REAL NAME: Timothy Reed
BORN: June 2, 1960, Rochester, NY
AKA: The Diamond, Streetfighter Tim Flowers
6’0″, 242 pounds
Diamond Timothy Flowers is quick to give credit to who came up with his gimmick — Liberace.
Not long after starting wrestling, he was in Connecticut was watching TV and saw the great showman Liberace doing his act, done up in style and surrounded by beautiful women in kimonos. A short time later, he found himself at an antique show and saw similar kimonos, and fancy rings. A few purchases later, a gimmick was born.
At his next match in Springfield, MA, Diamond Timothy Flowers ‘debuted’ and the crowd “went bezerk for it.”
Flowers is proud of his 20 years of wrestling, even though he never made it to the WWF or WCW.
“Every independent that’s been around, I’ve worked for,” he told SLAM! Wrestling in an April 1998 interview. The WWF or WCW were “never in my sights.”
These days, Flowers lives in Vancouver with his girlfriend and daughter Amy. He’s the co-promoter/brains behind the west coast’s International Championship Wrestling.
It was a long road to get to that point.
Born and raised in Rochester, NY, the young Timothy Reed was a wrestling fan from a young age. He wrestled amateur at school, watched the locally-promoted action run by Pedro Martinez, and even travelled up to Toronto’s Maple Leaf Gardens for shows.
During a trip to the Maritimes, the Reed Family met and befriended Dr. Jerry Graham in Moncton, NB and it wasn’t long until Tim’s father Roger Reed was promoter of Universal Sports Limited, a small wrestling promotion out of Rochester, and Tim himself was training with Graham to become a pro wrestler.
He made his debut in Toledo, Ohio against Wild Bill Curry in June 1978.
From there, it was a veritable world tour, with stops in Puerto Rico, South Africa, Germany, Japan, New Zealand, Australia, Mexico and “every state and every province.”
Flowers’ favorite stop was in Portland, Oregon with Don Owen. He’ll admit that the money wasn’t great, but that the “short trips” from show to show made up for it. And he made “lots of connections” that helped him to this day.
Canadian fans will remember him from his work in Emile Dupre’s Maritime promotion, or with Al Tomko’s west coast All-Star Wrestling. Of Tomko, Flowers said “Al’s a lot of things, but I don’t have a problem with him … he never screwed me around on money.” To be a success for him, he explained, you had to make Tomko think that your idea was actually his idea.
From December 1983 to the summer of 1984, Flowers worked for Stu Hart’s Stampede promotion. “Stu was a real good guy,” Flowers said.
In 1988, he started running opposition to Tomko’s All-Star promotion in Vancouver. That didn’t last too long, and Flowers made a deal to go back working for Tomko.
When Tomko’s All-Star Wrestling finally folded, Vancouver and B.C. were left without a regular wrestling promotion.
Flowers guesses that at least seven or eight different promoters have tried the area since then, including Rocky Dellaserra’s Pro Wrestling Canada and Michelle Starr’s ECCW.
“It’s hard repairing the damage done by others here,” Flowers offered. “You gotta crawl before you walk.”
Flowers’ ICW is the completion of a long-range plan of his. “My dream has always been to have my own promotion.” He admits that he’s from the old-school, and isn’t into some of the nutty action from some of today’s promotions. “I’d never ask a wrestler to do anything that I wouldn’t do.”
He also sees him promotion as a place to give both friends and new guys a chance to wrestle.
His ICW days also mark the end of his Diamond Timothy Flowers days. “I’m a different man than I was four or five days ago,” he said. He’s given up drinking and drugs, and “sees things a lot different now”.
And he’s been re-dubbed Streetfighter Tim Flowers.
For more on Flowers’ ICW promotion, head to their web site at www.icw-wrestling.com.
RELATED LINKS
- Diamond Timothy Flowers Career Record
- Feb. 2, 2022: Terry Justice, briefly, king of newsletters
- Dec. 21, 2006: Diamond Tim Flowers reflects on a finished career
Memories
Al Tomko’s All-Star Wrestling was one of the first wrestling shows I watched as a kid. My favourite “Diamond” Timothy Flowers moment was a match against Tim Patterson. Flowers just dominated the match and finished with his signature piledriver. Then, to add insult to injury, he piledrove Patterson from the ring apron to the concrete floor! And there were no mats in those days. I thought he killed the poor jobber!
Mike Boldin
It was in Port Alberni B.C. on January 29th 1998, Tim was wrestling Mad man Myers. During the match Tim broke Myers hip when he suplexed him on the floor. Even though Myers could barely walk but Tim manage to get him back in the ring and finished the match. I think that it was a reminder that wrestling isn’t as fake as some people like to think.
Cody
Diamond Tim was like an older brother to me during his short stay in the Mid-west region. When he was stretching Art Crew’s mouth, at the same time he took a couple fingers, picked his nose, and rubbed it on his teeth. I really miss Tim, his style and flair that he put into his work, what great champion.
Charles Garner
Good too see Tim is still mixing it up in the ring world. I remember the Days of Master Sgt. Al Tomko, Vern Seibert, Oly Olsen, and the crew…..
DasKapital
Chilliwack BC, my first real contact with Tim, Boxing Day, 1994-95? I was new to the business and listened to Tim, he knows the business and the contacts…eventually he fired me, no hard feelings, all the great ones get fired. Thanks for the memories Tim
Doctor Smooth
I will never forget my first night on television for Tomko’s All Star Wrestling. I wasn’t smart yet and Al sent me out to do an interview. Tim Flowers came out to disrupt my interview with a pitcher of water.
Well, I didn’t know Tim or anything about pro wrestling so I took off after him because I figured no pip-squeak was going to ruin me on TV before I even get a chance to prove myself. I not only took off after him, I chased him through the whole BCTV studios trying to give him an education he’d never forget.
When we made it back to the change room, all the boys, and all were in stitches. Poor Tim was in a rage screaming at Tomko that I could have killed him and that I should have been smartened up before sending anyone out with me.
Tim was right because I had BAD INTENTIONS when I went after him. It’s been about ten years since I’ve seen Tim but at that last meeting we told the story once again about WOJO’S first night in the pro-wrestling world !!!!!!!
Good luck, Tim.
Yours in the ring,
WOJO THE B.C. HULK (GOLIATH YAWRENKO)
EDITOR’S NOTE: The spelling of Timothy Flowers’ last name has been corrected to Reed; it was erroneously listed as Reid.
