Year of the Heel

Looking back through my notes and tapes from 1984 it looked like Tomko’s promo was going to be a dominant territory for many years. They celebrated their 25^th anniversary at the PNE Gardens in ‘84 but would last less then five more years as All Star Wrestling and despite several incarnations would never make it back to the level of popularity it attained during the early 80’s. The new special NWA representative for British Columbia was Rick Marsh. Marsh vowed to clean up the territory in 1984 and bring in some new blood for the fans. Several wrestlers debuted in All Star during this time including the Foley family. This stable was comprised of J.R. Foley, the old shooter from Calgary Stampede fame in the early 80’s, his son Athol (who was billed as a former British Mid heavyweight champ), and Athol’s tag partner Snake Williams from Reno, Nevada. J.R. Foley managed the two other athletes and was well known for the use of his walking cane on opponents who came to close to the ring apron. Athol and Snake made quite a formidable duo winning the tag titles early in 1984 beating Moondog Morretti and Rocky Dellesara April 2/84 in Cloverdale. The Foley family didn’t stay long in the territory but they did make a definite impact on the promo in a short time.

There were several other new stars that came north to the B.C. mats. There was Star Rider a blond fiery wrestler who teamed with Moondog Morretti. The two would win tag team gold from Snake Williams and Athol Foley in Cloverdale in 1984. Star Rider was billed as a former U.S., Western States and Americas tag titleholder with none other than Snake Williams. The curly blond liked to use a diving head butt on his opponents.  One memorable promo was Star Rider cutting himself during an interview with Ed Karl. Rider wanted to show the good old J.R. Foley that even blood couldn’t keep him down. Star Rider even challenged J.R. to a ten-minute match to prove it. The two wrestled to a draw in Vancouver March 19/84.