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Topics: 36
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Post: #755809
PT: #1/13
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This message was edited by Sniper Niles on June 18th, 2013 22:11 GMT
Like we've mentioned in other post 1984 was a great year for Wrestling in the Maritimes.
Emile Dupre who had a stranglehold on the market, all of a sudden got a challenge from the Returning Al Zinck and International Wrestling.
Zinck of course got the first major blow in getting Burke, the Kays, and the Beast to join up with him. Dupree countered by bringing in familiar faces Stomper, Petitpas, Krupp, etc.
Near the end of the Summer Zinck got another blow on AGPW when the Stomper No Showed a show to show up in Halifax and challenge Burke
Dupre didn't fold shop be continued and they still went almost head to head.
What I'm wondering is why did International wrestling close shop after that 1 summer. It appeared that they got the better of AGPW, but come 85 AGPW was left standing and IW was gone again.
Now, not sure if this is true or not, and I'm asking the regular guys, like Abe and 70's fan for some help in this here. I've heard that Zinck offered lots of Money for the Stomper to jump to IW and try to destroy AGPW, while Burke and company thought that the Stomper just came over by himself. At the end of the season, Burke and company heard of what happened they literally pulled out and went back with Dupre killing IW for good.
I'm wondering if this is true, or if there's something else that I never heard off. What I wrote comes second hand from someone who says that Rene Dupre told him several years ago.
PS guys, I'm still on the hunt for old clippings of the area and plan to go back to the Library in Moncton when time permits again with my busy work schedule.
Once I get more clippings I'll try to share them here also.
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 fan70s |
June 19th, 2013 08:16 GMT |
 
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Topics: 30
Replies: 1109
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Post: #755854
PT: #2/13
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This quote is from the now closed Jim Dillon forum
Quote Message
I had such a positive experience in the early-70's with my first real break in wrestling in the Canadian Maritimes, I jumped at the opportunity to try and recapture some of that magic again in 19834 with Al Zinck and Clary Flemming. It was an eye-opening experience. I had the blessings of both Eddie Graham and Dusty Rhodes to leave Florida and give this new venture my best shot. Eddie Graham gave me open access to the Florida library of wrestling tapes. To succeed in promoting wrestling you have to have quality talent, which we had, the ability to know how to utilize that talent to put butts in seats (and I had confidence in this area based on my prior experience in booking talent), a quality TV production (which we had), and broad television exposure. We never achieved the necessary television exposure to reach sufficient eyeballs, and we failed. It was not for lack of desire or effort. Had the effort taken place a year or two later after cable television was better established in the Maritimes, it could have ended with a different result. It was a difficult lesson learned. For me personally, I rejoined Dusty in the Mid-Atlantic region of the Carolinas and eventually I found my greatest success as an original member of The Four Horsemen.
In 84 IW was on the ASN network which was only viewable by cable subscribers, or those with the giant Satellite dishes, while AGPW was on ATV viewable by cable or antenna, this reflected in IW's gates, the Daily News put Rick Martels title defence at 2,000 about half of the average Forum gate when they ran in the 70s, I don't think Zinck lost his shirt, but he probably didn't want to run again without getting on ATV.
The Stomper story  I did ask Dillon if he had been the one who arranged Stomper's jump, and he said he didn't know anything about it, I have also heard he didn't get along well with Dupre, and he had a history of bugging out without notice, he went back a long ways with the Cormiers to the days when he first started with Stampede, and was with IW quite often in the 70s, in fact he and Burke went to Texas together after IW, so it probably didn't take much for him to jump, that is not to say he wasn't offered a bonus or a guarantee, after all Zinck needed a well known heel to replace Dillon fast. They may have building up John Quinn, but Stomper had a history in the area thus better heat. Quinn on the other hand went to AGPW right after Stomper arrived, he may have even been offered to them. As for Burke not knowing about money been offered Dillon said he thought Burke took over the book after he left, so it's likely he was the one who approached Stomper.
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Topics: 36
Replies: 235
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Post: #755957
PT: #3/13
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Man, your explanation sure makes a lot more sense, than the word of mouth 2nd hand source.
I remember watching IW on ASN and loving it, and in Moncton, or should I say Dieppe, they drew fairly good crowds, if I remember correctly they were in Dieppe on Tuesday nights, which was right after AGPW, which could of played an impact. I did go to several AGPW and IW that year. (My Uncle was great for taking me to events).
I just wished that I would of been smart enough when I was 11 years old to tape IW and AGPW and save the copies. That would be so awesome to watch this over again.
