Jack Corcoran (1930–1939) John Tunney (1939) Frank Tunney (1939–1983) Jack Tunney (1983–1986) Eddie Tunney (1983–1984)
Formerly
Queensbury Athletic Club Maple Leaf Wrestling
Maple Leaf Wrestling was the unofficial name of a Canadian professional wrestling promotion owned by Frank Tunney and based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada during the 1970s and 1980s. Founded in 1930, Maple Leaf was a territory of the National Wrestling Alliance for much of his history; after Frank's death in 1983, his nephews instead elected to align with the World Wrestling Federation, which acquired the promotion in 1984.
Cover of the program for the first game of the Toronto Maple Leafs at Maple Leaf Gardens (MLG) in 1931. Boxing and wrestling matches, also staple events at MLG for most of its history, are depicted on the cover along with ice hockey imagery.
The promotion, initially known as the Queensbury Athletic Club, traces its roots back to 1930, when it was launched by Jack Corcoran, who had previously promoted boxing in Toronto under the Queensbury name. Initially, Corcoran was involved in a promotional war with rival promoter Ivan Mickailoff, but after Corcoran allied himself with the new Maple Leaf Gardens in 1931, he took control of professional wrestling in Toronto.
The Gardens would remain the main venue for the promotion for more than 60 years. Wrestling kept the Gardens busy on nights when there was no hockey game. Canadian, British Empire and world title matches were all held there.
The Tunneys take over
Ring introductions at MLG of the NWA World Heavyweight Championship match between champion Dory Funk, Jr. and challenger Johnny Valentine on February 11, 1973. Note the entrance ramp at left, which was used at MLG decades before it became commonplace in other promotions.
Corcoran stepped down in 1939 and was bought out by his assistants, John and Frank Tunney. John died just a few months later, and the promotion was then run by Frank. Through most of the 1940s and 1950s, Frank Tunney's biggest star was local hero Whipper Billy Watson, who became a two-time world champion. Starting in 1969, the shows were headlined by The Sheik for more than eight years.
Following Frank's death in 1983, the business was run by John's son Jack Tunney and Frank's son, Eddie Tunney. The Tunneys hosted National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) and Mid-Atlantic Wrestling matches until 1984, when Jack Tunney abandoned Crockett and signed with Vince McMahon's expanding World Wrestling Federation, with Jack serving as a figurehead on-air president of the WWF from 1984 to 1995, while also serving as the (legitimate) president of Titan Sports Canada, the local arm of the WWF's parent company.
Following the WWF takeover in 1984, the name Maple Leaf Wrestling continued to be used for the federation's Canadian TV program (a staple of Hamilton station CHCH-TV for many years), which the WWF took over production of after the Tunneys split from the NWA. The show was hosted by Angelo Mosca and Jack Reynolds. TV tapings for the show were held in Brantford and other cities in southern Ontario for the next two years, until the WWF ceased the tapings in 1986 and decided to simply use the Maple Leaf Wrestling name for the Canadian airings of WWF Superstars of Wrestling. In these Canadian episodes there was some Canadian footage, usually matches from Maple Leaf Gardens and updates by on-air announcer and former wrestler Billy Red Lyons. These tapings were the precursor to the WWF's Wrestling Challenge, which became the "B" show to WWF Superstars Of Wrestling. Gorilla Monsoon and Jesse Ventura were the hosts for the Canadian tapings (with Ventura doing his famous "The Body Shop" segment). When those tapings morphed into Challenge in 1986, Ventura was moved to WWF Superstars Of Wrestling. Bobby Heenan replaced Ventura as the Canadian tapings became WWF Wrestling Challenge.
In 1995, McMahon chose to run the shows in Toronto without any involvement from the Tunneys. The final show at the Gardens was held on September 17, 1995.
Jim Crockett Promotions is a family-owned professional wrestling promotion headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, United States. Founded in 1931, the promotion emerged as a cornerstone of the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA). By the 1980s, Jim Crockett Promotions was, along with the World Wrestling Federation, one of the two largest promotions in the United States. The Crockett family sold a majority interest in the promotion to Turner Broadcasting System, resulting in the creation of World Championship Wrestling (WCW) in 1988. In 2022, Jim Crockett Promotions Inc. was restarted by Jim Crockett's son and Jim Crockett Jr's brother, David Crockett.
Pro Wrestling USA was a professional wrestling promotion in the United States of America in the mid-1980s. It was an attempt to unify various federations, including the American Wrestling Association (AWA), Jim Crockett Promotions and other members of the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA), against the national expansion of the World Wrestling Federation.
The NWA Toronto United States Heavyweight Championship was the version of the NWA United States Heavyweight Championship that was defended in Frank Tunney's Toronto-based Maple Leaf Wrestling. It existed from 1962 until 1973. A different version of the title was brought to the territory by The Sheik in 1974 and defended until 1977. After that, Maple Leaf Wrestling recognized the Mid-Atlantic version of the title from May 1978 until July 1984 when promoter Jack Tunney allied himself with the WWF.
James Allen Crockett Jr. was an American professional wrestling promoter. From 1973 to 1989, he was part owner of Jim Crockett Promotions (JCP), a wrestling company affiliated with the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA). From 1976 to 1987, Crockett and his family also owned the Charlotte Orioles, a minor league baseball team based in Charlotte, North Carolina as well as owning the Winston-Salem Polar Twins in the Southern Hockey League from 1974 to 1975.
