About Johnny Powers
“You have to get out there and hustle to get your stuff in front of people.”
- Johnny Powers on General Business Principles
Johnny Powers is an international wrestling and business icon. He was born in Hamilton, Ontario. At 15, he started training under the tutelage of Canadian light heavyweight wrestling champion Jack Wentworth. Powers had his first professional match in 1960 in Detroit at age 17. Since then he engaged in over 5000 wrestling matches and also became a renowned sports promoter, tv/film producer and businessman.
You can read more about his past, current and future endeavours at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnny_Powers
Johnny Powers (born Dennis Waters) is a retired Canadian professional wrestler, known by his legally changed ring name Johnny Powers. He competed in several North American and International promotions including Maple Leaf Wrestling, National Wrestling Federation, International Wrestling Association and the World Wide Wrestling Federation feuding with then WWWF World Heavyweight Champion Bruno Sammartino during the early 1960s.
Professional wrestling
Dennis Waters, was born in Hamilton, Ontario, and attended McMaster University in Hamilton. He left university to become a featured performer in the sports entertainment world of professional wrestling both as an international wrestling champion and as an executive producer of internationally syndicated wrestling television series for over twenty years. Powers had over 5007 professional wrestling matches in a 20 year active career – from a 1964 record setting title match as a 21 year old in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, against WWF Champion Bruno Sammartino to his sports retirement as undefeated International Wrestling Association (IWA) Champion in Lagos, Nigeria, in 1982. He was North American Champion seven times and World Champion three times. JP was honored in Yokohama, Japan, before a sellout crowd on September 30, 1991, that was televised nationally, as one of 18 greatest fighters to have appeared in Japanese rings, along with Mohammed Ali, Kobayashi (Sumo), Willem Rusca (1972 Summer Olympics judo gold), Lou Thesz, and Antonio Inoki (martial arts/wrestler).
Sports event promoter and TV producer
As a sports event promoter and television producer since 1967, he has presented over 3500 live wrestling and sports events from Singapore to New York to Trinidad. He co-founded the National Wrestling Federation (NWF). He sold the NWF to Japanese interests in 1973. Powers was the first major international syndicator of television wrestling with programs in over 27 countries. He has produced over 300 hours of sports television shows. He was President of National Sports TV for 6 years, which had the largest film and videotape library of wrestling in the world in the 60s and 70s. JP, as a “marquee” performer was the only wrestling superstar to have a show named after him with Championship Wrestling with Johnny Powers that ran for 6 years from 1967 to 1973.
Sports merchandiser
As a sports merchandiser, JP was physical fitness adviser on a National Sports Advisory Council in Canada, with Bobby Hull, NHL Superstar, and Otto and Maria Jelinek, World’s Pair Figure Skating Champions. At the age of 22, as a principal in Pro Management Inc, a sports celebrity management firm, he developed and took sports fitness equipment nationally on a major retail store promotion campaign all the while actively competing internationally as Canadian Heavyweight Champion. He was inducted into the Canadian Pro Wrestling Hall of Fame in 2003.
Corporate finance and other business ventures
He has been involved in the hospitality business through family owned suite and boutique hotels since 1981. Since 1982, he has been involved in corporate restructuring, project financing, merger and acquisition activities in media, advertising, hospitality and investment real estate fields.
Current projects
As managing director of Corporate Finance Group International Inc. and as a private investor, he is currently focused on the broadband communications sector, taking advantage of his background in corporate finance and as a “program content provider”. He is chairman of Vision Resource Group, Inc (www.visionresourcegroup.com), a resource vehicle, through which the group intends to develop its broadband interests. He is President and Chief Creative Officer of Vision Media Technologies, Inc., an integrated media and entertainment company engaged in the development, production and marketing of television, pay-per-view programming, live events and the licensing and sale of branded consumer products. He heads up a creative team for combat and MMA sports called 1Fight (www.1Fight.tv) and an online social community related to world wide sports and fitness audience called 1FightLife (www.1FightLife.com). He has created a Tribal Vision initiative whose goals is to enhance the indigenous global community through media and education.
JP, as an executive producer, has a television special and film under development. Since 2000, he has been active in a non-profit youth development program with the ancient Greek Olympic sport of pankration as its activity platform.
