A Toronto promotion that made pro wrestling a Saturday night TV ritual
Maple Leaf Wrestling
The Tunney family's Toronto wrestling promotion ran shows at Maple Leaf Gardens for decades and produced the long-running television program Maple Leaf Wrestling, a Saturday staple for generations of Canadian fans.
Advertisement
Frank Tunney built a professional wrestling promotion in Toronto through the mid-20th century, running regular shows at Maple Leaf Gardens that drew large crowds for decades and made the arena a wrestling venue nearly as consistently as it was a hockey rink. Tunney's promotion operated as a territory within the old National Wrestling Alliance system, when professional wrestling in North America was organized into regional promotions rather than a single national company.
A television institution
The promotion produced Maple Leaf Wrestling, a television program that became a Saturday afternoon or evening staple for generations of Canadian wrestling fans, broadcasting matches and storylines from the Toronto scene into households across the country. The Tunney family's promotion remained a fixture of Toronto sports and entertainment culture for decades before the territorial wrestling system it operated within was largely absorbed by national promotions later in the 20th century.
Advertisement
Sources
Continue reading
Maple Leaf Gardens
Construction began June 1, 1931; the arena opened five months later. It hosted the Leafs for 68 years, theβ¦
Deer Park
Deer Park takes its name from an actual deer herd kept on a 19th-century estate near St. Clair and Yonge,β¦
Homelessness in Toronto
Toronto runs one of the largest municipal shelter systems in the country β under sustained pressure forβ¦
Centreville Amusement Park
Opened in 1967 on the Toronto Islands, Centreville was designed as a deliberately old-fashioned, low-keyβ¦