| Les Thornton | |
|---|---|
| Ring name(s) | Les Thornton Henri Pierlot Checkmate |
| Billed height | 5 ft 9 in (1.75 m) |
| Billed weight | 215 lb (98 kg) |
| Born | April 9, 1934 Manchester, England, United Kingdom |
| Resides | Calgary, Alberta, Canada |
| Debut | 1957 |
| Retired | 1990 |
Les Thornton (born April 9, 1934) 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. In the "Hogan Era" of the WWF, Thornton was used as a jobber.[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 mentioning 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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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.