Original subtitles

I see people who emulate him.

But in my mind, nobody did it better than Tommy. He was the beginning of the

modern style of pro wrestling.

My mom told me all the time, your dad was the best.

What I was most impressed with was how explosive he was.

With extraordinary agility and technical mastery, the Dynamite Kid took the

wrestling world by storm.

His need to be the best was fueled by an intense desire to overcome his small

stature by pushing his body to dangerous extremes.

When Tommy found himself in the land of giants, the way to stand out was to make

his style more realistic, harder -hitting than anybody else's. You really

banged up, Dinobot. What goes around comes around. It's a dog -eat -dog

There's things that you can do that are going to destroy your body. And he did.

He destroyed his body young.

And that's the willingness to sacrifice for the sake of your art, which Tommy

took to an extreme.

Debilitating injuries, steroid abuse, and a dependency on painkillers made

Dynamite an increasing threat to himself and those around him.

I'm telling you, he had a complete personality change.

Outside the ring, there was a lot of questions about his character.

I think he probably had the worst case of little man syndrome in the history of

the world. Everybody knew not to push his button because...

You would feel his wrath.

He really punched me and I ended up kicking in the face for like a

month. It was terrible things that he did to me. But that was like a small

of it.

And I can't imagine what it would have been like for her having a gun hit your

head. Everybody else who did way worse, they get their accolades and...

Tom doesn't. I still have the ability to watch his matches and enjoy them, but

people still praise him publicly, and it's like I can't do it.

He has sacrificed his body, his family, everything for wrestling.

The Dynamite Kid's impact?

Gigantic. I think he left in a... unbelievable permanent mark on the

and for the most part a positive one on the business.

I'm Lance Storm, professional wrestler for 30 years.

I think if you're a fan of wrestling today with the faster pace,

higher impact, I think that's attributed to Dynamite.

And all of those guys in Stampede, you know, Bret Hart.

There's your opponent for next week.

Oh, they're both over the top.

Stampede wrestling and the Calgary Stampede, those are the two things that

Calgary's famous for.

My name's Michelle Billington.

I used to be married to the Dynamite Kid.

One day when my sister Julie and I first came to Calgary, Julie saw Brett, and

she was like, who's that guy?

Oh, my God.

And it was love at first sight for both of them.

I'm Julie Hart. I'm the former wife of Brett the Hitman Hart and the sister of

Michelle Billington.

I kind of took Michelle under my wing. I've always been very protective of her

our whole life.

Julie was more like a mother to me than my mother. She was like my hero.

And I started living with them, and when I first saw Tom in the ring, it was

with Brett.

They were incredible matches, and Tom was like a ping -pong ball.

flying around the ring so then when tom wasn't wrestling he would stand behind

me and talk to me and i would just like surreptitiously like hey how's it going

good match and he's like thank you thank you so we went for a walk and it was so

romantic like the it was that big fluffy snow that was coming down and it was

like a blanket of diamonds and i just thought he was so exotic because he had

that english accent so i had this big

romantic idea of that suave debonair Englishman.

I was 18 when you married me.

So let's read this one.

Michelle, I can tell you this little secret now because we're married. I

that you will believe me. And the next thing on my mind is that we will have

some babies.

But only when you are ready.

That is soon, because when I'm on the road, the babies can look after you.

All for now, I love you more than ever, your ever -loving yard dog, Tom.

And he didn't hold Bronwyn until she could walk.

Like, he didn't actually pick her up, because he was so scared to drop her or

hurt her.

My name is Bronwyn Billington. I'm the eldest daughter of Tom Billington, the

dynamite kid.

We had a wrestling ring in our backyard, so he'd always be training his friends

or just wrestling around with his buddies, and we used to play in there as

I remember being backstage at the wrestling shows.

Randy Savage and Miss Elizabeth, they loved me for some reason.

I think I just wanted to hang out with them, really.

My dad was a really funny, goofy guy.

He had

no teeth at one point. He had, like, the retainer teeth, and he'd pull them out

and, like, do tricks on me, so I thought he was magic.

