Credit: Dave Meltzer

 

[12/29/03]

 

Mike Lozansky, who wrestled all over the world over the past 14 years and was instrumental in the early career of Chris Jericho, pass way after going to sleep on 12/18 at his Calgary home at the age of 35. His younger brother Chris, who also wrestles on occasion, speculated his death was caused from either fluid in the lungs or heart problems.

 

Lozansky was a heavy partier, known by wrestlers as "brother," [and Chris, who was much bigger at 6-4 and a high school football and college football player before getting into wrestling, became known as "brother's brother"],since he always used the word. Lozansky was said by friends to be a real-life but more muscular version of the Jeff Spicoli burnout surfer character from the movie "Fast Times at Ridgemont High."

 

Lozansky wrestled under the names Tigre Canadiense in Mexico, where he had his most success. He also used his real name, and the name "Tiger" Mike Anthony [not to be confused with a contemporary Chicago independent wrestler who used the same name]. He was your classic journeyman wrestler. He worked all over Canada, from Vancouver to the Maritimes, in many U.S. territories, most notably Memphis and briefly with both ECW and WCW, throughout Mexico, New Zealand, Germany for Otto Wanz, spent a lot of his career for the WWC in Puerto Rico, and worked for several different promotions in Japan including All Japan, W*ING, IWA Japan and Tokyo Pro Wrestling and nearly everyone except WWE.

 

Although not well known in the U.S., he actually had quite the life and career. His father, Walter Lozansky, was an affluent executive for an oil company and money was just not that important in Mike's life since his family supported him through his career, Even though Lozansky did nothing to deserve it, it got him heat with many in Canadian indie wrestling scene because most came from poorer backgrounds, and resented that he was able to get so much experience working in different parts of the world because he could afford to leave and not have to worry about surviving on tiny payoffs. As a kid, he lived to watch the 80s version of Stampede Wrestling television.

 

"His life was wrestling," said brother Chris to Sun Media in Canada. "All he wanted was to stay in wrestling."

 

He trained briefly at the Hart Dungeon, and some with Badnews Allen, who became a good friend of his who opened doors for him internationally. Most of his training came spending ten months in San Bernardino under Jesse Hernandez and Bobby Bradley Jr. and Sr. His earliest matches may have come in California in 1989. His first regular work came in Winnipeg for Tony Condello, and he worked maybe one or two shots in the dying days of Stampede in 1989. Most of his early Calgary career came after Stampede folded with CNWA, Fred May's group which took over Stampede's time slots and had Ed Whalen as TV announcer at the Silver Dollar Center. His most famous match at the time, and his first main event in Calgary, was on March 30, 1990, against Kensuke Sasaki, who used the name Benkei Sasaki. Sasaki beat the hell out of him and knocked him out in the corner. It was so bad that Phil Lafon [who was later known as Dan Kroffat], threatened to do something to Sasaki back in Japan for what he had done.

 

"Mike was like family to me, like a son," said Badnews Allen to Slamwrestling. "He was a good person, and would do anything for anybody. It's too bad he left this world at such an early age. I met Mike about 17 years ago. He used to tell everyone I was like his second dad, because wherever I went, I would take him there."

 

He met up early in his career with Diamond Timothy Flowers, and even though Flowers thought Lozansky's style was too Lucha oriented [surprisingly, Lozansky in Mexico was thought not to be a high flyer, which hurt him], he world with him regularly. Plus, both liked to party.

 

At about that time, he hooked up with Jericho, then a rookie wrestling in Winnipeg, Bret Como [his favorite opponent at the time] and Luther "Dr. Luther St.Clair. Because he was financially well off and they were starving wrestlers making no money, he used to travel with them, and paid for everything. One time that year, Lozansky, Jericho and Como drove from Calgary to Wichita, KS, where Bert Prentice was opening up an indie promotion. When they got there, Prentice, who had told him before the trip he'd take three guys, said he'd only take two of them, Lozansky and Jericho. The three got back in their car and drove back to Canada, which Jericho said taught him about having to stick together.

 

"He knew everybody," recalled Jericho, who noted the sad irony that Lozansky was just about the closest person to him in his early years of wrestling, but hadn't talked with him in several years. "He always took care of his friends. He taught me a lot about how to survive on the road."

