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Dynamite and Davey: The Explosive Lives of the British Bulldogs
Dynamite and The Explosive Lives of The British Bulldogs is the triumphant but ultimately tragic story of Tom Billington and Davey Boy Smith. Cousins born just a couple of years apart in a small mining town near Wigan, Tom and Davey discovered the art of wrestling as schoolboys. Tom went on to become 'The Dynamite Kid', arguably the greatest and most pioneering wrestler in history, but his short temper and determination to reach the top of a sport dominated by naturally bigger men would be his undoing. The more reserved Davey became a global superstar, but followed his cousin not just into exceptionalism, but into heavy substance abuse as well. Ultimately, the extraordinarily dysfunctional world of pro wrestling would prove too much for the cousins from Golborne - one proud, one naïve. Together they became the best and most influential tag team of their generation. But they could not escape their demons, and their triumphs eventually submitted to their tragedy. Dynamite and Davey is a gripping cautionary tale.
- GenresBiographyNonfiction
385 pages, Kindle Edition
Published April 4, 2022
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66 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
June 3, 2022
Dynamite and Davey chronicles the rise and fall of The Dynamite Kid and Davey Boy Smith, the British Bulldogs.
I've watched wrestling on and off for my entire life and the first tag team that ever caught my eye was the British Bulldogs. When this ARC fell into my lap, I took it like a superplex.
Steven Bell put in the work on this. The book has a more scholarly tone than most wrestling books. While I was reading it, I suspected he did a ridiculous amount of research. The sources cited in the back proved me right. Dynamite and Davey contains more verified facts than a lot of wrestling books.
I've read and/or watched a lot of what transpired in the book but it was still like watching two trains getting closer and closer to a junction on the same track and seeing debris fly in all directions. Tom Billington's early life is chronicled from his early days in England to training to ending up in Calgary, wrestling for the Hart family. Davey, Tom's cousin, gets the same treatment as Tom and also winds up in Calgary. They don't team together for a while but when they do...
It seems like Tom's career had already peaked when The British Bulldogs formed and Davey's still hadn't hit its apex yet. Already, drugs were a huge part of both men's lives. Like I said, I knew what was coming but the WWF run and the sad decline of the Dynamite Kid were still painful to read at times. People say the ambush by Jacques Rougeau was the beginning of the end for Dynamite but he was already sliding downhill before then.
Not surprising, Davey's story is also sad, sometimes sadder because Davey seems like he was a nice guy, not the hateful shithead the Dynamite Kid seemed to be a lot of the time. Drugs, injuries, drugs, injuries, and drugs did him in. He got to share the ring with his son, at least.
I really like that Bell ended the book with an account of Dynamite's sons trying to follow in his footsteps as the Billington Bulldogs. Always send the crowd home happy, as one huckster is wont to say.
I've read or heard the stories before but Steven Bell tells them well and sieves out a lot of the bullshit. Five out of five stars.
I've watched wrestling on and off for my entire life and the first tag team that ever caught my eye was the British Bulldogs. When this ARC fell into my lap, I took it like a superplex.
Steven Bell put in the work on this. The book has a more scholarly tone than most wrestling books. While I was reading it, I suspected he did a ridiculous amount of research. The sources cited in the back proved me right. Dynamite and Davey contains more verified facts than a lot of wrestling books.
I've read and/or watched a lot of what transpired in the book but it was still like watching two trains getting closer and closer to a junction on the same track and seeing debris fly in all directions. Tom Billington's early life is chronicled from his early days in England to training to ending up in Calgary, wrestling for the Hart family. Davey, Tom's cousin, gets the same treatment as Tom and also winds up in Calgary. They don't team together for a while but when they do...
It seems like Tom's career had already peaked when The British Bulldogs formed and Davey's still hadn't hit its apex yet. Already, drugs were a huge part of both men's lives. Like I said, I knew what was coming but the WWF run and the sad decline of the Dynamite Kid were still painful to read at times. People say the ambush by Jacques Rougeau was the beginning of the end for Dynamite but he was already sliding downhill before then.
Not surprising, Davey's story is also sad, sometimes sadder because Davey seems like he was a nice guy, not the hateful shithead the Dynamite Kid seemed to be a lot of the time. Drugs, injuries, drugs, injuries, and drugs did him in. He got to share the ring with his son, at least.
