Next we will look at some of the Tag Titles of the area as Toronto was always a hotbed for tag team wrestling. I have read that Frank Tunney was the promoter that actually introduced tag wrestling to North America and even if not accurate may have been the case as he was around at the beginning of organized wrestling as we knew it.

The Canadian Open Tag Team Title was the recognized Championship through the 50's and 60's and was held mostly by Whipper Watson with a variety of partners:  Pat Flanagan , Yvon Robert , Tex McKenzie , Lord Layton , Pat O'Connor , Yukon Eric , Bobo Brazil and others. In 1957 the all time great pairing of Gene Kiniski and Fritz Von Erich held the belts for a short time and other great teams such as Ivan and Nikita Kalmikoff (the original Ivan and Nikita), Gene Kiniski and the Mormon Giant Don Leo Jonathan, and Dick Hutton and Hard boiled Haggerty also held the titles throughout the 50's. Around 1962 the tag team title would be known as the International Tag Team Titles and would feature one of my all time favorites, Johnny Valentine with a variety of partners. How about Valentine and Bulldog Brower (1963) or Valentine and The Beast (1963) and although I am too young to have seen Valentine in his prime, if you ever get to see tapes from the early to mid 60's Valentine was one of the greatest ever and was always well received in Toronto whether as a face or a heel.

In the early 70's the tag team scene was dominated by the Love Brothers, Hartford and Reginald,
who were one of the all time great teams feuding against The Crusaders (Dewey and Billy Red Lyons) and trading the belts back and forth. The Love Brothers drew major heat for years not only in Toronto but all over Canada with their great ring smarts and insulting demeanor. If any of you saw that great show "Wrestling With The Past" on Canadian Television which had The Loves reunited, they couldn't stop cracking up at each other when they went into character and although they look like big teddy bears now, they were an incredibly tough team and were perfect as a foil to the beloved Crusaders. The Tag scene went quiet in the late 70's and disappeared completely in 1978. Of course having NWA Tag Titles defended through these years made up for the lack of an actual Canadian based Championship.

The British Empire Title also made the rounds here as held by Billy Robinson around 1978 and he made several defenses against Angelo Mosca in this time and teamed with High Chief Peter Maivia to beat Mosca and Super Destroyer (John Studd?).

Of course the most prominent title in the 70's was the U.S belt held by The Sheik and recognized by the NWA but in the 60's Toronto had its own version of this belt which was held by Johnny Valentine (1962), Bruno Sammartino (1962) and Tiger Jeet Singh (1968). Since the Sheik headed the territory of Detroit I will just list some of the opponents he beat at Maple Leaf Gardens:

Bobo Brazil, Whipper Watson, Lord Athol Layton, Tex McKenzie, Tiger Jeet Singh, Haystack Calhoun, Angelo Mosca, Guy "Stomper" Mitchell, Big John Quinn, Luis Martinez, Pampero Firpo, Johnny Valentine, Tony Marino, Chief Jay Strongbow, Killer Kowalski, Abdullah the Butcher, Duncan McTavish, Stan Stasiak, Maniac Mark Lewin, Spiros Arion, Chris Markoff, Gene Kiniski, andThunderbolt Patterson. Whew!!!!!!!! Not bad eh? The Sheik rarely lost, tagged with Ernie Ladd, Waldo Von Erich, and Abdullah among others and even faced the great Dory Funk Jr. in 1971 and Harley Race in 1977 for the NWA Heavyweight crown. (He lost both times, I don't think the NWA was ready for The Sheik as a world title holder).

There was also a TV Title in the early 80's held by stars such as Jay Youngblood, Private Jim Nelson (remember Boris Zukhoff in the AWA and later WWF) Mike Rotundo and Brian Adias before Toronto went WWF style. I'll cover TV in a later column but unlike other territories that created everything on TV, Tunney ran Toronto more like a boxing promoter where TV was mostly used to push the live cards and to show the wrestlers coming in to the area. Therefore the TV title was a minor belt in the big picture and like other areas was used to give mid carders an outlet. 

Hope you enjoyed this column, and again I would like to thank Vince and Kayfabe Memories for allowing us all to relive the great wrestling of yesteryear.  RIP Wahoo and thanks for the memories.

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