- Les Thornton
Infobox Wrestler
name=Les Thornton
img_capt=
names=Les Thornton
Henri Pierlot
Checkmate
height= height|ft=5|in=9
weight= convert|215|lb|kg|abbr=on|lk=on
birth_date = 1935
birth_place =Manchester, England ,United Kingdom
death_place =
resides=Calgary, Alberta ,Canada
billed=
trainer=
debut=1957
retired=1990
website=|Les Thornton (born 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 theNational 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.cite book | author=Royal Duncan & Gary Will | title=Wrestling Title Histories | publisher=Archeus Communications | year=4th Edition 2006 | id=ISBN 0-9698161-5-4 ] .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)."
Championships and accomplishments
*
Championship Wrestling from Florida :*NWA Florida Junior Heavyweight Championship (1 time)*
Georgia Championship Wrestling :*NWA Georgia Tag Team Championship (1 time) - with Tony Charles*Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling:*
NWA World Junior Heavyweight Championship (1 time)*
National Wrestling Alliance :*NWA World Junior Heavyweight Championship (1 time)1*NWA Big Time Wrestling:*NWA Texas Tag Team Championship (1 time) - with Tony Charles
*NWA Hollywood Wrestling:*
NWA Americas Heavyweight Championship (1 time)*NWA Mid-America:*
NWA World Junior Heavyweight Championship (1 time)*NWA New Zealand:*NWA British Empire Commonwealth Heavyweight Championship "(New Zealand version)" (1 time)
*
Pacific Northwest Wrestling :*NWA Pacific Northwest Tag Team Championship (1 time) - withMoondog Mayne *Southeastern Championship Wrestling:*
NWA World Junior Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
*Stampede Wrestling :*Stampede British Commonwealth Mid-Heavyweight Championship (1 time):*Stampede North American Heavyweight Championship (2 times) :*Stampede Wrestling Hall of Fame [ cite web |url=http://www.wrestling-titles.com/canada/ab/hof.html |title=Stampede Wrestling Hall of Fame (1948-1990) |accessdate= |author= |authorlink= |coauthors= |date= |year=2003 |month= |format= |work= |publisher=Puroresu Dojo |pages= |language= |archiveurl= |archivedate= |quote= ]*
World Wrestling Council :*WWC World Junior Heavyweight Championship (1 time)*
Pro Wrestling Illustrated :*PWI ranked him # 320 of the 500 best singles wrestlers of the PWI Years in 2003*Other titles :*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.
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-XReferences
External links
* [http://slam.canoe.ca/Slam/Wrestling/2005/02/20/936998.html SLAM! Wrestling - Les Thornton: A life on the road] by Greg Oliver
* [http://slam.canoe.ca/Slam/Wrestling/2005/02/07/923325.html SLAM! Wrestling: Les Thornton - What you DIDN'T know!] byTerry Taylor
* [http://www.geocities.com/percivalafriend/friend120803.htm The Way It Was - Les Thornton] by Percival A. Friend
* [http://www.cwfarchives.com/Wrestler.php?id=371 Championship Wrestling from Florida: Les Thornton]
* [http://www.onlineworldofwrestling.com/profiles/l/les-thornton.html Profile at OWW]
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