By Gordon Holmes
Special to Canadian of the Week

From Alberta’s Hart Family to Quebec’s Rougeau Brothers to Ontario’s Edge and Christian, the tradition of Canadian wrestling is full of larger-than-life personalities and unforgettable matches. Join us every week as we count down to Wrestlemania XXVI by taking a look at the Great White North’s finest contributions to the squared circle.

Editor’s Note: The “Modern Era” is defined as the period of wrestling that exists from
SummerSlam 1988 to the present day. Why 1988? Because that’s when I started watching wrestling. I know, I’m lame.

Previous picks:
10. Andrew “Test” Martin
9. John “Earthquake” Tenta
8. Lance Storm
7. Christian
6. Chris Benoit
5: Trish Stratus

4: Owen Hart
Height: 5’10”
Weight: 227 lbs.
Hometown: Calgary, Alberta
Greatest Match: Owen Hart vs. Bret Hart – Wrestlemania X

If this list was about the most beloved Canadian wrestlers of the modern era, you’d have had to wait three more weeks for the Owen Hart article.

Sure, some will say that people view Owen with rose-colored glasses since his unfortunate accident in May 1999, but I’d disagree. In a business fraught with con men, carnies, and creeps (how’s that for alliteration) you never really heard a bad thing about Owen Hart.

Maybe it was his legendary sense of humor. Seriously, if the WWE released a three-DVD set of former superstars telling Owen prank stories, I’d buy it in a second.

Maybe it was because he was a family man. In his book “Have a Nice Day,” Mick Foley tells stories about how Owen rarely went out after shows so he could save money. Apparently the only reason Owen wrestled was to make enough money so his family could live comfortably. Owen’s goal wasn’t championships or magazine covers, it was early retirement so he could spend his days with his kids in Calgary.

In fact, if the pay at the fire station had been equal to that of a WWE superstar, Owen would have rather done that and stayed home.

But alas, this list is more based on a person’s in-ring work, microphone skills, and overall influence than it is on their behind-the-scenes attitude.

As luck would have it, Owen excelled in all of those areas too.

In-Ring Work: Anyone who’s ever seen Owen’s matches with his brother Bret Hart, his brother-in-law Davey Boy Smith, or his family’s natural enemy Shawn Michaels will attest that Owen was in the upper echelon of workers in the ’90s. Tippity top on the list of Owen’s best matches would have to be his Wrestlemania X classic with Bret and his European Title tournament final against Davey Boy. Both matches are excellent examples of flow and storytelling without having to lean on gimmicks or weapons.

Microphone Skills: Owen may be responsible for one of the most memorable slip ups in interview history with his classic “Kick your leg out of your leg” miscue from the ‘94 Royal Rumble, but other than that he was usually very solid. Both Bret and Owen had to walk a very fine line in their feud so as not to make Owen look sympathetic to his more successful brother, but they both pulled it off perfectly. And then there were the Slammy Awards…

Championships come and go, but once you win a prestigious Slammy Award they can never take it away from you. When Owen claimed his second award (I say claimed, he didn’t technically win it, he just took it) the bragging speech that followed was pure gold.

Overall Influence: Owen very well could have been the prototype for the geeky heel characters that were later perfected by Edge and Christian. You could even make the argument that the Blue Blazer persona that Owen was developing before his tragic accident (“I always take my vitamins, say my prayers, and drink my milk!”) was a big influence on Shane Helms’s Hurricane gimmick and Kurt Angle’s World’s Toughest Nerd character.

More important than that is Owen’s influence on North American wrestling. Owen helped usher in a style that was more focused on technical wrestling and highspots after the steroid trials forced out the muscle-bound brawlers of the ’80s. In fact, Owen helped pave the way for such smaller, Japanese Junior-inspired wrestlers such as Chris Jericho, Chris Benoit, and Eddie Guerrero.

Not bad for a guy that would have rather have been a fireman.

