Don Jardine
Don Jardine (24 March 1940 – 16 December 2006) was a Canadian professional wrestler best known for his masked gimmick as "The Spoiler". While a major star in various wrestling promotions, Jardine saw his greatest successes in the National Wrestling Alliance affiliated territories of Championship Wrestling from Florida, Georgia Championship Wrestling and Big Time Wrestling, which would eventually become known as World Class Championship Wrestling, from the early 1960s through the mid 1980s.
Professional wrestling career
Jardine began wrestling in the mid-1950s, making his debut in 1955 at the age of 15. He made his Maple Leaf Gardens debut in 1959 as "Babyface" Don Jardine, a protégé of Whipper Billy Watson and wrestled preliminarily in Toronto (where he also wrestled as Sonny Cooper) until 1961 and returned briefly in 1964. In 1964, Jardine wrestled NWA World Heavyweight Champion Lou Thesz on TV in St. Louis, but did not win the title.
Jardine also wrestled as The Butcher in Los Angeles in 1964. Whilst wrestling under "The Butcher" moniker, he teamed with both Mad Dog Vachon and Dutch Savage for a short time. He challenged Gene Kiniski for the NWA World Heavyweight Championship in 1966. He became one of the top masked wrestlers in the Southern United States, particularly in Texas, where The Spoiler was created by Fritz Von Erich in 1967. He famously walked the top rope, a move he would teach to Mark Calaway (the future The Undertaker) in the mid-1980s while competing in the World Class Championship Wrestling.
