December 10, 2018 Observer Newsletter: Death of Dynamite Kid
The legacy of the Dynamite Kid is a complex one to digest.
Perhaps the most succinct way of putting it came from Julie Hart, his former sister-in-law, who one day told me, “Really, he was the best wrestler there ever was,” said Hart, who saw more than her share of great wrestling and was the wife of Bret Hart. “And as great as he was as a wrestler, he was every bit as miserable of a human being.”
Realistically, when you watch pro wrestling in 2018, the thing you realize is that when it comes to in-ring wrestling, the modern style that combines some American style with old British, Lucha Libre and Japanese style had its primitive and most influential roots in the 1981-83 matches between Tiger Mask and the Dynamite Kid.
The two only had a handful of singles matches, all but one in Japan, but every match was a classic that lived on through videotapes, and was really the first of the classic videotape feuds.
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Dave Meltzer is the founder and lead writer on the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, the weekly constant when it comes to news and reviews in pro wrestling and mixed martial arts for more than 40 years. Dave also co-hosts Wrestling Observer Radio with Bryan Alvarez and had had bylines for The National, Yahoo Sports, MMA Fighting and others.