Greetings to all our International Wrestling fans out there on Kayfabe Memories, and welcome to my first column as writer for this fabled promotion.

I'm picking up the torch passed on to me by Steve Laflamme, who did an excellent job in chronicling the Quebec-based league, and I hope I can do as entertaining and informative a job as Steve has done. While I will primarily be covering the years 1980 to 1987, in which International Wrestling operated, I will also be discussing many Quebec promotions that go farther back. As you will discover, all of the circuits that operated in Quebec - going right back to the late 1930's - have either direct or indirect connections with each other and I will be attempting to trace the evolution of the local grappling game in Quebec, which culminated with the International Wrestling promotion, in this and future columns.

Now, for those of you who remember watching International Wrestling on television back in the 1980's, or have since procured videos via the tape trading route, one of the main elements that stands out about the promotion is how truly "international" the talent roster was. Since Quebec is, in essence, a French-speaking Canadian province, and Montreal itself being so ethnically diverse, it seems only natural. However, this multi-ethnic approach in presentation was also quite deliberate in its design.