I really like that Bell ended the book with an account of Dynamite's sons trying to follow in his footsteps as the Billington Bulldogs. Always send the crowd home happy, as one huckster is wont to say.
I've read or heard the stories before but Steven Bell tells them well and sieves out a lot of the bullshit. Five out of five stars.
May 12, 2022
Dynamite Kid and Davey Boy Smith are two of the most successful British professional wrestlers of all time and are known and adored the world over. When I discovered wrestling myself as a kid, The British Bulldogs were part of the first match I ever sat down and watched on TV. The lightning-quick reflexes of Dynamite coupled with the strength and power of Davey Boy were a perfect mix.
As fans, we have all grown up inspired by classic matches involving these two, either collectively or on their own, and we all like to think we have a fair idea of their back stories, but this book could serve to prove many of us wrong.
The first half of the book charts Dynamite's early days, to his meteoric rise in Canada, Japan and eventually the USA as his young cousin Davey cuts his teeth in the sport and eventually joins him.
The second half shows how Davey Boy's own star rose to greater heights in the WWF and WCW at a time as Dynamite's declined, owing to his physical and emotional breakdown.
Their iconic WWF Tag Team Championship run in the mid-80s serves as a perfect staple to the two men's individual stories.
The level of research and detail Steven has included, with the support of family members and those that were around both men at the time, makes this book hard to put down.
This is as close as we have ever had - or probably ever will have - to the real story of The British Bulldogs, a team who literally gave their lives to the sport and to entertain their fans.
This in turn, in my opinion, renders this not only one of the best but one of the most important wrestling books fans should add to their reading lists.
🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
As fans, we have all grown up inspired by classic matches involving these two, either collectively or on their own, and we all like to think we have a fair idea of their back stories, but this book could serve to prove many of us wrong.
The first half of the book charts Dynamite's early days, to his meteoric rise in Canada, Japan and eventually the USA as his young cousin Davey cuts his teeth in the sport and eventually joins him.
The second half shows how Davey Boy's own star rose to greater heights in the WWF and WCW at a time as Dynamite's declined, owing to his physical and emotional breakdown.
Their iconic WWF Tag Team Championship run in the mid-80s serves as a perfect staple to the two men's individual stories.
The level of research and detail Steven has included, with the support of family members and those that were around both men at the time, makes this book hard to put down.
This is as close as we have ever had - or probably ever will have - to the real story of The British Bulldogs, a team who literally gave their lives to the sport and to entertain their fans.
This in turn, in my opinion, renders this not only one of the best but one of the most important wrestling books fans should add to their reading lists.
🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
June 16, 2022
Other children went mad for football and Gazza. I went mad for wrestling and Davey Boy Smith.
Like Bell, I started watching WWF in the early 1990s - the very episode when Earthquake kayfabe injured Hulk Hogan. (A ‘get well Hulk’ wish, written in blue pencil crayon on the back of a ‘Visit Aberystwyth’ postcard, was promptly posted.) The next year when the WWF toured the U.K. the cheers for Davey, the local hero, drowned out Hogan’s. Later that year at Battle Royal at the Albert Hall Hogan was off the card entirely, leaving Davey to go over in both the final match and the battle royal straight after.
Never think wrestling fans are neither intelligent nor diligent. In the time before streaming, many fans cleared out their local video rental shops to catch up on 5-6 years of wrestling PPVs like comic fans eagerly catching up on lost issues. Watching those videos gave pause for thought. Davey hadn’t always been a singles star. He’d once been part of a tag-team. His tag partner was also his own cousin, Tom Billington, aka The Dynamite Kid. They came to the ring to ‘Rule Britannia’ in the same red, white and blue. Far from being the trailblazer of the duo, Davey seemed the junior member. One of the delights of Bell’s book is how clearly it sets out the tangle that is a career in professional wrestling.
Tom was the first of the pair to don tights and boots. As a small man, he showed up the heavyweights with his acrobatic, high-impact style. The style invigorated wrestling and was soon stealing shows in North America. The style reversed the fortunes of veteran Canadian promoter Stu Hart’s ailing wrestling business, who quickly made Tom one of the show’s main stars.
