From Portland to Montreal
Rick Martel recruited Tom Zenk to Lutte Internationale while Zenk was working in the Pacific Northwest. Martel, a former AWA World Heavyweight Champion and a part-owner of the Montreal-based promotion, offered a larger weekly guarantee—$1,000 rather than the $700 Zenk was receiving in Portland—along with the prospect of teaming with Martel and receiving championship opportunities.
Lutte Internationale (International Wrestling) was then Quebec’s leading independent promotion. Its ownership and management circle included Martel, Gino Brito, Dino Bravo and Tony Mule, while former owner Frank Valois remained an important figure in the promotion.
A demanding circuit and a television-made identity
Lutte Internationale ran six or seven nights a week, 48 weeks a year, in towns across Quebec and Ontario, returning to Montreal and the Centre Paul-Sauvé every Monday. The promotion supported that circuit with the popular International Wrestling television program, with announcer Milt Avruskin and Gino Brito on colour commentary.
Zenk was promoted as “The Future Champion of Quebec” and a future world champion. However, the presentation proved to be stronger than the underlying push. Martel, Bravo and Steve Strong remained the promotion’s principal heavyweights.
The Long Riders and the IWA tag title
Zenk’s most sustained program placed him in tag action alongside Dan Kroffat against the Long Riders, Bill and Scott “Hog” Irwin. Kroffat had previously teamed with Alofa—the future Rikishi—but the Zenk–Kroffat pairing became central to the tag-team scene. The feud included a violent angle in which Zenk was triple-teamed, repeatedly struck with a ringside chair and left bleeding heavily.