Original subtitles

I see people who emulate him.

But in my mind, nobody did it better than Tommy.

The Dynamite Kid, baby.

The beginning of the modern wrestler.

My mom told me, "Your dad was the best."

On the top! Oh, my!

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

With extraordinary agility and technical mastery,

Dynamite Kid took the wrestling world by storm.

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

to overcome his 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 got banged up, Dynamite.

It's a dog-eat-dog world.

There's things you can do that will destroy your body.

And he did. Young.

That's the willingness to sacrifice for your art,

which Tommy took to an extreme.

Debilitating injuries, steroids, and a dependency on painkillers

made Dynamite an increasing threat to himself and those around him.

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

There was a lot of questions about his character.

He probably had the worst case of little man syndrome in history.

We all knew not to push his buttons or we would feel his wrath.

We'll wrestle you. We'll embarrass you, humiliate you.

He really punched me, and kicked me in the face.

-Like a monster. -He did terrible things. To me.

But that was, like, a small chunk of it.

I can't imagine what it was like for her, having a gun at your head.

Everybody else who did way worse, they get accolades. Tom doesn't.

I can still watch his matches and enjoy them.

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

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

The Dynamite Kid's impact? Gigantic.

He left an unbelievable, permanent mark on the business.

And, for the most part, a positive one.

I'm Lance Storm, a pro wrestler for 30 years.

28-year-old Lance Storm!

If you're a fan of wrestling today with the faster pace, higher impact.

that's attributed to Dynamite.

The Dynamite Kid!

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

Bret Hart, there's your opponent for next week.

Oh, he... They're both over the top!

Wrestling and the Stampede,

those are the two things that Calgary's famous for.

My name's Michelle Billington.

I was married to the Dynamite Kid.

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

Julie saw Bret 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, the former wife of Bret "The Hitman" Hart.

And sister of Michelle Billington. I kinda took Michelle under my wing.

I've always been very protective of her, her whole life.

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

She was my hero.

I started living with them and,

when I first saw Tom in the ring, it was with Bret.

They were incredible matches.

Tom was like a ping pong ball, flying around.

Oh, survivor!

When Tom wasn't wrestling,

he would talk to me, and I would just, like,

surreptitiously, like, "Hey, how's it going? Good match."

And he's like, "Yeah, thank you."

We went for a walk and it was so romantic.

Like, it was that big fluffy snow that was coming down,

and it was like a blanket of diamonds

and I thought he was so exotic 'cause of his English accent.

So, I had this big

romantic idea of that suave, debonair Englishman.

I was 18 when he married me.

So, let's read this one.

"Michelle, I can tell you a secret now because we're married.

I think that you will believe me.

The next thing on my mind is that we will have some babies."

Bronwyne!

"But only when you are ready.

I wish that is soon, because when

I'm on the road, the babies can look after you.

I love you more than ever. Your ever-loving yard dog, Tom."

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

Like, he didn't pick her up

'cause he was so scared to drop her or hurt her.

I'm Bronwyne Billington.

Eldest daughter of the Dynamite Kid.

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

or wrestling with his buddies, and we used to play in there.

I remember being backstage at the shows.

Randy Savage and Miss Elizabeth. They loved me for some reason.

I just wanted to hang out with them, really.

My dad was a really funny, goofy guy.

This woman is mean. She's lean.

She's 205 pounds of fighting fury. 17-inch biceps, 95-inch legs.

She's muscle, steel and sex appeal.

He had no teeth at one point.

He had the retainer teeth, and he'd pull them out

and do magic tricks on me.

If you look at the pictures with Dad and I, growing up,

he was always holding my hand really tight.

That's a sign of how much he loved his daughter.

When I was younger, my mom would tell me,

"Oh, you're so much like your dad,"

because I learned how to do flips.

I thought he could fly. Like, I've never seen

a wrestler that could do that.

I'm Amaris Billington. Dynamite Kid's youngest daughter.

I'm so proud of who he was in his career.

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 catapulted himself to stardom around the globe.

Some great 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 Ridgemont High.

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

Oh, wow!

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

Dave Meltzer, editor of the Wrestling Observer.

I do podcasts at wrestlingobserver.com.

There's no Jushin Liger without Tiger Mask and Dynamite Kid.

That opens the door for Guerrero, Benoit, and Hart,

and all of these different guys who came after him.

He had a chip on his shoulder, size-wise.

He wanted to be the best. At his size, you had to over-perform

because it was not what wrestling became years later

where size didn't matter.

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

but not a magician.

If it looked like it hurt, it's probably because it did.

It was amazing to see. But in hindsight,

it's like, he just had no regard 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" Niedhart.

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, describe Tommy as one big muscle.

He was like Mighty Mouse. This guy had striations in his butt.

