Despite his enormous success in the southern U.S., Tarzan decided to head up east and formed an excellent duo with "Crazy" Luke Graham in Vince McMahon Sr.'s WWWF during the last six months of 1971, around the same time that the Vachon brothers were forming "Grand Prix Wrestling" back home in Montreal. It was in New York where Tyler and Graham would gain an eternal place in the history books by becoming the first official WWWF tag team champions after former International champs The Mongols had left the territory with the belts. To further cement their legend, Tyler and Graham later defeated the returning Mongols to unify both titles before finally dropping the straps to Karl Gotch and local boy Rene Goulet in December. 

During his stint in the WWWF, Tyler got word from fellow Quebec wrestlers traveling through the area that Grand Prix was really beginning to take off in Montreal. Having firmly established his name stateside by this point, Tarzan still dreamed of main eventing in his hometown. He contacted Paul Vachon and secured a brief six-week deal so he could come back and see for himself how well the fledgling promotion was doing. The plan was to hit Japan after that and then decide whether or not he wanted to move his family back to Quebec from his base Florida. Unfortunately, his homecoming was nearly the last stop of his career. 

On the final week of his Grand Prix tour in a match at the Verdun Auditorium, Tyler was up in the air in mid-bodyslam when he slipped out of his opponent "Giant" Jean Ferre's (Andre The Giant) grasp and landed full force on the base of his neck. He could have easily been killed and the injury left him completely paralyzed for a full six months. The doctors doubted he'd ever walk again and definitely declared his wrestling days were over, but Tarzan miraculously beat all the odds. Unbelievably, only nine months after the injury, Tyler was ready to get back in the ring. The only question was where. 

Almost any other man would have considered it bad luck, but Tyler made the decision to fold up shop in Florida and relocate back home to Quebec. It was now 1973 and Grand Prix was blazing white hot throughout the province, offering the biggest paydays for its local stars that Quebec had ever seen.  Tarzan quickly became a perennial top heel on the circuit despite the presence of mega-stars like Jonathan, Ferre, Mad Dog Vachon, Killer Kowalski and Edouard Carpentier. Being that this was the 1970's, where the words "fashion" and "taste" seldom met, Tyler now sported gaudy new ring jackets and multi-coloured trunks to match the sportcoats and upholstery that many of us who were around at that time would like to forget. Tarzan also sported a new nickname: "The Boot" ("La Bottine" in French) and Fernand Ste.Marie, the French voice of Grand Prix, gets the credit for coming up with that one. 

If one thing was apparent when Tyler returned from his neck injury, it was that he had lost a considerable amount of speed and mobility. To compensate for this, the ever-clever Tarzan began to utilize the tried-and-true "loaded boot" gimmick whereby he would tap his boot on the mat three times (in order to slip the foreign object to the toe, behind the referee's back, of course) and kick his opponent in the head and score the pin on his unconscious foe.  It was an instant heat generator with the fans, even more so after Carpentier managed to remove the boot during a wild TV bout, revealing a hidden metal plate. It all seems so simple by today's standards but it was an incredibly effective plot device back then. 

Grand Prix's popularity coupled with Tyler's gift of the gab also scored him some guest appearances on several French-language sitcoms with local comedians Gilles Latulippe, Dmominique Michel and others. Perhaps sensing that his wrestling days were winding down, Tarzan also began to dabble in managing around 1974, briefly guiding the careers of The UFO, Sailor White and The Cuban Assassins. For those who were not fortunate enough to have seen him in his wrestling prime, let me just say that Tyler was way ahead of his time in terms of the polished and structured presentation of his promos and interviews, and would be more than able to hold his own even with today's WWE superstars.

His fantastic run in Grand Prix lasted right up until the promotion folded in 1975. While most of the other top Grand Prix stars headed off in all directions, Tarzan was one of the only men offered a guaranteed contract by Johnny Rougeau's "All-Star Wrestling" circuit. Even though Rougeau's group was dying, Tyler came aboard anyway. As it turned out, he was the instigator of the last big angle in the promotion when he dragged a then-13 year old Jacques Rougeau into the ring before a match at the Forum and bodyslammed the youngster, sparking a briefly hot feud with Raymond Rougeau. Nevertheless, Rougeau finally gave up the ghost soon after and Tyler headed back down to his old stomping grounds in the southern U.S. 

By 1977, Tarzan returned home once again and hooked up with George Cannon's "Superstars Of Wrestling" troupe. In an attempt to change with the times, he retired the multi-coloured trunks and let his bleached-blond hair revert back to its natural brown colour for the first time since the early 1960's. Times were tough in the wake of the Grand Prix/All-Star promotional war and paydays in Quebec were some of the worst ever. Several promoters came and went but no one seemed able to rekindle the local wrestling flame. Slowly and quietly, Tarzan Tyler began to seriously think about hanging it up for good. 

But International Wrestling debuted in 1980 and the fortunes of local grapplers were on the rise again. Tyler, conspicuous by his absence, re-surfaced in the summer of 1983 with Denis Lauzon's Trois-Rivieres-based "Professionels De La Lutte De Quebec" group. Sporting an eclectic mixture of veteran cast-offs, green rookies and guys who looked experienced but whom nobody had ever heard of, the Lauzon gang lasted only a few months but did serve to get Tarzan back into the public eye. As luck would have it, "Lord" Alfred Hayes was heading out of town to join the WWF as an announcer, leaving an opening for a manager in International Wrestling. Tyler, who was now ready to retire from active competition, was a natural for the part and started up with the company that autumn. 

For the next two years, Tarzan Tyler's antics behind the microphone and at ringside electrified the promotion. The last time I saw him don the tights was on July 23rd, 1984 at the Forum before 15,562 fans in an historic 8-man tag match teaming him with Lefebvre, Masked Superstar and Richard Charland against Jacques Sr., Raymond, Armand and Jacques Rougeau. He only tagged in once but it was quite nostalgic for me to see him in there one last time.  Although his managerial tenure was brief, his "clients" included Lefebvre, Charland, Sailor White, Rick Valentine (Kerry Brown), Masked Superstar and Jos Leduc. Perhaps his biggest moment as a manager came on December 23rd, 1984 (exactly one year and a day before his death) when his protege King
Tonga, the International champion, scored a controversial disqualification victory over rival Dino Bravo at the Montreal Forum, drawing over 19,500 fans. 

The final angle Tyler would be involved in was a projected titanic tag team feud between Jacques & Raymond Rougeau (just off their mega-hot battle with Ronnie and Jimmy Garvin) and Abdullah The Butcher & Jos Leduc late in 1985.  The initial meeting was to take place after Christmas in Sudbury, Ontario on December 28th and the International stars had one more show to go before the holidays. It was to be Tarzan Tyler's last. On their way back by car from the gig at the Georges Vezina Centre in Chicoutimi, Quebec on Christmas Eve, Tyler, Lefebvre and Desbois were killed in a crash on the dark, snow-covered road leading away from the city. 

For Tarzan Tyler, it was a sad and tragic end to a storied and successful wrestling career that will forever be remembered by those of us who were fortunate enough to see him in action.

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