Now, normally I put my pithy ending at the end of these posts and call it a day, but writing this has made me realize how much I truly miss Owen Hart. If you were a fan back in 1999, do yourself a favor and dig up the clip of Vader trying to keep a straight face after Owen knocked a waiter onto him at the 1997 Slammys. If you weren’t a fan back then, break out a copy of Wrestlemania X and discover for yourself what the fuss over Owen Hart was all about.

Gordon Holmes is the wrestling correspondent for Comcast.net’s SlamCast wrestling coverage and the “Survivor” correspondent for Fancast.com. He was also trained to take a beating by WWE Hall of Famer Afa “The Wild Samoan” Anoa’i. You can follow Gordon on Twitter at twitter.com/gordonholmes.

By Gordon Holmes
Special to Canadian of the Week

From Alberta’s Hart Family to Quebec’s Rougeau Brothers to Ontario’s Edge and Christian, the tradition of Canadian wrestling is full of larger-than-life personalities and unforgettable matches. Join us every week as we count down to Wrestlemania XXVI by taking a look at the Great White North’s finest contributions to the squared circle.

Editor’s Note: The “Modern Era” is defined as the period of wrestling that exists from
SummerSlam 1988 to the present day. Why 1988? Because that’s when I started watching wrestling. I know, I’m lame.

Previous picks:
10. Andrew “Test” Martin
9. John “Earthquake” Tenta
8. Lance Storm

7: Christian
Height: 6’2”
Weight: 227 lbs.
Hometown: Toronto, Ontario
Greatest Match: Edge and Christian vs. Hardy Boyz vs. Dudley Boyz – Wrestlemania X-Seven – TLC Tag Title Match

When one member of a tag team goes on to become a bigger star than the other member, that less successful member isn’t referred to as “The Jim Neidhart” or “The Ray Rougeau.”

They’re known as “The Marty Jannetty.”

Maybe it isn’t fair for any wrestler to have to live up to the legacy Shawn Michaels has crafted for himself during his post-Rockers career, but such is life. After Shawn ended their tag team run by shoving Jannetty face first through Brutus “The Barber” Beefcake’s storefront window, Michaels went on to enjoy four World Championships and some quality time with Tammy “Sunny” Sytch in her prime. Meanwhile, poor Jannetty was left to bounce around the independent circuit.

So, when the WWE was enjoying a bit of a tag team renaissance around 2000-2001, me and my friends would debate who would become the Shawns and who would become the Martys.

The charismatic daredevil Jeff Hardy? Future superstar. His more fundamentally sound, yet microphone challenged brother Matt? Less so.

The angry redneck with a fetish for smashing women through tables Bubba Ray Dudley? Maybe not up to Shawn Michaels’ talent level, but seemingly destined for bigger things. His testimonial-requesting half brother D-Von? Not so much.

Then there was Edge and Christian. Surely Edge had to be the Shawn Michaels in this scenario. He had the cool gimmick of the club kid who would stalk the arena and enter the ring from the audience. He had the double awesome Stanley Cup-inspired trophy he received after winning the 2001 King of the Ring tournament. And, he even had a brief Intercontinental Title reign before he ever began teaming with Christian.

This theory was seemingly proved shortly after the team broke up in the Fall of 2001. Edge would quickly go on to unify the WCW U.S. Title and the WWE Intercontinental Title while Christian was promptly lost in the shuffle of the WCW/ECW Alliance mess.

Surely, Christian was on his way to a plate-glass facial.

But something funny happened on the way to the Barber Shop. Christian managed to survive misguided angles such as throwing temper tantrums after every loss and Steve Austin dubbing him a “Creepy Little Bastard.” In spite of all of that, he found his groove.

The nickname “Captain Charisma” and the catchphrase “That’s how I roll” started to catch on. Signs from fans proclaiming themselves to be one of his “Peeps” started to show up in the audience. And his feud with Chris Jericho over the lovely Trish Stratus was one of the highlights of the WWE’s very strong 2004.

From there, Christian enjoyed a successful run in TNA which helped him hone the character we’re seeing today.