If you look at any of the pictures of my father and I growing up... He was

always holding my hand really tight as a little girl. I think that's a sign of,

like, how much he loved his daughter.

When I was younger, my mom would tell me, oh, my God, you're so much like your

dad because I learned how to do flips all by myself. I thought he could fly.

Like, I've never really seen a wrestler that could do all that.

My name's Amaris Billington, and I am the Dynamite Kid's youngest daughter.

And I'm just so proud of him for who he was in his career. And he didn't care if

someone said you're too small.

He's like, watch me.

By the 1980s, the Dynamite Kid is not only one of Stampede Wrestling's top

performers.

He's also catapulted himself to superstardom on the other side of the

And some of the greatest matches took place in front of small crowds in Japan.

My name is Mick Foley. I wrestled from 1985 through 2000 and made several

comebacks. There was a series of moves that he did with Satoru Sayama, the

original Tiger Mask.

And it looked like magic. It wasn't what they did.

It was the speed with which they did it and the excellence of execution that was

amazing. I perused that on VHS tape the way that most young men of my generation

perused the Phoebe Cates topless scene in Fast Times at Ridgemont High.

I rewound it and slow motioned it so often that it just broke.

The in -ring product that we see today starts with him in Tiger Mask.

My name is Dave Meltzer. I'm the editor of the Wrestling Observer newsletter. I

do podcasts at WrestlingObserver .com.

There is no Jushin Liger without Tiger Mask and Dynamite Kid.

You know, that opens the door for Eddie Guerrero and Chris Benoit and Owen Hart

and all of these different guys who came after and patterned themselves after

him. I think he always had a chip on his shoulder as far as size and, you know,

he wanted to be the best. And at his size, you had to overperform because it

not what wrestling turned into years later where a guy his size was

If you were looking for illusions, Tommy was a bunch of things, but a magician

was not one of them. If it looked good and it looked like it hurt, it's

because it did.

It was amazing to see.

In hindsight, when you think about it, it's like, oh yeah, he just had no

for his body.

In 1984, the Dynamite Kid's fearlessness in the ring pays off as he signs with

the WWF.

joining cousin Davey Boy Smith, brother -in -law Bret Hart, and Jim the Anvil

Neidhart. In order to compete at the top, Tom continues to push the limits of

his body.

Tom's physical changes came once he went to WWE.

You know, he'd been doing a lot of steroids at the time.

The Dynamite Kid!

Physically, he described Tom as one big muscle.

He's like Mighty Mouse.

This guy had striations in his butt, muscles just ripping out of his ass. I

mean, the guy was just nothing but a pure muscle.

My name is Dan Spivey. I'm a friend of Dynamite Kids.

People paid money to come see a bunch of muscular guys beat on each other.

Oh, yeah, we talked about steroids and did steroids, you know.

Everybody was picking.

My name's Gary Port.

I came over to America, started wrestling in 1978, and I'm a Dynamite

Scott McGee!

Here he comes!

We got along, Danny, myself, and Dynamite.

Every day was Christmas.

Every day was like a party.

People would come to one room and give each other shots and stuff and throw the

needles into the wall like a dartboard and leave them there.

Me and Danny, one time we woke up, I looked at a wall, and there must have

ten needles stuck in the wall.

I mean, who does that?

Dumbass wrestler, you know?

With his new muscular physique, Dynamite's explosiveness in the ring

breakout star in the WWF. By 1985...

He and his tag team partner, Davey Boy Smith, are packing arenas around the

country. Here are the British Bulldogs. Davey Boy Smith was his cousin. You

know, in many ways, emulated him. Kind of same look. People went crazy because

they were great.

Davey Boy and Dynamite. A much harder, faster style than almost everybody else

there. We all wanted to be the Bulldogs.

They were gods of wrestling.

I remember Dynamite doing that fat suplex.

Boom,

you were gone, boy, before you knew it.

My name is Jacques Rougeau. For 41 years, I was a professional wrestler.

I was the fabulous Rougeau brothers of my brother Raymond.

The Rougeau brothers. The fabulous Rougeau brothers.

The fabulous Rougeau brothers.

I remember Dynamite Kid one night walking in the dressing room with a

his butt.

