Leo Burke competed across Canada, in several American promotions, and wrestled internationally for Puerto Rico's World Wrestling Council and the National Wrestling Alliance in New Zealand.
39 Facts About Leo Burke
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Leo Burke had long-term storyline feuds with such wrestlers as Cuban Assassin and Bret Hart, both of whom he later reconciled with and joined forces with to hold tag team championships.
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Leo Burke was honoured by the Cauliflower Alley Club, a fraternal organization of professional wrestlers, and inducted into the Stampede Wrestling Hall of Fame.
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Leo Burke followed in the footsteps of his older brothers Yvon and Jean-Louis, who trained him to compete.
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Leo Burke won his first championship belt on October 11,1968, by defeating Bob Brown for the NWA Central States Heavyweight Championship.
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Leo Burke did not want to use their name recognition to further his own career, so he took the last name of his friend, boxer Jackie Burke.
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Leo Burke won the IW North American Heavyweight Championship on June 22,1971, by defeating Eric Pomeroy.
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Leo Burke teamed with his brother Romeo again to win the ESA International Tag Team Championship.
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Leo Burke teamed with another brother, Yvon, who competed under the ring name The Beast.
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Leo Burke had one final reign with the Taped Fist Championship before vacating the title.
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Leo Burke continued to compete for Central States Wrestling, and he teamed with The Beast in a tournament for the vacant NWA Western States Tag Team Championship.
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In 1976, Leo Burke defeated The Brute to begin another reign as IW North American Heavyweight Champion.
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Leo Burke later dropped it to Michel Dubois but regained it by defeating Frenchy Martin on July 14,1977.
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Leo Burke controlled the majority of the encounter, but Funk intentionally got himself disqualified 55 minutes into the match.
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In 1977, Leo Burke moved to Calgary, Alberta to compete for Stu Hart's Stampede Wrestling.
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Leo Burke teamed with Hart's son Keith to win the Stampede Wrestling International Tag Team Championship in early 1977 by defeating The Cuban Assassins.
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Leo Burke defeated Don Gagne for the first title and Michel Martel for the second.
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Leo Burke won it once more, by defeating Larry Lane, before leaving the area to compete briefly in New Zealand.
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Leo Burke soon vacated the title and returned to Stampede Wrestling.
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Leo Burke began feuding with Keith's brother Bret Hart around that time.
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Leo Burke defeated Mr Sekigawa to win the North American Heavyweight Championship but lost it to Bret Hart later that year.
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Leo Burke regained it in a rematch but dropped it to Hart .
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Leo Burke returned to Canada's Atlantic Coast briefly to compete for Atlantic Grand Prix Wrestling and won the promotion's North American Tag Team Championship with Hubert Gallant.
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AGPW only promoted shows in the summer, and Leo Burke then returned to Calgary during AGPW's off-season; while there, he teamed with his brother Bobby Leo Burke again to regain the International Tag Team Championship in December 1980.
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Leo Burke dropped it back to Bret Hart three months later.
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Leo Burke followed this with a brief return in August 1982 to AGPW, where he defeated Rick Valentine to win the AGPW United States Heavyweight Championship.
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On November 19,1982, Leo Burke teamed with his longtime rival Bret Hart to win the Stampede Wrestling International Tag Team Championship.
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Around that time, Leo Burke spent more of his time competing in Central and Eastern Canada.
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Leo Burke wrestled for Maple Leaf Wrestling in Toronto, Ontario, where he feuded with Johnny Weaver.
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Leo Burke was credited with an additional reign as United States Heavyweight Champion because he regained the title in a rematch after it was vacated due to a controversial match against The Spoiler.
31.
In February 1986, Leo Burke had one final title reign in Stampede Wrestling, holding the International Tag Team Championship with Ron Ritchie.
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Leo Burke held the International Heavyweight Championship three more times from 1986 to 1989, and held the North American Tag Team Championship three times as well during that period.
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Leo Burke won the tag team title by reuniting with former partners Hubert Gallant and Stephen Petitpas; the third reign came with Cuban Assassin, a former enemy of the entire Cormier wrestling family.
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Leo Burke quickly won the promotion's top title, the WWC Universal Heavyweight Championship, by defeating Caribbean wrestling veteran Carlos Colon on December 17,1989.
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Leo Burke held the WWC title until February 1990, when he dropped it to TNT.
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Back in Puerto Rico, Leo Burke defeated Colon again on March 24,1990, this time to win the WWC Television Championship.
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Leo Burke trained two former Canadian Football League players for their careers in professional wrestling: former Edmonton Eskimo Jeff Thomas, who later opened his own wrestling training school, and former Ottawa Rough Rider Glenn Kulka, who went on to compete for the WWF.
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Leo Burke was featured in a news video by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation during a return to the Maritimes for a match in 1998.
39.
In 2010, Leo Burke refereed a match at the final wrestling card ever promoted at the Berwick Arena in Nova Scotia.