Christian may not be among the higher echelon of WWE superstars today, but I wouldn’t bet against him eventually getting there for one reason; he can make the fans care. Watch a Christian match; even when he’s paired with a questionable worker like Ezekiel Jackson, the fans are into the finish. He clearly has the talent to carry the move, catchphrase, or angle that’s needed to finally propel him through the glass ceiling.

(OK, I swear that’s the last glass-breaking metaphor.)

So, does all of that make Edge the Marty Jannetty? Absolutely not. But I will say this about Christian; everyone else you’ll see on this list will probably stay in their spot until someone bumps them lower. Nothing against those workers, they’ve just either retired, reached their peaks, or passed on.

But if we revisit this list in a few years, Christian is the only one I can see in a higher position.

Gordon Holmes is the wrestling correspondent for Comcast.net’s SlamCast wrestling coverage and the “Survivor” correspondent for Fancast.com. He was also trained to take a beating by WWE Hall of Famer Afa “The Wild Samoan” Anoa’i. You can follow Gordon on Twitter at twitter.com/gordonholmes.

Maybe not quite everything is better in Canada.

Bad hotels are bound to be found anywhere, and TripAdvisor.com’s new 2010 Dirtiest Hotels list tells you exactly where. The site put together a Dirtiest Hotels list for the fifth year, but it’s the first time that it included a Top 10 (er, Bottom 10) specifically for Canada, and two of the worst places — according to TripAdvisor user ratings — are located at Niagara Falls.

The popular tourist site is home to the worst spot on the list, a motel which customers have called “the worst of the worst,” and an “embarrassing dump.” One user reported “Blood in the bedding, spatter across the walls, carpet saturated with black filth, empty beer bottles piled outside the door, discarded rotting furniture at the bottom of the stairs, disgusting odour.”

To see the complete list of TripAdvisor’s Dirtiest Hotels in Canada, click here.

By Gordon Holmes
Special to Canadian of the Week

From Alberta’s Hart Family to Quebec’s Rougeau Brothers to Ontario’s Edge and Christian, the tradition of Canadian wrestling is full of larger-than-life personalities and unforgettable matches. Join us every week as we count down to Wrestlemania XXVI by taking a look at the Great White North’s finest contributions to the squared circle.

Editor’s Note: The “Modern Era” is defined as the period of wrestling that exists from
SummerSlam 1988 to the present day. Why 1988? Because that’s when I started watching wrestling. I know, I’m lame.

Previous picks:
10. Andrew “Test” Martin
9. John “Earthquake” Tenta

8: Lance Storm
Height: 6’
Weight: 228 lbs.
Hometown: Calgary, Alberta
Greatest Match: Lance Storm vs. Edge – SummerSlam 2001

My buddy Mike likes to hit me with random questions every now and then. Nothing too heavy, just the kind of questions Gordie would ask Vern around the campfire in “Stand by Me.”

Who’d win in a fight between Mighty Mouse and Superman? Where were they going in the show “Wagon Train?” What the hell is Goofy?

The one that always stuck with me was: If you had to give up either pork or chicken for the rest of your life, which would it be?

Upon first hearing this question, I reasoned that I eat chicken far more often than I eat pork, so I’d probably choose to stop eating pork.

Mike countered by saying, “Chicken is always good, but pork has more potential to be great.”

What does this have to do with Canadian wrestlers? Well, I’ll tell you…

Lance Storm is chicken.

OK, let me rephrase that so I don’t have a super kick waiting for me from an angry retired wrestler. Lance Storm was a consistently good wrestler, I don’t recall ever seeing him have an off match. But, he was rarely great.

You could argue that Lance Storm wasn’t given the opportunity to be great. For as technically sound as his matches were (and Lance’s work was second to none) he was never truly given a sustained push or a super-heated feud.

I think that’s a shame, as when he was given the ball during the dying days of WCW he definitely ran with it. For those of you who weren’t following WCW during 2000, (and there weren’t many of us) Storm managed to win the U.S. Championship, the Hardcore Championship, and the Cruiserweight Championship in a little over two weeks.