Needle thick and going like this, and he'd go...

I will have a good match tonight.

And, you know, he's like a beef.

And so I was afraid of him. I was afraid of those kind of guys.

After years of self -sacrifice and physical strain, Tom finally earns a

championship victory with Davey Boy at WrestleMania II.

The new Grand Prix champion, the British Bulldogs.

Now at the top of the pecking order, Tom is hell -bent on putting up -and

-coming wrestlers through the same hard knock he was once forced to endure.

He was a product of the snake pit in Wigan, guys who really knew how to hurt

in a hurry, and I don't know for a fact, but I'm assuming that Tommy had the

crap beat out of him.

And I think it created in him a resiliency and also maybe a little bit

bitterness to people who hadn't endured what he had to make it through. And I

found that out firsthand.

I showed up in Providence, Rhode Island with all of one match to my credit.

It's me and Les Thornton against the British Bulldogs.

I was excited. I'm in the ring with, you know, one of my heroes, Tommy.

I came in and I got a very, very quick education.

Dynamite starts shaking the ropes like he couldn't wait to get in. And when he

was tagged in, he sent me into the ropes.

And he didn't so much clothesline me as he clubbed me with his bicep in the jaw.

And that was the last time I...

ate solid food for three weeks. I didn't know it at the time, but he had

dislocated my jaw.

I almost lost my career because of that.

There were no hard feelings.

I said it was such an honor being there with you guys, shook their hands, went

back to my hotel room and threw up in the toilet.

Tom's appetite for violence soon spreads beyond the ring into the locker room

and eventually into his home life.

setting off a chain of events that shatters his career, his marriage, and

ultimately his legacy.

This is the matching cape and vest my dad wore in

WWF in the British Bulldogs tag team.

It has his name on the inside while it says kid.

These were the original British Bulldogs from when I was little.

I used to play Barbies with those.

That was to be our Ken doll.

I really loved the Bulldogs.

But I saw a few things happen that changed my opinion.

He was a river. He loved...

Giving people a hard time, you know, jokingly, which some people wouldn't

was jokingly. Some of the stuff was pretty stiff that he did.

He used to love to oust young people.

One time, he ousted my mother.

Putting a sleeping drug into their drinks.

There was a guy called Mitch Snow.

It's our first look at Mitch Snow.

And the kid had a big mouth on him. He just talked shit.

So Tommy gave him the Halcyon gimmick.

Dynamite and Davy Boy went on the balcony to get into his room.

And he crapped in his bag.

Shaved his eyebrows.

Shaved his head. The kid went back to his home in South Carolina somewhere

because he was in fear of his life.

I think you almost thought I'd never sprang down a soldier.

It's supposed to be a joke, and it's supposed to make people laugh.

Okay, it's funny now, but it's not funny when you're 23 days on the road. It's

not funny when you lost your bags earlier that week. It's not funny when

haven't seen your kids in 20 days. It's not funny.

It's not easy.

Well, he wasn't like that when I first started going out with him in our first

five years of our marriage. There was none of that sadistic behavior.

It started happening after his back operation.

During a non -televised match in 1986,

Dynamite does a seemingly harmless drop -down with his opponent.

After years of being pushed past its limit, Dynamite's body finally breaks

Tom is rushed to the hospital with a severe back injury requiring immediate

emergency surgery.

The discs were all tangled in the spinal cord.

So they removed the discs, right? Two discs.

He wasn't supposed to work anymore, you know, after the surgery.

And I think he was back in the ring two weeks later.

Vince, you know, needed to take the titles off of him. He could not wrestle.

Davey carried him to the ring. This is off camera.

The television audience never saw this.

I think he gets hit by the megaphone or something. He got taken out right away.

Jimmy Hart on the other side of the ring, just striking Dynamite 10 from

Davey worked the match, got pinned, they got the belts off him.

No, no, no!

He got carried back to my car.

When he got to my house, he went back in the wheelchair and stayed with me for a

couple of days.

He'd sleep on the floor, not because they didn't have a bed, but because that

was the most comfortable place for him.

My wife used to hear him crying, crying.

