50th Anniversary Show Nov 15/1981

This was to be a special night for the Maple Leaf faithful, a tribute to 50 years of wrestling at MLG and it did not disappoint. The first card was actually promoted on November 19 1931 and featured Jimmy Londos vs Gino Garibaldi. Move on to 1981 and we had Ric Flair vs Harley Race for the NWA belt as the headline match.

We would also see the culmination of the Andre and Killer Kahn feud with an intense battle that was the "Andre revenge match" that played out all over the northeast for a couple of months. Remember when Kahn broke Andre's leg and the angry giant angle was born. The Canadian Heavyweight Title would also be defended in a return match between the champ Big John Studd and his hated foe, former champ Angelo Mosca.

The place was packed with 16,000 and excitement was in the air. It may not have been the best lineup in Maple Leaf history but there was an aura around all three matches that had us chomping at the bit for the fun to begin. We were not let down. It was a great card with some great action all over the arena. The Andre/Kahn match was as real as I have ever seen, even for a shameless mark like myself. The NWA Title match had Flair and Race exchanging piledrivers on the ramp before Flair made the pin to successfully defend his title. Big Ange battered Studd all over the place before Studd was counted out and kept the belt. These two had a great feud that earned Studd our respect as a great ring performer and was never boring.

Full Card Lineup
Ric Flair w Harley Race
Andre The Giant ddq Killer Kahn
John Studd lco Angelo Mosca - Cdn Title Match
Ron Bass w Mike Miller - NWA TV Title
Johnny Weaver w Charlie Fulton
Tony Parisi/Mike Davis w Doug Vines/Izzy Slapowitz

Multiple Title Matches

As the Sheik stopped being booked in Maple Leaf, Tunney began a run of incredible cards featuring two or more World Title Matches. A quick look at the booking style.

7/11/77
Superstar Graham w Chief Jay Strongbow - WWWF Title
Harley Race wdq The Sheik - NWA Title
11/20/77
Graham w Stan Stasiak - WWWF Title
Nick Bockwinkel w Edouard Carpentier - AWA Title
12/11/77
Graham w Strongbow - WWWF Title
Bockwinkel w Carpentier - AWA Title
5/15/78
Bob Backlund wco Graham - WWWF Title
Bockwinkel ddq Jim Brunzell - AWA Title
6/25/78
Backlund w Ken Patera - WWWF Title
Bockwinkel w Rufus R Jones - AWA Title
7/16/78
Backlund lco Graham- WWWF Title
Bockwinkel w Angelo Mosca - AWA Title
Greg Gagne/Brunzell w Pat Patterson/Ray Stevens - AWA Tag Titles
9/10/78
Backlund w Gorilla Monsoon - WWWF Title
Bockwinkel lco Mosca - AWA Title
4/25/82
Ric Flair ddq Race - NWA Title
Bockwinkel ldq Mosca - AWA Title

Bob Backlund would continue to defend his WWWF belt through 1979 sharing the stage with Mid Atlantic stars. Bockwinkel would also continue to appear and the impending merger (sell off?) to the Mid Atlantic promoters would bring cards featuring the WWF title, U.S title (Mid Atlantic version), and the Canadian title on the same night. Ric Flair would continue to defend his NWA crown up until 1984. Hulk Hogan would be the only World Champ appearing after '84 and would only make sporadic appearances. The main title matches would be for the Intercontinental (WWF) Title, which I always found more entertaining anyways.

Harley Race wins NWA Title from Terry Funk

We were lucky to witness a major title change on Feb 16 1977 when Harley Race made Terry Funk submit to an Indian Death lock and won the prestigious belt for the second time. Back when titles actually meant something this was an extra special moment for the Toronto faithful to see history in the making. The special referee assigned was former champ Pat O'Connor but he was attacked prior and our own Fred Atkins took over for the historic bout.

It was an exciting match between two of the all time legends with a few close counts (courtesy of Atkins painfully slow counting style) before Harley tied up the legs of Funk and got the submission. Race had the fans support as he displayed his newly won title belt and accepted congratulations from Norm Kimber and Sam Muchnick who was also in attendance. Race may have been a heel in other areas but the fans in Maple Leaf always appreciated his talents and would support him unless he was going up against a local favorite like Mosca or a perennial crowd pleaser like Flair.

