TNA Wresting stars Santino Marella and Allie were comin’ atcha Friday morning at the Anthem Sports & Entertainment breakfast at the Fairmont Royal York in Toronto.
The pair added some punch to this Toronto International Film Festival tradition, the unofficial kickoff to TIFF. The breakfast, hosted for years by long-time brioux.tv sponsor Hollywood Suite, always draws a crowd of industry professionals who load up on bacon and scrambled eggs before tackling the film festival, which runs through Sept. 20. TIFF is now in its 51st year.
Marella ordered the crowd to pay full attention to the stage at the far end of the room. He then welcomed our host, David “Killer” Kines, President of Anthem Entertainment Canada. Kines cued up a short reel promoting several platforms under the Anthem tent, including Hollywood Suite, GameTV, Fight Network, TNA Wrestling and Game+.
Kines flexed his pumps and then put a sleeper hold on the crowd, holding them there long enough to tag his boss, Leonard Asper, President and CEO of Denver-based Anthem. Asper, still fondly remembered from when the family name was associated with the once mighty Global Television network, explained that TNA didn’t really stand for what you think it might stand for, but rather Total Nonstop Action Wrestling. Marella and Allie then started flinging breafast clubbers out of the Imperial Room, up Yonge Street, and beyond.
Good to see Anthem Marketing manager and monthly podcast partner Emily Gagne, along with press pal Rudy Blair, Toronto Mike’d’s Mike Boon, former Global CEO Troy Reeb, WhitePine Pictures founder and President Peter Raymont, and many others at the event.
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