Latest news with #MapleLeafProWrestling
Yahoo
31-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
The D'Amore Drop: The Hulk Hogan stories you never hear about — and what it all means after a complicated week
The D'Amore Drop is a weekly guest column on Uncrowned written by Scott D'Amore, the Canadian professional wrestling promoter, executive producer, trainer and former wrestler best known for his long-standing role with TNA/IMPACT Wrestling, where he served as head of creative. D'Amore is the current owner of leading Canadian promotion Maple Leaf Pro Wrestling. You hesitate to comment on the passing of Hulk Hogan, and I want to be very clear that I am one of those who feel his legacy is very complicated. It contains a lot of good and some very bad. The memory of the biggest star of a generation, perhaps any generation, is tarnished. The question for all of us is whether the good is completely erased by the very bad. As other commentators have written volumes about, Hogan completely changed wrestling forever. Twice. Sure, his motivation there was his own fame and fortune, and the high tides he brought raised plenty of boats. But there was no personal benefit to doing the thousands of off-screen appearances he did with no cameras and no reason to do them other than to make others happy. John Cena is rightly celebrated for doing more Make-A-Wish appearances than anyone else, but Hogan is a close second. I've been privileged enough to be asked to do these types of Make-A-Wish appearances. Please believe me — and I think every parent or anyone with a soft spot for kids will get it immediately — these visits can be gut-wrenching. The first one I did was with a kid named Joey who was a massive Border City Wrestling fan. Three of us went and Joey was so excited. I held it together for two hours talking to this great kid. And when the parents told us their boy had made sure to rest extra for days so he'd have energy to talk, I hung on while they told me their son probably didn't have long. Then I ran the last few meters to my truck and just bawled my eyes out for 15 minutes straight. Hogan did that thousands of times. Usually at least once in every town he visited on the grueling WWF tours of the 1980s and '90s. I can mention this next story now, because the kid passed away in the '80s and Hulk's gone now too… This comes via George 'The Animal' Steele, who went to many of those Make-A-Wish meetings with Hogan. George was so proud of Hulk doing these all the time. He added that Hulk instinctively found the right tone and words, depending on each child and how sick they were. If the kid had a chance of getting better, he'd talk with them about kicking out, Hulking up, and running wild on their illness. He'd tell them he believed in them. But where he was truly great was with the kids who knew the end was closing in. George said Hulk would tell them, 'Hey, there's always hope, but if that day does come, you'll get to meet our brother Jesus Christ. And I'll see you again in Heaven and you can introduce me.' I think it is OK to tell this now that everyone involved has passed on. One time, it was in St. Louis, a boy dying of cancer told Hulk that he wouldn't be going to Heaven … because the boy had done bad things. Over the next hour, the kid trusted Hulk enough to tell Hulk that he was being abused. George said Hulk told the kid that it wasn't his fault, that Jesus loves him. He stayed with the child until he fell asleep. Then Hulk took the stairs to the hospital administration floor five at a time — burst in and made sure the authorities were alerted. Arrests were made. Hulk Hogan really cared about kids. That shouldn't be forgotten. Neither should the fact some of those kids were desperately hurt by Hulk's words later on in life. I don't pretend to have the answer on whether you can separate that kind of good from the bad, or even if separating them at all is the right thing to do. Maybe we have to look at the good and look at the bad, side-by-side. Maybe we have to remember both. One interaction I had with Hulk Hogan was in WCW in the mid-'90s. I was working as a job guy — what they now call enhancement talent — and my boss, Jody Hamilton, pulled me over and asked if I'd be able to make it to more of the shows. He added that it was Hulk Hogan who'd insisted on it — and that Hogan said I should get a raise. I was 21 years old and on cloud nine that Hulk Hogan even knew my name, much less rated my work and went out to bat for me. I was floating around and then I got a tap on the shoulder. I turned around. 