Grand Prix Wrestling (GPW) is a

professional wrestling Professional wrestling is a form of theater that revolves around staged wrestling matches. The mock combat is performed in a ring similar to the kind used in boxing, and the dramatic aspects of pro wrestling may be performed both in the ring o ...

promotion Promotion may refer to: Marketing * Promotion (marketing), one of the four marketing mix elements, comprising any type of marketing communication used to inform or persuade target audiences of the relative merits of a product, service, brand or i ...

run and owned by Emile Duprée. Grand Prix Wrestling has recently finished the 2013 Rising Sun In The Maritimes Tour. Atlantic Grand Prix Wrestling tours parts of

New Brunswick New Brunswick (french: Nouveau-Brunswick, , locally ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic provinces. It is the only province with both English and ...

Prince Edward Island Prince Edward Island (PEI; ) is one of the thirteen Provinces and territories of Canada, provinces and territories of Canada. It is the smallest province in terms of land area and population, but the most densely populated. The island has seve ...

, and

Nova Scotia Nova Scotia ( ; ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic provinces. Nova Scotia is Latin for "New Scotland". Most of the population are native Eng ...

. It has no connection with

Paul Vachon Paul Vachon (born October 7, 1937) is a Canadian retired professional wrestler. He is a member of the Vachon wrestling family. He is perhaps best known by his ring name Butcher Vachon. Professional wrestling career Paul Vachon grew up as one of t ...

's Grand Prix Wrestling promotion of Montreal in the 1970s.

History

Atlantic Grand Prix Wrestling

Originally known as Atlantic Grand Prix Wrestling (AGPW), the regional circuit has been around since the early 1960s. During the 60s and the 70s AGPW was so popular it became a hit in the

Maritimes The Maritimes, also called the Maritime provinces, is a region of Eastern Canada consisting of three provinces: New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island. The Maritimes had a population of 1,899,324 in 2021, which makes up 5.1% of Ca ...

. AGPW cards were held in

Moncton, New Brunswick Moncton (; ) is the most populous city in the Canadian province of New Brunswick. Situated in the Petitcodiac River Valley, Moncton lies at the geographic centre of the Maritime Provinces. The city has earned the nickname "Hub City" because of ...

on Monday nights,

Halifax, Nova Scotia Halifax is the capital and largest municipality of the Canadian province of Nova Scotia, and the largest municipality in Atlantic Canada. As of the 2021 Census, the municipal population was 439,819, with 348,634 people in its urban area. The ...

on Thursdays,

Berwick, Nova Scotia Berwick is a Canadian town in Kings County, Nova Scotia. The town is located in the eastern part of the Annapolis Valley on the Cornwallis River. The town site stretches south from the river and Exit 15 of Highway 101 to Highway 1. Berwick occu ...

on Saturday evenings and along other small towns in

, and

. Every summer, there were two big

titles A title is one or more words used before or after a person's name, in certain contexts. It may signify either generation, an official position, or a professional or academic qualification. In some languages, titles may be inserted between the f ...

up for grabs: The United States Heavyweight Title and the North American Tag Team Title. Other titles included the European Heavyweight Title and the Maritime Heavyweight Title. The European Heavyweight Title was held more by

Killer Karl Krupp George Momberg (May 13, 1934 – August 24, 1995), better known by the ring name Killer Karl Krupp, was a Dutch-born professional wrestler famous during the 1970s and early 1980s. Early life George Momberg was born in the Netherlands and w ...

than any other wrestler and The Maritime Heavyweight Title was held most often by Stephen Petitpas. During the late 1980s, the United States Heavyweight Title was changed to the International Heavyweight Title.

