The summer of 2024 was a momentous one for Scott D\u2019Amore, both personally and professionally.<\/p>\n
Ahead of a milestone birthday, a series of events would lead to the Windsor, Ont. native and veteran pro wrestling booker to make a decision that would change the landscape of the industry \u2013 both in Canada and beyond.<\/p>\n
Two years later, D\u2019Amore is now at the helm of a thriving Maple Leaf Pro Wrestling as it prepares for its biggest show to date on Oct. 3 at Toronto\u2019s Mattamy Athletic Centre, the grounds of the former Maple Leaf Gardens. Building a company he considers uniquely Canadian, D\u2019Amore hopes to be on the precipice of something truly transformative for wrestling in this country.<\/p>\n
In February of 2024, Anthem Sports, the parent company of TNA Wrestling, announced the departure of D\u2019Amore, Anthem\u2019s president and the head booker of TNA.<\/p>\n
The news came as a shock to the TNA roster and the industry as a whole. In his role for nearly seven years, D\u2019Amore helped dig the company, once the second-largest in North America, out of a creative hole and spearheaded its rebranding back to the TNA name after years as Impact Wrestling. The dismissal came only weeks after the company\u2019s well-received Hard to Kill pay-per-view, its most successful PPV offering in years.<\/p>\n
In the weeks and months after his exit, D\u2019Amore laid low.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt had been six-plus years of my life that had been fully dedicated to rebuilding that brand and I had been a strong believer in the rebrand and fought a long battle uphill to get it back to being TNA Wrestling,\u201d D\u2019Amore told TSN.ca. \u201cAnd then just as we get that accomplished, finally, I\u2019m kinda left with an abundance of time on my hands. So, I just took a bit of a break and tried to figure out what was going to be next. You lick your wounds, as they say, you sulk for a little bit and just kinda decompress. Then you say, \u201cOkay, what\u2019s next?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
With his decades in the business and the relationships he\u2019s cultivated during them, D\u2019Amore would have no shortage of options had he desired to join another promotion. But that didn\u2019t really interest D\u2019Amore at the time. He had become accustomed to a particular kind of work environment.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had conversations with various people and there\u2019s certainly lots of great opportunities in the business out there right now,\u201d D\u2019Amore said. \u201cThe creation of AEW sorta changed the landscape in so many ways for the better, not just in AEW, but for the business in general. And I looked at those things, but ultimately, at this point, it\u2019s been quite a while since I\u2019ve reported in or done stuff other than working for myself. Even in my time at Anthem, one of the great things was so much autonomy to what we were doing. There were parameters set and spirited debate about those things, but once it came to the day-to-day, I was really leading the charge. And the idea of going back to working in a place wasn\u2019t something that appealed to me.\u201d<\/p>\n
What did appeal to D\u2019Amore was investing in the health of the Canadian wrestling industry. On his 50th birthday on Aug. 8, 2024, D\u2019Amore announced the launch of Maple Leaf Pro Wrestling. Citing inspiration from the iconic Bret Hart, D\u2019Amore hoped to create a foothold for Canadian talent in an industry that often leaves performers from north of the 49th parallel at a disadvantage.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere needed to be a development pipeline for Canadian talent to be able to go out there,\u201d D\u2019Amore explained. \u201cBecause there is an inherent advantage to being American in this business. It\u2019s just so U.S.-based and the idea of Maple Leaf Pro was to create that \u2013 to a create talent scouting, development and showcasing pipeline that took it from soup to nuts, whether you had never been in a wrestling ring before but it had been your dream, or whether you\u2019re one of the very talented independent wrestlers out there who are just looking for some guidance or opportunity\u2026. so the idea was to build something, something truly Canadian, as a platform that could showcase not just Canadian talent, but the very best in the world and really have a focus on Canada and, in essence, being the CFL of wrestling. This is our league that\u2019s going to feature great players, great athletes, from all over the world, but it\u2019s also going to make sure there\u2019s a ton of Canadian representation and development going on.\u201d<\/p>\n
If the Maple Leaf Pro name seems familiar, it should be. It comes from Maple Leaf Wrestling, the National Wrestling Alliance territory based in Toronto and run by Frank Tunney from the early 1930s to the mid-1980s. Based at Maple Leaf Gardens, Maple Leaf Wrestling featured top Canadian names like \u201cWhipper\u201d Billy Watson, Billy Red Lyons and Sweet Daddy Siki, as well as top international talent such as Ed \u201cThe Sheik\u201d Farhat, Gene Kiniski, Lou Thesz and Terry Funk.<\/p>\n
In the late-1970s, Tunney entered into an agreement with Jim Crockett to send much of his top talent to Toronto from Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling. That resulted in the likes of Ric Flair, Ricky Steamboat, Roddy Piper and Andre the Giant working the territory on a regular basis. The NWA World Championship would change hands in Toronto on four occasions.<\/p>\n
Maple Leaf would end its run in 1984, a year after Tunney\u2019s death. His nephew, Jack Tunney, entered a partnership with Vince McMahon Jr. with Toronto effectively becoming a new territory for the World Wrestling Federation\u2019s national expansion. Moving forward, shows at Maple Leaf Gardens were billed as WWF events. Jack Tunney went to work for McMahon to head the company\u2019s Canadian office, as well as serve as a figurehead authority figure on its TV programming.<\/p>\n