'Did they talk to you, brother?' Hulk said. 'Y-yes, sir! Yes they did — thank you!' And then he said the most Hulk Hogan thing ever: 'Don't thank me. I know you think I did it for you, and I am happy for you, brother, but don't make any mistake about it: I did it for myself. 'Because while you and me will probably never wrestle, you are great at putting over the guys that I wrestle. I need monsters to slay — and you help create those monsters.' While finishing this column I got the news my friend 'Champagne' Gerry Morrow had also passed away. Gerry's name won't be known to many of today's fans, but he had a huge impact on professional wrestling. In the ring, Gerry was a massive regional star in Stampede Wrestling and, with partner The Cuban Assassin, won tag-team gold all over North America. He was a friend and mentor not only to me, but a generation of Canadian stars like Chris Jericho, Lance Storm, Edge, Christian Cage, Don Callis and many others. Rest in peace, Gerry. We'll all miss you. My friend Bully Ray over at the mighty "Busted Open" podcast is predicting, or at the very least fantasy booking, that Seth Rollins returns this weekend at WWE SummerSlam and cashes in his Money in the Bank briefcase to win the WWE World Championship. There's certainly something odd about the way Rollins' injury has been reported on. If the idea was to make fans wonder what on Earth is going on, it's worked. MLF's big role in the massively successful "Happy Gilmore" sequel is yet more evidence that AEW has become entrenched not only as a super-massive planet in the wrestling solar system, but also increasingly in pop culture. I'm excited to see who the next challenger for AEW World Champion Hangman Adam Page will be. Obviously MJF won the Casino Gauntlet and can step up and challenge for the title at any time. He's the top and most likely major challenger for Hangman — but is he next? AEW has major options: Will Ospreay and Swerve Strickland — coming off a big win over the Young Bucks — are both gunning for the gold. And on the women's side, the debut of Alex Windsor from the U.K. adds some fresh blood in that division too. AEW's title scene is loaded. Meanwhile, the WWE women's roster have a great opportunity to continue the red-hot run they've all been on this year. Iyo Sky, Rhea Ripley and Bianca Belair had the best match of WrestleMania Night 1 — no, WrestleMania WEEK — in April, and Sky, Ripley and new champ Naomi will, I think, steal the show at this weekend's SummerSlam event. WWE is on fire — they are very close to selling out their first ever two-day SummerSlam — but wrestling is doing great up and down. This week the NWA, the historic promotion owned by Smashing Pumpkins frontman Billy Corgan, debuts on Roku. My buddy Pat Kenney — better known as Simon Diamond — is one of the guys driving the NWA, and it's great to see. Corgan loves wrestling and keeps finding ways to get content to fans. Obviously, Billy used to co-own and run TNA. I'll never forget getting Billy, Dixie Carter and Ed Nordholm in one photo at TNA's 20th anniversary. Three presidents from three different TNA eras of the company, all in one shot. We had a blast at Downtown Throwdown, Maple Leaf Pro's outdoor show on the streets of Windsor, Canada this past Saturday. You roll the die when you run outdoor shows, and rain was given out but, luckily, never arrived. Main-eventers the Good Brothers, especially, had fun performing for a street audience. We recorded the event and it will be going up on our YouTube channel shortly. In the meantime, check out this classic from earlier in the month between Josh Alexander and Ace Austin. Speaking of The Good Brothers, my guys also got a deal with Roku too, for their own promotion Lariato and their always hilarious "Talk'n Shop" podcasts.