Muscles just ripping out of his ass.

The guy was nothing but a pure muscle.

The name is Dan Spivey. I'm a friend of Dynamite Kid's.

Danny Spivey, of course...

People will pay to see a bunch of muscular guys beat on each other.

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

Everybody was taking them.

My name's Gary Portz. I came over to America and started wrestling, 1978.

And I met Dynamite Kid.

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 'em.

Me and Danny, one time we woke up,

I looked at a wall and there must have been 10 needles stuck in it.

I mean, who does that? Dumbass wrestlers, you know.

With his new muscular physique,

Dynamite's explosiveness in the ring makes him a breakout star at WWF.

By 1985, he and his tag partner Davey Boy Smith

are packing arenas nationwide.

Here are the British Bulldogs!

Davey was his cousin,

who, in many ways, emulated him. Same look.

People went crazy because... 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 fast suplex.

Snap suplex!

Like, 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 with my bro.

Fabulous Rougeau Brothers.

The Fabulous Rougeau Brothers.

I remember Dynamite Kid walking in the dressing room

with a needle in his butt.

Needle's going like this, and he'd go,

"I'm gonna have a good fucking match!"

And you know, he was like a beast. And so, I was afraid of him.

I was afraid of those kind of guys.

Look out!

After years of self-sacrifice and physical strain,

Tom earns a championship victory with Davey Boy at WrestleMania II.

Tag team champions! The British Bulldogs!

At the top of the pecking order,

Tom is hell-bent on putting up and coming wrestlers

through the same hard knocks he was once forced to endure.

He was a product of Wigan's Snake Pit.

Guys who knew how to hurt you.

And, I don't know but I'm assuming,

Tommy took a beating.

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

a bit of bitterness to people who hadn't endured what he had

to make it through. And I found that out firsthand.

From Bloomington, Indiana...

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

Jack Foley!

Me and Les against The British Bulldogs.

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

Tremendous affection!

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

Dynamite shook 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 club me with his bicep.

Oh, wow!

And that was the last time I ate solid food for three weeks.

I didn't know it, but he had dislocated my jaw.

Almost lost my career because of that.

No hard feelings.

I said, "It was such an honor."

Shook their hands,

went back to my hotel room and threw up.

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

and eventually, into his home life,

setting off events that shatter his career,

his marriage, and ultimately, his legacy.

So, 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. Well, it says, "Kid".

These were the original Bulldogs from when I was little.

-I played Barbies with those. -These were our Ken dolls.

From England, The British Bulldogs!

I really loved the Bulldogs. But I saw a few things happen that...

Changed my opinion.

He was a ribber. He gave people a hard time, you know, jokingly.

Some people wouldn't think it was jokingly.

Some of the stuff was pretty stiff.

He used to love to Halcion people.

One time, he Halcion'd on my mother.

Put a sleeping drug in their drinks. There was a guy called Mitch.

Snow.

Our first look at Mitch Snow.

And the kid had a big mouth. He'd just talk shit.

So, Tommy gave him the Halcion gimmick.

Dynamite and Davey Boy went on the balcony...

to get into his room.

And they crapped in his bag.

Shaved his eyebrows. They shaved his head.

The kid went back to his home in South Carolina somewhere,

in fear of his life.

I think he almost had a nervous breakdown.

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

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

When you lost your bags that week.

When you haven't seen your kid in weeks.

It's not funny, or easy.

He wasn't like that when I started going out with him.

Or in our first five years in 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.

After years of being pushed past its limits,

Dynamite's body finally breaks down.

Tom is rushed to the hospital with a severe back injury

requiring immediate emergency surgery.

When they opened him, his fourth and fifth lumbar was shredded.

And his discs were all tangled in his spinal cord.

-So they removed the discs, right? -Two discs.

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

And he was back in the ring two weeks later.

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

Davey carried him to the ring, off-camera.

The television audience never saw this.

I think he gets hit by the megaphone, taken out right away.

Jimmy Hart on the other side,

just striking Dynamite Kid from behind!

Davey worked the belts off of 'em.

-No, no, no! -One, two, three!

New tag team champions!

He got carried back to my car.

At my house, he went in the wheelchair

and stayed with me for a couple of days.

He'd sleep on the floor, not because I had no 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, 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 agony, his temper begins to spiral out of control,

creating chaos at home.

When times were good with Michelle and Tom, that was good.

But did you ever see times when they were bad between them?

Yeah. I seen it.

One night, he took me out to show me a nice time.

I didn't want to drink, so instead of saying, "I'm not drinking,"

because that would have been like a diss,

I ordered a tonic water and put lemon in it like it was a vodka tonic.

He grabbed it, drank it,

and he just spit it out, as if it was poison.

"What the fuck is this?" I was like, "Tonic water."