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Topics: 26
Replies: 338
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Post: #756039
PT: #4/13
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This message was edited by Abe the Newsboy on June 20th, 2013 15:59 GMT
I was in college in Ontario at the time this was going down, so I was getting my first exposure to the AWA (Road Warriors debut) and Maple Leaf Wrestling. But I would have loved to have seen the IW and AGPW broadcasts at the time because I have no idea what they looked like.
If anybody remembers can they tell me about the broadcasts. I'm assuming AGPW was shot out of the green studio in Moncton as it would be a year or so later when I got there.
Was IW a remote shoot or was it shot at the CJCH Halifax studio? ASN had no facilities of their own so It had to have been the ATV studio. I was in there often enough but that was over 20 years ago so my memory is faulty. I don't recall it being that much bigger than the Moncton studio which was a pretty tight squeeze once you had the stands in there.
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| fan70s |
June 20th, 2013 19:34 GMT |
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Topics: 30
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Post: #756054
PT: #5/13
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This message was edited by fan70s on June 20th, 2013 19:42 GMT
The first IW taping of 84 was at the opening card at the Halifax Forum - a Battle Royal, and 4 or 5 squash matches, basically the same type of opening card they had in the seventies, except mobile cameras were not an option then; they did a few in the Dalplex, and sometime in June they moved to the Centennial Arena in Fairview, Hfx.
AGPW still used the Moncton Studio, with Biweekly tapings vs. weekly with IW, I think The Stomper was still on AGPW TV as well as IW TV the Saturday after he showed up at the Forum to challenge Leo Burke on Tue., and was replaced at the Dartmouth Sportsplex on Thur.! I have never been in either studio but from TV the Halifax one seemed bigger, I think in Moncton they had one side of the ring against the wall, while in Halifax it seemed more centered, in the seventies IW had a interview area to the right of camera with a background of lockers, probably fake and I think they also used it at the arena tapings in 84. I didn't get to see a lot of IW's or the AGPW show in 84 as I would be working most Saturdays, and I couldn't have had a VCR yet or I would have taped a few, but in quality IW made AGPW seem from the 60's.
This 'locker room' picture is from 73:
Quoted from: sweetanfan, July 13th, 2012 21:39 GMTThe legendary Leo Burke, with announcer Clary Flemming and Leo's brother Bobby Kay. Burke is holding the Taped Fist Trophy.
According to this IW was at the Dieppe Arena on Monday nights, they were definitely in Halifax on Tuesday nights:
Even though Stomper was AGPW's biggest heel in 84, they also had Krupp; Bob Brown; Cuban Assassin; SweetDaddy Siki etc. I don't think anyone believed losing Stomper would put them out of business.
I have scans of two newspaper specials done on IW you can browse them at 1984
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| fan70s |
June 20th, 2013 19:52 GMT |
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Topics: 30
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Post: #756055
PT: #6/13
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Abe you said you got to see Maple Leaf Wrestling at this time, did you see it before the WWF takeover, if so did it seem strange to see the Cormiers working as heels? I doubt you were a mark, being in college etc., but still!
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Topics: 26
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Post: #756079
PT: #7/13
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This message was edited by Abe the Newsboy on June 20th, 2013 23:54 GMT
I hate to say it but I was never a mark from the time I started watching as a little kid. I knew it wasn't a fight, it was great entertainment. I can only remember one time almost suspending disbelief and that was when the Memphis guys came in. They seemed to work much "snugger" and I remember thinking it ain't real but these guys make it look a helluva lot better than what I used to watch.
The Maple Leaf wrestling I watched was WWF (Billy Red Lyons) IIRC, I would have remembered the Cormiers. The sad part of it was that the TV production was way better than "back home" but it was only 20 years later that I discovered that I preferred Maritime rasslin and this WWF kinda sucked.
Actually the AWA was awesome at that time. Hell, they had the Midnight Rockers, the Roadies, and Big Scott Hall in their early years. I still prefer watching AWA even now and I don't care about Solie, Ross or Russell but Rod Trongard had the best voice and delivery in wrestling. So he screwed up some stuff 
The Moncton studio had no stands on camera right (about a couple of feet away from the wall, and one camera was actually in the main cargo doorway. I think I posted this elsewhere here but the studio was painted green and was then given a black paint job and with the banner made it look quite a bit like the Mid-Atlantic territory (maybe Emile was trading VHS with Johnny Weaver)
Ahh the infamous lockers! Whatever illusions I may have had as a little kid were dashed when somebody got thrown into the lockers and the board fell down (and that was after years of watching). That was the only thing (the lockers) that I thought was "real"
Oh yeah, when I was a kid I thought Clary Flemming was the coolest. He wouldn't take any poop from the wrestlers, especially Krupp. Miiiisssster Flemming!
