The Vancouver territory was a hot territory for the NWA especially in the 70’s. During the 70’s Don Leo Jonathon and Gene Kiniski were the kings of the territory. In 1975 Don Leo Jonathon teamed with Dutch Savage, and with fan favorites Bill Francis and Guy Mitchell battled Seigfried Steinke, Mr. Saito and Kiniski. Jack Brisco made a couple of appearances in Vancouver most notably wrestling Steinke in May 1975 and Don Leo Jonathon in October of the same year. Tiger Jeet Singh wrestled there in 1975, as did Jerry Graham, Jimmy Snuka and Keith Frankes better known as Adrian Adonis. In 1976 George Wells and Dean Higuchi (Ho) were a formidable team until Ho lost a “Loser Leave Town” match to his archrival Kinji Shibuya. John Quinn joined the heel side in 1976 and received a title shot with NWA champ Terry Funk in July. John Tolos was back in the West Coast rings in the summer of 1976 as was Carlos Rocha, the Samoans and Kurt Von Hess.

It was also in the 70’s that Al Tomko took over from Gene Kiniski and promoted this NWA territory from 1977 until the promotions closing in the eighties. The territory continued to bring in talent like Mike Sharpe, Gama Singh, Andre the Giant, Buck Zumhofe and the Black Avenger (Moose Morrowski) in 1977. In 1978 Jake Roberts made a big impact in this territory eventually unmasking the Black Avenger as Morrowski. Sal Martino (Bellomo) made his debut in Vancouver 1978, as did the Iron Sheik who wrestled with the Texas Outlaw. The top drawing stars from Don Owens promotion in Portland came north of the border in 1979. Roddy Piper, Bobby Jaggers, Chris Colt, Yaki Joe, Jean Louis, Buddy Rose and several other new faces were brought in. Some of the West Coast’s hottest feuds heated up right in Vancouver, Buddy Rose vs. Roddy Piper, Piper and Rick Martel vs. the Sheepherders vs. Ed Wiskowski and Rose. Buddy Rose and Johnny Boyd battled over the coveted Pacific Coast title in 1980. By 1981 the influx of talent from outside would slow down and the Pacific Coast title was abandoned. It would be promoter Al Tomko who would change the face of the territory completely by the early 80’s. Tomko pushed himself as the mega heel throughout the area and made household names in Vancouver and Ontario out of wrestlers like Sonny Myers, Moondog Morretti, Terry Adonis, Bruiser Costa, Wojo the B.C. Hulk and others. 

Although I hardly ever missed a televised card I was never able to see a live match of All Star Wrestling due to the span of 3000 kilometers, which separated us. The announcer Ed Karl repeatedly promised an Ontario tour it never came off. As a kid I always wanted to go out to British Columbia not to see the mountains or ocean but to be part of the live studio audience for All Star Wrestling. The small TV audience had some great personalities week in and week out. There was Jesse an older lady who seemed to be at every show and was a vocal supporter of the fan favorites. There was the Vancouver Pacesetters a team of cheerleaders who sat in the stands and wore their uniforms to the matches and the various out of town crowd who Ed Karl would spotlight on TV tapings. Despite not seeing a live match I was a loyal fan for over 10 years. My notes and writings on this great Canadian territory will come strictly from the TV wrestling notes I took as a youngster (at least the ones my mother didn’t throw out when I went to college), some research on the net, and my slowly fading memory. The time period I will cover will be the 80’s, the heyday of Al Tomko’s reign as promoter for All Star Wrestling, and the eventual end of a great Canadian territory.

All Star Wrestling ran shows all over British Columbia including Vancouver’s PNE Gardens, Kerrisdale arena and the smaller towns of Cloverdale, Abbotsford, Cologne and others. These cities were the starting points for some of wrestling’s biggest stars like Rick Rude, Road Warrior Hawk, Earthquake, Bastion Booger, Mongolian Mauler and others. The Vancouver area saw battles for the Canadian heavyweight and tag titles, the International tag titles and the Pacific Coast TV titles.

No matter what your taste All Star had it all from barefoot wrestlers to masked wrestlers, midgets and lady wrestlers, they had lumberjacks and punk rockers, Russians and British Royalty. If it was specialty matches you preferred All Star showed loser leave town matches, hair vs. hair, stretcher and strap matches, coal miners glove matches and the famous cage matches. The TV tapings would always show a feature match from one of the local arenas complete with poor lighting and the commentary of Al Tomko. This promo also had its stables of wrestlers that were as big to the fans of All Star Wrestling then as the N.W.O or Degeneration X are to fans today. There were groups like Destruction Unlimited, the Memphis Mafia, Tomko’s Army, the Warlord’s and the B.C. Blondes. All Stars’ popular announcer Ed Karl would read postcards from the fans and throw out the address for All Star Wrestling to write in to or send your application for wrestling school. There was the short lived “hold of the week” segment with Moose Morrowski stretching guest announcer John Poser and so much more. It was all this and more that made me a fan of All Star Wrestling.

The main champion’s of the area during the 80’s were, Pacific Coast champion and arguably the biggest heel in the territory’s history, Playboy Buddy Rose who held the title for all of 1980. Rose would lose the title to Jay Youngblood in February of 1981 and the once prestigious title would disappear for good. It was eventually replaced by the B.C version of the Canadian heavyweight title which was held by Al Tomko several times in the 80’s, Mr. Pro, Moose Morrowski, Igor Volkoff, Snake Williams, Wojo the B.C. Hulk, Sonny Myers, Gerry Morrow, Bruiser Costa, Rockin Rob Royce, E.T. Stanton, Randy Rich, Easy Rider, Bulldog Brown are a few of the others who held the title. The area also had some great tag team competition in the early 80’s. The most dominant tag teams were Canadian tag champions the Sheepherders Butch Miller and Luke Williams, Roddy Piper and Rick Martel, Rip Oliver and Fidel Cortez, Jay Youngblood and Joe Lightfoot and Rip Oliver and Buddy Rose. The Canadian tag titles were replaced briefly in 1982-3 by the International tag titles held by the Torrez brothers Ricki and Ramone, Terry Adonis and Bruiser Costa, Dean Ho and Moondog Morretti as well as Buzz the Avalanche Tyler and Bulldog Bob Brown. The Canadian tag titles made a comeback in 1983 and bounced around between teams like Al Tomko and Bob Brown, Snake Williams and Easy Rider, Ole Olson and Randy Rich and several other duos.

Over the next few months I will be writing about the television tapings of All Star Wrestling during the 80’s, the wrestlers, the feuds, the matches and more. I hope you enjoy reading about this territory, and for those of you who saw it first hand, reminiscing about it as much as I do. I would like to thank the wrestlers of All Star for the years of entertainment (some of which post on this site). Vicious Vern who has shared his video library with me, Mike Rodgers who has sent me match results from this area and all of those wrestling historians and fans out there who enjoy the old days as much as I do. See you next month.

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