Andrew Lutzke
Presented by HighSpots.com
We open with a sequence of Kid taking some big bumps and winning titles in Japan inter-sped with shots of modern day Kid sitting in his wheel chair.
Kid broke into the United Kingdom wrestling scene at the age of 14. He was rail thin of course – but showed his ability early.
Bruce, Ross, Keith and Bret Hart talk about finding Dynamite in the UK and wanting to bring him to Canada.
Kid says Stu Hart called him “A skinny bastard”.
Gama Singh explains that the other workers were jealous of Kid’s push since he was so small. The fans laughed at Kid at first because of how tiny he was.
Ross and Singh credit The Cuban Assassin with being willing to bump around for the Kid and getting him over as a legit competitor.
Stampede created a title just to showcase Kid with.
Bret talks about how stiff he and Dynamite’s early matches were.
Kid’s ability inspired Bret to step up and improve his game.
Keith says Bret versus Kid set the territory on fire and saved Stampede from bankruptcy.
New Japan caught wind of Dynamite’s ability and started to book him. Japan workers also came to Canada to work as well.
Jim Neidhart talks up the Tiger Mask vs Dynamite Kid series.
Kid says he never thought of himself as having overly great matches.
Bruce Hart says the slow, older guys were still being paid more than Kid in Stampede.
Kid was making 2 grand a week from New Japan. Kid says spending the cash was easy.
Dynamite Kid avoided alcohol and smoking when he first started in America – eventually the wrestling lifestyle took over and Kid hit everything hard.
Honky Tonk Man says Kid was a ribber very early on in Stampede.
Manager John Foley was often Kid’s foil – Kid learned his drinking habits from Foley and defended him if trouble arose.
Bret says Kid started steroids early on to bulk up. Kid would later say that he didn’t care if he died young, as long as he made a lot of money along the way.
Honky says Kid’s vicious bumping was catching up with him early in his life.
By age 25, Kid admits his back was becoming really painful and he worked through it with pain pills.
Keith says Kid worked with a torn ACL and the drugs and roids made Kid very moody.
Kid doesn’t regret his drug use and wouldn’t tell others to sway away from them.
Davey Boy Smith was brought over from the UK against Dynamite’s wishes.
Bret and Kid got married and left Stampede to work in Germany. Davey Boy was part of rebuilding the roster. The Germany tour was canceled and Kid was “stuck” with working with Smith.
Kid and Davey Boy had some great matches in spite of Kid’s stiff work and pissy attitude.
Dynamite Kid bladed Davey Boy in a violent manner and sliced him almost ear to ear. Smith had to get stitches to recover.
Kid would bash Davey Boy for being dense – however most felt Kid wasn’t exactly brilliant either.
Smith and Kid were paired as a team in spite of Kid’s dislike of Smith.
Vince McMahon bought out Stampede in 1984 and scooped up the Hart Foundation and British Bulldogs among others.
Kid and Bret had a great match early in their WWF run and Vince gave Kid full credit.
Dynamite refused to sign a WWF exclusive contract due to his Japan payoffs being so large.
Bret tried to convince the Bulldogs that they were missing out on a golden opportunity with the WWF.
Bret was happy since he had some great workers to help him escape the opening match purgatory.
Terry Funk told Bret that the Hart Foundation versus the Bulldogs were the best tag matches he had ever seen.
Kid says the agents told them to stop using so many high spots since no one could follow them.
Brutus Beefcake, Demolition Ax and Bob Orton Jr. put over Kid’s speed and ability.
Orton relays the story of Kid’s first major injury, when Kid’s back gave out in mid match. Kid’s back was full of shooting pain and he couldn’t get back to his feet.
Nikolai Volkoff blames Kid’s crazy bumps for his injury.
Harley Race says he and Kid both took a lot of unnecessary bumps for the sake of greatness.
Kid says the doctors declared his career over. He blames his wild matches with Tiger Mask on his injuries.
Dynamite rushed back to work because he needed the money and he loved working.
Kid refused to drop the belts to Volkoff and the Iron Sheik and instead the Hart Foundation won the belts from them.
Jimmy Hart tells of Kid battling his way through pain, working with a back that was destroyed.
Honky Tonk Man says Kid showed the pain at airports and in the locker room but never in the arenas in front of fans.
Jim Powers says Kid pissed in his Gatorade as a “rib”. He’s still seeking revenge.
