Team Canada was a

professional wrestling Professional wrestling, often shortened to either pro wrestling or wrestling,The term "wrestling" is most often widely used to specifically refer to modern scripted professional wrestling, though it is also used to refer to Real life, real- ...

stable A stable is a building in which working animals are kept, especially horses or oxen. The building is usually divided into stalls, and may include storage for equipment and feed. Styles There are many different types of stables in use tod ...

, active in

World Championship Wrestling World Championship Wrestling (WCW) was an American professional wrestling promotion founded by Ted Turner in 1988, after Turner Broadcasting System, through a subsidiary named Universal Wrestling Corporation, purchased the assets of National W ...

(WCW) in 2000 and 2001. The team was composed of

Canadian Canadians () are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being ''C ...

and American wrestlers who portrayed characters who believed that Canada was superior to the United States of America.

History

Team Canada came into existence in

Vancouver, British Columbia Vancouver is a major city in Western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the cit ...

, Canada, at New Blood Rising on August 13, 2000, where the Canadian

Lance Storm Lance Timothy Evers (; born April 3, 1969), known professionally by his ring name Lance Storm, is a Canadians, Canadian retired professional wrestler. He is signed to Total Nonstop Action Wrestling, where he works as a producer. He is best known ...

was defending the

WCW United States Heavyweight Championship The WWE United States Championship is a men's professional wrestling Professional wrestling championship#Location-specific championships, championship promoted by the United States, American professional wrestling promotion, promotion WWE, defend ...

in a match with

Mike Awesome Michael Lee Alfonso (January 24, 1965 – February 17, 2007) was an American Professional wrestling, professional wrestler. He was best known for his appearances with the American professional wrestling promotions Extreme Championship Wrestling ...

. The match was refereed by the Canadian

Jacques Rougeau Jacques Rougeau Jr. (born June 13, 1960) is a Canadian former professional wrestler best known for his appearances in the 1980s and 1990s with the World Wrestling Federation. He began his career under his real name as half of the tag team The ...

, who enabled Storm to defeat Awesome and retain his title by constantly changing the rules. Following the match, the semi-retired Canadian wrestler

Bret Hart Bret Sergeant Hart (born July 2, 1957) is a Canadian retired professional wrestler. A member of the Hart wrestling family and a second-generation wrestler, he has an amateur wrestling background at Ernest Manning High School and Mount Royal U ...

came to the ring and hugged Storm and Rougeau. On the August 14, 2000 episode of ''

WCW Monday Nitro ''WCW Monday Nitro'', also known as ''WCW Nitro'' or simply ''Nitro'', is an American professional wrestling television program that was produced by World Championship Wrestling (WCW) and broadcast weekly every Monday night on TNT (American TV ...

'' in

Kelowna, British Columbia Kelowna ( ) is a city on Okanagan Lake in the Okanagan Valley in the southern interior of British Columbia, Canada. It serves as the head office of the Regional District of Central Okanagan. The name Kelowna derives from the Okanagan word ', ...

, Canada, Storm was forced to face Awesome in another title defense. He managed to defeat Awesome following interference from Rougeau,

Carl Ouellet Carl Ouellet (born December 30, 1967) is a Canadian professional wrestler better known by his ring name PCO. He is known for his appearances with the World Wrestling Federation (as Pierre and Jean-Pierre LaFitte) and with World Championship Wre ...

(also a Canadian) and

Elix Skipper Elix Skipper (born December 15, 1967) is an American retired professional wrestler. He is best known for his appearances with World Championship Wrestling, where he was a one-time WCW Cruiserweight Champion and a one-time WCW Cruiserweight Tag ...

(who was billed as being a former

Canadian Football League The Canadian Football League (CFL; , LCF) is a Professional gridiron football, professional Canadian football league in Canada. It comprises nine teams divided into two divisions, with four teams in the East Division (CFL), East Division and f ...

player). Following the match, Storm announced that the four were to be collectively known as Team Canada. At the time, Storm held three

championships In sport, a championship is a competition in which the aim is to decide which individual or team is the champion. Championship systems Various forms of competition can be referred to by the term championship. Title match system In this sys ...

- the WCW United States Heavyweight Championship, the

WCW Cruiserweight Championship World Championship Wrestling (WCW) was an American professional wrestling promotion founded by Ted Turner in 1988, after Turner Broadcasting System, through a subsidiary named Universal Wrestling Corporation, purchased the assets of National W ...

and the

WCW Hardcore Championship The World Championship Wrestling (WCW) Hardcore Championship was a title in World Championship Wrestling (WCW). The title was defended in Hardcore matches, in which there were few rules and restrictions and weapons were allowed. Eventually, the ...