Davey followed later, having followed his cousin’s example. Both became mainstays in the Canadian territory and later in Japan, partnering against other wrestlers or wrestling each other. Tom once cut a heated promo before a match, saying of his opponent: ‘You’re not ‘ooman, Davey Boy Smith. You...were a test toob baby.’ Davey’s humanity was proven all too real. During one match, the plan had been for Tom to get juice in the usual way of making a small nick from a concealed razor blade. Instead Tom produced a scalpel, dug deep into Davey’s head, and carved. His cousin’s blood began running ‘like claret.’
This might have persuaded some people that Tom wasn’t the best example to follow uncritically. But the matches he was having in Japan, especially during the legendary feud with Tiger Mask, set the standard, and are studied avidly by aspiring wrestlers even today.
Bell is careful to let you know the show-stopper and the walking cautionary tale can inhabit the same body. The high-impact style led to a vicious cycle of injuries, painkillers and hard drinking. If this behaviour seems mindless, Bell also puts you firmly in the wrestler’s boots. For a wrestler wakes up at stupid ‘o clock after a few hours of downer-induced sleep, takes speed to wake up and make the plane to the next interchangeable town, takes pain pills to numb lingering and salary-threatening injuries, wrestles in the evening when the restaurants have shut, then parties until the small hours before beginning the cycle again for 300 days of the year. Add in steroids, cocaine, missed sports days and children’s birthday parties.
Bell displays a proper respect for the victims of this lifestyle: the wrestler’s families. By the 1990s Tom’s career had fallen apart from long-term injuries and constant drug abuse. After pulling a gun on his own wife with their children in the next room, Tom was given a one-way plane ticket back to England. He had entered Canada country 13 years earlier with £20 in his pocket. After earning and squandering millions, he left with $20 in his pocket.
Davey returned to the WWF and 2 years later captured the Intercontinental Championship belt in front of over 80,000 fans at Wembley Stadium. This, alas, was as high as his career would ever go. Multiple hirings, firings, injuries and drug abuse saw him dead at only 39.
Bell has done his research beyond merely sifting and refining from other wrestler’s memoirs and unearthed some interesting facts. He is keen to present more rounded accounts of key events such as Tom’s backstage fight with Jacques Rougeau or the build-up to Davey’s match at Wembley. Davey, we learn, was meant to win the IC championship 2 years before in 1990, but a late work-VISA scuppered the plan. Davey was also a noted video game fan, with Mortal Kombat one of his favourites. In a rare moment of tenderness, Tom bought one his daughters her own pony, named after a character from Rainbow Brite. I think it was the right decision to the end the book with an epilogue from Tom’s daughter Bronwynne, at a time when the text sorely needed a ray of light.
I would suggest, however, that Bell qualifies his praise for Ross Hart’s proof-reading. On page 89 ‘legitimate’ is printed as ‘leg54rritimate’. But this is a minor blemish in what is destined to be the definitive account of both men’s wrestling careers. Kind, nostalgic but clear sighted, I doubt it will be bettered.
Like Bell, I started watching WWF in the early 1990s - the very episode when Earthquake kayfabe injured Hulk Hogan. (A ‘get well Hulk’ wish, written in blue pencil crayon on the back of a ‘Visit Aberystwyth’ postcard, was promptly posted.) The next year when the WWF toured the U.K. the cheers for Davey, the local hero, drowned out Hogan’s. Later that year at Battle Royal at the Albert Hall Hogan was off the card entirely, leaving Davey to go over in both the final match and the battle royal straight after.
Never think wrestling fans are neither intelligent nor diligent. In the time before streaming, many fans cleared out their local video rental shops to catch up on 5-6 years of wrestling PPVs like comic fans eagerly catching up on lost issues. Watching those videos gave pause for thought. Davey hadn’t always been a singles star. He’d once been part of a tag-team. His tag partner was also his own cousin, Tom Billington, aka The Dynamite Kid. They came to the ring to ‘Rule Britannia’ in the same red, white and blue. Far from being the trailblazer of the duo, Davey seemed the junior member. One of the delights of Bell’s book is how clearly it sets out the tangle that is a career in professional wrestling.
