Bret Hart convinced Tommy Billington to take on the Dynamite Kid moniker weeks before his AEW debut.
Tommy Billington was a recent guest on AEW Unrestricted. When asked about taking on the Dynamite Kid nickname, Billington revealed that WWE Hall of Famer Bret Hart was the one who convinced him to take on the moniker.
“Actually, I was never going to use the moniker Dynamite Kid,” Tommy Billington revealed. “It was actually up until two weeks before AEW before I started using it. I was really funny about using it because I didn’t want people to get the wrong impression that I’m just leeching off that sort of name just to boost [myself]. I always thought, I want to make a name for myself.
“So for the longest time, I just went by Tom Billington. Two weeks before my AEW debut, I was in Bret’s house just having dinner with him. He told me, ‘Tom, I really think you should use that Dynamite Kid name. It’s your name too because you look so much like him, you talk like him, you even walk like him.’ I reminded him so much of him that it scared him a little bit. So, at first, I was kind of like, I get where you’re coming from Bret but I really don’t want to.
“It took like weeks of him being like, ‘I urge you to use it, it will do you good and people won’t ever doubt you. They’ll see how you work, just like him.’ After a few weeks, I was like you know what, I’ll give it a test run. Two shows of using it, it got really over and people were like, yeah, no doubt, you look so much like him.
“I get it every day, you look so much like him it freaks me out, it takes me back to the 1980s with Stampede Wrestling. So when AEW was like [putting me on] Dynamite and Collision, of course, I’ll use it. Ever since, it’s been the best decision I’ve ever made, to be honest with you.” [H/T: Fightful]
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What do you make of Tommy Billington’s comments? Do you think Bret Hart gave him good advice? Let us know your thoughts by sounding off in the comments section below.