 

His relationship with Badnews opened the door to probably the most successful run of his career, with the UWA promotion headed by Carlos Maynes in Mexico. He went down to Mexico with Badnews, and started under a mask as Tigre Canadiense, since Vampiro Canadiense had somehow become one of the country's biggest celebrities at the time. His main program was with Villano III, culminating with Lozansky losing a mask vs. mask match to him in 1991 at El Toreo de Cuatro Caminos in Naucalpan during the tail end of that company's heyday. He then moved to Carlos Elizondo's promotion in Monterrey, where he got Jericho a spot as Corazon de Leon [Lion Heart], and the two frequently tagged. Jericho moved on to EMLL, while Lozansky worked for just about everyone but EMLL in Mexico, including a brief time on top with AAA, going for the last time this year. He never learned Spanish well, which hindered him in the long run.

 

Jericho recalled, regarding Lozansky and money, that when they would get stiffed in Meixco on payoffs, Jericho would fight to get the money while Lozansky didn't seem to care that much. One time, he rented a VCR in Mexico for his apartment, and then went to Japan for several months before coming back, not even concerned about the late fees for not returning it.

 

Lozansky had bleached blonde, curly hair, and was considered something of a chick magnet back in those days. He was small for a wrestler, at maybe 5-8 [some have said he was as small as 5-5] and 205 pounds. He was muscular, having gotten on the juice at a young age, and his Jeff Spicolli nickname told the tale of his constant partying. He would ahve done well as an underneath babyface in the 80s in a lot of the smaller territories, but by the time he came along, most of them were dead. In Calgary, some compared his death to that of Brian Pillman, who died at the same age, where a lot of people were saddened, but not really stunned.

 

"It's the same story, steroids, recreational drugs and pain killers," said Bruce Hart. "You see the signs. They tell you they're not on them. He wasn't a bad kid and was a good little performer."

 

Hart looked back on the last major show he promoted, the December 15, 1995 tribute to father Stu turning 80 at Calgary Corral. Lozansky, working the opener as Mike Anthony, was the sixth wrestler of the 22 who worked that show [after Rhonda Singh, Davey Boy Smith, Pillman, Rad "Louie Spicolli" Radford and Owen Hart] who have since passed away.

 

Lozansky got in WCW briefly, mainly just doing TV jobs, from talking his way in after bumping in Eric Bischoff at a urinal at Salt Lake City. He later, through Rob Van Dam, who he knew from his connection with Bradley Jr. [Bradley Jr. and Van Dam were good friends and tag team partners early in Van Dam's career], got in ECW. He was only there briefly in late 1998, with his highest profile match coming against Van Dam as ECW TV champion. He blew out his knee in the first spot of the match, but continued to do the match. He would have flown himself in Philadelphia to work there, but he was also in a bad auto accident at the time which messed up his face, and he wasn't able to wrestle again for months, and never came back. The accident and his lifestyle were said to have aged him. He had suffered a broken rib in a match in Acapulco earlier this year, which led to his lungs being filled with fluid. He had a tube put in and tkane out. Some speculated this could have played a part in his sudden death. Lozansky had two young childen, a boy and a girl.

 

His final match in Calgary looks to have on 1/18, working for Rick Bogner [Big Titan] and Badnews' Hybrid Wrestling company, teaming with his brother as Mike and Chris Anthony. By this point, his life's dream of being a pro wrestler star had dimmed. He was suffered from a neck injury and hadn't wrestled most of the past year, but was planning on coming back. He had visited Dobie Gillis in Vancouver earlier this month, a long-time tag team partner in Canada and Mexico, and the two talked of going back to Monterrey in 2004.

 

His biggest run with a championship came in Puerto Rico. He defeated Jimmy Backlund [who later worked in SMW and WWF as Jimmy Del Ray of the Heavenly Bodies] to win what was billed as the WWC jr. heavyweight title on April 29, 1993, on an independent show in Tampa. He came to Puerto Rico as champion several times, through 1997, holding the title. He also held the USWA tag titles, under the name Mike Anthony, twice in late 1993, once with Moondog Spot and the other time with Jeff Gaylord.

 

[1/05/05]

 

Some notes on the Mike Lozansky article from last week. As Tigre Canadiense, he lost his mask to Villano IV, not III at El Toreo. He also did briefly work for EMLL, although most of his wrestling in Mexico was for UWA, in Monterrey for Carlos Elizondo, and a little for AAA.