Canadian Territories
By Scott Keith on 24 October 2018
Scott,
Wrestling fans always talk about the territory system in the U.S., but I was thinking about how Canada seemingly had their own version. Thinking back I recall territories in Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto, Montreal, and the Maritimes just off the top of my head. Since you're Canadian and I'm not, I was just curious what was considered the top Canadian wrestling territory? Stampede is probably the most well known in the American south where I'm from, but there is always the "Toronto > everything" contingent as well. Plus Montreal gave us Dino Bravo, thus it's infamous in its own right.
Toronto was by far the biggest territory under the Tunneys for many years, and had affiliations with both the WWF and the NWA in different incarnations. It also hosted huge NWA title changes in the glory days, like the Thesz-Rogers match that created the WWF. Stampede did well but it was very regional and mostly confined to smaller shows that drew consistently, rather than the big arenas run by the Tunneys.