WINDSOR, ON — Saturday night, Border City Wrestling marked its 30th Anniversary with a capacity crowd at the St. Clair College Sportsplex in Windsor, the same venue where IMPACT Wrestling recently held this year’s edition of Slammiversary.
Originally founded in 1993 by Scott D’Amore, “The Canadian Destroyer” Doug Chevalier, and Chuck Fader, its 30-year run as one of the premiere independent wrestling promotions in Canada is forever cemented, with a card that highlighted a solid mix of the company’s past, present, and future, as well as driving home just how significant that D’Amore’s BCW and Can-Am Wrestling School has been to the DNA of TNA/IMPACT Wrestling over the past two decades.
A display of Scott D’Amore memorabilia at the Border City Wrestling 30th anniversary show on Saturday, October 7, 2023, at St. Clair College Sportsplex in Windsor, Ontario. Photo by Brad McFarlin
WWE and IMPACT Hall of Famer Kurt Angle was the special guest, holding a meet and greet with fans who lined up for ages. Angle had last appeared for BCW back in 2009 for its War Without Honor show, and was introduced to the hot Windsor crowd by IMPACT Director of Authority Santino Marella. While some people mentioned the abundance of IMPACT stars on a show honoring 30 years of BCW and Can-Am Wrestling School, looking at the IMPACT representatives, nearly all of them (except Jordynne Grace, Deonna Purrazzo) have connections to BCW, Windsor, and/or the Can-Am Dojo.
IMPACT’s The Motor City Machine Guns, Courtney Rush (Rosemary), Moose, John E. Bravo, Bhupinder Gujjar, Sheldon Jean, and Aiden Prince are all graduates of the Can-Am Dojo and longtime regulars with BCW, while others like Jake Something, Cody Deaner, Rohit Raju, and The Rascalz have been working for BCW for years. Gisele Shaw made her own BCW debut back in 2018, but since signing with IMPACT over a year ago, she’s been calling Windsor home. And Josh Alexander has also recently relocated to the area in recent months, where he’s joining the Can-Am Wrestling School as its new head trainer (his wife, Jade Chung, performed ring announcing duties at the show as well, having first gone through BCW back in the early 2000s).
A real treat for longtime fans, seeing “Irish” Mickey Doyle — a legend of the Detroit wrestling scene who started with Big Time Wrestling in 1971 and the first head trainer of Can-Am Dojo in 1993 — accompany the team of Scott D’Amore (5x BCW Champion), D’Lo Brown (2x BCW Champion), and Tommy Dreamer (former BCW Champion) face Johnny Swinger (former BCW Champion), N8 Mattson (former BCW Champion), and Tyler Tirva. Following the victory from D’Amore’s squad, he invited many of the original BCW crew down into the ring, featuring “Irish” Bobby Clancy, “Arrogant” Otis Apollo, Mike Legacy, Geza Kalman Jr., “Smooth Mover” Chris Pillon, “Big” Pat Ryan, Chris Valentino, and Little Jimmy Trump. D’Amore also announced that Jeff Kavanaugh, longtime BCW executive (also known as Jeffrey Scott as a referee and ring announcer), was being inducted into the 2023 Class of the BCW Hall of Fame.
Josh Alexander won a hard-hitting main event in a triple threat against Moose and former 2x-time GHC Heavyweight Champion Kaito Kiyomia from Pro Wrestling NOAH. Moose was a Can-Am Dojo graduate (he debuted in BCW before starting with Ring of Honor years ago) and Kaito Kiyomia trained in Windsor at the Can-Am Dojo on his NOAH excursion back in 2017 (current IMPACT star Sheldon Jean actually headed to NOAH’s Dojo in return on that exchange). Both the main event and the outstanding tag match that saw The Rascalz retain the IMPACT World Tag Team titles against The Motor City Machine Guns’ Alex Shelley & Chris Sabin were major PPV quality contests.
The entire card was an absolute treat for longtime BCW fans, newer fans, IMPACT fans, and fans of pro wrestling in general, and a great launching point for the future of BCW and the Can-Am Dojo in Windsor as it starts its new chapter under new head trainer “Walking Weapon” Josh Alexander.
RESULTS FROM BORDER CITY WRESTLING 30th ANNIVERSARY SHOW
Saturday, October 7, 2023 at St. Clair College Sportsplex in Windsor, Ontario
- Matrox & Brent Banks defeated Jack Price & Ren Jones
- Bhupinder Gujjar defeated Sheldon Jean
- BCW Can-Am Tag Team Championship: Aiden Prince & Reverso (with “The Mountie” Jacques Rougeau at ringside) defeated Desi Hit Squad (Rohit Raju & Champagne Singh, with John E. Bravo) to become NEW Champions
- Jordynne Grace defeated Courtney Rush
- IMPACT World Tag Team Championship: The Rascalz (Trey Miguel & Zachary Wentz) defended against The Motor City Machine Guns (Chris Sabin & Alex Shelley)
- Scott D’Amore, D’Lo Brown & Tommy Dreamer (with “Irish” Mickey Doyle) defeated Johnny Swinger, “Amazing” N8 Mattson & Tyler Tirva (with Handsome Johnny Bradford)
- BCW Can-Am Heavyweight Championship: Jake Something defeated Cody Deaner to become NEW Heavyweight Champion
- Gisele Shaw defeated Deonna Purrazzo
- Josh Alexander defeated Kaito Kiyomia and Moose in a three-way
TOP PHOTO: Kaito Kiyomia at the Border City Wrestling 30th anniversary show on Saturday, October 7, 2023, at St. Clair College Sportsplex in Windsor, Ontario. Photo by Brad McFarlin
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