Your “Wait? What? Who?” Wednesday Evening Open Thread

Evening all,

Because I’m bored but have a wrestling itch to scratch that can’t be satisfied until “Dynamite” comes on air, tonight I’ll cover the Thread looking at wrestling from a local perspective.

Growing up in Vancouver, we had a local promotion called “All Star Wrestling”, which was a rinky-dink little deal until Gene Kiniski made it a big thing by virtue of his name alone. In 1962 he moved to Vancouver & bought into the promotion, becoming its biggest star & using that notoriety to draw big names from the era to town for stadium cards, using a match at Empire Stadium against Buddy Rogers to launch himself onto the local scene.

Kiniski was a Canadian legend even before coming to Vancouver – he played football for the University of Arizona & then his hometown Eskimos, and started wrestling after injuries forced his retirement. He was trained by Dory Funk, and with his size & demeanour toured North American territories as a travelling heel – which paid better in those days. He was also used by various promotions as a transitional champion, a heel victor to allow the belt to transition from face to face without them having to fight each other & lose their bump. He wrestled Bruno Sammartino for the WWWF title, held the AWA championship after beating Verne Gagne, and won the NWA title after pinning Lou Thesz. Kiniski held the NWA title for three years (1965-68), a record for a heel champion at the time. He settled in Vancouver because it gave him easy access to the west coast promotions, and allowed him to travel to Japan for big-money Asian tours under the NWA banner.

In 1977 his original partner Sandor Kovacs (whose name sounds like a wrestling villain) sold his portion to a guy named Al Tomko, a Winnipeg wrestler who moved West after breaking with the AWA-affiliated promotion there. (He was famous for giving Roddy Piper his first break.) He took over promotional operation of All Star while Kiniski continued wrestling tours. Tomko let the power get to his head, and booked himself to be the champion, despite looking like a pear with arms, over actual “fit” guys like “Diamond” Timothy Flowers, Ole Olsen, and Bill Kazmaier.

^{I figure you can tell, but Kaz is on the right.}

The promotion’s credibility dropped to the point that Kiniski sold his half to Tomko in 1985 just to get out. The ripple effect is that Kiniski walking away meant they were out of the NWA, costing them relationships with Calgary’s Stampede Wrestling (owned by Kiniski’s Eskimos tryout buddy Stu Hart) & Portland Wrestling’s Don Owens. The lack of exposure cost the promotion their TV contract, because without Kiniski & the NWA the region wasn’t a draw anymore, so they couldn’t get bigger names like Flair, Piper & The Sheepherders to come through on tours, thus people stopped watching. Tomko tried to stay alive by forming the independent UWA, staffed mostly by guys on their way out or kids trying to break into the business. However, when Vince began his talent poaching in the late-80s, they lost their last big draw in local boy John Tenta (aka “Earthquake”), along with a number of others who went on to become “enhancement talent” (aka “jobbers”). The promotion eventually folded in 1989.

Someone who loves the old NWA has done breakdowns for all the local affiliated promotions, including Vancouver.

Watch all the way through for an appearance by now-former NXT & WWE announcer Mauro Ranallo, who started as a mulleted Paul E. type before getting into announcing.

Today, an unaffiliated version of All Star still exists & runs out of local community centres. It’s main goal, however, seems to be just existing as a territory & harassing any other promotion that tries to operate within the city limits.

Tonight’s sports:

• NHL:
  • Boston vs NY Rangers – 7:00pm | NBCSN
  • Toronto vs Montreal – 7:30pm | Sportsnet
• NBA:
  • Toronto vs Washington – 7:00pm | TSN4
  • Atlanta vs Dallas – 7:30pm | ESPN / Sportsnet1
  • Milwaukee vs Phoenix – 10:00pm | ESPN
  • OKC vs LA Lakers – 10:00pm | Sportsnet1
• NCAA:
  • Georgia at Tennessee – 8:00pm | ESPN2
  • Marquette at Villanova – 9:00pm | FS1
• Wrasslin’:
  • AEW Dynamite – 8:00PM | TNT / TSN2
    • Two big matches tonight:
      • AEW TNT Title Match: Darby Allin (champion) vs. Joey Janela
      • Falls Count Anywhere Match: KENTA and Kenny Omega vs. Jon Moxley and Lance Archer
        • This one likely sets up more AEW/Impact/New Japan crossovers
  • NXT – 8:00PM | USA
    • Who cares – Canadians can’t watch it until Friday.

WOOHOO, this looks like a good viewing night. Enjoy!