood.
29:22And his cheek is, like, cut.
29:24And it's just, the flap is just open, like, you see his cheekbone.
29:28And he's got his sunglasses on.
29:31Like, Bronwyn's crying, Daddy, Daddy, what happened?
29:34I remember I was scared.
29:36I was like, what happened to Daddy?
29:38He's like, I fuckin' fell down, little girl.
29:41Daddy's gonna be okay.
29:43Bronwyn never saw this stuff, but she was seeing it.
29:47And I was like, oh my God, I was feeling, like, such a failure, like, as a mother.
29:51And now I'm pregnant and I'm gonna bring another child into this horrible life.
29:55I just couldn't take it anymore.
29:57And that's when I got, like, suicidal and I'm walking around going, like, I just can't live another frickin' minute
30:05like this.
30:10And, uh, I finally decided that was it.
30:13And I gave Tom a one-way ticket to England.
30:17And I said, Tom, I would like you to leave now.
30:20Take whatever you need and just go.
30:24And then that's when the shit went down.
30:28And my dad dragged my mom by the hair across the floor.
30:40He lost his mind.
30:41He was like, he had me in some kind of hold and my jaw went out.
30:46He let me go and I was like, I put my jaw back.
30:51The kids were there.
30:52They had never seen anything like this.
30:54And they were crying.
30:55I'm trying to act like, you know, Daddy's having a moment.
30:58It's gonna be fine.
30:59He's gonna leave.
31:00He goes, no.
31:00I think you should fucking go.
31:02And I was like, I'm the one pregnant.
31:05I'm the one with a toddler.
31:07Merrick was still in diapers.
31:09You know, all my stuff is here.
31:11All their clothes are here.
31:16And he went downstairs and he got a gun.
31:23And he said, if you're not out in 15 fucking minutes, I'm gonna blow your fucking head off.
31:34And I was like, no you're not.
31:40He's like, I fucking will.
31:41And my dad then put a shotgun up to my mom's head.
31:46And I was holding my little brother screaming, Daddy, no, Daddy, no.
31:50They're hysterical.
31:53I'm not though.
31:54Cause I'm like calling his bluff.
31:55And I'm like, no, you're not blowing my head off.
31:58If you're not gonna leave, I'm calling the police.
32:00So I called the police.
32:01And I said, my husband's threatening to blow my head off.
32:05And I'm pregnant and I have children.
32:08And she goes, well, honey, if he said you could leave, just leave.
32:14Oh, God.
32:15I was like, not again.
32:16Like, I didn't want to go to Brett and Julie's.
32:19Cause I just didn't want to bring our bullshit over there again.
32:23But I did.
32:24I, um, I packed up my little bags and I left.
32:29She was terrified that he was gonna come and who knows to what, to her or any of us, you
32:40know.
32:41Um, his headspace was not good.
32:44Not good at that time.
32:47Michelle's harrowing experiences would stay a family secret for years
32:51until they were eventually exposed to the world,
32:54forever altering the legacy of the dynamite kid.
33:03In a final act of violence after holding his wife at gunpoint,
33:08Tom leaves his family behind in Calgary and returns to England.
33:12He moved back to England in 1991.
33:15My mom was about eight months, seven months pregnant with me.
33:19I wanted a girl because I had the perfect name.
33:23Uh, I had the name Amaris.
33:26And it means gift from God.
33:28And I believe Amaris saved my life.
33:33I believe she saved all our lives.
33:36That kid has been a blessing since the day she was born.
33:44He just had his retirement match in Japan.
33:49Now he'd wrote a letter to Michelle saying that he was gonna come to Calgary.
33:57I really believed that Tom would come and see his baby.
34:02And thank God he didn't.
34:03Because in the end, I think he did the, you know, like he manned up and let us be.
34:09I think he knew there was something wrong with him.
34:13Like, he wasn't the same person.
34:16Like, this violence was out of control.
34:18I don't think he had control of it anymore.
34:22After he finished wrestling, he was fighting in garages.
34:26You know, just like a, like a dog.
34:28Like a pit bull.
34:30It was just cars parked in a circle with lights on.
34:33And it was just bare-knuck fights.
34:36And he was doing those to survive.
34:39Did he talk much about his family?
34:41No, I knew you were gonna ask me that.
34:43No, he didn't.
34:44Because, um, that was just Tommy.
34:46You know, his personal stuff was, um, wouldn't let people in.
34:50You know, he didn't let me in.
34:52Because he didn't want to show me any sign of a weakness.
34:55It's a macho thing, I know.
34:57But, you know, I had to keep that reputation.
35:00You know, of not being a wimp.
35:06Five years after his retirement, Tom returns to Japan for a comeback match.
35:12The comeback match was real sad.
35:16Um, he looked like a shell of the dynamite kid.
35:19I think all of us, like, kind of willingly suspend that state of belief
35:25in order to believe in a, a different reality.
35:28That we are who we're portrayed as being.
35:31And that we are that tough.
35:33And that we are immortal in some way.
35:37One time, he went to ambulance, and he just hit the deck.
35:43Went to hospital, and he said, uh, what about my fucking legs?
35:47And, uh, they told him he had, uh, too much scar tissue.
35:53Too much scar tissue to operate.
35:58So...
36:01You know, guys came to see him, and for the most part, he didn't want anyone to see him.
36:06The greatest wrestler who changed the business and everything like that.
