Wrestling Heritage

By Graeme Cameron

A British History of Australian Wrestling
By Graeme Cameron

PART 15: 
THE FIFTIES: P&O WRESTLING

The 1950s were a time of great change in pro wrestling. The majority of the Stadiums operating before the war did not survive, notable exceptions being Sydney and Leichhardt Stadiums, Brisbane Stadium, City Baths in Adelaide and The Crystal Theatre in Broken Hill. Most would not survive the end of the decade. There was a new player in promoter George Gardiner, who arrived in Australia in 1938 but wasn’t really able to get going until after the war. While Stadiums Limited featured American wrestlers almost exclusively, Gardiner featured European and Asian wrestlers (both immigrants and visitors) as well as some Australians. In 1953, for the first time, all-wrestling cards were presented, and in this decade tag team matches, and battle royals were introduced. 

There were also great changes in terms of wrestlers, with a number of stalwarts either retiring or leaving to further their careers overseas. The “Four Kings” were no more, with Billy Meeske (1943) and Tom Lurich (1948) now retired, although Lurich made occasional appearances as a special referee. Fred Atkins left in 1947 to go on to a successful career in America, returning only once briefly. Tommy Nilan did the same in 1948, never working in Australia again. George Pencheff, worked in Australia from January through March each year, before resuming his globetrotting ways for the rest of each year. Also retired were Eddie Scarf, Jack Knight and Jaget Singh.

Headlining now were Al Costello and Chief Little Wolf, the latter in reality an Italian-American (Benito Venturi) who was adopted by Australian fans after marrying into Melbourne’s Italian community and becoming an Australian citizen. They were joined by New Zealand’s Ken Kenneth who featured in some main events. Supporting Costello and Little Wolf were Pat Meehan, Emil Koroschenko Leo Jensen and Bonnie Muir. Roy Heffernan Mike Barrett and Ray Hunter worked as support wrestlers. Wrestlers making their debuts known to Heritage readers were Bob McMaster, Wadi Ayoub, Baron Von Heczy and Elmo Lincoln, who changed his name to Paul Lincoln in the UK. A number of wrestlers known to Heritage readers who would or had toured the UK also toured Australia. They were Jack Claybourne, Felix Miquet, Frank Valois, Gene Dubuque, Lucky Simonovich, Alex Cadier, George Gordienko and Suni War Cloud. Two American toured who had held American versions of the world heavyweight title, Bobby Bruns and Dave Levin.

From 1930 until the advent of air travel for passengers, people from the UK and Ireland travelled to and from Australia sailing on the passenger liners of the P & O line. P & O ran a service to Australian that departed mostly from Southampton, traveling via the Mediterranean and the Suez Canal, with a stopover in India before heading to Perth. The ships then travelled around the coast, stopping in Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane before cruising around New Zealand, the Pacific Islands and to Djakarta, then heading back to New Zealand and finally Australia to do the return journey.

It’s fair to say that likely every wrestler who made the journey to Australia in this period used this service, including Douglas Clark and Mitchell Gill. Sam Burmister was a regular user. Indeed, five of the six UK and Irish wrestlers who appeared in Australia in the 1950s came by this service, but there’s a little more to the story than that for the first two. It has become quite clear in researching this that someone working for P & O was a wrestling fan and knew the promoter at Leichhardt Stadium because five of those six wrestlers made their debut at that venue, and indeed, it appears that almost every British wrestler who came to Australia made their debut at Leichhardt Stadium. We begin with a name familiar to Heritage readers 

REX HARRISON (1951)

As noted in the People section of this web site, Doncaster’s Rex Harrison was in the merchant navy. In 1951, he was in fact working as butcher in the kitchens on the P & O liner Orion (the same ship that Douglas Clark travelled on) on its first trip of the new year on UK-Australia route. January 1951 saw the Orion dock in Sydney. On January 20, Rex Harrison made his Australian debut, defeating regular Wal Truscott 1-0 at Leichhardt Stadium (Truscott became a well know auto dealer). After cruising around the Pacific Islands and to Djakarta, the Orion returned to Sydney in late April. On April 28, again at Leichhardt Stadium, Rex Harrison defeated another Leichhardt regular Snowy Dowton on points after each had taken a fall. That was Rex Harrison’s final appearance in Australia. The ship then departed, bound for England. And that was the entire extent of Rex Harrison’s Australian career. 

A search of the records found Rex Harrison in the early 60s wrestling in Oakland, California and Vancouver, Canada (both coastal cities) so was he was clearly by this time working on a different route.  He clashed with a familiar name to Heritage readers in Erich Froelich in Vancouver, as well as the likes of Mitsu Arakawa and Tarzan Tourville, all three of whom later toured Australia, the latter as Tarzan Tyler. 

Opponents: Wal Truscott, Snowy Dowton 

JACK HASWELL (1952-55)

Rex Harrison was not the only P & O employee who was also a wrestler, although this case was somewhat different. Jack Haswell would arguably have never had a pro wrestling career had he not worked for P &O. Hailing from Southend, Haswell had a background as an amateur wrestler and body builder. A newspaper article described him as in 1951 as 25 years old, and 6 foot tall, weighing just over 13 stone with black, wavy hair and a muscular body. 