CTV News
27-07-2025
- Entertainment
- CTV News
Wrestling match slams into Downtown Windsor
The Downtown Showdown was held Saturday, with hundreds of wrestling fans filling the streets to see the free event. Downtown Windsor transformed into the venue of a live wrestling match on Saturday evening for the Downtown Showdown. From leaps off the top rope to suplexes echoing off the canvas, the event brought hundreds to the corner of Ouellette and University Avenue. Hosted by Maple Leaf Pro Wrestling, the free event featured seven fights. Wrestling fan Steven Bowes told CTV News it's 'special' to have the event hosted outside in the downtown. WINDSOR DOWNTOWN SHOWDOWN WRESTLING The Downtown Showdown wrestling event was held at the corner of Ouellette and University Avenue on July 26, 2025. (Robert Lothian/CTV News Windsor) 'I think it was a pretty awesome idea,' said Bowes. As part of the outdoor setting, local bars and restaurants opened their doors and patios to the hundreds of additional customers. 'We've been working day and night, probably for the last two weeks, since our last event to set us all up,' Coun. Renaldo Agostino said ahead of the event. The Downtown Showdown was the latest fight-filled night to descend on the city's core after Rumble on the Roof, featuring boxing matches atop the Pelissier Street parking garage, was held earlier this month.
CTV News
26-07-2025
- Sport
- CTV News
‘Downtown Showdown' closes Ouellette Ave Saturday
A road closed sign is shown in this undated file image. The Downtown Windsor BIA, along with Maple Leaf Pro Wrestling, is hosting a free, outdoor wrestling event Saturday. The 300 block of Ouellette Avenue (between University Avenue and Park Street) will be closed for the 'Downtown Showdown' between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. Windsor police are advising motorists to use alternate routes between those hours.
CTV News
18-07-2025
- Entertainment
- CTV News
‘Live at The Square' set to energize City Hall Square
The City of Windsor unveiled the long-awaited renovations to City Hall Square on July 13, 2025. (Robert Lothian/CTV News Windsor) Windsor's new City Hall Square is making a splash in its first week. 'You can see behind me every day people are out here enjoying the facility, enjoying the features that we have out here. Kids playing in the fountain, jumping out of the water,' said Michael Chantler, the city's commissioner of Community Services. City Hall Square is a community gathering place that has been used frequently since its launch five days ago. 'It's not just a fountain. It's not just a splash pad. It's not just an ice rink,' Chantler exclaimed. The city has created activations for children. An event celebrating dogs is coming up this weekend. Residents are also encouraged to bring a lawn chair downtown because there will be music in The Square every Friday from now until Oct. 31. 'We are coming up with activations, whether it's the stuff we do with the kids during the day or it's our evening entertainment, like the Live at The Square free concert entertainment that's coming up,' Chantler said. Show times and musical acts can be found on the City of Windsor website. Events like Live at The Square bring people downtown who, in turn, may venture off into the core. There are a lot of events coming up this summer like Downtown Showdown on Ouellette Avenue on July 26, hosted by Maple Leaf Pro Wrestling, which excites downtown business owners. 'It'd be great if we did five days a week,' said Duane Chouinard, owner at Eastwoods, who gets traffic from the Casino and Macassa Bay and appreciates any event or activation the city initiates downtown. 'Anytime there's any type of event, whatever it is, it just brings a lot of people to downtown core.' Kevin Dinardo is bringing an outdoor pole-vaulting event to the riverfront July 25 and 26 near the Macassa Bay. 'It's always good to take some of the events outside of the stadium, put it into an atmosphere where there's going to be general population to get them a little bit more of an experience of, you know, track and field events that they might not see,' Dinardo said. The atmosphere was electric atop the Pelissier parking garage last weekend when Border City Boxing held an event on the roof top with many staying downtown after the show. 'It was incredible,' said Chris MacLeod, chair of the Downtown Windsor BIA. 'It's events like that that change people's perception about downtown.'
