Steve Wiebe Comments On ‘King of Kong’ Co-Star Billy Mitchell Getting Stripped of High Score Records

It's been a pretty tough week for Billy Mitchell. The high-scoring champion who made waves years ago in the movie The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters had his Donkey Kong records removed when Twin Galaxies' investigation resulted in him not only being removed from the arcade game's high-scoring history books, but also banned from further competition.

This has resulted in a number of opinions, from those believing that Mitchell had this coming for a long time, along with a few fans who think he was judged unfairly. But one particular presence that hasn't spoken yet is Steve Wiebe, who co-starred in the King of Kong documentary as Mitchell's main adversary. That, however, recently changed.

Variety had a chance to speak with Wiebe about the recent actions by Twin Galaxies regarding Mitchell's banning from competitive play, in which he noted the following:

"The more I thought about it from the 'King of Kong' days, it all seemed to make sense now. All the things that were happening at the time… like why he didn't come out and play me, and why he was inciting whose records were going to be authenticated and who's were going to be dropped. 'King of Kong' referenced that that he was a referee and on the board of directors. When that leaked out, it started to make more sense," he said.

"I'm not the champ any more, but getting recognition for being the first to a million is a great consolation. That's what I was really bummed out about 11 years ago."

"Billy will have his turn to say something in response, for now I'm just in awe."

Mitchell hasn't responded on the matter yet, as he's likely preparing some kind of official statement, or possibly even legal action considering what's gone down. But one thing's for sure -- a number of new Donkey Kong competitors are sure to rise up and prove their worth at the game, in the face of what went down with Mitchell. After all, there are a ton of players out there ready to prove their worth -- and without using a MAME emulator, at that (the device Mitchell was accused of using).

Want to learn more about this rivaled history? The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters is available on home video and digital HD now.