You are here: Home>Regional Territories>Maple Leaf>#5


Search Kayfabe Memories

Regional Territories 4

This section contains monthly articles on over two dozen territories. To relive those wonderful days of old, click here.

Wrestlers 4

Enter this section for bios/profiles of various wrestlers from the regional days. To find more out about your favorite pro wrestler, click here.

Stories 4

This section contains stories from the pros themselves told exclusively to Kayfabe Memories. Want to know more as told from the wrestlers themselves? Click here.

Old School Book Reviews4

Click here to find various book reviews from old school wrestlers. 

KM Links 4
For tons of links to old school related sites, click here.
KM Micro Wrestlers4
What are Micro Wrestlers?  Click here  
to find out.
KM Interviews... 4
Click here to read exclusive interviews with stars from the regional territories.
 

View Old Guestbook

 
 

www.kayfabememories.com is © 2004 AtomDesigns. All promotional art, characters, logos and other depictions are © their respective owners. All Rights Reserved.

All contents save Wrestler Stories are © Kayfabe Memories.

Website designed and maintained by  AtomDesigns © 2004 . If you experience any problems with this site or have any questions, please contact the Webmaster.

 

 - Andrew Calvert

Welcome back to Kayfabe Memories. This month we will look at some of the greatest moments in Maple Leaf Wrestling and relive some memories from Frank Tunney's promotion in Toronto, Canada.

Title vs. Title

This kind of match was fairly rare with only a few cases of two promotions matching their respective world champs against each other. These matches would have the fans salivating at the prospect of seeing an "Undisputed World Champion", only to have an indecisive result such as a count out or double disqualification. We were lucky to have one on March 25 1979 when Frank Tunney managed to bring the WWF and AWA title match to Maple Leaf Gardens.

There were no finer wrestlers than these two and even though Bockwinkel was the favorite due to his experience, everyone wanted to see Bob prove his superiority and take both belts home to the New York area. This would be Backlunds first appearance at the Gardens but we knew well of the man that had beaten Superstar Graham and was on his way to a lengthy championship run. Bockwinkel on the other hand was no stranger to the local fans having wrestled here a number of times as AWA Champion and the moment he stepped up on the ramp the boo's rained down on the classy champ.

The place erupted when Backlund hit the ring and both belts were held up to the fans before being placed on the timekeepers table where anyone with a camera scurried over for a quick picture of a bit of history. The match was as expected, a constant barrage of holds, counters, counter-counters and everything else we had come to expect from these two classic matmen. Bockwinkel kept it clean for most of the match but eventually reverted to his underhanded (read-brilliant) techniques and ended up enraging Backlund and brawling on the floor to a count out after about 39 minutes. Of course being a total mark I fully expected a clear winner but the match itself was a great one for the ages and hey, the rest of the card wasn't bad either.

Full Card Lineup:
Backlund dco Bockwinkel
Rick Steamboat w Ric Flair - US Title
Dino Bravo Ldq Greg Valentine - Cdn Title
Jimmy Snuka/Paul Orndorff w Ken Patera/John Studd - NWA Tag Title
Moose Morowski w Steve Bolus
Dewey Robertson w Al Costello
John Yachetti w Terry Yorkston

The Sheik  in, The Sheik out

The Sheik had made Toronto his home away from home for close to ten years, capping an incredible run of U.S title defenses and numerous gimmick type matches against the best wrestlers from around the world. There were Indian Survival Matches, Indian Strap Matches, Texas Death Matches, Cage Matches, Arkansas Chain Matches, Mexican Death Matches, Special Referees like Andre The Giant, Haystacks Calhoun, Lord Athol Layton and Chris Tolos and matches in which his manager Abdullah Farouk would be handcuffed to Bobo Brazil or Layton much to the chagrin of the evil Sheik. He used to scare the living daylights out of the fans and would have the crowds screaming as Gorilla used to say to "literally rip his head off" - ouch!

He rode this intense hatred to a great career at the Gardens and the other stops on the circuit and even upon his exit from the Tunney promotion would continue to show up on Indy dates in the area. The proximity to Detroit (about a three hour drive) made for an ideal stomping ground for many of the regulars that graced the Michigan mat scene. In 1977 The Sheik would stop appearing at Tunney's cards.

As it was in the kayfabe era there would be no "official announcements" or news coverage as to the reason why. Frank may have felt it was becoming stale and it was time to move on. There was also the fact that The Sheik had been appearing on fewer cards as Mr. Tunney had been bringing back his old friend and WWWF Champ Bruno Sammartino to headline and the crowds were revitalized (as was usually the case whenever Bruno wrestled). The scene changed after his departure to a more varied booking style, which was more to my liking. Without The Sheik as the headliner it opened up the spot(s) for some of the worlds best to appear and paved the way for the eventual co-promotion with the Crocketts.  More...

If you'd like to discuss the St. Louis region with other fans, please visit the KM Message Board

KM DVD/VHS Store 4
Click here to purchase DVD or VHS products direct from the official distributors.
KM Replica Masks 4
Click here to purchase pro quality replica wrestling masks of all your favorite old school masked wrestlers.   
KM Store 4
The KM Store now features products featuring the GCW logo as well as some other very cool images.  To see what's new and to purchase T-Shirts, ball caps, mouse pads and more, click here
KM Message Board 4

Want to chat with other fans of regional wrestling? This message board has forums for over two dozen promotions. Click here.

KM Belt Gallery 4

This section contains an extensive title belt gallery... images of heavyweight, tag, U.S. and various regional title belts.  To view it, click here.

Old School Tape Review 4

Reviews of various PPV's, commercial tapes and regional wrestling TV shows are available in this section. To read more, click here.

 

Website designed & maintained by

 

 

Thanks for visiting!