WWF Superstars of Wrestling, also referred to as Maple Leaf Wrestling in Canada, was an American professional wrestling television program that was produced by the World Wrestling Federation. It debuted on September 6, 1986, as the flagship program of the WWF's syndicated programming.
JohnTunney Jr. was a Canadian professional wrestling promoter. He was known worldwide for his appearances on World Wrestling Federation television as Jack Tunney under the character of the promotion's president. Tunney's tenure was during the company's Golden Era, the peak days of "Hulkamania".
Georgia Championship Wrestling is an American professional wrestling promotion based in Atlanta, Georgia. The promotion was affiliated with what had been the world's top sanctioning body of championship titles for decades before, the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA), and ran live wrestling shows throughout its geographic "territory" of Georgia. The company was also known for its self-titled TV program, which aired on Atlanta-based superstation WTBS from the 1970s until 1984 when its timeslot was purchased by the World Wrestling Federation.
In American professional wrestling, the term Black Saturday refers to Saturday, July 14, 1984, the day when Vince McMahon's World Wrestling Federation took over the timeslot on Superstation WTBS that had been home to Georgia Championship Wrestling (GCW) and its flagship weekly program, World Championship Wrestling, for twelve years. McMahon's purchase led to a longstanding rivalry between himself and WTBS owner Ted Turner, who later bought GCW's successor on the network Jim Crockett Promotions (JCP) and formed his own company under the World Championship Wrestling (WCW) name.
The 1980s professional wrestling boom, more commonly referred to as the Golden Era or the Rock 'n' Wrestling Era, was a surge in the popularity of professional wrestling in the United States and elsewhere throughout the 1980s. The expansion of cable television and pay-per-view, coupled with the efforts of promoters such as Vince McMahon, saw wrestling shift from a system controlled by numerous regional companies to one dominated by two nationwide companies: McMahon's World Wrestling Federation and Ted Turner's World Championship Wrestling (WCW). The decade also saw a considerable decline in the power of the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA), a cartel which had until then dominated the wrestling landscape, and in the efforts to sustain belief in the kayfabe of wrestling.
WWE Libraries Inc., branded as the WWE Legacy Department, is an American media company that consists of the largest collection of professional wrestling videos and copyrights in the world. The Legacy Department is a subsidiary of WWE, the professional wrestling subsidiary of TKO Group Holdings. It comprises not only past and current works by WWE but also the works of now defunct professional wrestling promotions dating back to the 1930s. As of 2014, the library stands at 150,000 hours of content including weekly television shows, pay-per-views, and recorded house shows. The collection represents a very significant portion of the visual history of modern professional wrestling in the United States and Canada. WWE has made their classic holdings available through numerous home video releases, the Vintage television program, and on the WWE Network and WWE Classics on Demand services.
The NWA United States Heavyweight Championship is a name used for several secondary championships used by various National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) members since 1953. At least twelve different versions of the NWA United States Heavyweight Championships have been promoted in various regions across the United States. The NWA's bylaws allowed any NWA member, also known as an NWA territory, to create and control their own version of the NWA United States Heavyweight Championship. The most well known version was the Mid-Atlantic Wrestling version, which later became the WCW United States Heavyweight Championship, and is still active as the WWE United States Championship.
Francis Martin Tunney was a Canadian professional boxing and wrestling promoter, based in Toronto.
George Scott was a Canadian professional wrestler, booker and promoter. From the 1950s until the 1970s, he and his younger brother Sandy competed as The Flying Scotts in North American regional promotions including the National Wrestling Alliance, particularly the Midwest and Mid-Atlantic territories, as well as successful stints in the American Wrestling Association, Maple Leaf Wrestling and Stampede Wrestling.
Jack Reynolds, born Joseph James Rizzo, was an American broadcaster from Cleveland, Ohio, who was better known outside of his hometown as a professional wrestling announcer.
Willem Snip was a Canadian professional wrestler, who wrestled under the ring name Billy Red Lyons. He was an active wrestler between 1956 and 1985, and won numerous championships throughout his career. He worked for promotions in both Canada and the United States, particularly in Ontario, California, Minneapolis, Texas, Georgia, and Oklahoma.
Fred Atkinson, better known by his ring name Fred Atkins, was a New Zealand-born Canadian professional wrestler, trainer, referee, manager, and announcer, best known for his time with Maple Leaf Wrestling.
Superstars of Wrestling, also sometimes known as the Canadian Wrestling Association, was an internationally syndicated Canadian professional wrestling television program. Based in Windsor, Ontario, the show ran live events in Eastern Canada and the Great Lakes region of the United States from 1975 to 1984.
The following is a historical overview television coverage provided the National Wrestling Alliance's territories. The NWA began in 1948 as a governing body for a group of independent professional wrestling promotions.
Angelo Mosca Jr. is a Canadian-American retired professional wrestler, who wrestled for the Jim Crockett Promotions, Championship Wrestling from Florida, and the World Wrestling Federation in the early to mid-1980s. He is a second generation wrestler, being the son of his trainer and manager Angelo Mosca.
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