John Tolos
Hrstich left the area shortly afterwards to wrestle for Canadian promoter Frank Tunney's Toronto-based promotion Maple Leaf Wrestling and began appearing on events at its home arena, Maple Leaf Gardens, by the end of the month. In his first major appearance, on 24 May, Hrstich and Jim Hady wrestled The Tolos Brothers (Chris and John Tolos) to a 30-minute time limit draw. He also wrestled Steve Stanlee, Stan Stasiak and Jean Baillargeon during the next two months as well as facing his one-time tag team partner, Tommy O’Toole, beating him in both of their two encounters. One of his biggest matches was against Taro Sakuro, a bout which he lost, with 13,997 fans in attendance at the Maple Leaf Gardens on 30 August. In the following weeks, he also lost matches to Sweet Daddy Siki and Johnny Valentine, making his Toronto debut. His last appearance was on 11 October 1962, in which he lost to Taro Sakuro in a rematch. Hrstich met a number of rising NWA stars while working for Tunney, most notably, Bruno Sammartino.