One of my favourite grapplers from my young days in the 1950’s was the good looking young adonis Gene Stanlee. Gene passed away last month. In the 1955 pictures he is seen with his brother Steve. I was in their fan-club during the 50’s. Gene did not visit New Zealand as he was always too […]
Sad to report the passing of one of England's great professional wrestlers "Judo Al Hayes". Al was an icon of British wrestling from the 1950's to the 1970's. Later he went to the U.S.A. to wrestle successfully for some years before joining the W.W.F. as an on-air personality. He became known as Lord Alfred Hayes, […]
Barry Keene was without doubt one of the finest wrestlers I ever saw in 60 years of watching wrestling contests. The smaller boys like Barry, Brian "Buddy" Coyle, "Jumping" Joe Andrews, and "Wild" Don Scott, all worked for Ernie Pinches in the South Pacific Wrestling Association in Auckland. Having spent time in England and Europe, […]
For a very small country we are proud of the fact that no fewer than ten World's heavyweight Wrestling Champions have paid us a visit (I wrote this story in 1973 so it does not include the more recent Champions like Rick Flair, Harley Race, Jack Brisco and Giant Baba). At the turn of the […]
In the early days of New Zealand wrestling, it was virtually impossible to break into the sport here. Walter Miller, the American promoter and booker, liked to bring a team of American's over to meet Lofty Blomfield and later Ken Kenneth. But New Zealand talent was just not used. Some boys went overseas and did […]
After demolishing Colin Wilson in Auckland recently, Shane Cameron, one of our greatest heavyweight prospects, took off to the U.S.A. for 10 days where he sparred with Mike Tyson. Accompanying him were Don Mann from The Warriors and trainer Danny Codling. Danny did a fine job of interviewing Mike on a one to one commentary, […]