Tom was the first of the pair to don tights and boots. As a small man, he showed up the heavyweights with his acrobatic, high-impact style. The style invigorated wrestling and was soon stealing shows in North America. The style reversed the fortunes of veteran Canadian promoter Stu Hart’s ailing wrestling business, who quickly made Tom one of the show’s main stars.
Davey followed later, having followed his cousin’s example. Both became mainstays in the Canadian territory and later in Japan, partnering against other wrestlers or wrestling each other. Tom once cut a heated promo before a match, saying of his opponent: ‘You’re not ‘ooman, Davey Boy Smith. You...were a test toob baby.’ Davey’s humanity was proven all too real. During one match, the plan had been for Tom to get juice in the usual way of making a small nick from a concealed razor blade. Instead Tom produced a scalpel, dug deep into Davey’s head, and carved. His cousin’s blood began running ‘like claret.’
This might have persuaded some people that Tom wasn’t the best example to follow uncritically. But the matches he was having in Japan, especially during the legendary feud with Tiger Mask, set the standard, and are studied avidly by aspiring wrestlers even today.
Bell is careful to let you know the show-stopper and the walking cautionary tale can inhabit the same body. The high-impact style led to a vicious cycle of injuries, painkillers and hard drinking. If this behaviour seems mindless, Bell also puts you firmly in the wrestler’s boots. For a wrestler wakes up at stupid ‘o clock after a few hours of downer-induced sleep, takes speed to wake up and make the plane to the next interchangeable town, takes pain pills to numb lingering and salary-threatening injuries, wrestles in the evening when the restaurants have shut, then parties until the small hours before beginning the cycle again for 300 days of the year. Add in steroids, cocaine, missed sports days and children’s birthday parties.
Bell displays a proper respect for the victims of this lifestyle: the wrestler’s families. By the 1990s Tom’s career had fallen apart from long-term injuries and constant drug abuse. After pulling a gun on his own wife with their children in the next room, Tom was given a one-way plane ticket back to England. He had entered Canada country 13 years earlier with £20 in his pocket. After earning and squandering millions, he left with $20 in his pocket.
Davey returned to the WWF and 2 years later captured the Intercontinental Championship belt in front of over 80,000 fans at Wembley Stadium. This, alas, was as high as his career would ever go. Multiple hirings, firings, injuries and drug abuse saw him dead at only 39.
Bell has done his research beyond merely sifting and refining from other wrestler’s memoirs and unearthed some interesting facts. He is keen to present more rounded accounts of key events such as Tom’s backstage fight with Jacques Rougeau or the build-up to Davey’s match at Wembley. Davey, we learn, was meant to win the IC championship 2 years before in 1990, but a late work-VISA scuppered the plan. Davey was also a noted video game fan, with Mortal Kombat one of his favourites. In a rare moment of tenderness, Tom bought one his daughters her own pony, named after a character from Rainbow Brite. I think it was the right decision to the end the book with an epilogue from Tom’s daughter Bronwynne, at a time when the text sorely needed a ray of light.
I would suggest, however, that Bell qualifies his praise for Ross Hart’s proof-reading. On page 89 ‘legitimate’ is printed as ‘leg54rritimate’. But this is a minor blemish in what is destined to be the definitive account of both men’s wrestling careers. Kind, nostalgic but clear sighted, I doubt it will be bettered.
May 24, 2022
Thoroughly researched and well written. Perhaps could have been lightly edited down in parts but paints a vivid picture of both men and their careers. Must read for wrestling fans.
August 8, 2022
4.5 stars.
Really good book about the lives/careers of The British Bulldogs AKA Davey Boy Smith and The Dynamite Kid. Both men lead a crazy drug fueled life that ended too early for both of them. If you call yourself any form of a wrestling fan you need to read this book!
Really good book about the lives/careers of The British Bulldogs AKA Davey Boy Smith and The Dynamite Kid. Both men lead a crazy drug fueled life that ended too early for both of them. If you call yourself any form of a wrestling fan you need to read this book!
March 1, 2024
Skilfully written, in the journalistic standard I most enjoy, with attention to detail and great care in a way that flowed.
You can tell the author has a passion for the subject and has been meticulous in his research and attempt to do the Bulldogs justice.
Similarly, I think great care has been taken to represent the reality of the pair's failing as individuals in a way that is both sensitive to the families and truthful without being sensationalist or judgemental.
