In Brandon, Manitoba, the heart of the frozen windswept Canadian prairies, hockey is closer to religion than sport. It’s here a minor league coach dreamed up a major league idea.

His name is Darryl Wolski, but he’s better known as “Beef.” In the fall of 2003, Beef was at his favorite watering hole watching an NHL game when he made an interesting observation – patrons would cheer for a goal, but go absolutely wild when a fight broke out. A light suddenly when on...

 What would happen if the hockey game was gone, and all that remained were two hockey players, squaring off at center ice, battling for glory? The way Beef envisioned it, fans would get exactly what they’d been cheering for – pure hockey fighting.

It seemed an ingenious idea, and it soon became his unrelenting goal to provide a forum for the goons of hockey and celebrate their well-deserved role in the game.

Hockey Gladiators was born.

The concept was simple:  fill an arena with 10,000 bloodthirsty fans, secure an international pay-per-view audience, and turn men into gladiators – hockey gladiators. Sporting full equipment, professional hockey players from minor league teams would become ‘enforcers’ and go head-to-head at centre ice for 60 seconds. To prevail, the victor would either score a knockout or win a judges decision over their opponent. The last toothless scrapper standing would receive a major cash prize.

At least on paper it seemed simple. Little did Beef know the task of bringing Hockey Gladiators to life – or Hockey Enforcers, as the event would eventually be called – would consume his existence for the next two years…