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Post: #756088
PT: #8/13
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I had to laugh at the "kayfabed" article above. Shows were relatively easy to shoot. They were live to tape, commercial breaks built in and there wasn't any issue with timing.
I used to see the rundown sheet with the show lineup (matches) and the times of the matches. BEFORE THE SHOW Plus you had the most falls to curfew match to help with any screwups to bring the show back to time.
I'd love to see one of those IW shows. Anybody recall if it looked much like when WGPW went on the road, I worked on a few of those before I moved on.
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Post: #756091
PT: #9/13
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This message was edited by Abe the Newsboy on June 21st, 2013 00:41 GMT
Quoted from: fan70s, June 20th, 2013 19:52 GMTAbe you said you got to see Maple Leaf Wrestling at this time, did you see it before the WWF takeover, if so did it seem strange to see the Cormiers working as heels?
I'll tell you what was strange, was watching TQS (Télévision Quatre-Saisons) with the play by play guy and the cute chick commentator and Leo Burke as a heel announcer of NWA broadcasts
I wasn't around to see Leo as a heel in the Maritimes, I heard it happened but I never saw it, but Leo and this lady were comedy gold, especially when Leo would wig out. "Calme-toi Leo, calme-toi!"
Wow, can't believe I found this. I'm going to post this in the rare video thread. Leo as a heel.
Bertrand Hébert à la Lutte NWA à TQS
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Topics: 36
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Post: #756115
PT: #10/13
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Leo turning heel was subtle and for us in Cocagne it came out of nowhere, cause I was at every show in Cocagne that summer, cause it appears that it all started either in Halifax or Truro, with Todd McPhee accidently hitting Burke. Note that Burke won the International title from Rick Patterson and was very aggressive in that match.
On the Monday night in Cocagne McPhee was battling Eddie Watts in a Steel Cage match for the Jr. Heavyweight Title and McPhee won the match, but Goldie Rogers came out with a scale and they weighed McPhee and he was 2 lbs over weight. Resulting the title returned to Watts.
McPhee goes crazy and begins beating the daylights of Watts and Rogers. Soaring Eagle and Leo Burke come out to try to get order restored, Mcphee got a couple of shots on Burke and Eagle.
Burke puts McPhee in a Sleeper in what appeared to be a way to calm him down. Eagle tries to wrap his arms around McPhee to stop him from fighting and Leo releases the Sleeper and decks Eagle, than decks McPhee. He leaves the ring takes the microphone and says that this is the 2nd time he's tried to help McPhee and gets punched. So he challenged McPhee the following week.
That week came and the match started out clean, but Burke began getting more aggressive and in the end if I remember correctly he pinned McPhee with his feet on the ropes.
Acadian Giant (Kurrgan) comes out and tries to tell referee what happened, Burke slapped him and a match was set for the following week.
That match was more a brawl than anything with Stephen Petitpas making his way to the hockey bench behind the ring watching the match. Burke goes crazy in the match and begins using a chair on the Giant. Petitpas came out and Burke backed away.
Of course setting it for Burke Vs. Petitpas the following week. From what I remember it was possibly the biggest draw they had that summer for Burke Vs. Petitpas.
That match was great, but Paul Peller who had made his return several months earlier got involved and helped Burke double Team Petitpas, while the Cuban Assassin came out and it was 3 on 1 till McPhee and Giant came out.
Burke finished the season Heel and Lost the title to Petitpas on the last show of the season and actually the last show for a long time.
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| fan70s |
July 14th, 2013 19:47 GMT |
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Post: #759773
PT: #12/13
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This message was edited by fan70s on July 14th, 2013 20:15 GMT
Thanks Abe, I don't think I saw that clip before, although the finish looked familiar, might have done in another match there too.
Niles, I don't think there were any shows in or around Halifax, when Leo turned heel, if so they weren't well advertized, the first I heard about it was in a Mag.
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| fan70s |
July 14th, 2013 19:57 GMT |
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Topics: 30
Replies: 1109
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Post: #759775
PT: #13/13
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I also saw some of those TQS shows, not knowing French, at first I was not sure if Burke was challenging Flair or praising him. It was no real shock to see him heel, I had read about him being a heel in southwest and turning on Bret Hart in Stampede. I think I assumed, even when I was still kind of a mark that someone with the name Beast would be a heel elsewhere. And a Clip from Amarillo in 76 was edited to look like they were faces, but I suspected otherwise, even then.
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