"Quick Draw" RICK McGRAW: In early 1980, a few months before major league pro wrestling would return to Quebec, local fans got a good glimpse of pre-expansion WWF action when channel WEZF-22 out of Burlington, Vermont (a U.S. border station - now known as WVNY-22 - that could be picked up in Montreal) carried the "Championship Wrestling" program on Saturdays at 11:15 p.m. It was fun to see many of the stars we had only read about and quite a few of those names made their way onto early Montreal International cards that spring when the fledgling company had a close working arrangement with Vince McMahon Sr. Names like Swede Hanson, The Hangman (Neil Guay) and Pat Patterson shuttled frequently in between New York and Montreal. Bob Backlund even made a few title defenses at the Paul Sauve Centre. One of the more familiar names of that WWF era to make a splash here was Rick McGraw, a diminutive grappler who possessed an excellent physique to go along with lightning speed. Although he barely managed to rise to mid-card status on the east coast, McGraw was an early fan favorite here and even managed to capture the International tag team belts when partnered up with Gino Brito in 1982. Fresh off his local stint, McGraw returned to the WWF just as they were embarking on their expansion and began to work his way up the card until a feud with new super heel Roddy Piper was all set to go in the autumn of 1985. Tragically, one week after issuing his challenge on TV, McGraw was found dead in his New Haven, Connecticut home from a heart attack. He was only 30 years old and close friend Steve Muslin (who wrestled in the WWF as Steve Travis) claimed later that he believed drugs played a major part in McGraw's premature death. It was a sad end to a career which seemed like it might have been ready to take off.

MIKE ROTUNDO: Most younger fans know him as the nefarious Irwin R.Schyster of World Wrestling Federation fame, but what's not so well documented is the fact that he actually started his career in Europe. Making his debut in Germany in 1981 against overseas star Wolfgang Saturski, the young Rotundo was booked into Montreal thanks to promoter Frank Valois' strong European connections, following a traditional trans-continental talent exchange which stretched all the way back to the Eddie Quinn era. In February 1982, Rotundo made his North American debut at the Paul Sauve Centre in Montreal, defeating local stalwart Louis Laurence. This caused quite a stir because it was so unusual at the time for a raw rookie to score such a win in his territorial debut. Additionally, today's fans may not have even recognized Rotundo because he wore a Kurt Angle-style singlet and his character was that of an amateur Olympic wrestler. Actually, he looked very good in his debut and wrestled several TV matches after that before mysteriously disappearing after the initial push. Soon after, he popped up in Florida, quickly became a major star with a more traditional look, and the rest is history.

BRUNO SAMMARTINO Jr.: The art (such as it is) of nepotism in wrestling didn't start with Stephanie McMahon. It was quite rampant in the old territory days and saw various sons and relatives of promoters get inexplicably monstrous pushes even though they showed precious few signs of deserving the spotlight. Certainly, Bruno Sammartino was infinitely popular wherever he performed and always played to packed houses during his frequent sojourns into Montreal during the 1960's and 1970's. Over 29,000 were on hand at Jarry Park in July 1973 to witness he and Edouard Carpentier win the Grand Prix tag team titles from the original Hollywood Blonds (Gerry Brown and Dale "Buddy" Roberts). With the Sammartino name so recognizable, it stood to reason that his son would be able to catch a break here and he did, around 1983-84. Barrel-chested like his father and sporting a natural physique, the young Sammartino's pudgy look and basic style were painfully dated by 1980's standards and he never rose above preliminary status here. He did manage some better success down in Georgia where he briefly feuded with his father's old adversaries such as Larry Zbyszko and Ivan Koloff. Things were looking up as he joined the WWF, where his dad was doing colour commentary, and had a decent feud with Brutus Beefcake which culminated on the undercard of the very first WrestleMania in 1985. Expecting a Greg Gagne-like push, the young scion (now billed under his real name of "David" Sammartino) grew frustrated with his position and this led to a huge falling out between the Sammartinos and Vince McMahon. The bitterness continues to this day, but the fact remains that the son just couldn't even come close to his father's ability and charisma.

LUC POIRIER: Luc who? Well, during 1983 he was wrestling under a hood as the latest incarnation of The Masked Marvel ("Le Merveille Masquee" in French), a gimmick name that had been used for decades on the Montreal scene. He had some pretty good success as a babyface before turning heel in the summer of 1984, changing his name to The Mercenary, and promptly getting unmasked by Gino Brito. A star pupil of Edouard Carpentier's wrestling school, Poirier possessed great natural strength and had a really good physique. The plan was to get him some valuable experience and then have him lose the mask and compete under his own name as an established star. A prime spot was his for the taking, but he soon fell out of favour with management for his alleged lackadaisical attitude. During the WWF invasion of Montreal in 1985, Poirier received a tryout and wrestled several Canadian TV matches before dropping completely out of sight. Plying his trade overseas for over a decade, Luc resurfaced in the WWF as "Sniper," 1/4 of the pseudo-South African group known as The Truth Commission. In fact, he was on the infamous Survivor Series'97 card at the Molson Centre. It must have been a strange homecoming for a man whose potential far outweighed his career results.