Rising Sun In The Maritimes Tour

Atlantic Grand Prix Wrestling returned to the Maritimes in 2013 for a summer tour. The roster featured former

WWE World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc., d/b/a as WWE, is an American professional wrestling promotion. A global integrated media and entertainment company, WWE has also branched out into other fields, including film, American football, and vario ...

wrestler Rene Dupree,

All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW/AJP) or simply All Japan is a Japanese professional wrestling promotion established on October 21, 1972 when Giant Baba split away from the Japanese Wrestling Association and created his own promotion. Many wrestlers had left with Baba, ...

star

Seiya Sanada , better known by his ring name Sanada (stylized as SANADA), is a Japanese professional wrestler currently signed to New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW). He is a member of the stable ''Los Ingobernables de Japón''. As part of NJPW, Sanada is mostly ...

She Nay Nay Athanasia Alexopoulos is a Canadian professional wrestler, best known by her ring name She Nay Nay. She has worked for several Canadian, American, British, and Irish promotions including Atlantic Grand Prix Wrestling, NCW Femmes Fatales, Ohio Val ...

, Bellatrix star

Erin Angel Erin Marshall (born 16 March 1987) is an English professional wrestler, better known by her ring name Erin Angel. She is often nicknamed "Little" due to her short stature of only 4 ft 11 in. Erin Angel describes her gimmick in wrestling as ...

, midget wrestlers Lil' Fabio and Lil' Poppa Pump, The Masked Thunderbolt, Kwan Chang, Jeremy Prophet, Bobby Sharp, Spiderman and Japanese star, Daiki Inaba. The tour kicked off in Borden-Carleton,

with a show featuring a special guest appearance by Japanese legend

The Great Muta is a Japanese professional wrestler and professional wrestling executive currently signed to Pro Wrestling Noah (Noah), where he is a former GHC Heavyweight Champion. He is best known for his work as in World Championship Wrestling (WCW) and Ne ...

. The tour continued with Prince Edward Island shows in Souris and O'Leary. Nova Scotia shows included: Springhill, Bridgewater, two in Berwick, Tatamagouche, Truro, Cheticamp, North Sydney, Baddeck and Antigonish. The New Brunswick portion of the tour included shows in: Cocagne (3 times), Neguac, Lameque, Chipman, Fredericton Junction, Blacks Harbour, Baie St. Anne, Minto, Petit-Rocher, Doaktown and Sunny Corner. The tour was very successful and it brought a lot of escalation toward what is now known as the 2014 New Era Tour that featured Rene Dupree,

Yasufumi Nakanoue is a Japanese professional wrestler, better known by the ring name , currently signed to Big Japan Pro Wrestling (BJW) in the Strong BJ division, where he is the current BJW World Strong Heavyweight Champion. He started his career in All Japan P ...

, Butcher Vachon, Bobby Sharp, Jeremy Prophet, the return of the Cuban Assassin and many more. Towns featured on the tour included Neguac, Black's Harbour and Minto (New Brunswick), O'Leary, Borden-Carleton and Souris (Prince Edward Island), and Sydney, Baddeck, Berwick, Truro and Springhill (Nova Scotia).

Eastern Canada Tour

In May 2015, AGPW held a tour across

and

Alumni

;Male wrestlers ;Female wrestlers ;Midget wrestlers ;Stables and tag teams

Championships

;Key

AGPW International Heavyweight Championship

AGPW United States Heavyweight Championship

AGPW Maritimes Heavyweight Championship

AGPW North American Tag Team Championship

Footnotes

References

External links

Atlantic Grand Prix Wrestling Facebook Page
Maintained by Jeff Docherty
Wrestling-Titles.com: Grand Prix Wrestling
by Greg Oliver

by Greg Oliver * ttp://slam.canoe.ca/SlamWrestlingGrandPrix/jul29_grandprix.html SLAM! Wrestling: Grand Prix a learning environmentby Greg Oliver
SLAM! Wrestling: Grand Prix restarts June 7 in Maritimes
by Greg Oliver

by Serge Niles

{{Professional wrestling in Canada Canadian professional wrestling promotions Professional wrestling in New Brunswick