10 Wrestlers Who Had To Destroy Themselves To Get Over

4. Dynamite Kid

Dynamite Kid
WWE

The Dynamite Kid was a relentless, overtly nasty human being. A polotical headache.

He was also very short by industry standard. Speaking in a near-indecipherable Wigan accent, and radiating little in the way of showman charisma, he didn't project himself as a star and make himself appear bigger than he was, like Randy Savage did.

He was spectacularly unsuited to the theatre of pro wrestling, and so he changed what wrestling was.

He was clever enough to realise that his style was best suited to Japan; the fans there were and are more inclined to receive more technical, spirited performers. Blandness is forgivable. As long as a performer left everything out there, it didn't matter as much what was there to begin with. Kid adapted the intensity that was his being into the ring which, combined with his influential genius, made him both star and revolutionary. His bumping was so bold that every time he threw himself to the canvas, it sounded like a shotgun blast.

Kid literally broke his back in pursuit of greatness. It wasn't the result of his bump clock slowly ticking down; it was as instant an impact as he made on a new genre of the art.

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Michael Sidgwick is an editor, writer and podcaster for WhatCulture Wrestling. With over seven years of experience in wrestling analysis, Michael was published in the influential institution that was Power Slam magazine, and specialises in providing insights into All Elite Wrestling - so much so that he wrote a book about the subject. You can order Becoming All Elite: The Rise Of AEW on Amazon. Possessing a deep knowledge also of WWE, WCW, ECW and New Japan Pro Wrestling, Michael’s work has been publicly praised by former AEW World Champions Kenny Omega and MJF, and current Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes. When he isn’t putting your finger on why things are the way they are in the endlessly fascinating world of professional wrestling, Michael wraps his own around a hand grinder to explore the world of specialty coffee. Follow Michael on X (formerly known as Twitter) @MSidgwick for more!