MIKE SHAW: Definitely a man of many gimmicks, the burly Shaw was a graduate of Killer Kowalski's wrestling school and made his way to Quebec some years later in the spring of 1984 to round out several International cards. He didn't stay all that long and wound up in Calgary where he would score big by turning heel, re-naming himself Makhan Singh, and feuding with the Hart brothers during one of Stampede Wrestling's hottest periods. But his serious brawling came to an end in 1987 when he became the cartoonish Norman The Lunatic in WCW. Within three years he had become their answer to George "The Animal" Steele. New WCW booker Ole Anderson squashed the Norman character and Shaw was quickly grabbed by the WWF in the early 90's. A mercifully quick stint as Friar Ferguson was followed by the grotesque "Bastion Booger" character, a gimmick which still elicits winces from those fans who remember what a creatively dark period that was for the WWF. Still in all, Shaw was a solid roughhouser with a good backstage reputation who probably could have gone farther if his edgier Stampede character would have been allowed to flourish in the big time.

RICK STEINER: April 1985 saw the debut of a formidable tag team of rookies Scott Duran and Rick Steiner with International Wrestling. They completely destroyed their initial competition and made quite an impression with local fans who were expecting them to be challenging the Rougeaus for the tag team belts by the end of the year. But two months later, they had moved on and never returned. While Steiner's progress is well-documented, little is known about the mysterious Duran. He did look a little like Rick's brother Scott Steiner, but it wasn't him. Duran seemed to fall off the face of the earth, never to be heard from again, while Rick went on to make a name for himself with Bill Watts' UWF. After that, he went on to superstardom in Japan, WCW and the WWF. Steiner showed true flashes of greatness during his brief stint with International and it's unfortunate that we didn't get to see more of him during that period in his career.

KEVIN KELLY: Before you start believing that the pudgy WWF announcer was once a wrestler, think again. You probably know him best as The Big Boss Man's stocky mortal enemy, prison inmate "Nailz" from several years back, but a younger Kevin Wacholz started out his career as a bodybuilding strongman in Verne Gagne's AWA. After some moderate success there, Gagne sent him to Montreal during the heyday of International's booking arrangement with the AWA. The muscular scrapper spent the last three months of 1985 here, filling out cards in Montreal and Quebec City. Although he had that steroid-induced look that was becoming so popular at the time, Kelly never rose above the third match on the card and was really only here to gain some experience.  By the beginning of 1986 he was back in the AWA and resurfaced many years later in the WWF, looking decidedly more paunchy. Strangely enough, what notoriety Kevin did gain was mostly due to an infamous incident where he actually attacked Vince McMahon backstage over a financial dispute. Needless to say, he was never heard from after that.

ALOFA "The Polynesian Prince": It's hard to believe that WWF superstar Rikishi once actually weighed 220 lbs.but there is videotape to prove it. Polynesian wrestlers were a big hit in Quebec during the 1980's and two of International's biggest draws were King Tonga and The Great Samu. Jimmy Snuka, the original Samoans and even The Tonga Kid had all made successful appearances in Montreal as well. Hot on the heels of those men came a youngster by the name of Alofa, whose style and character were a dead ringer for The Tonga Kid's. He formed an instantly popular tag team with high-flying Dan Kroffat (a.k.a. Philip Lafon) and had a really good feud with The Long Riders (Scott & Bill Irwin) during 1986. Those solid matches helped pave the way for Tom Zenk's much-documented stay with International Wrestling as he took Alofa's place when the youngster headed down south, and carried on the feud with the Irwins for several months.  Later, Alofa became Fatu down in Texas and formed the successful Samoan Swat Team which later morphed into The Headshrinkers in the WWF. With most of his kinsmen now out of the big time, Fatu became Rikishi and is currently enjoying the greatest success of his career thus far.

IAN HODGKINSON: He went from once carrying Rick Martel's bags to great international fame as the mysterious Vampiro. Since he is a native Canadian from Thunder Bay, Ontario, it was only natural for young Ian to wrestle his first matches here. However, he made precious few appearances in most other cities outside Ontario as International Wrestling was really feeling the financial pinch by the time he made his hometown debut, wrestling as "Billy Fury" and getting squashed by Steve Strong (Steve DiSalvo). Jobs with the promotion were scarce and Hodgkinson made his way down to Mexico and suddenly became one of the greatest foreign superstars in Lucha Libre history as El Vampiro Canadiense. A brief but solid run in WCW near the end of the 1990's had most fans feeling that the league may have finally found it's answer to The Undertaker. But the corporate instability of the company, combined with Ian's frequent run-ins with various WCW bookers helped prematurely sink his push and a man who still possesses enormous talent and potential strangely remains out of the big time today.

TOSHIAKI KAWADA: Ah, if only we could have seen him wrestle here during his prime. Yes, the current All-Japan Triple Crown champion (and president) made several appearances here during the final dying days of International Wrestling in 1987. Billed only by his first name (a puzzling promotional tactic that's still used today), Kawada, like Riki Choshu ten years before him, was sent to Montreal in order to gain some North American experience. Unfortunately, he didn't get very much as the talent pool by then was comprised of names like "Pretty Boy" Chuck Simms, Karl Von Fritz, and The Hawaiian Punch. Still, Toshiaki's raw talent did manage to shine through somewhat and the beauty of it is that some of his matches here have actually popped up on tape trading sites for those Kawada completists who are interested in how he looked at the time.

I guess that one of the saddest postscripts on the death of International Wrestling in the summer of 1987 is that there was no longer a major local outlet to groom new Quebec-born wrestlers. Nor would we be afforded opportunities for one last look at beloved veterans who were making the rounds one last time before fading into retirement. It was that kind of variety and unpredictable nature which gave International, and territories like it, that extra bit of charm and entertainment.

NEXT MONTH :

A profile of George Cannon, who kept wrestling alive in Montreal during the horrendous period of the late 1970's.