On a January 26th, 1970 Montreal Forum card alone, Castillo appeared along with Don Serrano, the original Cuban Assassins, Juan Lopez and Carlos Colon. In many ways it was Colon who broke the mold of being passed off as Cuban, mainly because he was an acrobatic good guy who formed an exciting and formidable tag team with Edouard Carpentier. Therefore, he was allowed to be billed from his homeland.  All of these stars were regular fixtures of All-Star shows throughout the early part of the decade. Quebec fans just couldn't seem to get enough of these fiery performers who wrestled with a quick, emotionally explosive style that has always appealed to local fans.

In the summer of 1971, the Vachon brothers and their partners opened up the rival "Grand Prix Wrestling" group and the titanic promotional war between the two companies began. The first salvo was launched when Grand Prix raided some of All-Star's top talent, including tag champs the original Hollywood Blonds (Jerry Brown & Dale "Buddy" Roberts). The Vachons also used their American wrestling connections to help Grand Prix quickly establish firm promotional ties with Verne Gagne (AWA), Dick The Bruiser (Indianapolis) and Vince McMahon Sr. (WWWF) which saw some of those area's biggest names appear here in order to get the new group off to a good start. Clearly, Johnny Rougeau was now in danger of being squeezed out of the Quebec territory. The situation became even more critical when the Vachons used their connections with former Montreal Canadiens hockey great Jean Beliveau (who had just taken a front office job with the team) in order to break Rougeau's exclusivity of promoting cards at the spacious Montreal Forum. In 1972 alone, aside from each companies weekly shows, there were an astonishing 19 cards at the Forum (13 Grand Prix, 6 All-Star), sometimes with two a month. Rougeau responded by entering into closer arrangements with his old friend The Sheik (Ed Farhat) in Detroit and, most notably, with Pedro Martinez' NWF league in the Buffalo-Cleveland area.

Even though Grand Prix became the top promotion in Quebec during the 1972-73 period, the popular Puerto Rican stars remained loyal to Johnny Rougeau. None of them jumped ship to the Vachon group and they all continued to thrill fans on All-Star shows. During this period, Don Serrano had a tremendous feud with rookie sensation Raymond Rougeau over the Quebec junior heavyweight title while Fidel Castillo was joined by his "brother" Raoul (who may be more familiar to WWWF fans as Angel Maravilla) to form one of the hottest and most remembered tag teams in Quebec history. In short, the dastardly Castillo brothers ran roughshod over our local heroes and stormed their way to the tag team championship in record time. Aside from frequent appearances by Abdullah and The Sheik, the hated Castillos were basically holding up Rougeau's promotion against the white hot Grand Prix boys almost all by themselves.

Suddenly. by late 1973, Grand Prix began to cool off. In an ironic twist, it was at this same time that Carlos Colon, Victor Jovica and Gorilla Monsoon formed the World Wrestling Council (WWC) in Puerto Rico, primarily to offer a competitive showcase for local talent who weren't really getting a fair shake by the NWA Florida group who had for years been airlifting their stars into the island for house shows. Their first show was held on January 6th, 1974 and the Castillos entered the new promotion billed as the North American tag team champions.

Just as things were beginning to take shape in Puerto Rico, the Quebec wrestling scene began to implode. A last ditch effort to save Grand Prix saw them extend an olive branch to Rougeau for a brief co-promotional deal that included two cards at the Montreal Forum, and even The Sheik sent over some Detroit stars that June. But by the end of the year, Grand Prix Wrestling was dead and Rougeau's company was in the midst of dying as well. It finally did in July of 1975, and even though a few splinter groups tried their hand at running the territory, most of Quebec's wrestlers found themselves out of work. They then scattered around North American rings, many briefly popping up in the short-lived IWA, some in the WWWF and AWA, most others in the southern U.S. territories.

