RIP Jack Tunney -- Warrior Central Message Board

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Date Posted: 01:35:18 01/28/04 Wed
Author: Scrapiron Bryan
Author Host/IP: pg4px.pg.com / 192.229.17.113
Subject: RIP Jack Tunney

From The Toronto Star

Promoter Jack Tunney dies at 68
Brought WWF to GTA wrestling scene

His tag-team gamble in 1984 paid off

GEOFF BAKER
SPORTS REPORTER

A slick business move two decades ago helped Toronto promoter Jack Tunney become a household name to millions of professional wrestling fans.

Tunney, who died of a heart attack in his sleep on Saturday at age 68, teamed with Vince McMahon Jr. in 1984 to bring the World Wrestling Federation to Toronto. That same year, Tunney became "president" of the WWF, a largely symbolic title used in television plotlines, but one that made him a familiar face on screens across North America.

Hooking up with the controversial McMahon was the biggest gamble of Tunney's career and forged his lasting legacy. Critics worried that McMahon was stretching himself too thin in expanding his fledgling WWF across the United States and also feared the new partnership would hurt the struggling Canadian wrestling scene.

But from a business standpoint, Tunney's timing couldn't have been better.

"The timing was perfect,'' said Billy Red Lyons, the longtime wrestling star from Dundas, Ont., who worked as a WWF television commentator at the time of the deal.

"Vince (McMahon) had started to make his move all over the United States. He had big ideas and everybody thought he was just crazy, but not Jack. He saw what kind of an opportunity it was.

"Thank God the WWF did come in here because the business was dead in Toronto.''

Local wrestling cards had been drawing just 3,000 a night while the WWF was on the cusp of a popularity explosion when Tunney latched on. It had been barely a year since Tunney had taken over the Queensbury Athletic Club, a pioneer in Toronto wrestling promotions, from his late uncle, Frank.

The union between Tunney and McMahon crushed other wrestling promotions in Canada as critics had feared it would. All-Star Wrestling in Vancouver went bust, the AWA stopped holding bouts in Manitoba, while Stampede promotions in Calgary also couldn't compete.

Toronto became a highly successful stop on the WWF tour. McMahon named Tunney president that same year and he held the title until retiring in 1995.

On April 1, 1990, the WWF and Tunney staged WrestleMania VI at the SkyDome in front of a crowd of more than 67,000.

"He did have the biggest show ever in Toronto and he put Toronto on the wrestling map as far as I'm concerned,'' Tunney's daughter, Jackie, said yesterday. "Heaven will be a much funnier place.''

Jackie said her father, who has a second daughter, Jane, had been completely out of the spotlight since his retirement, preferring to spend time with his grandchildren and longtime companion, Patricia. Tunney's wife, Ann, died in 1991.

The Tunney family's promotions, led by Frank and later by Jack and his cousin, Eddy � a silent partner � had been synonymous with Toronto wrestling long before the WWF. Right up until the WWF deal, the Tunney family promoted about 20 events a year at Maple Leaf Gardens.

"I grew up watching wrestling in Toronto and many times, I'd watch the cards that were produced by the Tunneys,'' said Carl DeMarco, president of World Wrestling Entertainment Canada (formerly the WWF), who succeeded Jack Tunney upon his retirement. "It's a sad day for the whole wrestling community.''

A funeral mass is to be held at 10 a.m. today at Holy Rosary Roman Catholic Church, 354 St. Clair Ave. W.

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