In the middle of the night, it was like a whimper.

I can't imagine how much pain he was in.

Contrary to doctor's orders, Dynamite rushes a return to the ring just months

after the surgery.

Wrestling in constant agony, his temper begins to spiral out of control,

creating chaos at home.

When the times were good with Michelle and Tom, that was good. But did you ever

see times when they were bad between them?

Yeah.

I've seen it.

There was one night when he was taking me out to show me a nice time. I didn't

want to drink alcohol.

So instead of saying I'm not drinking, because that would have been like a diss

to Tom.

I ordered a tonic water and put lemon in it, and he'll think it's a vodka tonic.

He grabbed my drink, and he drank it, and he spit it out like as if it was

poison. He said, what the f*** is this? And I was like, tonic water.

And he's like, tonic water?

How come you're drinking tonic water?

He just wouldn't let it go. Like, he was so mad.

And then all the way home, he was playing chicken on the road.

A car would be coming, and he'd act like he's going to hit the car.

And he's like, how could you f***? He lied to me, and I was like, sorry, I

didn't want to, like, drink. What's the big deal?

When we got home, I'm just about to go to sleep, and he's like, get up. And I

was like, what?

What? He's like, get up, get up.

And he shoved me in a closet.

And he goes, stay in there, you little yard dog.

I just, I slept on the floor in there.

And I was glad that he wasn't bugging me. I said, I'll sleep in the closet.

Anyway, I find out I'm pregnant with our son.

So after Merrick was born, he was, you know, going to great lengths to make up

for what he did, the closet incident.

And Merrick was such a difficult child. Like, he was just really high

maintenance. But Tom was so patient with him.

So I think he really wanted to make up for that with Merrick.

But, you know, that didn't last.

The Dynamite kids' home and work life have become increasingly volatile.

After being forced to surrender the championship, Tom takes out his rage on

another rising tag team in the WWF.

Vince called the Bulldogs and the Rouges.

He said, guys, I'd like to go out and have a great match with you four guys,

I'd like to have a 20 -minute Broadway.

The tournament has expired. This contest is ruled a draw.

It was a draw.

So for me, that was a victory because, you know, it's like putting us in the

same league as them, which we were not.

The Lord knows after that match, I was so happy and everything was good. And I

never, I never thought I'd.

Encounter problems with the Bulldogs.

You can tell us, since we're talking about this, what your understanding of

incident with the Rujos was.

So the Rujo thing, I'm tired of it. I don't want to hear about it anymore.

Like, is that the only thing that ever happened to him?

When the Rujos came to WWF, they seemed to have this prestige right away.

Tom had the old school way. You earn your right to have privilege.

I've always had an arrogance in me that made me succeed in the business.

I never was a mean person, but I was a person who talked a lot and joked a lot,

and not everybody liked to hear jokes, you know, and that may not have helped

cause either.

And I came in, I walked in the dressing room, and Perfect was sitting completely

at the other end of the dressing room against the wall.

As soon as I walked in, hey, Jacques, Jacques, let's play cards.

And he knew he got me because I'm a card player.

The next thing you know, it's like, pow!

And I fell down.

And then I got back up, and then he really punched me in the face.

And then he ended up kicking me in the face.

I was swollen up like the elephant man.

Made him look bad in front of the guys to the point where he told Mr. McMahon,

after the fact, like he could no longer shave because he couldn't look himself

in the mirror.

I was in bad shape mentally much more than physically.

I didn't want to do what was coming. I just knew I had to.

What do you mean?

Get revenge.

In the days following Tom's brutal locker room assault, Jacques Rougeau

anxiously plans his retaliation. I had lost 10 pounds during that week since

Wednesday to Sunday because I couldn't eat anymore. I was throwing up every

time. I think I had to fight.

I wasn't sleeping well.

I was afraid of what was coming.

Jacques was not a tough street fighter or anything.

He just felt that he needed to get his respect back.

And you know what my father said?

Before going to the building tomorrow, go to the bank.

And get yourself a roll of quarters.

Just hours before a television taping, Jacques lies in wait for Dynamite's

arrival at the arena.

I saw that curtain open.

