Our Story: Canadian Bulldog’s World
How a basement of memorabilia became an online destination for wrestling nostalgia.
During the Monday Night War, wrestling insiders spent every Tuesday salivating over the previous night’s ratings. The war is over, but wrestling fans still look forward to every Tuesday for a new tradition: Top 50 lists from Canadian Bulldog’s World. Whether its NXT graduates, Hulk Hogan’s rivalries, dream matches that actually happened or any other topic imaginable, fun debates are guaranteed to fill the wrestling discourse on social media.
The key word being fun – the writer/web master known as Canadian Bulldog has dedicated the past four years building an oasis from the daily bitchfest that has occupied the Internet Wrestling Community. “So much wrestling reporting is not only copy and paste, but it’s also negative,” Canadian Bulldog (C.B.) says. “Anybody can find something negative about the current product – it’s easy. I go back to my childhood and think wrestling should be fun. That was our mission statement when we started this.”
Inspired by Dinosaur Dracula, Canadian Bulldog’s World explores wrestling nostalgia, revisiting classic characters, matches, storylines and products, remembering why fans fell in love with the genre. From Top 50 Lists to fantasy booking to an annual tournament featuring Hasbro wrestling figures, the site provides a plethora of unique content for fans of yesteryear as well current students of the game.
“It’s honestly just a passion project for me,” C.B. says. “I have a basement full of wrestling memorabilia. What could I write about this book or action figure? It’s incredible how quickly things have come together in just four years.”
In 2002, C.B. was going through a divorce and needed something to keep himself occupied. As a lifelong wrestling fan who discovered the spectacle just one week after the inaugural WrestleMania, he decided to adopt a pen name and write on different message boards, eventually submitting a humor column to Online Onslaught. World Wrestling Insanity picked him up from the late 2000s until 2013, when he decided to start his own website.
“Bulldog has been my nickname for a long time – the British Bulldogs were one of my favorite tag teams,” C.B. says. “It’s funny, Harry Smith had the Canadian Bulldog name briefly in WWE, so I wrote this petition and article that he had to change his name and all that. Well, at a Raw taping in Toronto strangely enough, he got injured and that ended his name.”
In his professional life, Canadian Bulldog was a business reporter until 2012, and nowadays, works in public relations. Although he had a little knowledge in building a website due to his background, it was mostly trial and error. He bought a Wix.com subscription to get started, constructing a visually-mesmerizing web page of vintage wrestling photos. Today it’s filled with wrestling logos, photos and video greetings from familiar faces like “Mean” Gene Okerlund, Tatanka, Vince Russo and Olive Garden’s favorite customer, Virgil.
“I was doing a shoot interview DVD with him that someone else was producing,” C.B. says. “It never went public, but I got to spend the day with him. He’s an incredible guy. I asked if he would do a short video for the site, and he said absolutely. It holds a special place in my heart because it was so genuine.”
Canadian Bulldog’s World isn’t a one-man operation, though. There are three other writers who contribute on a weekly basis: current events columnist Zah who met C.B. at World Wrestling Insanity (“I think the world of him as a writer. He’s a draw every week, having built up a real following with his readers.”); historian Mike Rickard who published the book Wrestling’s Greatest Moments; and video game columnist Adam Zimmerman. “He has a ridiculous amount of dedication to finding old cartridges, and a lot of people come to the site for that. I’m lucky to have someone so knowledgeable.”
Despite the quality content and estimated 70% of visitors that consistently return, C.B. doesn’t see a lucrative future with the site. “You’d need a full-time commitment and somebody who has that business sense to pull a proper business plan together. If it ever gets to a point where it takes too much time and interferes with family life, I’d have to slow it down.”
Right now, though, he has no plans of slowing down. The team has recently created the ULTIMATE Wrestling Wall Unit, had their poem Twas The Nitro Before Christmas included in Post Wrestling’s first podcast and received record views from their Five Reasons Why Wrestling Figures Have NEVER Been Cooler. Plus, C.B. even spent an evening with Ricky “The Dragon” Steamboat.
“Canadian Bulldog’s World is my creative outlet. It’s so different from everything else I do, it’s just a lot more fun,” C.B. says.
“If you want to be different, it’s going to take time and effort, and probably a lot of trial and error. Sometimes you think just because you’ve written something and tweeted about it, people are going to drop what they’re doing and read it. If you market things properly and its good wholesome content, that helps. Do what you love, do it smart and don’t expect the world. If you do get great feedback, now you know what works.”
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