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Professional
Wrestling in Australia
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Professional
wrestling in Australia makes up a small but growing
part of Australian culture. Unlike the North American
or Japanese products which have large, globally
renowned organisations such as World
Wrestling Entertainment or New Japan Pro Wrestling
with several hundred smaller promotions, Australia
has fourteen smaller independent circuit promotions
which exist in all but two of the states, those
being the Northern Territory and Tasmania. Tours
from the North American product are regularly
sold out in capital cities such as Melbourne,
Sydney
and Brisbane.
History
Professional
wrestling in Australia first gained distinction
in the early 1900s, however there were very few
shows promoted. Nonetheless, stars such as Clarence
Weber, Jack Carkeek, Clarence Whistler and George
Hackenschmidt were made. As time went on,
the sport's popularity began to grow, particularly
in the 1930s as people sought to find relief from
The Great Depression.
Throughout
the 1940s professional wrestling suffered due
to World War II but in the 1950s reached new highs
as many stars from overseas were imported and
created larger crowds and, in turn, a larger market.
Established names such as Lou Thesz, Dr. Jerry
Graham and Gorgeous George toured the country
during the decade.
Throughout
the 1960s and 1970s, Australia established its
only major promotion in WCW Australia. WCW had
a television deal with the Nine
Network, the first in Australia to do so and
attracted crowds between 2,000 and 9,000 people
on a weekly basis. International stars such as
Killer Kowalski, Ray
Stevens, Dominic Denucci, Mario
Milano, Spiros Arion, Karl Gotch, Bruno
Sammartino, Gorilla Monsoon and local stars
Ron Miller and Larry
O’Dea were all involved with the promotion
which grew steadily through the 1960s and was
a well known product in the 1970s. However, with
the introduction of World Series Cricket, WCW
was left with no television deal and was forced
to close down in 1978. This sent the Australian
market into a large decline. With no access to
any product anywhere in the world, the Australian
market was almost dead until World Wrestling Entertainment
became a prominent figure in professional wrestling
in the mid-1980s.
Australia
has depended on the North American product since
1985. Hosting tours in 1985 and 1986 kept a solid
viewing in the sport through programmes such as
RAW and WCW Monday Nitro. Small local promotions
have tried to take advantage of the popularity
of professional wrestling, but there has been
nothing of note since the demise of World Championship
Wrestling in 1978.
However
the local scene has been the subject of controversy.
In
September 2002, a promotion called PCW presented
a show called Carnage, in which two wrestlers
faced off in the first-ever barbed-wire match
in Australia. The event was billed as a "Great
Family Night Out", however before the bout
an announcer warned parents to take their children
from the Rowville arena if they were upset by
blood.
The
match saw real blood, fake glass and one contestant
setting fire to a chair. The ring ropes were replaced
with barbed wire and a bucket of thumb tacks was
dumped on the ring floor. Much of the controversy
surrounded rumours about the event, suggesting
that the outpour of blood was so intense that
it 'splattered' onto members of the crowd. Much
of this can be attributed to people who had heard
about the match giving their take of it on the
Internet.
Despite
the fact that this event was publicised as having
a gory match and the preceding warning, people
complained that the match in question was 'too
much'. A concerned mother called Melbourne Talkback
radio station 3AW, and a wrestler heard this call
and also rang in. This resulted in the main media
outlets covering the story. For the record, neither
of the wrestlers were seriously injured. It also
resulted in a police investigation and a furore
within the local Knox City Council.
Individual
wrestlers originating in Australia have struggled
for the most part to obtain any international
recognition. Perhaps the two biggest names when
one mentions Australia are the Fabulous
Kangaroos - Roy Heffernan and Al Costello.
They are the only Australian wrestlers to make
it big in the United States and held the WWWF
Tag Team Championship, as well as being inducted
into the Wrestling Observer Newsletter Hall of
Fame. In more recent times Nathan
Jones made two WWE appearances at WrestleMania
XIX and at Survivor Series later that same year,
making him the only Australian wrestler to ever
appear on a WWE pay-per-view event. Jones also
appeared on two World Wrestling All-Stars pay-per-views,
losing to Jeff Jarrett at WWA: The Inception and
to Scott Steiner at WWA: The Eruption. Only two
other Australian wrestlers have appeared on any
pay-per-view event at all. They are Chuck E. Chaos
at WWA: The Eruption who lost to Jerry Lynn, and
Mark Mercedes at WWA: The Reckoning who lost to
Rick Steiner.
