Adam Copeland got one more chance to chase a dream on Saturday night as Maple Leaf Pro Wrestling (MLP) held Northern Rising at the venue known as Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto.
Copeland had been open about his desire to perform at the facility. He previously spoke to OutKick Dropkick about it, noting that he watched his first pro wrestling match there when he was a kid. He didn’t get a chance to compete there when he was in WWE because the company had moved shows to a bigger arena as it grew in popularity.
CLICK HERE FOR MORE OUTKICK PRO WRESTLING COVERAGE
But Maple Leaf Wrestling and All Elite Wrestling (AEW) opened the door for Copeland to step foot inside an MLP ring. His opponent? Oh, just one of the hottest pro wrestling free agents on the market in Steve Maclin. The U.S. Marine-turned-wrestler had been champing at the bit to get to Copeland, even appearing on AEW “Dynamite” to blindside his opponent in the weeks leading up to Northern Rising.
There was nowhere to run Saturday night.
Any normal 52-year-old man or woman probably shouldn’t be doing the things Copeland did in his street fight against Maclin in the main event of Northern Rising. Copeland going above and beyond to put on a show for those in Toronto underscored his legendary status in pro wrestling.
Copeland suplexed Maclin from the ring apron in between a ladder that was propped upside down near the ropes. He also hit a big splash from the top turnbuckle onto Maclin, who was sent crashing through a table that was set up outside of the ring. Maclin doled out his fair share of punishment, too – suplexing Copeland onto a ladder.
There were plenty of “Oh s—!” moments during the match. Maclin’s wife, Ring of Honor pure women’s champion Deonna Purrazzo, interfered and sprayed Copeland and the referee in the face. Fellow pro wrestling legend Rhino evened the odds. He speared Maclin and Purrazzo, helping the fight reset.
Copeland would get back the upper hand. He stepped outside of the ring, onto the ramp and walked all the way up it before turning back around, sprinting down the aisle and spearing Maclin through the ropes. He hit one more spear before covering Maclin for the win.
The Canadian superstar gave Maclin his flowers after the match as he addressed the crowd and spoke about how special it was to compete at Maple Leaf Gardens.
THE CRAIG CARTON SHOW–UNFILTERED, UNAPOLOGETIC AND UNMISSABLE. DOWNLOAD HIS DAILY PODCAST NOW!
Josh Alexander and Stu Grayson battled for the Undisputed MLP Canadian Championship ahead of Copeland’s match with Maclin. It was one of the matches of the night.
Grayson came into the bout as the interim champion while Alexander considered himself to be the champion after never losing the title. He had only been out of MLP action because of a knee injury. When he returned, Alexander set his sights on Grayson.
The feud needed to come to an end. Alexander would do his best to avoid any major moves from Grayson early. When Grayson went to the top rope, Alexander pushed him off and caused his opponent to crash onto several security members.
In a high-stakes match, high-risk moves became common. Grayson was trying to get back his momentum and superplexed Alexander before nailing him with a knee to the face. Grayson couldn’t get the pin and it would be the theme for the rest of the match.
Alexander would get help from Don Callis in the latter moments of the match. Callis jumped onto the apron with a screwdriver, but the referee appeared to thwart an attempt to hand the screwdriver to Alexander. Still, somehow, Alexander got his hand on the weapon and used it against Grayson without the referee seeing it.
He then hit two C4 piledrivers and pinned Grayson for the win.
The Northern Rising card featured two more singles titles on the line. Priscilla Kelly defending her MLP Canadian Women’s Championship against Nikki Storm and Andrade El Idolo defending the AEW National Championship against Rohan Raja.
Kelly appeared to have no interest in letting Storm take over the match. She seemed to be in control from the get-go. She nailed a dropkick on Storm as Storm was on the mat and leaning on the bottom rope. Kelly then went to work with her own myriad of kicks to Storm that turned into a stomp on her back.
Storm had no answers for Kelly, who retained the title. Kelly has held the title for over 55 days as she won the belt in September on Maple Leaf Pro Wrestling “Mayhem” over Gisele Shaw.
Meanwhile, Andrade was looking to settle the score against Raja, who has taken out several Luchadores on “Mayhem” over the last few weeks. Andrade is considered to be one of the best pro wrestlers in the sport, but Raja gave him all he could handle.
Andrade’s prowess in the ring took over Raja’s innate abilities. Andrade, at one point, powerslammed Raja from the ring apron down to the floor. Raja put up a good fight, but it was Andrade who was still the national champion before the night was finished.
Andrade shook Raja’s hand after the match, signaling that Raja was someone to watch.
1st Faction was going to have a tough test at Northern Rising. Brent Banks and Sheldon Jean put the MLP Canadian Tag Team Championship on the line against Grizzled Young Veterans and Sinner & Saints.
James Drake and Zack Gibson, of Grizzled Young Veterans, made clear in pre-match promos they were going to come into the Northern Rising match and conquer. And they did exactly that. Drake and Gibson were off to a hot start taking out Judas Icarus and Travis Williams from the jump.
But just as it looked like Sinner & Saint was going to win the titles over 1st Faction, Bryce Hansen got to the referee before the pin could be counted. The small interference caused a distraction that had a ripple effect in the match.
Grizzled Young Veterans took over and did not look back. They become the third tag team champions since Maple Leaf Pro Wrestling returned to the forefront of the sport. 1st Faction’s reign ends at about 191 days.