Years later, D\u2019Amore would acquire the rights to the Maple Leaf name, as well as its pre-WWF video library. Instead of simply resurrecting that name for his new venture, D\u2019Amore decided on putting a new spin on it. It would acknowledge history but forge its own path.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you go look it up, we registered a bunch of different IP as potential names, but ultimately, we thought that Maple Leaf Pro Wrestling gave us a fresh coat of paint, a fresh twist on the Maple Leaf name,\u201d D\u2019Amore said. \u201cAnd it gave us the MLP initials, which we think stand out and are a little bit different and distinct. So it gave us the opportunity to pay homage to the past, and have it be a big part of what we\u2019re doing, but to also say, \u2018Hey, we\u2019re new!\u2019 We\u2019re not restarting up a company that ceased to exist in the \u201880s.\u201d<\/p>\n
Beginning with a two-night Forged in Excellence event in the fall of 2024, MLP has now run 30-plus shows. Maple Leaf Pro shows have featured a mix of exciting young Canadians like Mo Jabari, Sheldon Jean and Aurora Teves, established Canadian names like Stu Grayson and Pierre-Carl Ouellette (PCO), and talent from partner promotions from across the world including AEW, New Japan Pro-Wrestling and CMLL among others. Global superstars like Konosuke Takeshita, Andrade El Idolo and Mistico have all worked MLP events.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think with our partnerships, we\u2019ve been strategic with whom we partner with and having these types of partners has really helped give us legitimacy and give us access to the very best talent in the world,\u201d D\u2019Amore said. \u201cAnd it\u2019s allowed us to flesh out some really amazing cards.\u201d<\/p>\n
The company\u2019s next giant leap forward came this past summer with the launch of MLP Mayhem, a weekly one-hour show airing on Wednesday nights on TSN. To make the product look as slick as possible, D\u2019Amore brought aboard an all-star team of well-known industry vets like Keith Mitchell, Kevin Sullivan and Tim Wahlberg, who have had decades of experience making TV with WWE, WCW, TNA and AEW.<\/p>\n
Filming its initial events as what D\u2019Amore called a proof of concept, the MLP partnership with TSN came to fruition after some stop-and-start talks over the course of months finally got over the line. An official announcement was made in the spring ahead of a July debut.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s certainly other places you could go for distribution, but this is TSN,\u201d D\u2019Amore said of the deal. \u201cThis is the home of wrestling. This is where I used to watch Stampede Wrestling every week. This is where you saw RAW and where you saw Nitro. This is the wrestling home in Canada and, as it\u2019s been deemed for years, TSN is \u2018The Sports Leader\u2019 here, right? Whether it was Michael Landsberg on the TSN SportsDesk desk at night or whether it was Off the Record, whether it was Gino [Reda] and all the guys, this is where you went for sports in Canada. So we really wanted to forge ahead and build a relationship with TSN and we were lucky to get that done at the turn of the year and that\u2019s why we sit right now being very honoured, very grateful and very excited to be part of the TSN family airing weekly on the network.\u201d<\/p>\n
Having a one-hour show is both a blessing and a curse. While both WWE and AEW have multiple hours of programming, MLP is forced to be judicious with the way its minutes are expended. Does that limit expanding storytelling opportunity? Perhaps, but it also forces D\u2019Amore and his crew into finely tuning their editing to come up with the most compelling hour possible.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith pro wrestling, so much of it is storytelling,\u201d D\u2019Amore said. \u201cIt\u2019s weaving those stories into the weekly show. One of the things with a one-hour television show is that it\u2019s so fast-paced and it\u2019s so competitive. Every single minute is so valuable and so important because those 44 minutes of wrestling content are over before you know it. As opposed to a two-hour or three-hour show, we really have to be diligent about how we\u2019re spending every minute. The amount of time that we sit there and look at something and go, \u2018Well, that\u2019s two minutes \u2013 can we do it in 90 seconds? Maybe cut it down to 60?\u2019, like those types of things really keep us on our toes and keeps us hyper-focused on what we\u2019re trying to accomplish in the most efficient way to accomplish that.\u201d<\/p>\n
What everything on Mayhem is leading up to right now is Toronto and the sold-out Northern Rising on Oct. 3.<\/p>\n
After months on the shelf with a knee injury, MLP Canadian Champion \u201cThe Walking Weapon\u201d Josh Alexander has returned and will take on interim champion Stu Grayson to unify the promotion\u2019s top prize. The MLP Canadian Women\u2019s Championship will also be on the line when Priscilla Kelly defends against Nikki Storm. Rohan Raja is set to vie for Andrade\u2019s AEW National Championship.<\/p>\n
But the match that has fans abuzz is the main event where Canadian wrestling legend \u2013 and D\u2019Amore\u2019s friend and former roommate \u2013 Adam Copeland meets former TNA World Champion Steve Maclin.<\/p>\n
