Tiger Joe Tomasso

**Joseph DiTomasso** (1922 – April 30, 1988) was a Canadian professional wrestler, better known by his ring name **Tiger Joe Tomasso**. He is most known from his matches in Stampede Wrestling and American Wrestling Association.

## Early life

Joseph DiTomasso (other source state his first name as Giuseppe) was born in 1922 in Montreal, Quebec, but moved to Hamilton, Ontario at a young age. He also worked as a bar manager at a bar called Tiger's Den, where he was believed to have found his "Tiger" nickname.

## Professional wrestling career

Tomasso debuted in 1952, heading to Calgary to work for Stampede Wrestling, then known as Big Time Wrestling; while there he wrestled his first match against George Scott. His second match was against Stu Hart, who described him as "an indestructible little bastard". In his third match, Joe earned his first victory, teaming with Chico Garcia and Ripper Leone to beat George Scott, Sandy Scott and Sugy Hayamaka. He also engaged in a long-running series of NWA regional American midwest grudge matches against Bobby Nelson.

Often described as a scrappy Italian, Tomasso was best known for his “Tweet Tweet” nickname. Tomasso would often talk about his imaginary pet birds, or as the wrestling book *Pain and Passion: The History of Stampede Wrestling* put it, he referred to his women as birds, thus earning the nickname from Ed Whalen. A part of a friendly "clique of Alberta wrestlers", he would get enraged at the nickname and the announcer would brain him to the microphone to the delight of the crowd, but to the dismay of Tomasso.

After competing as Joe Tommaso, in 1958 he would don a mask as The Bat. He found success with this gimmick, scoring a string of victories and competing in an NWA International Heavyweight Championship match against Lou Thesz. On February 24, 1959, the Bat challenged Pat O'Connor for the NWA World Heavyweight Title while also putting his mask on the line, but was defeated. Despite this, he continued wrestling as the Bat and won the NWA Idaho Heavyweight Championship in April by defeating Nelson Royal. The Bat would also team with Shag Thomas and the two would frequently challenge for the NWA World Tag Team Championship.

One of Tommaso's more frequent tag partners was Eric the Great, and they held the World Tag Team Championship and the NWA Western Tag Team Championship, both in 1957. In June 1961, Tommaso competed in an NWA Central States Heavyweight Title tournament, defeating Ray Gordon in the first round but fell short to Thor Hagen in the quarterfinal. An NWA World Heavyweight Title contendership tournament took place in April 1962, which the Bat also fell short in. Near this time, he would stop wrestling as the Bat and continue to use the Joe Tomasso name.

Joe Tomasso achieved his greatest success while teaming with Guy Mitchell as the Assassins in the Midwest area. On June 17, 1965, the Assassins defeated Boris and Nicoli Volkoff to win the World Wrestling Association's World Tag Team Championship in Indianapolis, Indiana. They had a lengthy run with the titles, defending them in two out of three falls matches against teams like the Volkoffs, Bobby Managoff and Wilbur Snyder, Prince Pullins and Rocky Montero, Bobo Brazil and Joe Brunetti, as well as Dick the Bruiser and Snyder. On December 25, the Assassins dropped the titles to Snyder and Moose Cholak, but regained it from them on March 3, 1966.

Despite losing on March 26 to Verne Gagne & Wilbur Snyder, the Assassins continued to be recognized as champion in other WWA towns (WWA started working with AWA and AWA titles are recognized in Chicago. Bobby Managoff and Dick The Bruiser and Angelo Poffo and Bob Ellis were some of the teams the Assassins defended against during their second reign, until they lost the titles on June 11 to the Bruiser and Wilbur Snyder. The Assassins last held the championship on June 25 when they regained the titles, until losing them on July 23 to Snyder and Luis Martinez.

During the 70s, Tomasso wrestled with great success in Calgary in Stu Hart's Stampede Wrestling promotion. In June 1971, Tiger Joe and Earl Black won a tournament for the Stampede International Tag Team Championship. After dropping the titles on July 21 to Dan Kroffat and Bill Cody, they regained the championships on August 11; both of these title changes were not recognized outside of Saskatchewan. On January 21, 1972, he won the titles for a third time with Dave Ruhl after beating Chin Lee & Sugi Sito; they dropped the titles back to the team on February 4. His final reign with the championships came when he and Gil Hayes won them in May 1972; they were still recognized as champions as of July 6.

Tomasso retired from wrestling in 1976, working as a promoter and selling real estate and used cars. However, he returned for a final match four years later in 1980, defeating Smith Hart via disqualification.

## Death

On April 30, 1988, Tomasso died of a sudden heart attack while in bed at the age of 65. He had been in the hospital earlier that year, where he was diagnosed as being diabetic.