John’s Canadian Register of Imports

I'm sure Bruce Hart wrestled Johnny Saint at Belle Vue 1975/76.Billed as Bronco Bruce Hart.

Bill Bennett from Southport wrestled as a Canadian. To make him sound more interesting, Martin Conroy added an e to his surname to make him Bill Bennette. Max Crabtree had to be different of course and billed him as Baron Donovan. Occasionally he became alliterative and moved him over into North America to wrestle as Detroit Donovan.

It was as such that I recall seeing him at the Sports Centre, Newark, partnering Terry Jowett against The Pallos. Crabtree seemed to specialise in tag matches where a "clean" wrestler would team with a "dirty" wrestler and they would fall out during the match. Such was the occasion here.

Jimmy Thompson from Burnage wrestled as "Bronco" Jack or "Cowboy" Cassidy of course entering the ring to the theme tune of popular TV series of the time "Bonanaza".

Finally, in the early seventies I visited cousins in Wisconsin and they drove me to The Milwaukee Auditorium to see Billy Robinson versus "Black" Jack Lanza managed by Bobby Heenan. The main supporting bout saw Canadian wrestler Edouardo Carpentier wrestle "Texan" Jack Bence. Although I never saw him wrestle in Britain, I do think that Carpentier had some matches over here.

Cowboy Ken Ackles

From the 40s: Martin Kilroy

Ben Sharpe

How could we forget Richard "Red Ivan" Krupa?, came across to our shore, really looking the part and ended up doing the job for Big Daddy, after what only appeared to be a few weeks.

Both Canadian wrestlers who used the name, Dino Bravo, wrestled here in the 60's (first one) and 80's (second one).

Main Mask has noticed the omission of Terry Garvin and Yvon Robert. Both featuring in the newsletter soon.

This Yvon Robert was not the original. Do we know if he was a genuine Canadian?

Please don't forget Lee "Flash" Edwards, who I believe hailed from Winnipeg. He was a typical American style "heel" noted for his arrogant strut as he made his entrance to the ring, which always earned plenty of boos from the crowd. He was hardly a skilful wrestler but always provided plenty of entertainment.

Whipper Jr brings another to mind. Red Pollard.

In the 30's there seemed to be a lot of wrestlers billed from Canada. Even some who we know were not (e.g. Bulldog Clayton becoming the Canadian Bulldog Claude Clayton), so some of the guys in the list below are probably not from the Great White North.

Hopefully there are a few legitimate additions:

Al Fuller

Big Ben (also Canadian Big Ben & Corporal Big Ben)

Cud Cooper

Don Richards (also seen him billed from the USA)

Graham Cyclone Stockton Jim Burnett Maurice Letchford

Sonny Wallace (same guy as Sonny Wallis?) Tiger Tasker Also Whipper Watson Jr was there in the 70's

Looks like we missed Quinn somehow last time as I just copied them over.

I'm hoping John will come back to administer these Imports threads.

John Quinn?

Bruce Hart certainly set foot in a UK ring, but whether he ever did in a wrestling capacity is another matter. What about Wayne Hart?