Fun Fact: In the storylines, Storm renamed those titles the Canadian Heavyweight Championship, the 100-kg-and-Under Championship, and the Saskatchewan Hardcore International Title.

Even the bizarre booking of his match against Mike Awesome at New Blood Rising (Lance was booked to drop several falls in front of his hometown crowd) and the adding of American “Hacksaw” Jim Duggan to his Team Canada stable wasn’t enough to truly derail him.

By the time WCW folded in the spring of 2001, Storm was still one of the organization’s top heels and was one of the bigger names that made the transition to WWE in the Invasion storyline.

Unfortunately after a brief reign as Intercontinental Champion, he spent the majority of his time in tag teams with Shane “Hurricane” Helms, Christian, and William Regal and never again had the opportunity to break through to the upper level.

After Mike’s good vs. great answer to the chicken vs. pork question I changed my initial decision. It’s always nice to have the good, but you truly appreciate the great. Lance Storm is the best of the chicken, the next seven Canadians you’ll see on this list are pork.

And Goofy is a dog.

Gordon Holmes is the wrestling correspondent for Comcast.net’s SlamCast wrestling coverage and the “Survivor” correspondent for Fancast.com. He was also trained to take a beating by WWE Hall of Famer Afa “The Wild Samoan” Anoa’i. You can follow Gordon on Twitter at twitter.com/gordonholmes.

By Gordon Holmes
Special to Canadian of the Week

From Alberta’s Hart Family to Quebec’s Rougeau Brothers to Ontario’s Edge and Christian, the tradition of Canadian wrestling is full of larger-than-life personalities and unforgettable matches. Join us every week as we count down to Wrestlemania XXVI by taking a look at the Great White North’s finest contributions to the squared circle.

Editor’s Note: The “Modern Era” is defined as the period of wrestling that exists from
SummerSlam 1988 to the present day. Why 1988? Because that’s when I started watching wrestling. I know, I’m lame.

Previous pick: 10. Andrew “Test” Martin

9: John “Earthquake” Tenta
Height: 6’7”
Weight: 462 lbs.
Hometown: Vancouver, British Columbia
Greatest Match: Earthquake vs. Hulk Hogan – SummerSlam 90

Wrestling was better when it was real.

Editor’s Note: Yes, I’m aware wrestling hasn’t been an actual competition since the days when Frank Gotch would hold a kangaroo in a headlock for 12 hours.

But to me, there was a time when wrestling was an actual contest. There was a time when Hulk Hogan overcame amazing odds because he fed off the power of his Hulkamaniacs and stayed true to his three demandments. And there was a time when the diabolical Earthquake had killed Hulk Hogan dead on “The Brother Love Show.”

Now I know wrestling is two fine athletes working together to put on a complex show…like figure skating.

Now I know Hulk Hogan always won because he sold tickets.

And now I know that John “Earthquake” Tenta was just one in a long line of super huge wrestlers brought along so Hulk Hogan would have someone impressive to body slam.

But man, there was a time when the Earthquake (originally billed as “Canadian Earthquake) scared the crap out of me.

In his very first appearance he squashed the Ultimate Warrior like a bug. Later that summer he blindsided Hulk Hogan and delivered Earthquake Splashes so devastating that the only way to bring the Hulkster back to life was by brandishing a “Get Well, Hulkster” bracelet.

Don’t judge me.

And then, in the lead up to the big Hogan vs. Earthquake grudge match at SummerSlam 90, he splashed the Tugboat (no pun intended) into oblivion.

But I wasn’t worried. We’d seen it a hundred times before. Hogan is attacked by a guy twice his size, Hogan kicks out of the villain’s biggest move, Hogan emerges victorious. Lather, rinse, repeat.

So, you could image the look on this young mark’s face when Hogan wasn’t able to get the job done. Sure, Hogan had his hand raised that night in the Philadelphia Spectrum, but it was only by countout.

