Wrestling loses Onno Boelee

He was one of the nice guys of professional wrestling.

Sad news this week with the passing of Giant Dutch wrestler, Onno Boelee. Onno was a giant of a man and represented New Zealand at Judo before turning to professional wrestling. His booming voice and roaring laughter will be sadly missed at our house as Onno was a frequent visitor.

I remember Onno when he first started wrestling for Ernie Pinches. He was a tough Judo expert. He wrestled the best men in New Zealand and had bouts with Wild Don Scott, Bruno Bekker, Bronco Barnes, Jock Ruddock, Tony Garea, Johnny Garcia, and Al Hobman. He met many top overseas wrestlers also, including Bulldog Brower, and King Curtis and Andre The Giant.

I saw how strong he was one night at the Y.M.C.A. in Auckland. The place was packed out and overflowing. A guy broke in under where the dressing rooms were. Onno picked him up by the seat of his trousers and tossed him out the back door and made sure no one else broke in.

Onno was a man of many parts. He was one of the first to join his old friend Robert Bruce, when Robert started up his Ugly Agency in Auckland. He did many TV commercials and was in many NZ movies. He loved to sky dive and used to drop down at Whenuapai airport.

He was well known as a bouncer around the night club scene. He was bouncer at Shantytown in Queen Street back in the 70s Onno and Robert Bruce were both bouncers. They used to meet in this long corridor and Onno used to sit in a dentists chair smoking his pipe. Many a time I went for a chat. I recall another time in 1979 when Harley Race and Peter Maivia fought at Western Springs and I took my friend Tom from Christchurch into this night club and Onno made a big fuss of us and brought us a beer. Tommy Adderley was singing. We then on to see the big match at Western Springs.

He later wrestled for Steve Rickard and was frequently featured in his On The Mat programme. He went to Japan for promoter Giant Baba, to team with big wrestling star here, Abdullah The Butcher. The Butcher was already huge in Japan and he introduced Onno to the big time in Japan. He went as Otto Manheim from Germany. I recall Onno never ever forgot me and I still have the mail and pictures he sent me from Japan.

When Andre The Giant first came here Onno was one of his tag-team opponents. Sometimes they would match Andre against three of our boys.

He will be sadly missed.

Onno
Onno