Full Card Lineup
Race w T Funk
Bobo Brazil w The Sheik - wins the U.S Title
The Crusaders w The Kelly Twins - retain Int.Tag Titles
Edouard Carpentier/Gino Brito w/dq Tarzan Tyler/Reginald Love
Chief Jay Strongbow/Stan Stasiak w Ivan Koloff/Wolfman
Michele Barone w Bill Morgan
Ivan Koloff w Lou Klein
Chris Tolos/Baron Von Krupp d The Beast/Steve Bolus

The return of the Canadian Heavyweight Title

After the departure of the Sheik and his U.S Title there was a need for a local title belt to be defended regularly on the circuit. In December 1978 Frank held a tourney for the Canadian Heavyweight belt with the winner gaining the strap. Dino Bravo beat Gene Kiniski in the final to start a run with the belt that included wins over Nick Bockwinkel and Ric Flair.

Bravo was a good choice to re-introduce the title having experience holding belts in the Mid Atlantic and Montreal areas. The belt would be defended until the sellout to the WWF in 1984 when it disappeared. Vince Jr would re-instate Bravo as "The Canadian Champ" based on his role when they swallowed up Montreal (sigh) but didn't carry a high priority when weddings and pie throwing took over our TV screens and auditoriums. The defense of the title always brought out the crowds and some great wrestlers were given a run with the belt, even bringing the original "Canadian Champ" Gene Kiniski back in the early 80's to have a pretty good feud with then champ Angelo Mosca.

The belt itself was almost a copy of the WWF belt from the late 70's that Backlund wore during his reign as WWF Champ. The title belt itself is now in the good hands of a local wrestling mad celebrity and stands as an important keepsake of the era when belts were treated as something prestigious.

The Tunneys partnership with Mid Atlantic

For those of us that attended in the mid to late 70's, this arrangement was welcomed with open arms. The Mid Atlantic area was an exciting territory featuring a plethora of established stars combined with the up and coming superstars of tomorrow. In the Toronto area we were lucky enough to see Mid Atlantic TV broadcasts and were following the angles when the cards started in October 1978. George Scott and Jim Crockett bought in to Tunney Sports for a reported $100k each entitling them to a third of the promotion. In 1984 when Jack Tunney sold his remaining shares to the WWF it led to Scott suing Tunney and in 1992, Scott got a $500k settlement with $150k in lawyer's fees.

In the meantime though we would get some of the most exciting old school wrestling in the country. This was during the Flair/Valentine teaming and their subsequent feud (the aluminum baseball bat angle was hot) involving the Andersons and Ricky Steamboat. Even with the strong NWA presence we would still get AWA and WWF stars appearing for the next few years. The Backlund/Valentine feud (where the title had been held up) graced our rings and we still got a good mix of stars from across the regions. I always though that if the McMahon's had started their expansion a few years earlier they would have failed to garner the market and we would still be enjoying a varied amount of wrestling into the 90's.

The NWA was always the strongest to me in terms of stars from 1977 - 1984 and was a welcome addition to the Toronto scene. We would enjoy this arrangement up until late 1983 when the Crocketts stopped sending as many "A" stars as they used to. The oncoming year brought the WWF in full time with no other promotions represented for the first time ever (?). The Tunneys had always maintained close ties with all the major promoters and as was the norm would exchange talent enabling almost every star of the 50's to the 80's to pass through. The WWF provided lots of great workers at the time but the matches started getting shorter and the TV was gone to be replaced by the new "wrestling". I also loved the fact that Tunney would change cards around in terms of what was hot in other areas letting us see other promotions big cards firsthand and generally trying to bring a great card to town every time out. It didn't always happen but at least the effort was there. Before merchandising, ppv etc. the market was dependent on good wrestling- and that's what we got.

