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Maritime Wrestling's Heroes And Villains

Posted: Apr 6th 2009 By: CMBurnham

Celebrities, blinding pyrotechnics and larger-than-life stars highlight the event in Texas tomorrow and it's available on pay-per-view.

But it wasn't that long ago that the Maritimes had its own wrestling stars.

The wrestlers who worked around the east coast in the 1960s, '70s and '80s weren't pretty faces in colourful tights wrestling underneath a sea of lights for 20,000 fans.

They were burly grapplers, good guys (babyfaces) and bad (heels), playing to the crowd and pounding each other in the 'squared circle' for fans' delight in hockey arenas all along the east coast.

Homegrown names like 'Big' Stephen Petitpas, 'Stompin' Paul Peller, Freddie Sweetan and the Cormier brothers of Memramcook were top stars of the era.

They worked for Eastern Sports Association's International Wrestling based in Halifax and later for Atlantic Grand Prix Wrestling, run by Emile Dupre of Pointe-du-Ch?ne, in a circuit that spanned spring, summer and fall.

Over the years the likes of Ric Flair, 'Macho Man' Randy Savage, Andre the Giant, 'Rowdy' Roddy Piper, Rocky Johnson (father of former wrestler and now movie star Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson) came through these parts to battle our homegrown stars.

Wrestling cards actually took place in the Maritimes as far back as the 1930s, but it wasn't until the 1960s that things really took off with local promotions.

In 1969, Rudy Kay teamed up with Nova Scotia-based Al Zinck to create Eastern Sports Association. The promotion toured the Maritimes and had a weekly television show called International Wrestling.

The show ran for a few years before Rudy and Al split up and then Emile Dupre's Atlantic Grand Prix slipped into the TV spot where it was a mainstay for several years.

Al tried to restart International Wrestling in the mid-1980s, but it didn't work out. By the early 1990s, Grand Prix had also fizzled out, ending the glory days of wrestling on the east coast.

But for many, the memories live on.

Ian Scott, a Moncton native who is now living in Calgary, recalls the days in Moncton where wrestling's heroes and villains played an integral part of a child's life in the city.

"Back in the day, everyone I knew watched Saturday wrestling on television and there were tonnes of matches each week, unlike now, where all the posing and banter takes up most of the show," he says.

Ian mentions one wrestler in particular, 'Stomper' Archie Gouldie.

"(He) played the proverbial bad guy, until late in his career, if memory serves correct," Ian says.

"My father-in-law used to gather up the local kids in (Ian's wife's) neighbourhood to join his Stomper Fan Club, which meant free A&W root beer while you watched the show. Back then, you could buy a big, one-gallon glass bottle of the stuff for $1.49."

Almost 20 years have gone by since Atlantic Grand Prix Wrestling closed its doors.

But to this day, not a week goes by where Gair Maxwell isn't asked about his days as ring announcer and commentator for the promotion.

"It's very much a part of who we are as Maritimers," Gair explains. "The Beast and Leo Burke and Rudy and Bobby Kay; that's how we Maritimers could beat up on the rest of North America.

"The big shots from Toronto or Kansas City or Hollywood or wherever they came from, they'd come in here and they'd terrorize the place for awhile, but thank goodness we had The Beast and the boys to make the world right again."

Gair says Grand Prix shows were "carnival-like."

Wrestlers would give it their all in an effort to entertain their fans.

Wrestling isn't a competitive sport and match outcomes are planned in advance, but that doesn't mean wrestlers don't get hurt and don't put their bodies on the line, says former wrestler Jim Morrison, who recalls a time when Yvon 'The Beast' Cormier did just that to entertain fans and build 'heat' for his storyline with Morrison.

Morrison got his first big break wrestling for Zinck and Kay in the early 1970s. His biggest claim to fame would come later as J.J. Dillon, manager of perhaps wrestling's greatest faction in The Four Horsemen, but in 1973 he was Nature Boy Dillon, wrestling here in the Maritimes.

Dillon remembers his character as a "gutless, wrestling heel who will revert to shortcuts and whatever it takes to win; who tends to run his mouth and brag a lot."

The Beast didn't take too kindly to Dillon's antics and the two wrestlers fought over International Wrestling's top championship.

It was during a brutal 'chain match' when wrestlers could use a big chunk of tire chain on their opponents that a young Dillon would get the best of The Beast.

"I had a hunk of chain and I hit The Beast with it, and he wanted to be able to go on TV the next morning with the thing all swollen and a big shiner just to kind of add credibility to what we were doing," Dillon recalls. "I hit him, but didn't hit him that hard, because I had a legitimate hunk of tire chain."

But Yvon Cormier would have none of that. He wanted fans to be talking about this match the next day.

"I hit him and it was like, 'Hit me again!'" Dillon recalls The Beast telling him. "It hurt me to hit him, I can't do this. And I hit him again and (The Beast growled), 'Hit me!'

"So I hit him (a third time) and blood flew everywhere," Dillon says.

