Best Leo Burke Matches

[Guest wildpegasus]

I can't answer this since I was very young when I watched Burke wrestle and only have a couple of his matches on tape. So, here's a question for the true hardcore smarks out there. Name Leo Burke's best matches!

[Toshiaki Koala 0]

I'm sure I speak for many when I ask, Who?

[Guest wildpegasus]

Leo Burke was a pretty well known wrestler in Canada. He wrestled in World Grand Prix wrestling as the top (pretty sure) face and I know he had a feud with Bret Hart in Stampede wrestling. Bret just mentioned his name when talking about some of the greatest wrestlers from the not too long ago past which really intrigued my curiosity. My memory's pretty fuzzy on his matches since I was so young when I watched him so I was wondering if there were any super smarks out there who wanted to give some insight on his career by talking about his best matches.

[Guest Doyo]

I used to watch him on Atlantic Grand Prix Wrestling out of New Brunswick,

which I could get in Maine. I was too young to remember any matches, but

I do remember him having a taped fist match against Ron Garvin around 1987

in the NWA on TBS.

 

http://slam.canoe.ca/SlamWrestlingBios/burke_leo.html

 

Leo Burke

REAL NAME: Leonce Cormier

BORN: June 29, 1948 in Dorchester, NB

 

Canadian wrestling fans are thankful for Leo Burke.

 

Not only was he one of the greatest, most consistent, and memorable stars ever to come out of Canada, wrestling from coast to coast and around the world, but he has also had a hand in training some of the next best from Canada, included Test, Edge and Christian.

 

At 51, he still dons the tights and gets back in the ring. On this July Saturday night in Berwick, Nova Scotia, he was teaming with his brother The Beast (Yvon Cormier) and young Rene Rougeau in a six-man tag match for Atlantic Grand Prix wrestling against the Cuban Assassin, his son (appropriately named Cuban Assassin #2) and Wild Man Austin.

 

Though he may say that he didn't want to wrestle on this trip out east to visit family, and that he got talked into it by promoter Emile Dupre and his brother, somehow it seems right that he's still out there. "It's good to see all the wrestling fans, my friends over the years. So I'm catching up," Burke admitted to SLAM! Wrestling.

 

Yet despite his success, looking back, Burke is not sure that he'd do it all over again.

 

"I'd rather have my health," explained Burke in the dressing room before his match. "My knees are shot now, I've had eight operations on them. When you're young, it's different -- you might get hurt but it takes a week to heal. Now it takes a couple of months. So, I would honestly have to think about it, do it all over again, I'm not sure if I would chose professional wrestling again or not."

 

To describe what Leo Burke, and his three wrestling brothers (The Cormier brothers: The Beast, and Rudy & Bobby Kay), mean to The Maritimes is no easy feat. Besides the excursion to the Grand Prix show, the real reason for this reporter's trip was a wedding. The cabbie on the way to the airport guaranteed that he would return for the pick-up just to hear stories about Grand Prix and Burke. During the wedding, Maritimers were easily distinguished from the Upper Canadians as they were the ones asking about Leo Burke; in fact, the groom, upon hearing of the trip to the Grand Prix show, requested and got an autographed photo of the wrestling legend.

 

Just as wrestling has always been a part of his life, so too has he been a part of Maritime wrestling lore.

 

"I lived, ate, drank wrestling since I was six years old. And of course, I have two older brothers in the wrestling profession that made me want to follow in their footsteps," said Burke, referring to Yvon/Beast and Rudy. Brother Bobby is a year younger than Leo, known on his birth certificate as Leonce.

 

After being trained by his brothers, he borrowed the last name Burke from friend, boxer Jackie Burke. "I didn't want to do it on my brothers' reputations. So I needed to do it on my own or not at all," Burke, who turned pro in 1966, said

 

"I've been everywhere," said Burke of his career, and "I've wrestled them all at one time or another." That colloquial 'all' includes four NWA world champions: Harley Race, Jack Brisco, Dory Funk Jr., and Terry Funk.

 

His favourite territory was always The Maritimes, of course. "Home is home," Burke said. "I've always said that if I was to move from The Maritimes, it would be [to] Calgary. That's where I'm at now. Of all my travelling, I loved New Zealand a lot. Basically, it reminded me of Canada [laughing]."

 

He didn't like India. "Nothing against Indians, just that it was so poor. I can't describe it to you, unless you see it yourself. Anyone who says that they want to leave Canada, all they have to do is go to India, they'll be glad to come back home."

 

In Calgary, he was North American champion nine times for Stampede Wrestling, including legendary feuds with Bret Hart, Stomper Gouldie, Bulldog Bob Brown, "the list goes on and on." Many of those feuds had cross-country appeal, and when Grand Prix would start up in the summer months, the battles would move East.

 

Burke 'retired' in 1992 and through his friend Bret Hart he got a job as a trainer in Calgary for the WWF.

 

"Bret has a lot of respect for me over the years. I wrestled him maybe a hundred different times," said Burke. "They were looking for a wrestling coach, and he said 'I've got one that you'll really like.' That's how I got in touch with Vince McMahon. That's how I started."

 

He worked for the WWF for three years training wrestlers. Today's fans will definitely recognize the names Ken Shamrock, Glenn Kulka and Mark Henry.

 

One stands out for him. "I had Test for two years. He's only 22 years old. He's got everything going for him and I see a bright future for him. I'm not surprised. I could tell when I had him that he was going to be a good one."

 

When his contract expired a year and a half ago, he switched over to WCW. He has about 15 working with him now and most are looking to sign contracts. "You'll hear from them in the next six months or so."

 

Two of the names are on the Grand Prix circuit this summer: Wild Man Austin and The Mighty Hercules.

 

"I don't really recruit anybody," Burke said. WCW sends up the talent and "I do what I can with them."

 

-- By GREG OLIVER, SLAM! Sports