49) Biff Wellington
50) Phil LaFon
Born in Mantouage, Ontario, LaFon also competed as Dan Kroffat (though he wasn't the Dan Kroffat who booked Stampede in the 1960's) and teamed with Doug Furnas in the WWF, Japan and ECW.
Born in Calgary, Wellington also competed as Beef Wellington (but never as Beef Stroganoff or Meatloaf) in the Stampede territory, New Japan and briefly in WCW. Strangely, Wellington died the same day as Chris Benoit in 2007.
Born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Callis is best known as a manager and authority figure (Jackyl in the WWF, Cyrus in ECW and under his own name in TNA). However, he has competed in Canada and all over the world.
Born in Calgary and the oldest grandchild of Stu and Helen Hart, Teddy was at one point the youngest person wrestler ever signed to a contract by WWE. A controversial performer, he's worked everywhere from ROH to Japan to Mexico.
47) Don Callis
48) Teddy Hart
Born in Windsor, Ontario, Williams is known as "The Canadian Destroyer" for his front-flip piledriver of the same name. He was a two-time X Division Champion in TNA before reinventing himself as "Little Poppa Pump", the tag team partner of Scott Steiner.
Born in Hamilton, Ontario (and billed as "Canada's greatest athlete"), Sharpe was one of the most memorable WWF jobbers all time, known for his questionable black wrist covering, loud grunting in the ring and backstage, for his OCD cleaning habits.
Born in Georgetown, Ontario, Kurrgan was a member of both The Truth Commission and Oddities factions in the WWF. These days, the 7" giant is better known for film roles in 300, Sherlock Holmes and Pacific Rim than his squared circle exploits.
Born in Calgary, Singh was best known as Bertha Faye, the comedy character who won the WWF Women's Title in 1995. However, she also competed in WCW, Canada, Japan and Puerto Rico before passing away in 2001.
43) Petey Williams
44) Iron Mike Sharpe
45) Kurrgan
46) Rhonda Singh
Born in Toronto, Love was a fixture in WWE's Deep South Wrestling developmental league until joining TNA in 2007. Since then, she's become a six-time Knockouts Champion and one of The Beautiful People.
Born in Calgary (and not Punjab, India as he was billed from), Mahal was one-third of 3MB and was in the WWE system from 2010 up until being released last month.
Although he briefly stole the nickname "Canadian Bulldog" (and yes, years AFTER I began using it!), the son of Davey Boy Smith and Diana Hart was born in Calgary and is a former WWE Tag Team Champion. These days, he competes in New Japan.
Born in St. Mary's, Ontario, Brooks is better known as a manager in TNA for everyone from CM Punk to Robert Roode, although she also competed in the Knockouts division and on the independent scene in Canada. Outside the ring, she is married to ROH's Frankie Kazarian.
39) Angelina Love
40) Jinder Mahal
41) Harry Smith
42) Traci Brooks
Born in Toronto, Kim is one of the only women to have held the top women's championships in both WWE and TNA. In 2012, Pro Wrestling Illustrated named her as the top female wrestler in the world.
Born in Calgary, Bruce was the first of Stu and Helen's children to wrestle professionally when he began in 1972. He held almost all of the championships in Stampede Wrestling, where he was also the head booker. He remains a trainer to this day.
Although born in Croatia, Diamond's family moved to Winnipeg when he was a child. In the late-1980's, he and Pat Tanaka became AWA World Tag Team Champions and later wrestled as both Kato and Max Moon in the WWF.
Born in Varennes, Quebec, Grenier first rose to prominence as the crooked referee in the Hulk Hogan vs. The Rock match in 2003. He then became a member of the multi-time World Tag Team Champion squad La Resistance before leaving WWE in 2007. He was also a French announcer in TNA.
36) Bruce Hart
35) Gail Kim
37) Paul Diamond
38) Sylvain Grenier
Born in Montreal, Maryse joined WWE in 2006 as part of the Diva Search competition. In 2008, she captured the WWE Divas Championship and became one of the belt's longest titleholders. Outside the ring, she is married to The Miz, for some reason.
Born in Sainte-Catherine, Quebec, Pierre first rose to prominence as one of The Quebecers in 1993, which held the WWF Tag Team Championships on three occasions. He also competed as wrestling pirate Jean-Pierre Lafitte and in TNA as the masked X.
Born in Thunder Bay, Ontario, Vampiro was one of the top names in Mexico during the 1990's. He was also popular during the dying days of WCW, where he feuded with Sting and others. He's also appeared in All Japan, Wrestling Society X and indepedent promotions.