"Of course, I got back to the dressing room, and I'm sick. Rudy (Kay, the Beast's real-life brother) comes in with a big smile on his face, and I said, 'Rudy, tell Yvon I am so sorry.'"

"He said, 'Sorry? Hell, he's on his way to the hospital to get stitched up and his chest is stuck out. That's good for the business.'"

The next morning, The Beast had stitches and a swollen black eye, but he didn't regret demanding Dillon rail him with the chain.

"That's what the business was about," Dillon says. "It was about what you had to do to draw money and the giving and taking . . . it's why I have so much respect for that entire (Cormier) family."

Maritime wrestling cannot be spoken about without including the Cormier brothers.

Yvon, Leonce (known as Leo Burke), Jean-Louis (Rudy Kay) and Romeo (Bobby Kay) were heroes in arenas across the Maritimes and they played heroes or villains elsewhere around the world. A fifth brother from the family of 13, Malcolm, also wrestled a bit before settling into a refereeing gig at the matches.

Unfortunately, brothers Rudy and Yvon have passed away; Rudy last year and Yvon just last month.

Today, Leo runs a bar just outside Calgary and Bobby works in Moncton, but lives in the old family home in Memramcook. Malcolm now lives in Sackville.

Speaking from Calgary, Leo remembers his wrestling days fondly.

"It was a great ride," he says; he and his brothers were like "movie stars" back then and, even today when he is home, he draws attention from old-school wrestling fans.

"Last year, I was home for (Rudy's) funeral, so I took (my son) out to a restaurant for dinner and we were there maybe five minutes and people started to come up looking for autographs, pictures and what-have-you.

"So then he says, 'Dad, I couldn't imagine what it was like. You haven't been here in 20 years and people are still coming up to you.'"

It wasn't until long after Romeo 'Bobby Kay' Cormier hung up his wrestling boots that he realized how much power his family held in the local wrestling world. People still recognize him today from his years in the ring.

And while Bobby looks back on every aspect of his wrestling days fondly, for him it was really all about the wrestling and nothing else.

"The only time that I really enjoyed wrestling was when I was in the ring," Bobby says. "The other part, the travelling and eating garbage on the road, that wasn't my cup of tea. But when you were in the gym working out or in the ring, it felt like it was worth it because that's when you enjoy it."

Long before the World Wrestling Federation (now World Wrestling Entertainment) expanded nationally -- putting most small, regional wrestling territories out of business in the process -- many wrestlers were journeymen, travelling from region to region to learn their craft.

Ron Hutchison was one of those wrestlers.

While he would go onto greater fame as the Toronto-based trainer for future stars like Edge, Christian, Trish Stratus and others, his wrestling career started here in the Maritimes when he worked for Emile Dupre in the 1980s as "Wonder Boy" Ron Hutchison and the Masked Thunderbolt.

"Emile's was one of the remaining few (territories) that could give a guy some experience when he was just starting out," Ron recalls.

At the time, Ron says the Grand Prix wrestlers were working 14 to 16 matches each week without a day off.

"The travelling was rough, but you don't think of it at the time because you're young. Going from arena to arena . . . as a young guy, it was spectacular. I imagine that's what most rock bands felt like.

"You were battered, you were sore, you were beaten, but you were grateful to do what you want," Ron says. "I had guys that I went to school with working in grocery stores stocking shelves. But I would climb into the ring with guys that were actually heroes to me growing up. So I thought it was great that Emile Dupre gave me that opportunity."

Emile actually started wrestling in the United States in the mid-1950s. In the 1960s, he got into promoting, creating a Maritime-based franchise of Montreal's Grand Prix Wrestling.

"When I started wrestling, you could count the arenas in the Maritimes on your 10 fingers," he says. "There wasn't that many."

But dozens popped up over the years, giving Grand Prix access to small towns all over the east coast. The wrestling promotion was so big for a time that it would run two separate cards in separate cities on the same night.

Al Zinck recalls his days promoting International Wrestling with Rudy Kay. Fans would get so rabid, Zinck had to have the ring area roped off and he even brought in police officers to provide security at shows.

The retired promoter says to this day, he still holds the record for attendance at the Halifax Forum. Roughly 9,300 people packed the forum to see Lord Athol Layton and The Beast battle the Fabulous Kangaroos.

"People were just hanging from the rafters," he says of wrestling fans back in those days.

The Maritimes wrestling roots will be celebrated this month in Las Vegas, when the four wrestling Cormiers will be recognized for their contributions to wrestling in Las Vegas at the annual Cauliflower Alley Club reunion.

Leo plans to attend the event to visit old friends.

While the Cormiers may be respected everywhere they wrestled, it's doubtful their impact was felt anywhere else as much as it was here at home.

"Down home, we're still respected today," Leo says. "The simple reason we kept our popularity was we never classified ourselves as above Maritimers. I was Leo Burke, but I was Leonce Cormier first. I was a Maritimer. And we never forgot that."

Sadly, tapes of Maritime wrestling's bygone era are few and far between now.

Though a search of popular website www.youtube.com does yield a few results, there isn't a lot to choose from.

