BCW celebrates 30 years of Windsor wrestling

By Jackson Gallant

Last weekend saw Windsor-based wrestling promotion Border City Wrestling (BCW) commemorate their 30th anniversary. 

The event kicked off a new era of BCW, as an all-new set of champions were crowned at the show. IMPACT Wrestling star Jake Something captured the BCW Heavyweight Title, and the team of Aiden Prince and El Reverso picked up the BCW Tag-Team Titles. Fans also got to see special appearances from stars of the past like The Mountie, D’Lo Brown and Kurt Angle.  

The idea of BCW, originally Border City Championship Wrestling, was created in late 1992 by founders Doug Chevalier, Chuck Fader and current Impact Wrestling president Scott D’Amore. The company evolved from running small shows out of Lasalle’s Centennial Arena, to bringing in stars like The Rock, Sabu and Tommy Dreamer and touring Ontario as they organically gained popularity.  

Nowadays, BCW serves as a platform for students of the CAN-AM Wrestling School here in Windsor to showcase their talents to a local audience. They also have a working relationship with IMPACT Wrestling, allowing for some of their stars to shine on a bigger platform.  

“So many amazing wrestlers that have trained locally in this small little town of Windsor and now they’re you know, being highlighted on this higher level coming from BCW to Impact, it’s an amazing thing to see,” said longtime BCW fan Christian Katerina.  

Many of today’s IMPACT Wrestling stars have come from or made appearances for BCW and as a result, Impact had a large presence at the 30th anniversary show. Impact Wrestling mainstays like Chris Sabin and Alex Shelley or as they are better known, the Motor City Machine Guns, Gisele Shaw and Josh Alexander all competed on the show and have a connection with BCW or the CAN-AM Wrestling School. 

Alexander, who competed in the main event against fellow impact star Moose and Japanese star Kaito Kiyomiya, is going to be the new head coach of the CAN-AM school starting in November.  

“The connection to IMPACT is pretty ingrained,” said Jamie Greer, author of the upcoming book, Killers, Butchers, Cry-Babys and Canadian Destroyers: The History of Pro Wrestling in Windsor, Ontario.  

“Scott D’Amore, who co-founded BCW in 1993 and still operates it today, has been working with IMPACT since it was called TNA (Total Nonstop Action) back in 2003. He did leave for a bit, but he’s back again and now he’s president of the company. Now a lot of the backstage personnel from BCW are working behind the scenes with IMPACT, so IMPACT has really become BCW on steroids in a lot of ways.”  

Factoring in their connection to IMPACT and the addition of head coach Josh Alexander to the CAN-AM Wrestling School, BCW looks to be in good hands going forward.