The match will be a dream come true for \u201cThe Rated-R Superstar.\u201d Copeland was a fan himself before he was an 11-time world champion. In fact, it was at Maple Leaf Gardens where Copeland attended his first-ever wrestling event. But by the time he became a wrestler, the arena no longer hosted events and his desire to perform there appeared to be an impossible pipe dream. That changed with his return to competition in 2020 following a nine-year retirement due to spinal stenosis.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis isn\u2019t just cool that Adam gets to do this childhood dream,\u201d D\u2019Amore said. \u201cThis isn\u2019t just cool for me that I get to call back a roommate of mine from 30 years ago when me, Adam and Jay [\u2018Christian Cage\u2019 Reso] moved to Moncton, N.B. and lived in this little dingy apartment while we wrestled seven nights a week for the first time in our lives. All of those things are cool, but it\u2019s also such a mega, mega event for wrestling fans to have Adam Copeland. Every time he comes back to Toronto, it\u2019s a huge deal. We saw it at Scotiabank [Arena in 2023 and 2025]. We saw it at Coca-Cola [Coliseum] when he and Christian had that amazing match [in 2024].<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s had all these great moments and he\u2019s going to continue to have great moments in Toronto. But I think even the fans understand how special it is to have Adam come back and wrestle in a building that he dreamed about wrestling in. For a long time, he didn\u2019t even think it would be a possibility. He\u2019s joked about how he started thinking, \u2018I\u2019m going to have to run a wrestling show there\u2019 to have a chance to wrestle there.\u201d<\/p>\n
While D\u2019Amore acknowledges that Copeland, somebody who signed with the WWF only five years after wrestling his first-ever match, wouldn\u2019t have been a beneficiary had an MLP existed when he was coming up, he\u2019s certainly well aware of the kind of difference for Canadian wrestling it will make.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think Adam truly understands what this opportunity means for Canadian wrestling, what it means for Canadian wrestlers, what it means for Canadian fans to have a company to call their own,\u201d D\u2019Amore said. \u201cThis is such a wonderful event and a special moment because he\u2019s not just doing something that allows him to fulfill his dream, he\u2019s literally laying the foundation for the current and next generations to be able to achieve their dreams. To me, that\u2019s truly amazing and special.\u201d<\/p>\n
Though the focus for MLP is squarely on Northern Rising, D\u2019Amore knows there will be a day after. As big as his plans might be, D\u2019Amore is cognizant of moving ahead conscientiously. Too much, too soon for what is still a nascent company could be enough to derail all of the company\u2019s momentum and positive growth.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs much as we\u2019ve taken great leaps, we also need to be careful to not overstep and grow too fast,\u201d D\u2019Amore said. \u201cI think the fact that we can be seen nationally, coast-to-coast, on television in less than two years [is big] and I think in 2027 we\u2019ll look to start getting out to more markets. I think, obviously, the goal is to eventually to either be A. coast-to-coast or B. be supporting other people as they do events coast-to-coast.\u201d<\/p>\n
To that second point, D\u2019Amore envisions a future where MLP talent can help anchor shows across the country the way that MLP\u2019s partner companies do now for them.<\/p>\n
\u201cMaybe there\u2019s a world where MLP Mayhem grows to such a big product on TSN where our [homegrown] wrestlers become star wrestlers and, obviously, [we will] graduate some of them onto the AEWs and other bigger leagues, but our stars, our Canadian talent, become big stars,\u201d D\u2019Amore said. \u201cThere are so many good independent wrestling promotions out there, coast-to-coast. So maybe [our guys] go out there and [these indies] bring in a Stu Grayson or a 1st Faction (Brent Banks and Sheldon Jean). Maybe they bring in a Michael Allen Richard Clark or Mo Jabari. Maybe, as these people grow into being television stars, MLP can provide some of the talent to bolster their own events in their individual towns and areas in the same way our relationships with AEW and CMLL, et cetera, allow us to bolster our MLP events.\u201d<\/p>\n
But whatever does happen for D\u2019Amore and MLP, the aim will remain the same. At the heart of the endeavour is a love for wrestling, especially the Canadian variety. That will be the guiding hand behind everything.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe goal is about healthy growth and sustaining that growth for Canadian wrestling,\u201d D\u2019Amore said. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t even have to be MLP-centric. MLP wants to be supportive and helpful to Canadian wrestling. We have a vibrant scene. We want to build it out to be even more vibrant.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The summer of 2024 was a momentous one for Scott D\u2019Amore, both personally and professionally. Ahead of a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":905534,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[437],"tags":[712,49,48,521,522,520,82],"class_list":["post-905533","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cfl","tag-apple-news","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-canadian-football-league","tag-canadianfootballleague","tag-cfl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/905533","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=905533"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/905533\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/905534"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=905533"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=905533"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=905533"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}