PAGE OF FAME: Mike Sharpe & Ben Sharpe

Mike & Ben Sharpe

Mike Sharpe & Ben Sharpe
From Hamilton. One of the most successful tag teams in pro wrestling history. Two giants -- around 6'5" each -- with impressive physiques. Recognized as world tag team champions in Northern California over a dozen times through the 1950s.
Ben was a member of Hamilton's Leander Eight rowing team that represented Canada at the 1936 Olympics. Both Sharpes served in the armed forces in WWII and they both made their Maple Leaf Gardens debuts in the spring of 1946. Their first featured matches in Toronto were handicap bouts against Krippler Karl Davis. They moved into the main event for the first time in November, losing to Ivan Rasputin & Kola Kwariani.
Younger brother Mike received the bigger push as a single, getting his first main event in Toronto with a victory over Davis in December. He had two more Gardens main events the following month against Bob "Strangler" Wagner and Fred Von Schact. Ben was working opening matches on those shows. Mike wrestled former world champion Wild Bill Longson to a draw in a June 1947 main event. He got a shot at Fred Atkins's British Empire title in March 1949.

Mike turned heel in August 1949 during a main event match against Whipper Billy Watson, again for the British Empire title.
After leaving Toronto, Mike got shots at NWA world champion Lou Thesz in St. Joseph, Missouri (January 1950), Indianapolis, and St. Louis (both February 1950). The Sharpes headed west to San Francisco, and won the regional verion of the world tag title later that year. They would win the title repeatedly through the decade. They returned to Toronto as babyfaces in June 1951 and had several main event matches with Mike again getting the bigger singles push. He wrestled his last Toronto match in October of that year. (Ben came back to Toronto for one final match in 1967.)
They continued to work for promoter Joe Malcewicz in San Francisco through the 1950s. Mike got another chance at Thesz's title at the end of 1952 in Honolulu. A couple of months later, Ben also got world title bouts with Thesz in San Jose and Los Angeles. He challenged Thesz in the summer of 1954 in Vancouver and in 1955 in Oakland and Honolulu. Together, they wrestled in Japan as world tag champs in 1956, trading the belts with the legendary Rikidozan and his partner, Kokichi Endo. Ben challenged Dick Hutton for the NWA title in Sacramento in late 1957. Mike was still wrestling in Los Angeles in 1961, but was no longer teaming with Ben.
Mike's son Iron Mike Sharpe was a well-known wrestler from the 1970s-1990s.
Prominent Titles:

18+-time NWA World tag champions (San Francisco), 1950-60
NWA Texas tag title, 1959
Mike:
3-time (at least) NWA Pacific Coast champion (San Francisco), 50s
Asian tag champion (Japan), with Buddy Austin, 1962
Ben:
2-time NWA World tag champion (San Francisco) with other partners, 50s
NWA Hawaiian champion, 1953
NWA Pacific Coast champion (San Francisco), 1959