Yahoo
17-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
The D'Amore Drop: Goldberg was right, which makes his public spurning of AEW all the more ironic
The D'Amore Drop is a weekly guest column on Uncrowned written by Scott D'Amore, the Canadian professional wrestling promoter, executive producer, trainer and former wrestler best known for his long-standing role with TNA/IMPACT Wrestling, where he served as head of creative. D'Amore is the current owner of leading Canadian promotion Maple Leaf Pro Wrestling. The biggest weekend of wrestling since WrestleMania certainly didn't disappoint. What an incredible series of shows we had, with AEW's answer to WrestleMania — All In — drawing a record-breaking crowd for the best show of 2025, and WWE running three action-packed events, all in 24 hours! AEW's All In Texas was an amazing show — the best of the year so far. The crowd — all 26,000-plus of them — were electric. The visuals on television were massive, and everything felt big. AEW is here to stay, and I'll keep on banging this drum: We are all better off for it. I get that online trolling can be fun, and I understand that rage-bait is rewarded by YouTube algorithms, but if there's anyone appearing on the apps on your phone telling you AEW isn't massively successful — and entertaining — you need to block them from your feeds. Those people are ruining your enjoyment of professional wrestling. Get them out of your life and just enjoy the sheer amount of great wrestling we have today. I am going to start with my favorite match of the weekend: Kazuchika Okada vs. Kenny Omega de-liv-ered! As we knew it would. It was fitting the feud that was such a part of AEW even coming into existence was also a major part of the biggest U.S. show in company history. This match had everything — and it had everything from the moment they shot the angle to reignite this rivalry weeks ago. Kenny Omega, to whom I will forever be grateful for what he did for TNA Wrestling during the COVID era, had been very open about his physical struggles. The end of his career isn't too far off. But, diminished in body maybe, he still has a mind and a feel for wrestling like only a handful of others have ever possessed. The finish, with Okada going over after Don Callis saved him from Kenny's One-Winged Angel, was absolutely the right call. These two icons are 2-2-1 against each other in a series that will be enjoyed for generations to come. I can't wait for the next — and likely final — chapter. AEW boss Tony Khan says all future Unified Title defenses will be fought under Continental Rules, meaning no interference. Hey, let's have that go retroactive, and suspend that dastardly Don Callis — and his ugly shoes — from AEW for a week or two! For a wrestler who does a gimmick of being a silver-screen icon from the 1920s, Toni Storm controls the emotions of the crowd like she has some sort of app on her cell phone. The homegrown AEW star is rapidly becoming one of the very best all-around performers in the business. For reasons I went into last week, I felt it was the right call to have Toni beat Mercedes Moné. Theirs was a memorable match even on a night full of incredible in-ring action. Jim Ross, the voiceover artist for so many people's childhoods, returning from a bout with cancer to call Okada vs. Omega had a generation (D-Generation?) of grown men tearing up. Will Ospreay and Swerve Strickland beat the Young Bucks, with the gimmick that the Bucks are no longer AEW EVPs. You had the top stars of tomorrow beating the guys who helped build the company. The Bucks — Matt and Nick Jackson — have done everything there is to do in AEW as characters AND as real-life executives. Hmmm… It's no secret that WWE wanted the Bucks badly before they helped form AEW — and I can see Matt and Nick, not tomorrow, but at some point — maybe deciding it is time to go have a WrestleMania moment like fellow AEW founder Cody Rhodes did. Fans rightly want Adam Copeland — aka Cope, aka Edge — to finish up his career teaming with Christian Cage. We need that, and AEW is going to give us that. The AEW title is in the hands of Hangman Adam Page, another true AEW original, after he came through a bloody, violent brawl against Jon Moxley. Their match wasn't the kind of wrestling that I, as a fan, prefer, but I've promoted those matches for the fans who do love them. Mox vs. Page was a festival of violence for AEW's so-called 'sickos.' With Page and Storm holding the two biggest titles in AEW, the company has underlined again that it is 100% capable of growing its own superstars. What a moment for Dustin Rhodes at All In. I met Dustin more than 30 years ago in WCW and we've crossed paths many times since. He's a great guy, and I popped big for him getting a win like this. Think about it — at his age, and needing surgery soon, he wrestled three times in 24 hours in the Texas heat. The Casino Gauntlets