And he was like, "Tonic water! You're drinking tonic water?"

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

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

A car would be coming and he'd act like he's gonna hit the car.

"How could you lie to me?" And I was like,

"I just didn't want to drink? What's the big deal?"

When we got home, I'm about to go to sleep and he's like,

"Fucking get up!" And I was like, "What, what?"

He's like, "Get up, get up!"

Then he shoved me in a closet.

"You fucking stay in there, you little yard dog."

I just, I slept on the floor in there.

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

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

So, after Marek was born, he was, you know, going to great lengths

for what he did in the closet incident.

And Marek was such a difficult child. Like, he was really high maintenance.

But Tom was so patient.

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

But that didn't last.

Dynamite Kid's home and work life have become increasingly volatile.

After being forced to surrender the championship,

Tom vents his rage on another rising tag team in the WWF.

Vince called the Bulldogs and Rougeaus.

"Guys, I'd like to go ahead and have a great match with you

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

The time event has expired. This contest is ruled a draw.

It was a draw. So, for me, that was a victory.

As if we were in their league, which we were not.

After that match, I was so happy and everything was good,

and I never thought I'd encounter problems with the Bulldogs.

Can you just tell us

what your understanding of the incident was?

The Rougeau thing? I'm tired of it. I don't want to hear about it.

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

When the Rougeaus came to WWF,

they had 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.

Never was a mean person, but I talked and joked a lot,

and not everybody liked to hear jokes, you know?

And that may not have helped my cause.

I walked in the dressing room.

Perfect was sitting at the other end of the room,

against the wall.

As soon as I walked in, "Hey, let's play cards!"

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

Next thing you know, it's like, pow!

And I fell down.

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

Then he kicked me in the face.

I looked like the Elephant Man.

Made him look bad in front of the guys. He told Mr. McMahon

after the fact. Like, he could no longer shave

because he couldn't look at himself.

I was in bad shape, mentally more than physically.

I didn't want to do what was coming. I 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 lost 10 pounds during that week,

Wednesday to Sunday. I couldn't eat.

I was throwing up every time 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.

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.

I know Dynamite's coming.

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

And I said, "Hey, how ya doing?"

He had a coffee in his hand and he went...

And I went.

When you're young and you see monster movies,

where the blood is throwing out, like a river? It's true.

Four teeth came out.

And then I remember Dynamite Kid,

"I'm gonna fuck you! I'm gonna fuck you up!"

Then I said, "The next time I'm gonna put you in a fucking wheelchair!"

Was it a roll of quarters? 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 was damaged.

I mean, the guy that's tougher than nails

get physically abused like that.

He wanted to beat the shit out of him, and then some, probably.

Tom's plan for revenge comes to a halt.

Well, there's Dino!

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, "I don't want to scare you.

I talked to Dino Bravo." He said he saw an envelope with Tom's name,

our address, and inside of it had a picture of our house,

me and the kids, like, "If there's any retaliation,

like, anything, your family's gonna be dead."

We sold our house 'cause we were worried that the mafia,

they knew where we lived and everything.

Jacques got his respect back.

Dynamite never was allowed to get his respect back, I suppose.

His life was never the same. He was never the same guy.

Dynamite's ex-wife says

Dynamite didn't get revenge because they feared the mob.

Is this... have you heard this before? Is that true?

That is funny. But there's something I gotta 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.

A stooge for the Bulldogs.

That whatever I said to him, he'd bring to them.

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

I wrote a fictive name, an invented name.

And I told Dino, I said,

"You see this name here? I gotta call him every night.

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 made 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 career in the WWF.

Don't think Dynamite was ever happy in WWF.

He liked the respect in Japan, so it was like,

we can cut a deal there, get away from this.

Tommy was really hurting on that tour in Japan.

But you'd never have known,

because he was still giving 100 percent.

Yeah, he started to say his, his arm was "bothering him".

But later I found out his ligaments weren't even on the bone.

He got his shoulder operated on. It was terrible.

About a week later,

he was upset with me 'cause my girlfriend came over and he was like,

"You're just talking to Sandra. You don't care about me."

And I was like, "Yes, I do, Tom."

He starts going...

He takes his supporting arm band thing off.

I was like, "Stop it!" 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 and watch wrestling.

It was hours watching him and Tiger Mask.

He said, "Watch this. Took a 'F' of a bump."

Just him and Tiger Mask, 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,

something changed emotionally for Tom?

Well, after that, he hit quite a few other people.

He... They 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 cut, and it's just the flap, it's open.

You see his cheekbone.

And he's got his sunglasses on.

Like, Bronwyne's crying, "Daddy, what happened?"

I was scared. "What happened to Daddy?"

He's like, "I fucking fell down, little girl. Daddy's gonna be okay."

