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Professional
Wresling in Australia
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 Georg
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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Wrestling
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