Hi, this is Fred Wallace with ” Off the Wire “,….. proudly sponsored by Pete’s Auto Body.
Pete’s Auto Body; because we care about our community….
We were talking the other day about Canadian Football League legend Angelo Mosca.
I knew Mosca mostly by reputation as a football player as he retired from the CFL in 1972, and was more familiar with him as a professional wrestler who used his size and look to become a very big box office star.
In Calgary, Mosca was often pitted against other football players-cum-wrestlers like John Helton or Bobby Lueck that gave Western Canadian football and wrestling fans a sense of reality.
Mosca was once quoted as saying he enjoyed Stampede Wrestling in the early 70s, primarily because he was going through a divorce and he said there were ” fringe benefits ” to being on the program.
In 1981 when I was at Ryerson Polytechnical Institute, one of the guys in my course was Robert Cait who was a pro wrestling fanatic.
Under Robert’s urging a group of us bought tickets one Sunday evening to see Maple Leaf Wrestling.
The main event that night at the Gardens was Jimmy ” Superfly ” Snuka, the villain, against Canada’s Angelo ” King Kong ” Mosca who had made the switch and become a top babyface for the promoters.
Truthfully, the main event was great theatre with Mosca winning to the delight of the crowd at Maple Leaf Gardens.
As for Robert Cait, he was less impressed with the main event and more pumped about the semifinal match that night…………… Andre The Giant against Hulk Hogan, some 6 years before Wrestlemania III.
For Pete’s Auto Body, I’m Fred Wallace.