Welcome to the Pro Wrestling Time Tunnel Daily Chronicle. The daily newsletter for an injection of events that happened on this day and relative time frames in Territory Pro Wrestling History.
Al and Tiny also had a niece or cousin through marriage named Alma Mills who was a lady wrestler who was busiest on the Eastern Seaboard in the 50's after moving to Boston.
Between 1944 and 1952 Al Mills was a regular opponent of Stu Hart's. The Edmonton newspapers of that era were full of regular reports on their tussle's in the ring. Stu Hart's partner in ownership of Klondike Wrestling (Stu bought him out in the late 50's), Al Oeming, said that Al Mills struck one of the most fearsome and cold appearances of all the wrestlers he ever knew stating his overall vibe was "satanic" in his long black velvet robe. He would stand his ground against riotous crowds who would part like the Red Sea to allow him passage back to the dressing room. There is no other wrestler I wish I could go back in time to watch more.
As always Don, your comments about the Calgary Promotion over the years of being a fan are amazing. I appreciate you as one of our most participative subscribers. Taking Stu Hart out of the equation, who would you say were the Top 5 single wrestlers and Top 5 Tag Teams over your time as a fan in Calgary?
So I've been in Calgary for nearly 50 years and Edmonton before that for 10 years. My earliest in-person exposure to the live shows was when I was 5 or 6 and we would visit my dad's lifelong best friend in Saskatoon who was the Foothills Athletic Club agent in that city. I have only the faintest memory of those Saskatoon matches. It wasn't until I got to Calgary, made a best friend and we went to the shows every Friday night until Stu folded up his tent in '89 that I'm comfortable rating the talent. I have a personal philosophy that I only rate wrestlers who I bought a ticket and saw their matches in person. I'm probably gonna sound like a broken record but as far as I'm concerned there was the Dynamite Kid and then...some other guys. Dyno was the most explosive turbo-charged wrestler I ever saw. There was NO bump he wouldn't take. He was on a completely different level than everyone else. That said two of the best entertainers I ever saw, believe it or not, were Dr. D David Schultz and...the Honky Tonk Man. Neither was Lou Thesz on the mat but Dr. D might have been the greatest talker I ever saw and Honky Tonk was the best chickensh*t heel the promotion ever had. He generated megawatts of heat. His WWF persona paled in comparison. Both he and Schultz had an incredible rapport on the mic with Ed Whalen. I'm talking about INTERVIEWS that could upstage matches. When do you see that with today's shows?
I've always stated that there was a 12 month period encompassing parts of 1982 and 1983 that I would put the Calgary matches up against the best era of every other territory and Calgary would shine brightest. A BIG part of that is the fact this was when Bret Hart became thee BRET HART. I have never seen another babyface blow the roof off an arena just by doing a run-in! The love for Bret was just off the charts. The ONLY time I've EVER had the hair on the back of my neck stand up at a wrestling match is when a sold-out Victoria Pavilion crowd would collectively decide "to hell with the booking of this match we need a savior to get in there and save the babyface" and several thousand people would start chanting "We want Bret! We want Bret!" Sometimes Bret would not come out but when he WOULD do a run-in the crowd would come positively unglued. It was SO wild. SO satisfying.
What I have described above is the best of the best for what I witnessed in person in the 70's and 80's. I will have to ponder the same for tag teams before giving my opinion. For what it's worth my father and Ned Powers the Stampede agent, when they would talk about the product they saw in the 50's and 60's it always came back to two big names being the best entertainment on the card: Gene Kiniski and Killer Kowalski. That said they were always emphatic that the finest display of technical ability they ever witnessed was the tag team of George Gordienko and Stu Hart circa 1952-ish. My father also recalls Luther Lindsay as being a next level technician and Don Leo Jonathan as the most impressive giant ability-wise. I wish I could have seen all that stuff too!
Al and Tiny also had a niece or cousin through marriage named Alma Mills who was a lady wrestler who was busiest on the Eastern Seaboard in the 50's after moving to Boston.
Between 1944 and 1952 Al Mills was a regular opponent of Stu Hart's. The Edmonton newspapers of that era were full of regular reports on their tussle's in the ring. Stu Hart's partner in ownership of Klondike Wrestling (Stu bought him out in the late 50's), Al Oeming, said that Al Mills struck one of the most fearsome and cold appearances of all the wrestlers he ever knew stating his overall vibe was "satanic" in his long black velvet robe. He would stand his ground against riotous crowds who would part like the Red Sea to allow him passage back to the dressing room. There is no other wrestler I wish I could go back in time to watch more.
Don S,
Calgary
As always Don, your comments about the Calgary Promotion over the years of being a fan are amazing. I appreciate you as one of our most participative subscribers. Taking Stu Hart out of the equation, who would you say were the Top 5 single wrestlers and Top 5 Tag Teams over your time as a fan in Calgary?
So I've been in Calgary for nearly 50 years and Edmonton before that for 10 years. My earliest in-person exposure to the live shows was when I was 5 or 6 and we would visit my dad's lifelong best friend in Saskatoon who was the Foothills Athletic Club agent in that city. I have only the faintest memory of those Saskatoon matches. It wasn't until I got to Calgary, made a best friend and we went to the shows every Friday night until Stu folded up his tent in '89 that I'm comfortable rating the talent. I have a personal philosophy that I only rate wrestlers who I bought a ticket and saw their matches in person. I'm probably gonna sound like a broken record but as far as I'm concerned there was the Dynamite Kid and then...some other guys. Dyno was the most explosive turbo-charged wrestler I ever saw. There was NO bump he wouldn't take. He was on a completely different level than everyone else. That said two of the best entertainers I ever saw, believe it or not, were Dr. D David Schultz and...the Honky Tonk Man. Neither was Lou Thesz on the mat but Dr. D might have been the greatest talker I ever saw and Honky Tonk was the best chickensh*t heel the promotion ever had. He generated megawatts of heat. His WWF persona paled in comparison. Both he and Schultz had an incredible rapport on the mic with Ed Whalen. I'm talking about INTERVIEWS that could upstage matches. When do you see that with today's shows?
I've always stated that there was a 12 month period encompassing parts of 1982 and 1983 that I would put the Calgary matches up against the best era of every other territory and Calgary would shine brightest. A BIG part of that is the fact this was when Bret Hart became thee BRET HART. I have never seen another babyface blow the roof off an arena just by doing a run-in! The love for Bret was just off the charts. The ONLY time I've EVER had the hair on the back of my neck stand up at a wrestling match is when a sold-out Victoria Pavilion crowd would collectively decide "to hell with the booking of this match we need a savior to get in there and save the babyface" and several thousand people would start chanting "We want Bret! We want Bret!" Sometimes Bret would not come out but when he WOULD do a run-in the crowd would come positively unglued. It was SO wild. SO satisfying.
What I have described above is the best of the best for what I witnessed in person in the 70's and 80's. I will have to ponder the same for tag teams before giving my opinion. For what it's worth my father and Ned Powers the Stampede agent, when they would talk about the product they saw in the 50's and 60's it always came back to two big names being the best entertainment on the card: Gene Kiniski and Killer Kowalski. That said they were always emphatic that the finest display of technical ability they ever witnessed was the tag team of George Gordienko and Stu Hart circa 1952-ish. My father also recalls Luther Lindsay as being a next level technician and Don Leo Jonathan as the most impressive giant ability-wise. I wish I could have seen all that stuff too!
Don S.,
Calgary