Toronto - Rich In Wrestling History

I have been wanting to write a history piece for Tha O Show for a while and decided that this was the time. The following is a brief history of professional wrestling in Toronto.

I hope my fellow O-sters, whether you are Canadian or not, will enjoy it.

As the teary-eyed Adam Copeland exited the ring at the WWE’s presentation of Unforgiven, thousands of Torontonians shared in a magical moment. As they saluted their local hero with the passionate chants of “thank you Edge”, another chapter in the on-going love affair between professional wrestling and Toronto was being written.

It is a city rich in tradition and infamy. Professional wrestling in Toronto spans nearly 80 years and has played host to historic matches and even more history making events. Though many recent fans of professional wrestling understand Toronto as “bizarro world” in the 1970s many referred to Ontario’s capital as the “magic city.” The hallowed halls of Maple Leaf Gardens played host to much of that magic.

Weekly wrestling cards were a fixture at Maple Leaf Gardens from the 1950s through until the early 1980s. Over 650 of those events were headlined by a man who some claim is the greatest Canadian professional wrestler of all time. “Whipper” Billy Watson became Canada’s first national hero in professional wrestling with the advent of television in the 1950s. Born Bill Potts in the East York suburb of Toronto, Watson would go on to become a two time NWA heavyweight champion.

In order to understand the popularity of Watson one needs to look no further than the night “Whipper” Billy Watson battled fellow Canadian Gene Kiniski at the East York Arena. After the two battled, Kiniski attacked Watson with a steel chair much to the dismay of those in attendance. The fans began to riot. The event became fodder for local politicians such as Toronto MPP Art Childs who claimed professional wrestling to be a “corruptive influence on our society”. The scrutiny was to no avail as fans continued to attend the weekly wrestling shows.

The first professional wrestling event to take place at Maple Leaf Gardens happened on November 19, 1931. The Garden had been open for only one week as seven days earlier it played host to a Toronto Maple Leafs hockey game. Much to the surprise of local reporters, the wrestling card headlined by “The Golden Greek” Jim Londos taking on Gino Garibaldi drew a larger crowd than the Maple Leaf game of opening night.

Another man who is synonymous with professional wrestling in Toronto is Jack Tunney. Many of you will be familiar with the name Jack Tunney as in the min 80’s to early 90s he performed as “President” of the World Wrestling Federation as a television character similar to Teddy Long today.

Jack was the nephew of wrestling promoter Frank Tunney. As Jack took over the promoting duties he aligned himself with Jim Crockett and Mid-Atlantic Wrestling who lent Tunney top talent in the 1970s. Stars such as Ric Flair, Harley Race, and Nick Bockwinkel performed for thousands on the Sunday afternoon cards at Maple Leaf Gardens.

Long before Edge revolutionized the heel character for the 21st century, The Sheik was the ultimate bad guy. Fans came in droves to Maple Leaf Gardens to see stars such as Tiger Jeet Singh and Abdullah The Butcher overcome the The Sheik. Matches were short and bloody and always began with The Shiek dropping to his knees and praying to Allah before all his matches. The Sheik eventually overstayed his welcome in Toronto and soon MLG was no longer becoming a wrestling hot-bed.

In 1984, Jack Tunney became a WWF promoter and Toronto became one of the first territories purchased by McMahon. This made Toronto one of the WWF’s main cities as monthly shows became a mainstay during the latter part of the 1980s.

Many will argue what the most important match Toronto ever hosted. Fans look to WrestleMania X8 when Hulk Hogan battled The Rock as maybe the most legendary encounter. However in 1964 Toronto witnessed a match that would change the course of wrestling history forever. Toronto was home to the famous split that gave us the WWWF.

On January 24, 1963 Lou Thesz defeated “Nature Boy” Buddy Rogers to win his 6th NWA title. What makes this match historic is the back story that led to the title change. At the time Rogers was the NWA champion and a favorite of promoter Vince McMahon Sr. who had hopes of breaking away from the NWA and promote shows on his own under the WWWF name. McMahon was desperately trying to steal Rogers and make him the first WWWF champion.

Rogers wanted to join McMahon and so attempted to get himself fired from the NWA by making promoter Sam Mushnik’s life a living hell. Mushnik eventually conceded to the demands and proposed Rogers lose the title in Toronto. No one in the NWA was ready to take the title so he asked Lou Thesz to step out of retirement and become the champion.

In 14:54 Thesz beat Rogers in front of 9,000 people at Maple Leaf Gardens. Three months later Buddy Rogers would become the first WWWF champion. Unfortunately, two weeks into his reign, Rogers suffered a heart attack and was forced to retire. Rogers dropped the title to Bruno Sammartino in Madison Square Garden in May of 1963 and the Pittsburgh native became the face of the new promotion.

To this day it is a city that is synonymous with professional wrestling. No history is richer and no fans are more passionate. It is this tradition built on decades of history that makes Toronto the wrestling capital of Canada.

I want to give a special thank you to Greg Oliver, Dave Meltzer, and Shaun Assael for their incredible research.

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