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Moving along with our series of the Top 10 underrated performers in WWE, we come down to number 8. Today, we look back at the career of someone who paved way for many other performers through different generations, who were inspired by him.
In the industry, there are very few who open the doors for the future generations, to emulate them and look up to them as an inspiration. These are the revolutionaries, the true masters of the art. Every performer wants to leave his mark in professional wrestling, so that even after he’s long gone, his impact and presence is still felt in the professional wrestling business.
Today, we look at the career of the Dynamite Kid, who is hailed as one of the greatest technical high flying wrestlers in the history of the business. People like Bret Hart and Chris Benoit looked up to him as their inspiration, after watching him perform at a level higher than everyone else. Bret once said that pound for pound, the Dynamite Kid is the best wrestler in the history of the industry. Coming from a legend such as Bret Hart itself, very few can argue about the statement. Although Dynamite Kid was an exceptional wrestler, he never made it big in the mainstream wrestling promotions, and ended up going nowhere.
The Dynamite Kid is arguably the greatest wrestler coming out of the United Kingdom, and he started his career in Stu Hart’s Canadian Stampede. It was here that a young Bret Hart and later, an 18 year old Chris Benoit first laid their eyes on the technical genius of Dynamite Kid. As Bret and Benoit watched Kid perform moves that we nothing short of breathtaking, they knew that they wanted to become just like him.
It is said that after Kid wrestled his match one night, Chris Benoit walked up to Dynamite’s dressing room, knocked on his door and when Kid opened, Benoit told him that someday, he’d be just like him. The influence of Dynamite Kid on the careers of many young superstars’ careers has been evident with them having a similar in – ring style as Dynamite Kid, including Bryan Danielson a.k.a Daniel Bryan.
The Bulldogs
After Canadian Stampede, Dynamite traveled to Japan, where he started his legendary feud against the original Tiger Mask. The two wrestlers put Junior Heavyweight wrestling on the map, putting on some of the best technical wrestling matches in history, especially their critically acclaimed match at Madison Square Garden. Dynamite later won the WWF Junior Heavyweight championship, and then made his way to the WWF.
The Dynamite Kid teamed up with Davey Boy Smith to form the British Bulldogs, and won the WWF Tag Team championships. The Bulldogs became the number one tag team in the WWF, but had to drop the titles as Dynamite suffered a legitimate back injury. After his back surgery, it was evident that Dynamite wasn’t the same, and after having various backstage confrontations and fights with the other wrestlers, Dynamite decided to leave the WWF, and to his surprise, Davey followed him out of the organization.
Dynamite and Davey then went back to Stampede Wrestling and All Japan Pro Wrestling, until Davey Smith signed a contract with the WWF behind Dynamite’s back, and trademarked “British Bulldog” and took up the monicker. Dynamite wrestled in Japan till the end of his career, which was the result of years of substance abuse and working stiff in the ring. Dynamite Kid lost feeling in his left leg in ’97, and was paralyzed for life.
Dynamite Kid left behind a lasting legacy, as well as a sad reminder of how one of the greatest technicians destroyed his career by abusing drugs and alcohol, along with anabolic steroids. Kid relied heavily on steroids to put on muscle mass, and with the mixture of drugs, steroids and alcohol, Dynamite’s career was cut short, and he is now confined to a wheel chair.
Dynamite’s style of working stiff, including the swan dive headbutt led to his condition, as all of it played a factor in Dynamite’s retirement. Dynamite is regarded as the best technical wrestler to have never won the World title, and this puts him at number 8 in our list of the most underrated wrestlers/performers in WWE history.
Read other articles in the series here: Top 10 underrated performers in WWE.