In hindsight, I doubt I’d like Earthquake very much if he came on the scene today. Don’t get me wrong, he was very mobile for a big guy, but you watch wrestling with different eyes once you’ve seen behind the curtain. The fear for the well being of the good guy is impossible to capture once you know they’re both headed out to Cracker Barrel after the show.

But when I was a kid? The Earthquake was awesome.

Gordon Holmes is the wrestling correspondent for Comcast.net’s SlamCast wrestling coverage and the “Survivor” correspondent for Fancast.com. He was also trained to take a beating by WWE Hall of Famer Afa “The Wild Samoan” Anoa’i. You can follow Gordon on Twitter at twitter.com/gordonholmes.

By Gordon Holmes
Special to Canadian of the Week

From Alberta’s Hart Family to Quebec’s Rougeau Brothers to Ontario’s Edge and Christian, the tradition of Canadian wrestling is full of larger-than-life personalities and unforgettable matches. Join us every week for the next 10 weeks as we count down to Wrestlemania XXVI by taking a look at the Great White North’s finest contributions to the squared circle.

Editor’s Note: The “Modern Era” is defined as the period of wrestling that exists from SummerSlam 1988 to the present day. Why 1988? Because that’s when I started watching wrestling. My list, my rules…

10: Andrew “Test” Martin

Height: 6’6”
Weight: 280 lbs.
Hometown: Toronto, Ontario
Greatest Match: Test vs. Shane McMahon – SummerSlam 99 – Love Her or Leave Her Match

When I was approached about doing a Top 10 Canadian wrestlers piece, my first instinct was, “Only 10?” But then when I dug deeper into the topic, I realized that there are really two tiers. The top seven or eight are extremely talented and influential. After that, there isn’t a ton to differentiate between them.

So, what makes Test stand out in this tier over notable Canadians like Sean “Val Venis” Morley and Jacques “The Mountie” Rougeau? All three held the WWE Intercontinental Championship, considered at the time to be the second-most prestigious title in the organization. All three enjoyed extended runs as mid-level talent on WWE programming. But only Test seemed poised to take a place in the higher echelon of WWE performers.

Why didn’t he? Like many things that happen in the guarded world of wrestling, there isn’t really a definitive answer. But let’s take a look at what might have been…

Test debuted as a member of Vince McMahon’s evil Corporation during the winter of 1998. As a part of this stable, Test was able to rub elbows with top names like The Rock, Triple H, Mick “Mankind” Foley, and “Stone Cold” Steve Austin right off the bat.

After his run with the Corporation came to an end, Test became the on-screen boyfriend of Vince’s daughter Stephanie McMahon. The storyline picked up steam when Test was forced to earn the approval of Stephanie’s brother Shane. The two faced off in the shockingly good “Love Her or Leave Her” match at SummerSlam 99. Shortly afterward, Test and Stephanie were engaged to be married (again, just in the storyline … this gets confusing).

However, during Stephanie’s bachelorette party in Las Vegas, Stephanie was drugged by the WWE’s top villain, Triple H. Triple H smuggled her away to a quickie marriage chapel and married her as she sat slumped in the car.

This didn’t sit well with Test.

Now, from there the storyline could have continued with a furious Test tearing through Triple H’s DeGeneration X cronies to get at his former bride-to-be’s new husband (told you this was confusing).

However, they went a different way. Stephanie turned on her father, Triple H went on to feud with Mick Foley, and Test was shuffled down the card into the tag team “T&A” which was basically a juvenile way to draw attention to Trish Stratus Holmes’ considerable assets.

Test was never as hot as he was during the winter of 1999. So, maybe it’s his potential that puts him over performers like Morley and Rougeau.

That, and he dated both Stacy Keibler and Kelly Kelly. Maybe not at the same time, but that’s still impressive.

Gordon Holmes is the wrestling correspondent for Comcast.net’s SlamCast wrestling coverage and the “Survivor” correspondent for Fancast.com. He was also trained to take a beating by WWE Hall of Famer Afa “The Wild Samoan” Anoa’i. You can follow Gordon on Twitter at twitter.com/gordonholmes.