Personally, I am a huge fan of the way the book was structured into three sections - Dynamite Kid - The Bulldogs - The British Bulldog - to delineate the story in a clear way.
The input of the Hart and Billington families was clear as there was a level of detail and insight that wouldn't have been possible when writing about two individuals posthumously, and made for a compelling and ultimately trustworthy read.
Steven Bell really paints a comprehensive picture of the lives and careers of the protagonists, including covering all the major wrestling events occuring at the time to provide rich context, to the extent he sometimes reaches a level of detail that he really doesn't even have to. In some ways, this book is more a study of the whole wider Hart Family and legacy framed by the Bulldogs, such is the remarkable ground covered.
The only criticism I would have is of the imagined sequences, which no one except for Tom or Davey Boy would have known but are written in such a way that they are fact. It certainly makes for a more engaging reading experience and even seem authentic, but at the same time there is the nagging understanding that the author couldn't possibly know how Owen was feeling standing on the walkway above the ring, for example.
My second nitpick was the cover of the book. I thought it was really naff and poorly designed, shoehorning two obviously separate photos into one with a strange cage behind them. The image of them on the back cover, as a tag team together leaning on their haunches ready for action would have made a fantastic alternative.
Anyway, these final points are absolutely minor grievances in the overall package. This is a superb book and one that any fan of the WWF, 80s and 90s wrestling, the Bulldogs - or reading(!) will savour. Buy this!
You can tell the author has a passion for the subject and has been meticulous in his research and attempt to do the Bulldogs justice.
Similarly, I think great care has been taken to represent the reality of the pair's failing as individuals in a way that is both sensitive to the families and truthful without being sensationalist or judgemental.
Personally, I am a huge fan of the way the book was structured into three sections - Dynamite Kid - The Bulldogs - The British Bulldog - to delineate the story in a clear way.
The input of the Hart and Billington families was clear as there was a level of detail and insight that wouldn't have been possible when writing about two individuals posthumously, and made for a compelling and ultimately trustworthy read.
Steven Bell really paints a comprehensive picture of the lives and careers of the protagonists, including covering all the major wrestling events occuring at the time to provide rich context, to the extent he sometimes reaches a level of detail that he really doesn't even have to. In some ways, this book is more a study of the whole wider Hart Family and legacy framed by the Bulldogs, such is the remarkable ground covered.
The only criticism I would have is of the imagined sequences, which no one except for Tom or Davey Boy would have known but are written in such a way that they are fact. It certainly makes for a more engaging reading experience and even seem authentic, but at the same time there is the nagging understanding that the author couldn't possibly know how Owen was feeling standing on the walkway above the ring, for example.
My second nitpick was the cover of the book. I thought it was really naff and poorly designed, shoehorning two obviously separate photos into one with a strange cage behind them. The image of them on the back cover, as a tag team together leaning on their haunches ready for action would have made a fantastic alternative.
Anyway, these final points are absolutely minor grievances in the overall package. This is a superb book and one that any fan of the WWF, 80s and 90s wrestling, the Bulldogs - or reading(!) will savour. Buy this!
September 30, 2022
Having just finished this book, I found myself torn as to how I should rate it. As a story, it is quite good and the writing is technically sufficient. However, I feel like the author owes a great debt of gratitude toward Bret Hart and Tom Billington, for he relied heavily on their autobiographies to tell the story of the British Bulldogs in this book. I have read both Hart and Billington's books multiple times, and thus was able to recognise when Steven Bell (author of Dynamite and Davey) lifted conversations or passages almost entirely from their respective books.
I also find it somewhat misleading that this book leans heavily on the implication that it's a tell-all biography of both these stars. As a fan of Davey Boy Smith, I was tremendously excited to find this book as (to my knowledge) there had not yet been a book released on his life and career. To my great disappointment, I soon realized (and it was confirmed in the acknowledgements section at the back) that were would be no new information provided on Davey Boy, as his own family did not contribute to the book. Thus, there was a great imbalance in the information provided between Billington and Smith. Because Dynamite Kid released his memoir in 2001, the author was able to provide more insight into his upbringing and personal life, and then gleamed more information about his later days by interviewing family members. However, for the British Bulldog (Davey Boy), such comparative information is scant, and if you've read Bret Hart's biography or even Smith's Wikipedia page you won't learn anything new about him. The fact that the chapter about his most famous match (against Bret Hart at SummerSlam 1992) is only 6 pages tells you all you need to know about the dearth of fresh information regarding Davey Boy Smith.