International Tours
Shows
from North American promotions have been held
in Australia as early as 1985 when WWE toured
through Melbourne, Perth,
Newcastle
and Adelaide and through Melbourne and Brisbane
again in 1986. That was the last Australia saw
of a live North American product until WCW did
a Nitro and Thunder taping in Melbourne and a
Thunder taping in Brisbane and Sydney in 2000.
The
next time WWE came to Australia was for the WWE
Global Warning Tour in 2002. A crowd of 56,000
packed into Colonial Stadium as well a pay-per-view
audience throughout Asia witnessed the first WWE
show on Australian soil in 16 years. WWE has visited
Australia regularly since Global Warning by touring
at least once a year since 2003, with the latest
show by WWE Raw in November 2007 visiting Brisbane,
Sydney and Melbourne.
Australia
also hosted shows presented by World Wrestling
All-Stars and various smaller shows have featured
overseas talent, but nothing of note.
Television Programming
History
Throughout
the 1990s, both WCW Monday Nitro and RAW were
broadcasted on free-to-air networks but were put
in poor timeslots and were subsequently cancelled
because of poor ratings. WWE's major pay-per-views
(Royal Rumble, WrestleMania, King of the Ring,
SummerSlam and Survivor Series) were all shown
up until 2001, when every pay-per-view began being
shown.
WWE
programming returned in 2000 with RAW being shown
on Fox
Sports on Tuesday nights. SmackDown! followed
and was broadcasted on FOX8 Friday nights but
was moved to Saturday nights in 2001.
In
September 2002 negotiations between FOX8 and WWE
fell through and SmackDown! was cancelled. A special
NWA-TNA
package replaced it in early 2003 but only lasted
a year. NWA-TNA pay-per-views were shown once
a month throughout 2003 during a time when they
were being presented weekly in the United
States. WWE pay-per-views
were also lost to Main Event in the same deal
that cost Australian fans SmackDown.
Village Cinemas showed them for a few months until
August 2003 when SmackDown! returned on Saturday
nights as well as the pay-per-views, starting
with SummerSlam. RAW was moved from Fox Sports
to FOX8 and was shown on Friday nights. In order
to prevent spoiler hunting on the internet, FOX8
moved WWE programming to timeslots closer to their
United States air date.
In
February 2005, WWE Heat, WWE Velocity and The
WWE Experience were added to FOX8 and set up a
large wrestling program on Saturdays and Sundays.
Despite Heat, Velocity and Experience all being
cancelled in the United States the shows continued
to be shown in Australia to fulfill contractual
obligations. When SmackDown! was moved to Friday
nights in the United States, in Australia it remained
on Friday afternoons. ECW
on Sci
Fi began broadcasting in Australia from September
2, 2006 in the place of WWE Velocity on Saturdays
and the WWE Fanatic Series began airing in October
2006.
After
just over 3 years, TNA made it's return. Beginning
with TNA Sacrifice 2006 on May 27, 2006 on tape
delay. This continued for 12 months before events
started being broadcast live in May 2007. Despite
much discussion there are currently no plans to
screen TNA iMPACT! in Australia.
Pay-per-view
Pay-per-views
in Australia are shown on Main
Event, the only provider in Australia. Main
Event has been broadcasting pay-per-views for
both WWE starting in 1999 until the present time
(including the Fanatic Series from 2006) and WCW
pay-per-views from 1997 until they were bought
out in March 2001. Main Event also began broadcasting
TNA pay-per-views in May 2006, starting with Sacrifice.
One year later, TNA pay per views were lifted
from the 13 day tape delay format to a live format.
Promotions
* WCW Australia
* World Wrestling All-Stars (WWA)
(Credit:
Wikipedia)
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