Quite a few, however, made their way down to Puerto Rico, possibly at the behest of Abdullah, Colon and Castillo who were well aware of their talents. Former local stars like Bull Gregory, Ali Baba and the masked Scorpions found great success on the island. Perhaps the most acclaimed of this group were the tag team of Pierre Martel (Frenchy Martin) and Michel Martel (Michel Vigneault, brother of Rick Martel). The two heels terrorized WWC rings much in the same way the Castillos did here in Montreal years earlier. The Martel name exploded into epic proportions when Michel tragically died after a match in 1978, spurring on a monstrously hot face turn for Pierre which soon resulted in other "family" members showing up (most notably, another "brother" named Daniel, who was really Danny Babitch).

As the 1980's dawned, wrestling in Quebec was back on the map when International Wrestling opened its doors that spring. Although Frank Valois and his partners established ties with quite a few other promotions over the next seven years, the one constant talent exchange link was with the WWC. In those early years, Abdullah The Butcher returned here to his top heel spot while local Montreal wrestlers like Joe Lightfoot (known here as Jos Ventura) and Pierre "Mad Dog" Lefebvre won gold down in Puerto Rico. Bob Della Serra, once known here for wrestling under a mask as The UFO, found a new role as one half of the new Fabulous Kangaroos with Don Kent. He wrestled as "Johnny Heffernan," the supposed son of original Kangaroo Roy Heffernan. A fellow named "Gino De La Serra" popped up there as well, but I'm not certain if he was Bob's brother Rocky, or maybe Gino Brito Jr. under another name.

Back here, the first half of the decade saw the return of Frenchy Martin and Jos Leduc from stints in Puerto Rico. Kerry Brown, a known name from both the Kansas City and Calgary areas, also arrived here and had a good run as Rick Valentine, the fictitious "brother" of Greg Valentine. But there is no question that the greatest import into Montreal from the WWC for International Wrestling was King Tonga. His epic feud with Dino Bravo over the heavyweight championship was an all-time classic in this province between 1984 and 1985 until Tonga turned face and formed an immensely popular tag team with his former rival. Ultimately, that popularity proved to be the undoing for International Wrestling. When the first  International/WWF co-promotional card at the Montreal Forum on August 26th, 1985 drew over 21,500 fans - headlined by the Rougeaus vs. the Garvins, and Bravo & Tonga vs. Nikolai Volkoff & The Iron Sheik - Vince McMahon was obviously paying attention. Less than six months later, Bravo, Tonga, Rick Martel, Tom Zenk and the Rougeaus were all in the World Wrestling Federation.

By 1986, the WWF's expansion really took its toll on International Wrestling, just as it had with so many other once vibrant territories throughout North America. Shut out of promoting at the Montreal Forum, and with most of our best local superstars now with McMahon, the situation was becoming desperate by the end of that year. A distress call for help was made by Gino Brito and his old friend Abdullah stepped in to help in a last ditch attempt to save the company.

Since he was the biggest superstar left, Abdullah was installed as the top babyface and he imported a host of WWC talent like Bruiser Brody and Kareem Muhammad to feud with him in a series of bloody contests. Hercules Ayala was brought in to feud with the aging Jos Leduc while others such as Kendo Nagasaki, Jason The Terrible, Sweet Daddy Siki and David Shultz all made their way through town. In perhaps the strangest idea of all, veteran "Killer" Tim Brooks was brought in as "Buster Brody," Bruiser's allegedly insane brother.

Needless to say, these were all terrible ideas. Sure, Quebec wrestling fans were used to wild brawls and bloodletting, but only as a supplement to the more skilled and athletic wrestlers. Unfortunately, the best of that bunch had jumped ship and the sort of pre-ECW formula was an unmitigated disaster for International Wrestling and the promotion sadly closed it's doors by mid-1987.

In the following years, many ex-International stars like Bravo, Leo Burke, Ronnie Garvin, Rick Martel and Jacques Rougeau made their way back through Puerto Rico. In fact, it was there that Rougeau first made contact with a wrestler by the name of "Killer" Karl Wallace, who would go on to fame with him as Pierre-Carl Ouelette, one-half of The Quebecers.

Somehow, the WWC in Puerto Rico has managed to remain strong. In fact, it is today the last of the old North American territorial promotions of yesteryear still in existence and will forever hold a primary place within the glorious history of professional wrestling in Quebec.

NEXT MONTH :

The lost art of managing and how it was instrumental in getting foreign stars over in Quebec.