And I know Dynamite's coming.

For the first time in a week, I looked at him in the eyes.

And I said, hey, how you doing?

He had a coffee in his hand and he went.

And I went, pow!

You know when you're young and you see those monster movies where the blood is

flowing out like a river?

It's true.

Four teeth came out.

And then I remember a dynamite kid.

And then I said, The next time I'm going to put you in a

wheelchair!

Was it a roller coaster? I don't think so.

I think it was a pair of brass knuckles.

I just didn't think what Tom had done deserved getting his teeth knocked out.

Tommy couldn't handle it. It bothered Tommy.

His reputation had been damaged. I mean, here you got the guy that's tougher

than nails.

physically abused like that.

You know, he wanted to beat the shit out of them. And then some, probably.

Tom's plan for revenge comes to a halt.

As Dino Bravo, a wrestler with alleged ties to organized crime, gives him a

cautionary warning.

Tom bought a 9mm handgun with a clip for me.

I was like, I don't want that gun. Like, I was so scared of it.

He goes, look, I don't want to scare you. I talked to Dino Bravo, and he said

saw an envelope with Tom's name, our address, and inside of it had a picture

our house, me and the kids. Like, if there's any retaliation, like anything,

your family's going to be dead.

We sold our house because we were worried that the mafia, they knew where

lived and everything.

Jacques got his respect back. Dynamite never was allowed to get his respect

back, I suppose you could say.

His life was never the same.

He was never the same guy.

Dynamite's ex -wife said that Dynamite didn't get revenge on you because the

would come after them. Is this true?

That is funny.

But there's something I got to tell you guys. I forgot about that. Now you're

bringing it back.

I didn't like Dino Bravo, but I knew he was a stooge.

I knew he was a stooge for the Bulldogs.

And whatever I said to him, he was going to bring it back to the Bulldogs.

I took a piece of paper, and I wrote a name down.

I wrote a fictive name, an inventive name.

And I told Dino, I said, do you see this name here?

I've got to call him every night.

And I said, if I don't call him one night, things will be taken care of.

And I'm glad to hear that it worked.

Finding out about the mafia possibly coming to kill his wife, that really

him not want to be a part of that company anymore.

At the 1988 Survivor Series pay -per -view event, Tom decides to end his

in the WWF.

I don't think Dynamite was ever happy in WWF. He liked the respect he had in

Japan. So it was like, we can cut a deal in Japan. We can get away from this

thing.

Tommy was really hurting on that tour in Japan.

But you would not have known it if you were a fan.

Because he was still giving 100%. He started to

say his arm was bothering him.

But later I found out.

His ligaments weren't even on the bones.

He got his shoulder operated on. It was terrible.

About a week later, he was upset with me because my girlfriend came over and he

was like, you're just talking to Sandra. You don't even care about me. And I was

like, yes, I do, Tom.

And he starts going... He takes his...

putting arm band thing off i was like stop it and he's like i was like stop it

all the shit we've been through and you're like trying to set us back and

wreck your arm i didn't understand like what the hell

With countless injuries from years of self -inflicted abuse in the ring, Tom's

best days are now behind him.

Tom was slipping deeper and deeper, I'd say, into pills and drinking.

This one night, he invited me to come watch wrestling.

It was hours watching him and Tiger Mask.

He said, watch this.

Took an F of a bump.

Him and Tiger Mouse all night long.

That's my last memory of Tom.

Being with him and watching the end of greatness.

Do you think after the incident with Jacques that something changed

for Tom?

Well, after that, you hear quite a few people.

He broke a few jaws.

It was New Year's Eve.

It was about 10 o 'clock, and Tom came in with his brother and a couple of

friends that he went out with.

And he had this white sweatshirt on, and it was just full of blood.

And his cheek is, like, cut, and it's just a flap that's just open, like you

his cheekbone.

And he's got his sunglasses on.

And Bronwyn's crying, Daddy, Daddy, what happened?

I remember I was scared. I was like, what happened to Daddy?

He's like, I fell down, little girl.

Daddy's going to be okay.

