Tommy Billington Reveals Bret Hart Wanted Him To Use Dynamite Kid Moniker In AEW

Many fans would have given the May 11 "AEW Collision" card a double-look when it read "The Dynamite Kid" Tommy Billington versus Dax Harwood. Making his AEW debut under the same moniker and full name as his late uncle, the original "Dynamite Kid," complete with "Rule Brittania" as his entrance music, Billington came up short after almost 13 minutes of action, but certainly made a great first impression. But he has since revealed that he wasn't comfortable with the idea of becoming the new "Dynamite Kid."

"I was never going to use the moniker 'Dynamite Kid.' It was actually up until two weeks before AEW [that] I started using it," he told "AEW Unrestricted." Billington said he'd always just intended to make a name for himself by himself, and he didn't want to give off the impression he was leeching off his uncle, until close friend of the original "Dynamite Kid" and WWE Hall of Famer Bret Hart urged him to carry the name forward. 

"He told me, 'Tom, I really think you should use that 'Dynamite Kid' name as well as your name too. Because you look so much like him, you talk like him, you even walk like him.'" he said. "At first I was kind of like, I get where you're coming from Bret, but I really don't want to. It took weeks of him being like, 'Tom, I urge you to use it, it will do you good and people won't ever doubt you. They'll see 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 ... Ever since, it's been the best decision I've ever made to be honest with you," he added.

Please credit "AEW Unrestricted" when using quotes from this article, and give a H/T to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.