. Storm had renamed the championships the "Canadian Heavyweight Championship", "100 Kilos and Under Championship", and "Saskatchewan Hardcore International Title", respectively, placing large stickers featuring the

Canadian flag The National Flag of Canada (), popularly referred to as The Maple Leaf or l'Unifolié (), consists of a red field with a white square at its centre in the ratio of , in which is featured one stylized, red, 11-pointed maple leaf charged in ...

on each title belt. Storm then gave the 100 Kilos and Under Championship to Skipper and the Saskatchewan Hardcore International Title to Oulette to reward them for assisting him in his match with

earlier that evening. Oulette lost his title to

Norman Smiley Norman Anthony Smiley (born 28 February 1965) is an English-American retired professional wrestler who is signed to WWE in a Legends deal and as a trainer for NXT. He is best known for his appearances with the Mexican promotion Consejo Mund ...

later that night, while Skipper retained his title until October 2, 2000, when he lost to Mike Sanders. Storm continued to defend the Canadian Heavyweight Championship himself. Rougeau and Oulette left WCW soon thereafter, reducing the stable to Storm and Skipper. Team Canada quickly began a

feud A feud , also known in more extreme cases as a blood feud, vendetta, faida, clan war, gang war, private war, or mob war, is a long-running argument or fight, often between social groups of people, especially family, families or clans. Feuds begin ...

with the

face The face is the front of the head that features the eyes, nose and mouth, and through which animals express many of their emotions. The face is crucial for human identity, and damage such as scarring or developmental deformities may affect th ...

Misfits In Action stable, with Storm and

General Hugh G. Rection William Charles DeMott II (born November 10, 1966) is an American retired professional wrestler, road agent, and trainer. He is best known for his appearances with World Championship Wrestling (WCW) as Hugh Morrus and World Wrestling Federatio ...

, the leader of the Misfits, trading the Canadian Heavyweight Championship (which Rection renamed the "WCW United States Heavyweight Championship" as soon as he won it). Storm was assisted in a title defence on September 17, 2000 at Fall Brawl 2000 when the guest referee of a title match between Storm and Rection, the patriotic American

Jim Duggan James Edward Duggan Jr. (born January 14, 1954), better known by his ring name "Hacksaw" Jim Duggan, is an American semi-retired professional wrestler. He is best-known for his time in World Wrestling Federation (now WWE), where he won the first ...

, turned heel by helping Storm defeat Rection, thus joining Team Canada. Rection eventually won the title on October 29, 2000 by defeating Storm and Duggan in a handicap match. Storm, however, would win the title for a third time on November 13, 2000 when the American Major Gunns defected from the Misfits and joined Team Canada by throwing a towel in on behalf of Rection, costing him a title defence against Storm. Team Canada feuded with The Filthy Animals throughout late 2000. On January 3, 2001, the American Mike Awesome joined Team Canada (Awesome was part of the original Team Canada stable in

FMW Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling-Explosion (FMW-E) is a Japanese professional wrestling promotion founded on July 28, 1989, by Atsushi Onita as (FMW). The promotion specializes in hardcore wrestling involving weapons such as barbed wire and fi ...

), in the process evicting Duggan from the stable. After Skipper and Gunns also left the stable, Storm and Awesome began challenging for the

WCW World Tag Team Championship The WCW World Tag Team Championship, originally known as the NWA World Tag Team Championship ''(Mid-Atlantic version)'', was a professional wrestling world tag team championship in World Championship Wrestling (WCW) and later the World Wrestling ...

. On the final episode of ''WCW Monday Nitro'' on March 26, 2001,

Chuck Palumbo Charles Ronald Palumbo (born June 15, 1971) is an American retired professional wrestler. He is best known for his appearances with professional wrestling promotions World Championship Wrestling and the World Wrestling Federation/Entertainment ...

and

Sean O'Haire Sean Christopher Haire (February 25, 1971 – September 8, 2014) was an American professional wrestler, mixed martial artist and kickboxer, better known by his ring name Sean O'Haire. Haire was best known for his appearances with the profess ...

defeated Storm and Awesome to retain the WCW World Tag Team Championship. The stable disbanded immediately thereafter as WCW was purchased by the

World Wrestling Federation World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) is an American professional wrestling promotion. It is owned and operated by TKO Group Holdings, a majority-owned subsidiary of Endeavor Group Holdings. A global integrated media and entertainment company, ...

(although Storm and Awesome continued to team upon joining the WWF).

Members

Championships

(

2 times "2 Times" is the debut single of English singer Ann Lee. It was released in Italy in December 1998 by X-Energy as the lead single from her debut album, ''Dreams'' (1999), and was issued worldwide the following year. The single peaked at number tw ...

) – Lance Storm (1 time), Carl Oulette (1 time) :*

( 3 times) – Lance Storm :*

(

) – Lance Storm (1 time), Elix Skipper (1 time)

Notes

1 For one night, on August 13, 2000, at New Blood Rising.

References

External links