Bronwyne never saw this stuff, but she was seeing it.

And I was like, oh, my God.

I felt like such a failure, as a mother.

Now I'm pregnant, bringing another child into this horrible life.

I 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

fricking 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 that's when the shit went down.

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

He lost his mind.

He had me in some kind of hold on my jaw, my mouth.

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

The kids had never seen anything like this.

And they were crying. I go, "Daddy's having a moment.

It'll be fine. He'll leave."

He goes, "No, I think you should fucking go." And I was like,

"I'm the one pregnant. The one with a toddler." Marek 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 fucking minutes,

I'll blow your fuckin' head off."

And I was like, "No, you won't."

He was like, "I fucking will."

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, 'cause I'm calling his bluff.

"You're not blowing my head off.

Leave or I'll call the police." So, I called them.

"My husband's threatening to blow my head off

and I'm pregnant and I have children."

She goes, "Well, honey, if he said you could leave, just leave!"

Oh, God. I was like, "not again."

I didn't want to go to Bret and Julie's.

I didn't want to bring our bullshit over there, again.

But I did. I packed up my little bags and I left.

She was terrified that he was gonna come

and, who knows, do 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 secret for years,

until they were eventually exposed to the world,

forever altering the legacy of 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 gonna come to Calgary.

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

And thank god he didn't, because in the end, I think he did the,

like, he manned up and let us be.

I think he knew there was something wrong with him, like,

he wasn't the same person. This violence was out of control.

I don't think he had control of it anymore.

After he finished wrestling, he was fighting in garages.

You know, he was like a, like a dog. Like a pit bull.

There was cars parked in a circle with lights on.

And it was bare knuck fights.

And he was doing those to survive.

Did he talk about his family?

I knew you'd ask that.

He didn't, because that was Tommy, you know?

He wouldn't let people in.

He didn't let me in. He didn't want to show me any sign of weakness.

It's a macho thing, I know, but, you know,

you had to keep that reputation, you know, not being a wimp.

Years after retirement, Tom returns to Japan for a comeback match.

The comeback match was real sad.

I think all of us willingly suspend that state of belief

to believe in a different reality,

that we are who we're portrayed as being.

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

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

Went to hospital and he said, "What about my fucking legs?"

And they told him he had too much scar tissue.

Too much scar tissue to operate. So...

You know, guys came to see him and he didn't want them to.

The greatest wrestler, who changed the business,

and this guy who 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, you don't get married and have kids and not 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.

It was always positive.

And then, the Chris Benoit documentary came out.

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 tragedies,

a CNN exposé airs 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 wasn't the guy you loved. -No.

The night before her interview,

Michelle tells her children the complex truth about their father.

I was just so mad.

I was, I was mad at my dad

for hurting my mom, because she is... the best woman ever.

And I was mad at Mom because I felt like she lied to me

about who my dad was.

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 to Canada.

When I had my first child, I finally felt whole.

I thought she was everything that I was looking for.

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 went, "Flight's booked. I'm off. Are you coming with me?"

And I said, "No."

I decided I was gonna go see my dad, without him knowing.

Fifteen years after Tom last saw his eldest daughter,

Bronwyne travels to England to pay him a surprise visit.

Entered the living room, my dad was in his wheelchair.

The first time I'd ever seen him in it.

And I immediately broke down crying.

He was like no time had passed. "Why are you crying?"

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

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

I'm on the couch, he's in his wheelchair.

And I wanted 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 cried, 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.

We shared a beautiful moment, and I'm so happy that I went.

At the end, 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.

I can't. What do you want me... 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...

'Cause 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 ya."

And Dynamite said, "Why?"

It brought home a lot of memories, when he died,

of what an integral figure he was in wrestling, that probably

he'll never get the full credit for, because telling that story is a,

is a sad story, not a happy story.

You don't have that happy ending story.

Let it go. Let my kids heal. They can't heal with this stuff.

And if you talk about the violence, talk about the CTE,

talk about the signs of depression. Don't knock him.

Like, he coulda' came back.

We could have perpetuated it. But we ended it, 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 work,"

and I said, in my head, "Why don't you be a father?

They don't need a wrestler."

But now I'm older, I understand that's what he wanted to give them.

He's largely been forgotten by time,

but those who saw him in his prime, they'll never forget it.

Never seen this, both men on the top!

Bruce Springsteen said, "Trust the art, not the artist."

Tommy had a canvas, and he was brilliant.

They love it! The Dynamite Kid!

He's not the first or the last to suffer for his art.

There's a sense that a lot of people who are great at something

are not great at all aspects of their life

and they find solace in doing what they do.

But they pay for that brief time.

You become a bigger star than you imagined,

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

Subtitles translated by: Paul lyuno-SDI Group