IN PROFESSIONAL WRESTLING, THERE ARE FEW STORIES AS POWERFUL AS THOSE WITH LINEAGE; WHERE THE HALLOWED HALLS OF THE PAST ARE REVISITED, AND LEGACIES ARE BUILT UPON BY NEW GENERATIONS. IN THE GREAT WHITE NORTH, ONE PARTICULAR STORY SEEMS READY FOR A NEW CHAPTER.
IN 1939, JOHN AND FRANK TUNNEY purchased control of the Toronto pro wrestling territory from Jack Corcoran, a former boxing promoter who’d been presenting wrestling events at Maple Leaf Gardens for about eight years. Unofficially dubbed “Maple Leaf Wrestling,” the growing league drew big crowds in the decades ahead by booking talent from the U.S. and Canada—including The Sheik and Ontario native “Whipper” Billy Watson. And it continued to serve as a grappling hotbed, as the Tunney Family cooperated with the National Wrestling Alliance, the American Wrestling Association, and the World Wrestling Federation.
Alas, since the mid-1980s—by which time the WWF had fully absorbed