36:10And this guy who at times could be an absolute monster.
36:13And then the absolute tragic ending.
36:16Way too young, you know, when you're 40s in a wheelchair.
36:19It's just a sad thing from being this incredible athlete.
36:24God.
36:26I just, I felt so sad for him.
36:29Of course, I still loved him.
36:31I mean, God, like, you don't get married and have children.
36:34No, I still love him.
36:38Just didn't love what was going on.
36:42She always talked about him like he was like a Prince Charming.
36:46She never said anything negative about him.
36:48It was always positive.
36:50And then the Chris Benoit documentary came out.
36:54I think I was about 16 years old.
36:57And that was the first time my mom talked about any kind of abuse in the relationship.
37:04As part of a media frenzy sparked by the 2007 Chris Benoit tragedies, a CNN expose airs with focus on
37:12domestic violence perpetrated by wrestlers.
37:15Michelle is interviewed and for the first time ever details her stories of abuse at the hands of Tom Billington.
37:23Michelle says at home the kid was out of control.
37:26At one time dragging her by the hair, holding a gun to her face.
37:31He certainly wasn't the guy you fell in love with.
37:34No.
37:35The night before her interview, Michelle reveals to her children the complicated truths about their father.
37:42I was just so mad.
37:45I was, I was mad at my dad for hurting my mom because she's like the best woman ever.
37:57And I was mad at my mom because I felt like she lied to me about who my dad was.
38:05So when I found that there was actually abuse and a gun, she was pregnant with me at that time.
38:13That was the beginning of a very dark time in my life.
38:24Despite promising Michelle he would visit his family, Tom would never return to Canada.
38:30When I had my first child, I finally felt whole.
38:35I thought that she was everything that I was looking for.
38:38And eventually that started to change again and I didn't feel whole again.
38:43And I knew that it was my dad that I was missing.
38:46She was like, flight's booked, I'm going, are you coming with me?
38:51And I said, no.
38:54I decided I was just going to go see my dad without him knowing.
39:05Fifteen years after Tom last saw his eldest daughter, Bronwyn travels to England to pay him a surprise visit.
39:13Walked into the living room, that's where my dad was sitting in his wheelchair and that was the first time
39:17I'd ever seen him in a wheelchair.
39:19And I immediately just broke down crying.
39:23He acted like no time had passed and he said, why are you crying?
39:26I said, because I haven't seen you in fifteen years.
39:30By the third day, it was just my dad and I.
39:33And I'm sitting on the couch and my dad's in his wheelchair and I was just looking at him like,
39:37I want to be close to him.
39:39So I took a chair and moved it and just sat right next to him.
39:43We held hands and we started crying and he said, I'm sorry.
39:51And that was the only time he'd ever apologized for anything.
39:57I knew in that moment what it meant.
39:59He didn't have to say anything else and I just felt it.
40:03And it was a really beautiful moment that we shared and I'm so happy that I went.
40:11At the end there, I understand that, you know, he was very sick.
40:16He had a stroke too, right?
40:18Yeah, I just know it was bad.
40:21Do you remember when you heard the news that he had passed?
40:25Yeah.
40:26Tell me that story.
40:36I can't.
40:37I can't.
40:37What do you want me to say?
40:39Sit here and cry?
40:43You know, he was a great friend and somebody I cared about a lot.
40:50And, uh, I miss him.
40:56He loved his friends and he loved his kids.
41:00And, uh, I loved Donomite Kid.
41:06I knew it was coming, but I didn't cry for like a week.
41:10I was in shock.
41:11I got a call from my mom.
41:13I think I was consoling her more.
41:16And then right before we hung up, she said to me,
41:20well, now you know that he's right beside you.
41:23And I hung up the phone and I just started, um...
41:34Because that's all I ever wanted was for him to be beside me.
41:38The week before, Danny had tried to talk with him.
41:44And Danny said, I love you.
41:47Yeah.
41:50And Danny said, why?
41:56It, you know, brought home a lot of memories when he died
41:59of what an integral figure he was in the history of wrestling
42:02that probably he'll never get the full credit for
42:07because telling that story is a sad story, not a happy story.
42:16You don't have that happy ending story.
42:21Let it go.
42:22Let my kids heal.
42:24My kids can't heal with this kind of stuff.
42:26You know, and if you do talk about the violence, talk about CTE.
42:30Talk about the signs of depression.
42:32Don't knock him.
42:35Like, he could have came back.
42:37We could have perpetuated it, but we ended it.
42:40We did the right thing.
42:41And my kids did better without, you know, him around.
42:46Even though it pissed me off that he said,
42:49I hope my children are so proud of my body at work.
42:52And I said in my head, why, why don't you be a father?
42:56They don't need a wrestler.
43:00But now that I'm older, I understand that that's,
43:04that's what he wanted to give the kids.
43:09You know, he's largely been forgotten by the hands of time.
43:12But, ah, those who witnessed him in his prime, they'll never forget it.
43:19I remember Bruce Springsteen saying, trust the art, not the artist.
43:25And Tommy had a canvas and he was brilliant.
43:33He's not the first nor will he be the last to suffer for the sake of his art.
43:37And there's a sense that a lot of people who are great at something are not necessarily great at all
43:43aspects of their life.
43:44And they find solace in doing what they do.
43:48But they pay for that brief time.
43:51You become a bigger star than you ever imagined.
43:54And then you pay for it every day for the rest of your life.
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