This book is sure to be a warm blanket of nostalgia for some, particularly fans of the British Bulldogs, however for anyone seeking to unveil new information about two of wrestling's most famous British exports, you won't find it here, as much as the author would like to imply otherwise.
I also find it somewhat misleading that this book leans heavily on the implication that it's a tell-all biography of both these stars. As a fan of Davey Boy Smith, I was tremendously excited to find this book as (to my knowledge) there had not yet been a book released on his life and career. To my great disappointment, I soon realized (and it was confirmed in the acknowledgements section at the back) that were would be no new information provided on Davey Boy, as his own family did not contribute to the book. Thus, there was a great imbalance in the information provided between Billington and Smith. Because Dynamite Kid released his memoir in 2001, the author was able to provide more insight into his upbringing and personal life, and then gleamed more information about his later days by interviewing family members. However, for the British Bulldog (Davey Boy), such comparative information is scant, and if you've read Bret Hart's biography or even Smith's Wikipedia page you won't learn anything new about him. The fact that the chapter about his most famous match (against Bret Hart at SummerSlam 1992) is only 6 pages tells you all you need to know about the dearth of fresh information regarding Davey Boy Smith.
This book is sure to be a warm blanket of nostalgia for some, particularly fans of the British Bulldogs, however for anyone seeking to unveil new information about two of wrestling's most famous British exports, you won't find it here, as much as the author would like to imply otherwise.
September 11, 2022
Awesome and Uplifting
This is a wonderful book that chronicles the life and times of the British Bulldogs. Nothing was held back about the true triumphs and struggles of this legendary tag team. This is a wrestling story that will tug at the heartstrings. I highly recommend this book to the fullest.
This is a wonderful book that chronicles the life and times of the British Bulldogs. Nothing was held back about the true triumphs and struggles of this legendary tag team. This is a wrestling story that will tug at the heartstrings. I highly recommend this book to the fullest.
January 5, 2024
Well written and well researched, though it’s not necessary reading if you’ve already read Dyno and Bret’s autobiographies—two of the absolute best wrestling autobiographies, it must be said. Also, the book could have focused more on the Bulldogs throughout, as there are a lot of extraneous details about the Hart family and the wrestling industry that aren’t required for this story.
July 15, 2022
I enjoyed this book, most of it was not new to me but all the early days stories were cool and interesting. My only issue was I could have done without hearing about the screw job,Benoit murders,Owens tragedy just so over those stories but otherwise it’s a great read.
February 6, 2023
A real surprise, this - in a world with so many sub-standard wrestling books, it was a joy to chance upon one that does justice to its subjects. And by justice, I mean an honest appraisal of complex characters rather than a biography that makes excuses for troubled, difficult men.
October 17, 2023
Probably the best wrestling book i've read. Gives an unbiased view of the two bulldogs painting the ups and downs of their careers and ultimately the tragedy of their stories. Pure gold.
September 14, 2024
Probably the best wrestling biography I've read.
Doesn't hold back on thier life the good or the bad
Great book
Doesn't hold back on thier life the good or the bad
Great book
September 13, 2023
This was good. Really good actually. I felt like it started off abit 'bare bones' but as it progressed I realised the author had crafted a riveting tale and really captured the joyous rise and tragic fall of the Bulldogs. It gives a fascinating insight into both mens personalities and creates a sense of emotion towards them. Whilst reading this I've gone back and watched alot of their matches again as singles and as the Bulldogs. Its also made me think about Dynamite alot and what an enigma he was. I'd recommend this any wrestling fan.
October 14, 2022
A fantastic book on two guys from my neck of the woods and who left an ever lasting impression on the world of pro wrestling. Was nervous going in, but glad with how this one turned out, done with the upmost respect, but told the truth, as confirmed by many in both guys lives.
October 7, 2025
Loved the way the book was split up! Dynamite, Davey, and Bulldogs, it’s so good! One of my favourite wrestling books I have ever read to date.
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews