Dynamite Kid

[8.0] "Everything looked so believable. Maybe because it was real. He looks very stiff. Which either means hes the GOAT or a very scary opponent"

[9.0] "An amazing wrestler with terrible promos. He was way ahead of his time and unfortunately that meant never getting a chance to be in the singles main event scene because bigger was better. He also had a chip on his shoulder and was known to be incredibly mean to compensate. A tragic story but his in ring skill is second to none."

[8.0] "one the best to ever step inside a ring, but a massive cunt outside the ring. the state he put himself in made sayama (tiger mask) think he was in a coma saying "tommy wake up" in a video to him"

[10.0] "The great thing about Dynamite Kid, when you look at the origins of today's wrestling and look back, how guys wrestle now can be argued that it dates back to Dynamite Kid. Seriously, his fingerprint is all over pro. wrestling for the past 40 years, it's just a shame he's a truly terrible human being. But again, I don't rate the people, I rate the wrestlers... Anyways, Dynamite Kid is a true legend in wrestling for his innovative style in the ring that I truly think he would still hang with the best workers of today and any era after his, a man who could be argued that he was the one to introduce the Japanese, British and Mexican style of wrestling to America, very ahead of his time. His defining highlights being The British Bulldogs, a tag team that revolutionized tag team wrestling in America with Dynamite's unique approach to wrestling and Davey's powerhouse strength mixed with technical ability, and his series of matches with Tiger Mask I (Satoru Sayama), matches so good that Dave Meltzer awarded their best bout the full 5 stars and I would argue it deserves it 100% for how ahead of the curve it is and the insane chemistry. While he did fall off over the years, his work in the 1980s is too good for me to lower my score, regardless... One of the best in ring wrestlers of all time, so good that Bret Hart considers him the best in ring wrestler of all time."

[8.0] "Extremely inconsistent due to his wild personal issues but undeniably a blast to watch. He and his legacy did more harm than good to professional wrestling, arguably."

[10.0] "One of my childhood favorites. The British Bulldogs were my first favorite tag team. That inspired me to tape trade and go seek out his individual matches. He is one of wrestling's most influential in-ring performers and the true godfather of modern wrestling."

[6.0] "Well, it should be clarified that it is going to hurt me to give Tom a 6.0 but I see it as necessary. The Dynamite Kid's career was fleeting and legendary, legendary because he was talented, fast and extremely graceful, but on the other hand it was short due to all his injuries (mainly to his back) and addictions. I just saw his last match and it is simply sad, due to everything previously said his appearance was discouraging, he looked depressed, very thin (if you put Tom from '94 next to Tom from the 80s, two different people will appear ), and his performance was devastating. He could easily be a 10.0 but if his career was short and sad, I also cannot ignore the fact that he was a horrible person."

[9.0] "Ignoring the fact he sounds like a truly awful human being Dynamite is one of the best to ever lace up a pair of boots, His style is the reason for so much of modern wrestling. His matches with Tiger Mask were revolutionary"

[10.0] "Innovator. Dynamtie Kid was so ahead of his time, and he was that damn good in-ring you could put him in ANY era of wrestling and he'd still be a standout. One of the very best wrestlers to have ever lived, and by far the best British professional wrestler of all time. Whilst he was absolutely incredible in-ring, his mic work wasn't that great, hell I'd even say it was below average. He would never have escaped the tag team division in the then WWF had he not been severely injured. Whilst he wasn't the nicest of people to have lived, rating him solely on his wrestling ability, he's an absolute 10/10 for me. Lots of the stuff you see nowadays (minus the whole flippy stuff) was influenced by the great Dynamtie Kid. He changed professional wrestling forever, which seems to be forgotten by so many people. One of the greatest wrestlers to have ever lived."

[9.0] "The man who gave up his body and integrity for this business. I could never hate the Dynamite Kid. His legacy will live on forever."

[9.0] "Dynamite had a massive drop of as his health got worse. But before that he had an iconic rivalry with Tiger Mask in NJPW, he had one of the best matches ever with Mark Rocco in the UK and he had some very good work in the late 80s in AJPW. He was intense, a great grappler and an aggressive striker."

[6.0] "What can I say, he never moved me the way he did others. I always thought Davey Boy was the better half of the Bulldogs and he's the one who had an excellent singles career outside of the team. Did Dynamite push the envelope and was he the catalyst for the rise of the North American Jr Heavyweight/Cruiserweight - YES! was he the prime example of a professional wrestler at it's best? Nah. He wrestled emotionless, there was nothing for me to relate to - sure he had a superb snap suplex, the clotheslines were brutal, the diving headbutts went ALL IN; the work is taught and crisp... but in the end there is a vast void that somewhat reflected his personality outside of the ring. Kinda like an even worse version of Lance Storm, a robot programmed to wrestle. Over rated. also, a piece of s#it while he lived on earth, EDIT: Splitting hairs here but Scott Irwin brought the traditional superplex to America (second rope), people credit 'Kid for it but Dynamite invented the *top tope* superplex."

[8.0] "Will sing the praises of TDK till I die. In his era, a top 3 in ring performer. Nobody bounced off the ropes like he did. Lacked in the personality department, preventing him from being pushed in the era of gimmicks and theatrics, but could have a great match with anyone."

[8.0] "Let's not mince words. Dynamite Kid was an asshole, straight up. But, judging him as a wrestler, which is what I'm here to do, I have to admit that Kid is one of the best in the ring. Never particularly great on the mic, it didn't matter as his legacy was built on what he did between the ropes, and the foundations he set for the modern cruiserweight as an inspiration for a generation of wrestlers that followed after him. The main thing he lacked however was personality when he wrestled. He was very crisp, sharp in his moves, but was not one to be able to carry a story through his motions and emotions."

"I won't give this guy a rating due to the fact this guy was a massive piece of shit in real life. The fact that he threaten to kill his family or almost murdered a wrestler by dropping a pill in his drink should really say how much of a piece of shit this guy in real life was. But just like Chris Benoit, Dynamite was very good in the ring and had a great physique but lacked in size and personality. His match against Bret Hart in 1985 is something worth watching."

[10.0] "It's incredibly hard to argue that he wasn't the best wrestler of the 70s-80s. The man was way too raw for his decade and you could easily put him with today's talent and would outshine 80% of them."

[7.0] "Dynamite Kid had his issues behind the scenes but had one of the best work rate's of his era. Really good tag team specialist. He had charisma in the ring especially as part of the Bulldogs where the crowd loved them. His body broke down early hurting his career's longevity."

[7.0] "The Ty Cobb of pro wrestling. Played hard, lived hard, made a lot of enemies amongst his contemporaries, had few friends at the end and died a rather sad ending. Still can't deny that he revolutionized what "work rate" would become. Unfortunate for him his success came at the cost of completely trashing his body."

[8.0] "One can't doubt his in-ring ability and he was a true trailblazer, ahead of his time and pretty untouchable for a time in the early to mid 80's. Unfortunately he hit the gas big time to make it in WWF and it ruined his body and with it most of his wrestling ability. Even by age 30 he was a shell of his former self."

[6.0] "For the most part I will be basing my Wrestler ratings on five criteria four of which are based on in-ring ability and the last on charisma. I believe these five criteria are pro wrestling's version of Tommy Lasorda's criteria of "five points" in baseball. For pro wrestling those five criteria are power, speed, technical ability, hardcore & charisma. Dynamite Kid's scores: Power: 6 Speed: 7 Technical: 6 Hardcore: 7 Charisma: 6 for a total of 32 and an average of 6.4 rounded down to 6."

"Like Benoit, I will not give Tom Billington a numerical rating due to the man he was outside of the ring. An incredible worker whose matches have aged well to today's standards, but the person he was stopped him from ever reaching that potential."

[10.0] "Dynamite Kid was one of the best wrestlers in the world during the early '80s. His matches with Tiger Mask were some of the most revolutionary matches in pro wrestling history. Those matches not only changed the landscape of junior heavyweight wrestling, but it also had a big impact on the entire pro wrestling world. The Dynamite Kid vs. Tiger Mask matches were years ahead of their time."

[0.0] "He may have pushed the bar in terms of speedy workrate matches, but his work was also often extremely sloppy and unsafe, putting aside that even by the low bar of wrestling he seems like he was a psychotic scumbag."

[9.0] "Pioneer of the NJPW junior heavyweight division with his legendary matches with Tiger Mask. By the time he came to the WWF in 84 his body was already pretty fucked. After winning the tag team titles he was not good and you can tell its because he is not a well man."

[8.0] "Ignoring his real life antics (which would probably reduce his rating to either 2 or 1 considering how scummy he was) Dynamite was probably one of the most revolutionary wrestlers of his time, with his mix of high flying and technical offence having inspired a countless amount of wrestlers: the real problem was that most of his career has him work with guys who just couldn't really keep up with him at full tilt, and usually resulted in rather flat matches where it was clear he had to hold things down a little, which hamper them. His Tiger Mask series isn't as good as I remembered it to be: not all of their bouts go completely well and there's some noticeable gaps in quality, but overall it's definitely earned its spot as one of the defining feuds wrestling quality wise. Great tag worker (even if the Bulldogs never got a proper chance to properly be on top) and can really mesh well when he's with someone who can match his pace. Ultimately it was a mix of a extremely bad attitude and strong steroid abuse that killed his chances to get both physically and financially further despite his tremendous talent."

[10.0] "One of best in the ring, his Tiger Mask matches are still among the best junior heavyweight matches of all time."

[7.0] "Hard to write many nice things about this guy because he was such a piece of scum in real life. That aside, Dynamite was unbelievably innovative for his time. Made up for his smaller stature by being ungodly jacked. Formed a good team with Davey & was in many amazing tag matches during their time together."

[8.0] "He was great. His high flying kicks were exciting but everything else meh. He had a great statue for his small size. In real life he was a bully. He loved to bully the Rougeau Brothers. Too bad for his spinal cord injury and his steroid use. He was also a pioneer for crusierweight wrestlers back when crusierweights weren't popular. RIP"

[9.0] "On the one hand, Dynamite Kid was a fantastic worker. On the other, he was a miserable excuse for a human being."

[9.0] "What he lacked in charisma and on mic talent; he more than made up for wit has his incredible in ring talent that was way ahead of his time."

[7.0] "He never left a major impression on me. After rewatching his early matches he was extremely entertaining in the ring. He's a renowned jerk apparently and because of that he couldn't stick around any longer to move up in my eyes. He has great technical ability no charisma."

[10.0] "Let's make something clear; we as wrestling critics should be rating wrestlers based on their work rate and talent, which has nothing to do with personality or actions behind the curtain. So, from this perspective, the Dynamite Kid was legitimately the best worker in any locker room he occupied. Kid incorporated English-Style Technique with explosiveness, intensity, and superb aerial offense, all of which revolutionized professional wrestling today. Now, you see guys like Chris Benoit or Daniel Bryan copy his signature flying headbutt from the top rope, or others like Ricochet and Will Ospreay mimick his explosive, flippy offense that we saw in Kid's famous match versus the original Tiger Mask. At his best, he was a revolutionary and exceptional talent. However, Tom Billington (the man behind the gimmick) was a terrible human being, who bullied everyone backstage and loaded heavy on steroids to the point where he threatened to kill his wife with a shotgun (full story on CNN Documentary). Outside the ring, Billington's life was a mess, but inside the ring, the Dynamite Kid was an all-time great."

[8.0] "He truly was revolutionary. If you're a fan of guys like Ricochet, Will Ospreay, The Youngbucks and basically all the other "flippy shit" wrestlers, you have a lot to thank to this gentleman."

[7.0] "Right up there with Abdullah the Butcher in being the biggest scumbags in the company, but he was so damn good in the ring. His matches with Tiger Mask are obviously classic, but I urge you to watch his stuff with a young Bret Hart in Stampede Wrestling. In spite of both performers still being early in their careers they pulled out main event level work just about every time they stepped in the ring. Its just a damn shame hes such a horrible human being."

[10.0] "Amazing wrestler that has paved the way of technical and high-flying wrestling style. If his personal life wasn't a mess, I really think he could have been a decorated wrestler that had a long career, at least as a Jr. heavyweight wrestler."

[10.0] "I'm rating him a 10 because he was so damn good in the ring, brutal, he made it look real ! And he influenced a lot of guys, like Benoit, Bryan Danielson and Davey Richards."

[1.0] "Dynamite Kid is a terrible, terrible person, simple as that. From bullying to scaring people by pretending to put drugs in them, this man's scumbag like behavior has made it impossible to enjoy his matches. At least karma has struck and is severely injured and mentally ill. Was a good highflyer so I will give him 1 point for it."

[7.0] "I have two different opinions on Dynamite Kid. One for inside the ring and the other for outside of the ring. Inside the ring he is one of the best wrestlers ever and maybe the best from the UK. He has so many different styles he uses which was very rare back in the 80's. My other opinion on him was outside the ring. Im not going to get into to much detail but he did some bad stuff. Overall he is one of the best of all time."

[10.0] "Dynamite Kid really helped to bring junior heavyweight wrestling to the forefront. He is also one of the most respected in ring competitors by his peers in history. Chris Benoit and Bret Hart have said that Dynamite Kid was the best wrestler ever. His technical daredevil style set the stage for countless other wrestlers. His tag team with Davey Boy Smith as the British Bulldogs is one of the greatest tag teams of all time and his feud with the original Tiger Mask is one of the greatest feuds in history."

[7.0] "Although apparently Dynamite Kid is overrated as a innovator in the wrestling ring, he was always a wrestler that had some uniqueness and charisma, that helped to create a connection with the crowd."

[10.0] "There's no question that The Dynamite Kid will always be in the top 10 of all times."