Born in Moncton, New Brunswick, Rene is the son of legendary Maritimes promoter Emile Dupree. During his four years in the WWE, Dupree won tag team championships with both Sylvain Grenier and Kenzo Suzuki. He's since worked as a top wrestler in All Japan and Wrestle-1.
32) Maryse
31) Pierre Ouelette
33) Vampiro
34) Rene Dupree
Born in Florence, Ontario, Young is one of the few remaining TNA originals, having been part of Team Canada, Super Eric, one-half of the Knockouts Tag Team Champions and earlier this year, TNA World Champion for the first time.
Born in Calgary and billed as "the last graduate of the Hart Dungeon", Kidd became unified WWE/World Tag Team Champions with David Hart Smith in 2009. He's currently a fixture in NXT and is married to Natalya.
Born in Winnipeg, Corino became one of the final ECW World Heavyweight Champions when he defeated Justin Credible in 2000. He since has worked for TNA and ROH, briefly becoming the leader of S.C.U.M. before the faction was forced to disband.
Born in Kitchener, Ontario, Link competed for many years under his real name Dewey Robertson. He transformed into the green-faced Missing Link persona in 1983, terrorizing wrestlers in the WWF, NWA and World Class. He passed away in 2007.
27) Eric Young
28) Tyson Kidd
29) Steve Corino
30) The Missing Link
Born in Whitby, Ontario, Test was trained by Bret Hart, Leo Burke and Dory Funk Jr. He arrived in the WWF in 1998, and became part of many Attitude Era storylines. He also returned to the company for the ECW relaunch in 2006 and was briefly with TNA before his passing in 2009.
Born in Toronto, Elgin has been with promotions such as Pro Wrestling Guerilla and Ring of Honor for many years. Last month, he defeated Adam Cole to become ROH World Champion for the first time.
Born in Oakville, Ontario (not Las Vegas as billed), The Big Valbowski rose up to prominence (heh) in his adult film star persona in the WWF beginning in 1998. He later worked for TNA under his real name of Sean Morley and today publicly supports the legalization of marijuana.
Born in Calgary and the daughter of Jim "The Anvil" Neidhart, Natalya was the first female to be trained in the Hart Dungeon by her uncles Bruce and Ross Hart. She has held the Divas Championship and outside the ring, is married to Tyson Kidd.
23) Test
24) Michael Elgin
25) Val Venis
26) Natalya
Born in Saint-Sulpice, Quebec, Raymond teamed with younger brother Jacques as The Fabulous Rougeau Brothers in the WWF. He retired in 1992 while working as an announcer for the company for another decade.
Born in Montreal, Vachon had a career as a manager and wrestler, including prominent stops in the WWF, WCW and ECW. In addition to being raised by Montreal's famed Vachon family, she counted Andre The Giant as a godfather and Gangrel as her former husband before passing away in 2010.
Born in Hill Valley, Quebec, Zayn first came to prominence as the masked El Generico, capturing championships in the U.S. and Japan. Debuting last year in NXT as the unmasked Sami Zayn, it's only a matter of time before he becomes a prominent character in WWE storylines.
Born in Peterborough, Ontario, Roode has been a fixture in TNA since 2004 and has become one of the promotion's most decorated champions, including a run as the longest-reigning TNA World Champions and five runs with the tag team belts.
19) Raymond Rougeau
20) Luna Vachon
21) Sami Zayn
22) Robert Roode
Born in Saint-Sulpice, Quebec, Jacques is the brother of Raymond and son of Jacques Sr. In the WWF, he was part of The Fabulous Rougeau Brothers and Quebecers tag teams and won the Intercontinental Title as The Mountie. He's now a trainer, promoter and motivational speaker.
Born in Laval, Quebec, Bravo was billed as "Canada's strongest man" and later "The world's strongest man" after a benchpressing stunt at the first Royal Rumble. He worked in the WWF for various stints in the 70's, 80's and 90's before dying in 1993.
Born in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Quebec, Steen has been a staple of Ring of Honor since 2007, where he won both the World and World Tag Team Championships. Rumor has it he's next headed to WWE, which could make things interesting.
Born in Mississauga, Ontario (not Calabria, Italy or Paterson, NJ as WWE would have you believe), Marella has been a comedic staple of WWE programming since he moved to the main roster in 2007. He's also held WWE's Intercontinental, U.S. and Tag Team championships.
