Canadian pro wrestlers celebrate homecoming as All Elite Wrestling descends on Toronto

Ethan Page "vividly" remembers the time the CBC attended his local wrestling show in Hamilton in 2012.

"It was the first time anyone ever gave me any local exposure, and my wrestling promotion any local exposure. So it was like a big victory for me," he said.

Page's shows for Alpha-1 Wrestling in the Germania Club regularly drew about 250 fans.

This week, more than 10 years later, Page (real name Julian Micevski) is gearing up for a special kind of homecoming — in front of a much bigger audience.

He'll be part of a duo of wrestling shows for All Elite Wrestling — Dynamite on Wednesday, Rampage on Thursday — in Toronto's Coca-Cola Coliseum, in front of thousands of fans live, and many more on television.

Page is part of a cadre of new generation wrestlers who grew up idolizing stars like Bret Hart and Iron Mike Sharpe. As he and others have never wrestled regularly for World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), these AEW shows are arguably their first big spotlight on Canadian soil.

"It's a dream come true. But this was always the goal," he said.

"It's cool that I get to come back to Canada and kind of show everybody like, 'Hey, I said I was going to do something, and I kind of pulled it off.' "

All Elite Wrestling was founded in 2019. Owned by Shahid Khan and his son, Tony Khan — the billionaire owners of the NFL's Jacksonville Jaguars — it's gained momentum as the first major North American competitor to WWE in 20 years.

Its roster includes several longtime and recent former WWE performers — including Winnipegger Chris Jericho, who's set to headline Dynamite against Bryan Danielson.

Conspicuous in his absence is fellow Winnipegger Kenny Omega, who is also one of the company's co-founders and executive vice-presidents. He and