Burke would avoid Petitpas, until the last week of August, when Petitpas was being double teamed by Cuban Assassin and Butcher Vachon. Burke came out and made the save for Petitpas, then returned to the dressing room. Petitpas didn’t know what to do with this, but he quickly found out exactly what where Burke’s intention.

Later on the card, Burke was fighting the Acadian Giant, and he began working on the Giant’s leg and it was apparent that Burke was trying to injure the Giant. Petitpas came out and made the save for the Giant, but Burke attacked Petitpas from behind and took him out. This would set up the final 2 weeks of action for the summer.

The dream match up between long time tag team partners, was now a reality and they did not disappoint. The first week of matches between the 2 where amazing. Burke and Petitpas tore down every arena, that they fought in, and the fans where treated a to a series of mix matches. From classic scientific wrestling matches to all out brawls. Burke would retain the title, thanks to some help from the Cuban Assassin and Paul Peller. However, Burke’s reign suddenly came to an end, when Petitpas capitalized on Burke’s miscue and rolled him up with a small package to capture the title and the crowd in the Cocagne Arena went nuts. Petitpas was the new champ, and all seemed set up for the following wrestling season.

However, following that season we didn’t get the opportunity to see a real conclusion to the Burke Vs. Petitpas feud, as that happened to be the last year of Grand Prix/CCW Wrestling. I’ll have a year recap, of all the events in an upcoming article.

Ron Starr

"Rotten" Ron Starr was well known in the Maritimes, and was involved in the title picture.

Starr made his debut in the Maritimes in 1985, and was a fan favorite. The crowd was totally in love with this red hair man. Then in late June, he was the most hated man alive in the Maritimes. Starr was teaming with Leo Burke on TV, Starr went berserk and attacked Burke. This would be the beginning of a feud, that would last almost 7 years.

Burke and Starr would do battle in all sorts of matches, wether it be strap matches, barbwire, or a chain match. These two men, would do anything to destroy the other one. Most of the time, when they fought the International Title was always on the line, and blood would be spilled all over the Maritimes (I'll have much more also next month about this).

Killer Karl Krupp

Killer Karl Krupp is well known all over the world as a man, that would not stay in an area long enough to make a major impact, but it was the opposite way in the Maritimes. Krupp was a mainstay in the 1980's being here every summer.

The European Heavyweight Champion was always involved in the big matches, and his interviews were always classics. From calling the Great Malumba a "Dancing Duck", to starting interviews, by calling announcer Bill McCaullah " Mr. McCluckCluck". Krupp mostly defended the European title, and would always retain the title, when fighting Malumba, Burke, the Beast and many others. However, he did lose the title once as he was defeated by Stephen Petitpas. Petitpas reign lasted 1 month, before Krupp regained the title.

NEXT MONTH:

I'll talk about the 1985 incident, that would change the face of Wrestling in the Maritimes.