Bronwyn never saw this stuff, but she was seeing it. And I was like, oh, my

I'm feeling like such a failure as a mother.

And now I'm pregnant, and I'm going to bring another child into this horrible

life. I just couldn't take it anymore.

And that's when...

I got, like, suicidal, and I'm walking around going, like, I just can't live

another frickin' minute like this.

And I finally decided that was it. And I gave Tom a one -way ticket to England.

And I said, Tom, I would like you to leave now.

Take whatever you need and just go.

And then that's when the shit went down.

And my dad dragged my mom by the hair across the floor.

He lost his mind. He was like, he had me in some kind of hold and my jaw went

out. He let me go and I was like, I put my jaw back.

The kids were there. They had never seen anything like this. And they were

crying. I'm trying to act like, you know, Daddy's having a moment.

It's going to be fine. He's going to leave.

He goes, no, I think you should go.

And I was like, I'm the one pregnant. I'm the one with a toddler. Merrick was

still in diapers.

You know, all my stuff is here. All their clothes are here.

And he went downstairs and he got a gun.

And he said, if you're not out in 15 minutes, I'm going to blow your head

And I was like,

no, you're not.

He's like, well.

And my dad then put a shotgun up to my mom's head.

And I was holding my little brother, screaming, daddy, no, daddy, no.

They're hysterical.

I'm not, though, because I'm, like, calling his bluff. And I'm like, no,

not blowing my head off. If you're not going to leave, I'm calling the police.

So I called the police, and I said, my husband's threatening to blow my head

off, and I'm pregnant, and I have children.

And she goes, well, honey, if he said you could leave, just leave.

Oh, God. I was like, not again. Like, I didn't want to go to Brett and Julie's

because I just didn't want to bring our bullshit over there.

Again, but I did. I packed up my little bag and I left.

He was terrified that he was going to come and who

knows to what, to her or any of us, you know.

His headspace was not good, not good at that time.

Michelle's harrowing experiences would stay a family secret for years.

until they were eventually exposed to the world, forever altering the legacy

the Dynamite Kid.

In a final act of violence after holding his wife at gunpoint, Tom leaves his

family behind in Calgary and returns to England.

He moved back to England in 1991.

My mom was about eight months, seven months pregnant with me.

I wanted a girl because I had the perfect name.

I had the name Amaris.

And it means gift from God.

And I believe Amaris saved my life.

I believe she saved all our lives.

That kid has been a blessing since the day she was born.

He just had his retirement match in Japan.

Now he'd wrote a letter to Michelle saying that he was going to come

to Calgary.

I really believe that Tom would come and see his baby.

And thank God he didn't, because in the end, I think he did the, you know, like

he manned up and let us be.

I think he knew there was something wrong with him.

He wasn't the same person. Like, this violence was out of control. I don't

he had control of it anymore.

After he finished wrestling, he was fighting in garages.

You know, just like a dog, like a pit bull.

It was just cars parked in a circle with lights on, and it was just better not

fight.

And he was doing those to survive.

Did he talk much about his family?

I knew you were going to ask me that. No, he didn't because I was just Tommy.

His personal stuff was he wouldn't let people in.

No, he didn't let me in because he didn't want to show me any sign of

It's a macho thing, I know, but I had to keep that reputation of not being a

wimp.

Five years after his retirement, Tom returns to Japan for a comeback match.

The comeback match was real sad.

He looked like a shell of the Dynamite Kid.

I think all of us kind of willingly suspend that state of belief in order to

believe in a different reality, that we are who we're portrayed as being, and

that we are that tough, and that we are immortal in some way.

One time he went to ambulate and he just hit the deck.

Went to hospital and he said, and they told him he

had too much scar tissue.

Too much scar tissue to operate.

You know, guys came to see him and

for the most part he didn't want anyone to see him.

the greatest wrestler who changed the business and everything like that, and

guy who at times could be an absolute monster, and then the absolute tragic

ending. Way too young, you know, in your 40s in a wheelchair.

It's just a sad thing from being this incredible athlete.

I just, I felt so sad for him.

Of course, I still loved him. I mean, God, like, you don't get married and

children. No, I still love him.

Just didn't love what was going on.

