Les Thornton
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| Les Thornton | |
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| Statistics | |
| Ring name(s) | Les Thornton Henri Pierlot Checkmate |
| Billed height | 5 ft 9 in (1.75 m) |
| Billed weight | 215 lb (98 kg) |
| Born | 1935 Manchester, England, United Kingdom |
| Resides | Calgary, Alberta, Canada |
| Debut | 1957 |
| Retired | 1990 |
Les Thornton (b. 1935) is a retired British professional wrestler who competed in European and North American regional promotions throughout the 1970s and 1980s including Stampede Wrestling, the World Wrestling Federation and the National Wrestling Alliance. During his career, he was considered one of the best junior heavyweights in the world at one time simultaneously holding both the WWF and NWA World Junior Heavyweight titles, and would later hold NWA title five times[1].
Thornton is slated to appear in a documentary about the life of fellow Briton Chris Adams in The Gentleman's Choice, where he is famous for metioning that some of his friends who left England to compete in the United States came home in a box (Adams and Davey Boy Smith), in a wheelchair (Tom Billington, aka The Dynamite Kid) or as drug addicts (all three aforementioned wrestlers).
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[edit] Championships and accomplishments
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- NWA Georgia Tag Team Championship (1 time) - with Tony Charles
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- NWA Texas Tag Team Championship (1 time) - with Tony Charles
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- NWA British Empire Commonwealth Heavyweight Championship (New Zealand version) (1 time)
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- PWI ranked him # 320 of the 500 best singles wrestlers of the PWI Years in 2003
- Other titles
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- MASW National Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
1Records are unclear as to where Thorton was when he received the title for the first time nor is it known as to which NWA affiliated promotion he was wrestling for at the time.
[edit] Further reading
- Foley, Mick. Have A Nice Day: A Tale of Blood and Sweatsocks. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 1999. ISBN 0-06-103101-1
- Funk, Terry and Scott E. Williams. Terry Funk: The Hardcore Legend. Champaigne, Illinois: Sports Publishing LLC, 2005. ISBN 1-58261-991-3
- Johnson, Weldon T. and Jim Wilson. Chokehold: Pro Wrestling's Real Mayhem Outside the Ring. Philadelphia: Xlibris Corporation, 2003. ISBN 1-4010-7217-8
- McCoy, Heath. Pain and Passion: The History of Stampede Wrestling. Toronto: CanWest Books, 2005. ISBN 0-9736719-8-X
[edit] References
- ^ Royal Duncan & Gary Will (4th Edition 2006). Wrestling Title Histories. Archeus Communications. ISBN 0-9698161-5-4.
- ^ Stampede Wrestling Hall of Fame (1948-1990). Puroresu Dojo (2003).
