Maple Leaf Pro Wrestling ran their first Toronto show last night, debuting at the Mattamy Athletic Centre (formerly known as Maple Leaf Gardens). With the promotion running in such a historic building and crowning their first-ever Men’s and Women’s Champions, it was clear that it would be a historic night.
Several themes were obvious after a night of wrestling.
Takeaways From Maple Leaf Pro: Northern Rising
The Promotion is Authentically Canadian
Canadians were placed in prominent places on the card. Josh Alexander was the clear biggest babyface in the promotion, winning two matches on the night, leaving as the first ever Maple Leaf Pro Men’s Champion, and cutting a heartfelt program at the end of the night.
Playing up the Canadian theme, his opponents draped themselves in the Red, White, and Blue of the American flag. QT Marshall and Matt Cardona certainly played up their American roots, which went over like a lead balloon in front of a strong Canadian audience.
Another Canadian, Gisele Shaw, emerged as the Women’s Champion, defeating Kylie Ray. However, she did so after working as a heel and having her manager, George Iceman, run down the crowd, including taking shots at the local hockey team.
Shaw worked as a heel, beating down Ray outside the ring and taking every opportunity to use slightly illegal tactics eventually though she won with an impressive running knee.
Meanwhile, Speedball Mike Bailey went over in the best match of the night. He defeated Michael Oku and Gabe Kidd in an entertaining three-way match.
When the crowd starts to get behind Kidd, he immediately gets back his heat by referring to Canada as “Fake Little England.” This match was exactly what you’d expect out of two high flyers working a three-way match with a powerful base in Kidd.
A Style Emerges
The theme of the night was Canadian Strong Style. Alexander and Marshall started the night with a hard-hitting physical match. This continued throughout the night, including an impressive Miyu Yamashita/Serena Deeb match. It featured heavy strikes, high-impact clotheslines, plenty of knees, kicks, and stiff shots.
The women made use of the ropes and ring apron as weapons throughout the match. They also pulled out the German suplexes for more high impact.
Zach Sabre Jr and Jonathan Gresham had an impressive technical match that also featured the typical high-impact strikes typical of strong style.
Most matches ended with relatively clean finishes, with the exception of the War Dogs vs Good Brothers match, which ended in a no contest as both teams were counted out for brawling to the back.
A Nod To The Past, a Focus on the Future
The promotion definitely played on the history of Maple Leaf Wrestling, with Angelo Mosca Jr., Billy Bass, Ron Hutchinson, and Ricky Johnson all making appearances via backstage segments. Meanwhile wrestlers like Billy Gunn, Rhino, Santino Marella, Raj Desi and PCO all got good crowd reactions in the ring.
However, the promotion also looked to build new stars. Local Canadian Indy stars Psycho Mike, Brent Banks, and Mo Jabari were also given prominent roles in the twenty-man gauntlet main event. Mike Bailey and Josh Alexander were stars of the night. Stu Grayson was also put in a prominent position challenging Tom Latimore for the NWA World Title.
Grayson was excellent in the match and many commented that the match was much better than was expected going into the night.
The Promotion also announced their next event, Resurrection, which will take place in the Place Bell, in the Montreal Suburb of Laval, coming on July 5, 2025.
Maple Leaf Pro Makes Alliances
Much has been made of the recent war between AEW and WWE, with a number of promotions lining up with alliances on each side. Of course WWE have partnered with TNA, and purchased AAA, while AEW works Forbidden Door and other events with partners NJPW and CMLL.
There was a clear theme of the night, and the show ended with Don Callis saying that Alexander will be taking his new title to AEW. There were far more performers on the card from the AEW side of this “wrestling proxy war”.
In fact, the only WWE affiliated wrestler (via the WWE ID program) was Kylie Rae. She lost clean to Gisele Shaw in the women’s title match following a running knee. The finish seems to indicate that Rae’s time in the company won’t be long.
Overall, this was a fun event and it is worth your while to check it out.
Match Ratings
- Josh Alexander vs QT Marshall – 3.25 stars
- Zach Sabre Jr vs Jonathan Gresham – 4.0 stars
- Serena Deeb vs Miyu Yamashita – 3.75 stars
- War Dogs vs Good Brothers – 1.5 stars
- Stu Grayson vs Tom Latimore (c), NWA World Championship – 4.25 Stars
- Gabe Kidd vs Michael Oku vs Mike Bailey – 4.5 stars
- Kylie Ray vs Gisele Shaw, Inaugural MLP Women’s Championship – 3.25 Stars
- 20 Man Gauntlet for the Inaugural MLP Men’s Championship – 3.75 Stars
More From LWOS Pro Wrestling
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