70's Highlights

-(1970) Dory Funk Jr successfully defends the NWA crown with a pinfall over former NWA and AWA champ Gene Kiniski
-(1971) Over 18,000 fans show up for a card featuring Tiger Jeet Singh defending the U.S Title against The Sheik, and then repeat the sellout for the return three weeks later

-(1973)Billy Red Lyons returning to team with Robertson as the Crusaders becoming the most popular tag team of the 70's
-(1973)The night Abdullah Farouk (Grand Wizard in Northeast U.S) had to join The Sheik in the ring and he showed up wearing long tights and amateur headgear

-(1973) Jack Brisco defends the NWA belt against Johnny Valentine. As usual any appearance of a world champ brought the fans out in droves, routinely getting 10,000 plus to a card

-(1975)The Sheik vs Abdullah feud, both grapplers were in their prime and gave spirited       performances seeming to draw off each other for new heights in violence 

-(1976)The Sheik losing to Gene Kiniski with Andre The Giant as special referee. Another dq win but Gene was like Mr. Canada back then

-(1978)The night Billy Robinson took on a "fan" with Norm Kimber in his inimitable style announcing that Frank Tunney and Maple Leaf Gardens would not be responsible for what happened. I have seen mention of this incident from other cities around this time- we were indeed a bunch of marks!

-(1979)Dewey Robertson winning the tournament for the Canadian Heavyweight Title beating Greg Valentine with a figure four.

-(1979)Bob Backlund successfully defending his WWF belt against Ric Flair with a 23-minute match that ended in a double count out. Flair was knocking at the door of superstardom at this time and while still a "heel" was already getting cheers.    ..

80's Highlights

-(1980) A rare appearance from the International Tag Champs (Japan) Giant Baba and Jumbo Tsuruta taking on Bruiser Brody and Scott Irwin. As an aside Dory Jr and Abdullah had a great match on this card as well

-(1980)The return of the Destroyer and his matchups with Billy Red resuming their battle from the late '60's when Billy pulled the "newcomer gets a big win" angle on AWA TV

-(1981) A rare appearance by The American Dream Dusty Rhodes defending the NWA belt against Big John Studd
-(1981) Ric Flair enlists Andre The Giant in his feud with Roddy Piper; the Scotsman brings Crippler Ray Stevens for a tag match for the ages

- (1982)Rick Steamboat and Jay Youngblood defeating Sgt Slaughter and Don Kernodle for the NWA Tag Titles after a series of matches, as with everywhere else this duo were way over in Toronto

-(1982) Blackjack Mulligan enters into a feud with John Studd that gets more violent every time out and creates an opening for...

-(1982)A young Barry Windham (as Blackjack Jr) coming to save his dad after a pummeling by Studd and then Papa Mulligan returning the favor after Austin Idol used Jr as a punching bag.

-(1983) Johnny Weaver in one of his last programs enters into a great feud with Leo Burke and the North American (Calgary version?) belt.

-(1983) The Night of Champions card at Exhibition Stadium with defenses of the NWA World Title, Canadian Title, U.S (NWA) Title, NWA Tag Titles, TV (NWA), and Women's (Moolah)

-(1984)A young Bret Hart competing as Buddy Hart and showing the ring sense that would later catapult him to superstardom with some great matches against Leo Burke

In closing, we have just been told Ed Farhat "The Sheik" has passed away at the age of 79.  This legendary grappler gave us a lot of memories and will be missed by all his fans.

"I was flying from St Louis to Toronto and had a stopover in Chicago to change planes. There was a big snowstorm in Chicago and Toronto and all the planes were going to be late. I wasn't scheduled to arrive in Toronto until 9.45 or so. I called Mr. Tunney and asked if I should keep coming. Mr. Tunney told me to keep coming and he would have someone waiting for me when the plane arrived. I was scheduled to wrestle Johnny Valentine for the World title that night. Mr. Tunney had a police escort waiting for me and I got a police escort from the airport to Maple Leaf Gardens. And I changed into my wrestling gear in the back of the police car. When I arrived at the building I could already see Johnny in the ring waiting for me. I ran from the police car to the ring.

-Jack Brisco - Jack Brisco chat - Slam Wrestling

NEXT MONTH:

A look at some more of the "regulars"