SLAM! Wrestling Canadian Hall of Fame: Tiger 'Tweet Tweet' Tomasso
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Tiger 'Tweet Tweet' Tomasso |
REAL NAME: Joseph DiTommaso
BORN: In Montreal
DIED: April 30, 1988 at age 65
At a young age, Tomasso moved from Montreal to Hamilton and for a time ran
a bar. Hamilton is one of Canada's greatest wrestling towns, and it wasn't
long until the
ring bug nipped Tomasso.
In 1952 he went west to Calgary and became a star. A true scrappy Italian,
Tomasso was a master showman and a brilliant self-promoter. He got his nickname
'Tweet Tweet' for talking about his (imaginary) pet birds.
Tomasso retired in 1976 and did some promoting, sold real estate and used cars
until his death in 1988.
"He was an indestructible little bastard." -- Stu Hart.
Memories
Ah Tiger. Tweet Tweet. He was one of Ed Whalen's favorite boys. There was big Tor Kamata, 'No chance you, Mr. Whalen', and Joe Tomasso. They always had a little feud going with Ed. Ed had more fun with those two guys. Tweet Tomasso would get real upset with Ed. They always had a little running battle with each other. Joe was a kid that we broke in. He came out of Hamilton, Ontario. He wrestled with me here almost 'til he died. He had a sudden heart attack, and succumbed in bed.
Stu Har, from a Nov. 1997 interview with SLAM! Wrestling
Tiger Tomasso was my all-time favourite Stampede Wrestling villain. Though he
was an undercard guy--too small to be taken seriously in the ring with John
Quinn or Tor Kamata or Black Angus Campbell or Terry Funk (when he came to
town)--he was so great in between-match interviews that they always had him on.
He was the only wrestler I can think of who used a fake pirate accent. I watched
him during 1970-1972 in Calgary. Ed Whalen--who looked just like Charles Nelson
Reilly--was the TV announcer for the show (as well as a local sportscaster), and
he was very critical of Tomasso's tactics in the ring: After a match that Tiger
won by cheating, Whalen would always confront him with his misdeeds; and Tiger
would explain that "It was the birrrrds... the birrrrds told me to do it," or
"He insulted my birrrrds!" Whalen wouldn't buy it, and eventually he would tell
Tomasso that he was a dirty wrestler (more politely, though), and Tiger would do
this little thing where he rose up on his toes with his hands outstretched like
a strangler and go "arrrrr!" But Whalen would stand his ground and threaten
Tomasso with his microphone, and Tiger would shrink back. Soon they had a feud
going, which reached its peak when Whalen told Tomasso during an interview that
he had found the bird Tomasso was always talking about--and pulled out a rubber
chicken and shook it at him. Tiger was so enraged that he challenged Whalen to a
grudge match, so Whalen went into training. It's a good thing he did, too,
because when he stepped into the ring against Tomasso a month later (wearing his
horn-rimmed glassses and a ridiculous wrestling suit with sleeves) his body
still had basically the same proportions as that rubber chicken. Anyways, he
acquitted himself in the ring quite well, as did Tiger. Eventually, Tiger became
so popular in Calgary that he moved from being a villain to being a kind of
quasi-good guy. Stampede Wrestling was the best!
steven_gray
Tiger Tomasso was the main character that has kept me interested in wrestling all these years.
I Remember going to see him live when I was very young. He was in a tag match and every time he went
to jump into the middle of the fray the crowd would scream at the top of their lungs so he would pull his leg
back out from in between the ropes. When he tried again, the crowd would scream again. This went on and
on a few more times until he put his hand to his mouth and snickered and then pointed his finger out at the
crowd and around the whole arena and had everyone laughing. This to me is entertainment. Thank you Mr
Tomasso
D Kroeker
I will always remember attending a Stampede Wrestling card at the Victoria
Pavilion in Calgary in the early seventies. A person sitting about three
rows down from us had a large cardboard box on his lap during all the
preliminary matches, we could not figure out what was in this box or why he
had it. When "Tweet Tweet" Tomasso was introduced for the main event by
ring announcer Henry Viney, the person opened up the box and about two dozen
pigeons flew out. These pigeons were cooped up in this box for several
hours and they just caused mayhem, they were flying around the sold out
stands and dropping their "loads" all over everybody. I never laughed so
hard in my life when my buddy got a real wet one all over the back of his
head, this was when long hair was in style. I can't remember much else
about that night but I will never forget the night Tiger Tomasso brought out
his birds.
Thanks. John Hutchings