She always talked about him like he was like a Prince Charming. She never said

anything negative about him. It was always positive.

And then the Chris Benoit documentary came out. I think I was about 16 years

old. And that was the first time my mom talked about any kind of abuse in the

relationship.

As part of a media frenzy sparked by the 2007 Chris Benoit tragedy, a CNN expose

airs with focus on domestic violence perpetrated by wrestlers.

Michelle is interviewed, and for the first time ever, details her stories of

abuse at the hands of Tom Billington.

Michelle says at home the kid was out of control, at one time dragging her by

the hair, holding a gun to her face.

He certainly wasn't the guy you fell in love with.

No.

The night before her interview, Michelle revealed to her children the

complicated truth about their father.

I was just so mad.

I was mad at my dad for hurting my mom

because she's like the best woman ever.

And I was mad at my mom because I felt like she lied to me about who my dad

So when I found that there was actually abuse and a gun, she was pregnant with

me at that time.

That was the beginning of a very dark time in my life.

Despite promising Michelle he would visit his family, Tom would never return

Canada. When I had my first child, I finally felt whole. I thought that she

everything that I was looking for.

And eventually, that started to change again, and I didn't feel whole again.

And I knew that it was my dad that I was missing.

She was like, flight's booked.

I'm going. Are you coming with me?

And I said no.

I decided I was just going to go see my dad without him knowing.

Fifteen years after Tom last saw his eldest daughter, Bronwyn travels to

to pay him a surprise visit.

I walked into the living room, that's where my dad was sitting, in his

wheelchair, and that was the first time I'd ever seen him in a wheelchair.

And I immediately just broke down crying.

He acted like no time had passed, and he said, why are you crying?

I said, because I haven't seen you in 15 years.

By the third day, it was just my dad and I.

And I'm sitting on the couch and my dad's in his wheelchair and I was just

looking at him like I want to be close to him.

So I took a chair and moved it and just sat right next to him.

We held hands and we started crying and he said, I'm sorry.

And that was the only time he'd ever apologized for anything.

I knew in that moment what it meant.

He didn't have to say anything else and I just felt it.

And it was a really beautiful moment that we shared, and I'm so happy that I

went.

At the end there, I understand that, you know, he was very sick.

He had a stroke too, right? Yeah.

I just know it was bad.

Do you remember when you heard the news that he had passed?

Yeah. Tell me that story.

Okay, would you want me to sit here and cry?

You know, he was a great friend and somebody I cared about a lot.

And I miss him.

He loved his friends and he loved his kids.

And I love the dynamite kid.

I knew it was coming, but I didn't cry for like a week. I was in shock.

I got a call from my mom.

I think I was consoling her more.

And then right before we hung up, she said to me, well, now you know that he's

right beside you.

And I hung up the phone and I just started.

Because that's all I ever wanted was for him to be beside me.

The week before, Danny had tried to talk with him.

And Danny said, I love you.

And Dynamite said, why?

It brought home a lot of memories when he died of what an integral figure he

in the history of wrestling that probably, He'll never get the full

because telling that story is a sad story, not a happy story.

You don't have that happy ending story.

Let it go.

Let my kids heal. My kids can't heal with this kind of stuff.

You know, and if you do talk about the violence, talk about the PTE.

Talk about the signs of depression.

don't knock him like he could have came back we could have perpetuated it but we

ended it we did the right thing and my kids did better without you know him

around even though it pissed me off that he said I hope my children are so proud

of my body of work and I said in my head why don't you be a father they don't

need a wrestler but

Now that I'm older, I understand that that's what he wanted to give the kids.

You know, he's largely been forgotten by the hands of time, but those who

witnessed him in his prime, they'll never forget it.

I remember Bruce Springsteen saying, trust the art,

not the artist.

And Tommy had a canvas, and he was brilliant.

He's not the first, nor will he be the last to suffer for the sake of his art.

And there's a sense that a lot of people who are great at something are not

necessarily great at all aspects of their life, and they find solace in

what they do.

But they pay for that brief time. You become a bigger star than you ever

imagined, and then you pay for it every day for the rest of your life.