This month we will have a look at working the circuit around Ontario and some memories of the area through the 1970’s. 

Frank Tunney’s promotion was not the only game in town. As in other areas, there was no shortage of smaller outfits to work for. The most common name on the Ontario circuit was known at different times as Big Bear, Big Time, or All Star Wrestling, run by Dave McKigney. 

Known as The Wildman, McKigney promoted in most of the small towns that dot the Ontario landscape with tours in the summer months and occasional forays into the cities and mid size arenas. 

I attended many of The Wildman’s shows through the years, and sometimes preferred them to the Gardens shows. This was partly due to the small venue feel but also a result of the big name talent he would book. The Sheik, Bulldog Brower, Killer Kowalski, The Valiants, Domenic Denucci, Cowboy Frankie Lane, Andre The Giant, Haystacks Calhoun, Bobo Brazil, George Steele, and most of the other veterans of the northeast area would appear here regularly. 

 McKigney would work with the other promoters in the northeast area booking talent to tour the small Ontario cities, and by all accounts was a good honest guy who worked his tail off for the life he loved. 

As a wrestler, McKigney would usually be on the losing end, putting over one of his stars for the good of the show. A lot of times he would be teamed with The Wolfman (Willie Farkus) as the ultimate wildman duo from Northern Ontario, usually losing to the good guy teams. He would also tour the states and have some success in the WWWF including a title shot against short term Champ Ivan Koloff. 

If you attended some of these cards back around 1976, say in Leamington, or Goderich, or Gravenhurst, you may have seen a wrestler about 6’5, 260 pounds by the name of “Handsome Johnny Davis. The Detroit area regular would make several forays into the Ontario circuit, working the small towns and supplementing his income through the enviable tasks of driving Andre The Giant, The Sheik, or  Mike Loren between the small towns. 

McKigney would book a lot of the wrestlers himself or through Lou Klein or The Sheik, and the proximity to Toronto made for an ideal working relationship. The fact that he was a good payoff man didn’t hurt either. As Davis tells me, “Great guy, paid good, made one of my biggest mistakes not going to work for him full time when he asked me, I was fed up and wanted out, if I had gone with him I may have lasted a few years longer and had some fun.” 

McKigney also had somewhat of a working relationship with Tunney at this time and the highlight for some of the wrestlers were stops at the famed Maple leaf Gardens. “I loved going to MLG” said Davis, “wish I could have worked there more, big building, clean, great crowds, big ring and I loved the ramp”. And what about Frank Tunney? “Nice guy, used to pick up his Export A butts for him at the border” adds Davis. 

McKigney had trouble with the boxing/wrestling commission later on but in those days seemed to have an easier time of it all and according to Davis, “I always thought of Dave as the Canadian Lou Klein. He must have had the blessings of the Tunneys or they wouldn’t have used him on the MLG shows”. 

A TV Taping for the Tunneys at the Hamilton Studios would also be part of the tour, and Davis would pick up a cool 50 bucks for an afternoon of taking bumps. As a mid carder Davis would see his share of losses, and when asked about his biggest win, replied, “Win? Not many of them so I should remember, but I don’t”.