15) Jacques Rougeau
16) Dino Bravo
17) Kevin Steen
18) Santino Marella
The world's most famous Russian heel wrestler was actually born in Montreal. Of course, he ended Bruno Sammartino's historic first WWWF World Title reign in 1971, but he also was a big name in the NWA and other territories, teaming with his "nephew" Nikita in the early 1980's and 1990's.
Born in Montreal, Garvin is perhaps best known for defeating Ric Flair for the NWA World Tile in 1987. He's also worked for the WWF, AWA and WWC before easing into semi-retirement in the mid-1990's.
Born in Windsor, Ontario (though he's billed as being from Sudan), Abdullah has wrestled for roughly five decades as a bloodthirsty madman who was hardcore before the term was invented. The owner of a rib joint in Georgia, Abby was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2011.
Born in Surrey, British Columbia, he first gained fame in the WWF as Canadian Earthquake. He challenged Hulk Hogan during the summer of 1990 and later won the WWF Tag Team Championships with Typhoon. Before he died in 2006, Earthquake also competed in WCW and WWF as Avalanche, The Shark and Golga.
12) Ron Garvin
11) Ivan Koloff
13) Abdullah the Butcher
14) Earthquake
Born in Kitchener, Ontario, Christian is one of the few holdovers from the Attitude Era still actively working in WWE. Along the way, he's held almost two dozen titles, including the WWF/E Tag Team, Intercontinental, ECW and TNA World championships. That's how he rolls.
Born in Montreal, Martel was one of the longest-reigning AWA World Champions when he held that championship in the mid-1980's. He also had tag team success in the WWF with partners such as Tony Garea and Tito Santana, and as Television Champion in WCW before retiring in 1998.
Here's where a list like this gets difficult. He was born in Montreal (and later moved to Edmonton, Alberta) and became one of the most successful wrestlers in the modern era, cultimating with a World Title win in the main event of WrestleMania XX. Still, one can't dismiss his and his family's tragic demise in 2007.
Despite being billed from Calgary, Alberta, Canada.... Storm was actually born in Sarnia, Ontario. Storm's no-nonsense attitude and gimmick led to championship runs in ECW, WCW and WWE. Although he retired in 2005, Storm continues to show up in ROH and elsewhere from time to time.
8) Christian
7) Rick Martel
Happy Canada Day, hosers!
In honor (honour) of the country's 147th birthday and because I'm Canadian -- heck, it's my first name -- I've decided to put this very patriotic list together. A few points of order before we get started:
-
To qualify, a wrestler has to have been born or have spent a good chunk of their formative years somewhere in Canada. Even if they're billed in the ring as being from somewhere else, they can still qualify.
-
My ranking is only based on the past 30 years or so, because that's how long I've been a wrestling fan. So while I'm sure Whipper Billy Watson, Pat Patterson, Stu Hart, Gene Kiniski and others were top grapplers in their day, they won't make the list unless they were still actively grappling past 1985.
10) Lance Storm
9) Chris Benoit
Born in Orangeville, Ontario, Edge became one of the most decorated champions in WWE history, winning more than 30 belts during a 15 year period, including 11 WWE and World Championships. He was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2012, a year after he retired as World Champion.
Born in Manhasset, New York, Jericho soon moved to Winnipeg, where he'd live until setting out to follow his wrestling dream as a teenager. In addition to being the first WWE undisputed champion, Jericho has collected numerous titles in WWF, ECW and WCW. Today he tours with his band Fozzy and runs a podcast.
Born in Calgary, Owen was the youngest of the Hart children and is best known for his 1994 feud with older brother Bret. The Rocket also won the WWF Tag Team, Intercontinental and European Championships and captured the King of the Ring. Tragically, his life ended in 1999 after a stunt gone horribly wrong.
Born in Toronto, Trish is arguably the most successful female wrestler of the modern era. She captured a record seven WWE Women's Championships before retiring in 2006. Since then, she has been inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame, tried her hand at acting and opened a yoga studio in nearby Vaughan.
4) Chris Jericho
3) Edge
5) Trish Stratus
6) Owen Hart
Born in Calgary, "The Hitman" is a Canadian icon that did pretty much everything in the industry before retiring in 2000, including the triple crown of top championships in both in WWF and WCW. He was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2006, and may very well be the best there is, the best there was, and the best there ever will be.
Surprised? Piper was born in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan (not Glasgow, Scotland, where he's been billed from), and has become one of the most famous professional wrestlers in history - Canadian or otherwise. A top heel and babyface over four decades, Piper was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2005.
2)Rowdy Roddy Piper
1) Bret Hart
What do you think? Anyone you think should have been ranked differently? Anyone we missed? As always, let us know in the Comments section below.
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