Canadian Wrestling’s Elite (CWE) is ringing in the new year with the Rumble to Remember Tour on Thursday, Jan. 5 at Carlton Park Community Club with special guest and current Impact Wrestling star Rhyno.
Rhyno (real name Terry Gerin) has won numerous titles in wrestling promotions across North America, including WWE, ECW and Impact Wrestling.
This will be his fourth tour with CWE after doing a run with the company in the 2010s and he’s looking forward to another run with the company.
“Oh for sure. The last time was a lot of fun,” Gerin said. “The crowds were great and I always like coming up there.”
Gerin is used to performing in Canada, having moved to Windsor, Ont. from his home state of Michigan to begin training as a professional wrestler. However, he’s made only a few trips to the prairies since then, mostly with the WWE.
“I may have done one other one in 2008,” he said. “It’s always been a spot show. I have only been up to Saskatchewan a handful of times throughout my career.”
“I haven’t been to Canada in a while, right before COVID, so I am definitely looking to get back and I like heading up that way,” he added.
“The Man Beast” has been a wrestler for 28 years across North America and into Europe, He began his training in 1994 with current Impact Wrestling executive Scott D’Amore and wrestled his first match in 1995. He said it was nice to be working with the man who trained him again
“We worked together in 2005 when I first went to Impact Wrestling when it was TNA. He was there booking and stuff like that,” Gerin said.
Looking back on his long career, Gerin said that the passion of the fans has always stood out for him. At the time of the interview, he had recently competed in his old haunt Philadelphia, the home of ECW. He said it’s great to see that passion in Philadelphia, and in other communities, he travels to.
“The Philly fans and the New York fans they will definitely tell you how it is but that’s just in their DNA, that’s just them,” he said.
“That is something we share because, obviously, I have a passion for it too. You are able to go around the world and see that same passion, whether it is the U.S., whether it’s in Japan or whether it is in Canada and that’s a passion you share.
“When I was a kid I remember just getting so excited about wrestling when it was going to be on TV or whenever you are going to be watching you get excited for the matches and stuff. I get excited for matches to go and wrestle and obviously when I do meet and greets with fans.
Gerin has worked both as a tag and singles wrestler in his career. His most recent action came on the tag team circuit, where he recently lost the Impact Wrestling Tag Team titles with partner Heath (Slater) to the Motor City Machine Guns.
“I started wrestling tag team over in Germany with PCO (Pierre Carl Oulette),” he explained. “I had wrestled singles matches too, but we were the tag team champions for CWA, Catch Wrestling and that was in 1997. In 1998 I tagged with Joe. E. Legend and we won the tag titles again that year, and then, obviously, I was just singles, but I did team up with (the late Chris) Candido in ECW along with wrestling singles too. After that it was once in a while, (although) there for a little bit I tagged with Tajiri in WWE.”
Gerin and Heath were the inaugural Smackdown Tag Team Champions in 2016 in WWE and then again in Impact Wrestling in 2022. For a long time, Gerin strictly worked singles matches with an occasional tag, but that changed when the tag team with Heath really became a hit with the fans.
“When I went back to WWE (in 2016), really it was just supposed to be for a match or two with Heath,” Gerin remembered. “It was a tournament and that is what the plan was and the fans just really took to us, I mean I think it’s that odd couple, a One Man Band from West Virginia, southern accent and me being this Man Beast, this monster, ECW extreme guy and it just worked. People loved us together and I mean he’s a great tag team wrestler.”
Gerin said he learned a lot from both PCO and Joe E. Legend when they were his tag partners when he was working for Catch Wrestling. That has helped elevate his performances with Impact Wrestling.
“I think Heath and I were really good together and we are really good apart as singles wrestlers. I definitely enjoy wrestling tag matches because there is an art to it and I think it makes you a better singles wrestler too,” he explained.
“I think you get used to just the movement when you have the movement, and you are aware of three other people in the ring. When it is just one other person in the ring—it is just you and another wrestler—it just makes it easier to be aware of the location, what’s happening and all of that stuff. It is just the less moving part.
“I mean look at the Hart Foundation—a great tag team—and look at Bret. Look at his career. I don’t think he would have had as successful of a singles career. I’m sure it would have been very successful but I think that tag team juts really helped him out.”
CWE Rumble to Remember is on Jan. 5 at Carlton Park Community Club. VIP/Meet and Greet is at 6 p.m., doors open at 6:30 p.m. and Bell time is 7 p.m.
VIP First Priority Access and Meet and Greet is $28 and General Admission is $23 in advance, $26 at the door. Advance Tickets are available at: Colette Portamedic Services (#3-496 Marquis Rd.) or purchase tickets online at cwetickets.com
The event will feature an Over the Top Rope Rumble Main Event. Rhyno will be in a Special Attraction Match against four time CWE Tag Team Champion “The Boston Bruiser” Kevin O’Doyle. Also on the card is a CWE Championship Match with CWE Champion “The Zombie Killer” MENTALLO against HIW Alumni Bull Bodnar, a CWE Central Canadian Championship Match with CWE Central Canadian Champion & 2022 Rumble to Remember Winner “Hotshot” Danny Duggan against Prince Albert’s own “Big” Mike Miller and finally a Tag Team Attraction Match: CWE Canadian Unified Jr. Heavyweight Champion “Chiseled” Chad Daniels and Tyler Adams against The Cannon Corporation (“The Mastermind” Kevin Cannon and “The Headline” Shaun Martens).
michael.oleksyn@paherald.sk.ca