Barry Horowitz was a frequent victim of the Bulldog’s ribs since he liked to dress nice. They destroyed his clothes frequently.
Terry Taylor’s clothes were also often destroyed since he was a snazzy dresser and a bit cocky.
Kid also hounded Outback Jack constantly.
Dynamite says he doesn’t regret his ribbing ways.
Jacques Rougeau was being ribbed by Curt Hennig and Rougeau thought it was Kid – ultimately Jacques told Vince about Kid’s behavior.
Kid was pissed at Jacques for tattling on him and slapped him from behind and they had a scrap. Jacques was getting the worst of it before Raymond Rougeau called Kid out. Ray had a bad knee and Kid promised to kick his ass after it healed.
Jacques got sick of all the bullying behavior and he went to his dad for advice. Jacques’ dad told him to punch Kid with a roll of quarters. A few days later Jacques sucker punched him. Kid had a bunch of teeth knocked out but refused to fall over.
Bad News Brown stopped Raymond from adding more damage to Kid after Jacques’ punch. Brown was ready to kick the Rougeau’s ass but they had left.
Kid regrets not getting his revenge on Jacques for the incident.
Jacques says he had mob connections in Montreal and set Kid up for violent deeds if Kid ever messed with him again.
Bret says the incident broke Kid’s spirit. Honky says Kid got real quiet after the incident. Jim Powers says Kid changed after the punch.
Honky believes Kid felt embarrassed finally and it killed his mojo.
The Bulldogs left the WWF a few months later and returned to Stampede.
Keith Hart says Stampede didn’t have the roster depth to properly use the Bulldogs.
The Bulldogs brought the drug culture to Stampede. Kid took drugs all day just to get by.
Dynamite Kid again grew tired of Davey Boy in spite of Davey carrying the team after Kid’s injury.
Davey Boy regretted missing out on WWF pay days after leaving with Kid.
Davey Boy copyrighted the name “Bulldog” and refused to let Kid use it.
Dynamite Kid became increasingly volatile as his career fell apart and his drug use continued. He cold cocked a guy at a bar and ended up being beaten up by a group of the guy’s friends.
Kid and his wife had a bad relationship and some speculated it would end in murder/suicide. She gave Kid a one way ticket back to England and he left her and his kids.
The talking heads say Kid’s book “Pure Dynamite” was just a spiteful cash in attempt.
Kid started to become reclusive and bitter and lost his steroid induced muscle tone as his career wound down.
Dynamite’s daughter says her dad was very kind to her and brought her gifts home from Japan in between tours. They were estranged for a long while and they live in different countries.
Bret still thinks Kid is a good man under his hard exterior.
Kid doesn’t have the internet so he doesn’t watch his old matches – his family has bought him DVDs of himself to watch. They say he remembers spots from matches he hadn’t seen in 25 years.
Bad News Brown is still in awe of Kid’s matches and considers him the best pound for pound wrestler ever.
Bret thinks Dynamite secretly has a fondness for the past.
His family feels Kid would love a WWE job of watching the rookies work and helping them learn.
Bonus features: A batch of stories including a series of incidents of Dynamite Kid feeding people human feces and dog shit mixed with “normal” food.
Lanny Poffo says the Bulldogs would shit in the other guy’s suitcases.
Kid tied JR Foley to a bed and locked him in a closet.
The WWF had a giant pot of coffee at the TV tapings and one time the Bulldogs spiked the coffee with sleeping pills.
Jim Powers had his drink spiked by the Bulldogs and he asked the Bulldogs to just give him the drugs instead so he can enjoy them.
Manager JR Foley got his drinks spiked so often, he ended up in the hospital and the doctor told him he was suffering from drug withdrawal – Foley claimed to never have taken any willingly.
Chris Benoit was given Dynamite’s boots as a sign of the passing of the torch.
Kid is asked about Benoit and he says “He was a good worker” then casually asks if Benoit killed his wife.
Benoit killed Nancy in the room he kept Kid’s boots in.
Final Thoughts: A solid documentary effort here, with all the names you’d want to hear from based on the subject matter. Ironically Dynamite is perhaps the worst part of this piece as he answers all questions with very short emotionless responses. I also must point out that despite running 2 hours, the documentary does a poo r job of offering a definitive timeline, not mentioning angles very often to help weave the narrative and once 1990 or so hits, we basically stop talking up Kid’s career and skip ahead to his family life (or lack thereof) and never touch on his final years in the ring.
