Pics from 1981 MLG Book

A few pics out of Stan Obodiac's fabulous Maple Leaf Gardens book first published in 1981. Pic above by Michael Burns of Lord Athol Layton from the 60's with the MLG ushers. 

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Pic below with the French Angel and Canadian writers l. to r. Ralph Allen, Johnny Fitzgerald, Joe Perlove, and Hal Walker. A young Frank Tunney is at far right. If you go to the Canada Sports Hall of Fame site and start at Page 40 of the Turofsky Collection you will find similar images from the older days of MLW. 

Pic below from the 50's is the same shot seen in the Tunney office pic on the MLWP Tunney Page

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Otto, Del, Tokyo Joe

A few pics taken in Quebec, Otto Von Heller aka Mike Hall above 1978, Del Skinner below 1978 (id on who is in the ring?), and Tokyo Joe 1983 (different than the 70's wrestler with the same name). If you have any info on these wrestlers please leave a comment. Heller aka Hall is familiar to fans in Canada but the other two I have very little info on.

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Halifax 1968

Thanks to regular MLWP contributor Jerome MacDonald for these ads from Halifax from 1968. Above is June 6 , below is July 12. If we were to replace Halifax with Toronto these could well be ads for MLG for the same time period as it's Tunney's crew.

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 For more clippings from the Maritimes see MLWP - East Coast Clippings

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MLW Program 7/11/1977

On the occasion of the big Exhibition Stadium show and notable as the last appearance of The Sheik for Tunney. A kind of 'best of' pub put together by long-time MLG Publicist and author Stan Obodiac for a professional look. 

The pic of Whipper, Tunney and Elvis is from The King's 1957 show at MLG. At the time of the pic it was noted it as the 2 Kings, the King of Rock n' Roll and the King of Toronto Wrestling. 

There is another pic of Whipper and Elvis at Scotty Moore.net where it notes that In addition to the police and his own entourage, sometimes referred to as bodyguards, Bill E. Burk said Elvis had the famous Canadian professional wrestler, "Whipper" Billy Watson, as his Toronto bodyguard

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Results credit Gary Will

77/07/11 (Exhibition Stadium)

NWA TITLE: Harley Race WDQ The Sheik 8:56
WWWF TITLE: Superstar Graham WP Chief Jay Strongbow
Andre the Giant DCOR Ken Patera
INTERNATIONAL TAG TEAM TITLE: The Crusaders W Reginald Love/Chris Tolos
Stan Stasiak W Al Costello
Haystack Calhoun WDQ Bulldog Kent
Tony Parisi D The Mongol
The Wildman D Pat Kelly

Farmer Pete W Little Bruiser

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Big Bear Program 1983

Most of a Program from the 1983 tour, few pages/pics are omitted as they are already up here or on Rob Elder's excellent Ontario Classic Wrestling Clips Blog. 

No 'Rick' Flair did not work on McKigney shows. Either did Mosca, not at this time anyways. McKigney was very creative in his posters and media as you can see by the cover above with at least Terry Funk and Mil Mascaras who never - as far as I know - worked on the Wildman's shows.

Both Candi Divine and Debbie Combs, two of the most attractive ladies of the time were both quality wrestlers and a good addition to the cards 82-83. Other ladies on this tour included Dianne/Brenda Hoffman and Donna Day and they would have frequent mixed bouts with both the regulars and the midget wrestler.

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Germania Club 1980

Thanks to Tom Muir for these pics from a TV Taping in 1980. A real treat for me as I never got to Hamilton back then and can't recall seeing any pics from our era from the Club so far. 

Snuka above and Steamboat below

Snuka pic looks like he is doing the Sheik fireball with the flash in the background. He is gearing up for his awesome flight off the top turnbuckle that he performed at MLG many times. For me 2 of the top 3 along with Flair during the M-A days, thanks again to another MLW fan for sending me stuff !

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Windsor, ON 1947

Some clips from the Newspaper Archives Windsor, ON 1947. Promoters Bill Thornton and Frank Tunney, on a couple of cards Don Owen is listed as matchmaker.

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Gary Howard wrote an excellent article on Slam Wrestling on Windsor star Frankie 'The Flying Dutchman' Hart featured in the clip below

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