Still, the memories of those times live on in the hearts and minds of the many fans that surrounded the squared-circle.

Wrestling memories

* Former Grand Prix ring announcer Gair Maxwell recalls interviewing U.S. wrestler 'Rotten' Ron Starr for a television segment: "He was a little bit of a loose screw. He was a Vietnam vet, and he was known for taking things to the extreme," Gair says of 'Rotten' Ron.

Starr held one of Grand Prix's championship belts at the time, and he was determined to hang onto it.

"I'll never forget," Gair recalls. "He has this heavy, weighted glove. It's one of those contractor's gloves, but it's got a weight in it. So he's got a glove in one hand that he's wearing and inside the glove he is holding an unopened beer. Now, I know what's coming, but I've never seen this before and my heart rate went from zero to 120 so fast when I saw what he did on camera.

"He takes the beer bottle, and he works himself up into a frenzy, calling down Leo (Burke) and 'The Beast' and all the people of the Maritimes and (telling them) how they don't know who they're dealing with when they're dealing with 'Rotten' Ron Starr."

Starr then viciously smashed the full bottle of beer over his forehead.

"He smashes it so hard that the glass and the beer just explodes," Gair says. "It flies everywhere, it's all over my tuxedo and the blood just starts pouring."

After finishing the interview, Starr went to the bathroom to pick the glass out of his forehead and clean himself when Leo Burke strolls in to tell him some bad news.

"He tells him, 'Geez Ron, I hate to tell you this, but there was something wrong with the film in the camera ... they didn't get it, you're going to have to do it again,'" Gair says.

Yes, Burke was only joking.

* Toronto wrestling trainer and promoter Ron Hutchison, who worked for Atlantic Grand Prix Wrestling in the 1980s, recalls how he got back at a fan who constantly derided him: Ron had a lot of fun as heel wrestler The Masked Thunderbolt during his time in Grand Prix but in particular, there was a female fan who would always go to the Monday night shows at the Cocagne Arena.

"She used to get on the heels something terrible, all in good fun. But one day I thought, I'm going to get her," Ron says, a hint of mischief creeping into his voice.

Ron, who lived in Moncton at the time, asked his landlord's son, who was a fisherman, to bring him home a fish one night.

Ron brought the fish to Cocagne with him.

"I took the microphone before the match and I wanted to thank this woman who was here each and every week supporting us," Ron says. "But she'd always give me a hard time each and every week. But I'm a good sport, so I'd like to give her a gift. So she got up and she came to the ring and I took that fish, and I threw it at her," he says with a laugh.

"To me, especially coming from Toronto, that was a great rib. To her, it was insulting, which was the point. But it was funny. Even though she feigned that she was shocked and stuff, it gave her a lot more recognition which was what a lot of those fans craved anyway."

*'Leapin' Lanny Poffo, brother of 'Macho Man' Randy Savage who wrestled in Atlantic Grand Prix Wrestling in the 1970s: While longtime wrestling fans will know 'Leapin' Lanny Poffo went on to become 'The Genius' in the World Wrestling Federation, they may not be aware that Lanny actually got married right here in Moncton.

Wrestling promoter Emile Dupre served as Lanny's best man and Emile's wife Paula served as maid-of-honour.

He was married here in 1983 during his last wrestling stint in the area, though he got divorced 12 years later.

Lanny speaks of his time in Moncton over the phone from his home in Florida. He remembers travelling throughout the city during his first visit here in the 1970s, checking out the tourist attractions.

"I noticed that Magnetic Hill was actually nothing but a magnetic hill, when I first got there," he says. "And then in 1983, when I returned, it had developed into a whole lot more. They had built a lot around it."

Always thinking on his feet, Lanny points out a similarity between the hill and wrestling, noting with a laugh that both are "optical illusions."

* Longtime wrestling promoter and retired wrestler Emile Dupre recalls travelling with a gentle giant: "The highlight for me, naturally, was the financial," Emile says of his wrestling days. "(Wrestling) gave me enough money to invest in real estate. I had wrestled 12 years and really saved every penny. And finally, in 12 years, since 1956, I had saved $100,000." For a long time in wrestling, no one was hotter than the larger-than-life Andre the Giant. Born with acromegaly, a syndrome that causes excessive growth, the roughly seven-foot Andre tipped the scales at over 500 pounds. It made him a natural for pro wrestling. In 1977, when Emile spotted Andre on tapes from the Montreal Grand Prix circuit, he booked the giant on a 10-day Maritime tour from Campbellton through Halifax and Sydney, Nova Scotia.

"With everybody paid and all the dust was settled, and he was paid his big guarantee -- I had made $100,000 in 10 days," Emile remembers. "It took me 12 years to make $100,000 and then it took me 10 days to make another $100,000.

"He was a gentle giant, I'll tell you that," Emile says of Andre. "If he liked you, boy, he couldn't do enough for you. He was a very nice guy. With some people, he wasn't so gentle to get along with," he says with a laugh.

Tags: Ric Flair, Andre the Giant, Roddy Piper, Lanny Poffo