aren't my type of wrestling, but it was great to see Athena win. She's been overlooked for far too long. All in all, including the pre-show, watching All In was an eight-hour marathon. Nevertheless, I don't regret watching the 'Zero Hour' pre-event presentation. Renee Paquette, Jeff Jarrett, RJ City and Paul Wight were a great panel, and it was great to see former TNA staffers Madison Rayne and Josh Mathews also get airtime. Maybe next year this show could air on Turner as a final push for pay-per-views? Ant Evans, an insider friend of mine and occasional teammate here at Uncrowned, asked me if All In should become a two-night event in 2026. It's a great question. AEW could do it — they have enough talent to do two four-hour cards. But I don't think that's the right move. Not next year — and maybe not for a few years. While the cost of running two back-to-back shows is far less than double — TNA took advantage of this fact, we'd run three nights in the same venue — I wonder how it would affect ticket sales. Besides, AEW All In already has some of the trappings of a WrestleMania week: We had Dynamite on Wednesday, Collision on Thursday, ROH Supercard of Honor Friday, plus All In. There was the Starrcast fan experience run by podcast king Conrad Thompson, plus indies like TJPW starting to run shows alongside All In. That's enough for now. Seth Rollins' injury has thrown a wrench into WWE's mid-term plans. Paul Heyman's onscreen, in-character statement that Rollins has until June 2026 to cash in his Money in the Bank title shot seemed to indicate that WWE doesn't expect him gone for that long. There was a report by respected Canadian journalist John Pollock that he'd been told on Thursday before the wrestling weekend that Rollins would be doing an injury angle. The truth may be it was an angle to take Rollins off television for a while to fix a legit injury. I sensed Rollins was going to face Roman Reigns at SummerSlam but, clearly, that's unlikely now. WWE has to pivot on Rollins' (still unnamed) group with Heyman, Bron Breakker and Bronson Reed. They could riff off the memorable angle where the evil Vince McMahon appeared in a wheelchair for months a generation ago, always protected by his loyal thugs. That would allow Seth to remain an active character and, once he's healed up, be a dramatic moment when he suddenly stands up — back to 100% seemingly overnight — and shocks everyone by cashing in the briefcase. Or maybe someone else joins Breakker and Reed in the interim. Whichever direction they go, zero chance WWE wastes all the heat they've built with the group since WrestleMania 41 and disbands it now. The second-best show of the weekend was WWE's all-women Evolution event. Despite pre-event concerns, they pulled a full building, and those who bought tickets late made a wise decision. The wrestling was outstanding. It feels somehow disrespectful to point that out, because you worry someone will interpret that as, 'It was surprisingly great, y'know, considering it was an all-women's card.' But I loved it — and I want to say I loved it. Obviously, Naomi (Trinity when she was with us in TNA) cashing in her Money in the Bank briefcase to 'steal' the title from Rhea Ripley, who had Iyo Sky beaten, was executed so well. Naomi came to TNA to rebrand herself after leaving WWE, and prove herself as one of the very best in the world. She's now WWE Champion at a time when WWE has its greatest ever roster of women's talent. Point proven, Naomi. Goldberg's final match vs. Gunther for the WWE World Title at Saturday Night's Main Event was better than anyone could have expected. Gunther is rightly getting credit for the match being so compelling, but respect is due to Bill Goldberg too. Bill may have been helped, but he wasn't carried. The fact that his longest match in more than 20 years — and first match in three years — was by far the best he's had, I think, since he was in WCW, shows how hard he worked in there. The match was tough, hard-hitting, and made sense. However, I would have booked it totally differently. I'd have had Bill hit his spear immediately and get a very close near-fall, and do all he can to get the three-count … then, exhausting himself chasing the early finish, his age would kick in and Gunther would take over. Then, Goldberg hits a desperate spear! One … two … and Gunther kicks out, and this time Bill's too tired to respond. I understand watching Ariel Helwani's show that Bill isn't happy with aspects of his sendoff. I agree with Bill — it wasn't enough. There were some nice touches, but it didn't feel 'big' enough. It wasn't special. It's ironic that Goldberg chose to not only turn down AEW's offer to end his career there, but elected to throw shade at them in public. Goldberg's final match, bluntly, will be forgotten in three months. Compare that to the final run Sting got in AEW. Sting's retirement speech also aired in full.
