In fact many of Pittsburgh TV enhancement talents were young Canadians like Koloff who came down for the TV experience and ring experience, but would later go on to become wrestling superstars.  Wrestlers like Bill Terry who would become Kurt von Hess, Bruce Swayze, and others would travel between Buffalo, Cleveland Pittsburgh and even Detroit gaining experience.  

Two other Canadians, Wes Hutchings and Johnny Evans, were going no where fast on this circuit until in 1968 Buffalo promoter Pedro Martinez teamed them up and renamed them The Love Brothers.  From prelims to main events, The Love Brothers came to prominence in Buffalo before heading off to Detroit, The IWA, and The Carolinas and all over Canada.  They were known as one of the top teams of the 1970's.    

Another young Canadian got his start wrestling as Lord Anthony Lansdowne.  He then moved to Detroit without much fan fare. But in 1963 when he moved to Pittsburgh and changed his him to Johnny Powers, he became an instant superstar.   Powers became a challenger for Bruno Sammartino and would eventually move to the Cleveland area and become the booker for Cleveland and part owner of the NWF.  Perhaps one of the most popular wrestlers ever in the Cleveland area.  

A young cowboy who started in Detroit but moved into the Pittsburgh area as a prelim heel meeting the likes of Bobby "Hurricane" Hunt, Frank Holtz and even John L Sullivan, Marshall Jim Dillon was nicknamed Swayback by TV commentator Bill Cardille.  Jim would become JJ Dillon a top heel in Florida, Georgia and Texas and later one of the best-known managers of all time when he led the infamous Four Horsemen in the Mid Atlantic area.   

Greg Valentine first used the name Baby Face Nelson, working in Detroit.  When he showed up in the NWF as Johnny Fargo, teaming with veteran Don Fargo, as part of the Fabulous Fargo Brothers, he career skyrocketed.  The Fargo's have to be one of the toughest teams ever to appear in Buffalo-Cleveland and Pittsburgh.  After switching to the Greg Valentine name, he would return once last time to Pittsburgh to hone his singles skills, again as Johnny Fargo, before dropping the name forever to become Greg Valentine and embark on a legendary career that continues on the independent circuit today.  

Killer Tim Brooks was another star that rose in Detroit simultaneously as he did in Cleveland.  He would move from prelim matches to Main events in Cleveland before he would anywhere else in the country, and have a long career as one of the toughest wrestlers in the sport.    

Many other stars got there teeth cut (or knocked out) here, these are just a few, I am sure I missed many and my apologies to them and their fans. 

NEXT MONTH:

 I take a look at my very first wrestling card I ever attended in Johnstown, PA at the War Memorial.