Haswell was also in the merchant navy, working on P & O ships as a steward. He would entertain the passengers with feats of strength. He arrived in Australia on the P & O ship, the Orasay, but had previously worked on another ship, the Orcades where one of the passengers on that trip was Sam Burmister. On finding out Haswell’s background, Burmister recruited Jack for on board wrestling demonstrations, which Haswell complained left him feeling rather bruised and battered as Burmister was 6 stone heavier. It was no doubt Burmister who encouraged Haswell to take up professional wrestling. Haswell, it has to be said, was something of a character, claiming he had decided to dedicate his life to wrestling after returning from a journey to find his steady girlfriend was now going out with a barrow boy, although reading the article, one gets the impression that Jack had an eye for the ladies, and she knew it.

There are seven match records for Jack Haswell, spread from 1951 to 1954, all of them at Leichhardt Stadium and no doubt coinciding with when his ship was in port. The first is in February 1951 when he was forced to default with an injury to Bern Tamplin. His next appearance was in September, a one fall victory over Wal Truscott. He was back again in late December, drawing one fall apiece with another Leichhardt regular, Bud Cody. There are two records for 1952, the first a draw with the very experienced Alan Pinfold in late June and the second a win by disqualification over Snowy Dowton on November 1. There is one record each for Jack Haswell in 1953 and 1954. In February 1953, he lost by injury default to Finland’s “Count” Alf Greer, another Leichhardt regular. In May 1954, Haswell lost to Allen Sherry on points after each had taken a fall. 

That was the final record for Jack Haswell. Leichhardt Stadium, under new management from 1955 and for 1955-56, ceased publishing match records in the newspapers before resuming in 1957. He may have had more matches during that period. On the other hand, during his 1951 interview, Jack Haswell stated that when he met the right woman, he would give up the sea and wrestling. Perhaps he did. He doesn’t appear in the Leichhardt Stadium records for 1957, nor does he appear anywhere else. Jack Haswell’s pro wrestling career appears to consist entirely of the seven matches listed above at Leichhardt Stadium. He was a British wrestler who never wrestled in the UK.

Footnote: It’s unknown whether Rex Harrison and Jack Haswell knew each other. It’s possible.  Wrestlers have a way of finding each other. Although they were both merchant seamen working for the same company, they both worked on several ships and had quite different roles. It’s also quite possible they never worked on the same ship and never met or even knew of each other. We’ll never know.

Opponents: Bern Tamplin, Wal Truscott, Bud Cody, Snowy Dowton, Alan Pinfold, Alf Greer, Alan Sherry

VAL CERINO (1952-64)

South Shields’ Val Cerino was already a wrestler of 17 years’ experience when he arrived in Australia.  You can read about his British career in the People Section of this this web site. As noted in that section, he first settled in the town of Innisfail, Queensland, then lived in Melbourne for a while, before finally settling in Sydney. It was in Sydney that he resumed his wrestling career. The vast majority of his matches were at Leichhardt Stadiums with a smaller portion at Sydney Stadium. Later in the decade, he occasionally worked in the same capacity for promoter George Gardiner. No matter who he worked for he was always used as a preliminary wrestler, appearing in a main event only once.

Val Cerino first appears in the records in November 1953, making four appearances in three weeks, all at Leichhardt Stadium. He first defeated Len Holt on points after each had taken a fall, then teamed with Holt twice in tag team matches against the teams of Alan Pinfold & Budy Cody and Dallas Brown & Norm Ryan (results unknown), the first of these being part of the annual charity Toys for Christmas fundraiser. He also drew with Ray Greenfield. After making one appearance in December, a loss by one fall to Snowy Dowton, Cerino was quite active in January and February 1954. In January he first drew with Bern Tamplin, then teamed with Tamplin the next week to defeat Dallas Brown & Norm Ryan, He then defeated Rocky Riley on points. In February, he lost to Alan Sherry on points in the battle of new British immigrants.

From this point, he appeared 1-3 times a month. There was a regular group of local support wrestlers used by Sydney and Leichardt Stadiums and all of his matches in 1954 were against these wrestlers. In 1954, he wrestled “Count” Alf Greer 3 times (1 win, 1 loss, 1 result unknown), Dallas Brown (1 win), Bud Cody (1 win, 1 loss), veteran Bob George          (1 loss, 1 draw), Snowy Dowton (1loss), Ken Thorne (1 win, 1 result unknown), Ray Green and Jack Parker (both wins). He made his debut at Sydney Stadium in June opposing Ken Thorne twice and Frank Potter (results unknown) and defeating Dallas Brown

As mentioned, results for 1955-56 and scarce but in 1955, Val Cerino became part of history when he was a participant in the first ever battle royal in Australia, held at Leichhardt Stadium (Bob George was the winner). Only two other records survive, both from June when he opposed Dallas Brown once again at Leichhardt Stadium and Ken Thorne at the Coronation Hall, Mascot (near the airport), both results unknown. In 1956, he lost to Charlie Gammage in a support match on a George Gardiner card in Adelaide, the only record of him wrestling outside Sydney. 1957 saw Cerino appearing mainly at Sydney Stadium about once a month. Between late March and late August, he met Stan Andrews, Allen Sherry, Frank Potter, Jon Morro, Len Holt and Jean Andre. He also made three appearances at Leichhardt Stadium in late July and August against Snowy Dowton, Norm Ryan and Ron Hansen. The results for all of these matches are unknown. 

Val Cerino’s name doesn’t appear in the records again until 1964, when he records a loss to Tony Kontellis on a George Gardiner card at Sydney Stadium. That’s the final match record for Val Cerino. He may well have continued wrestling between 1958 and 1964, but if so, no records survive. He’s not listed any working for any promotion during this period.  As noted in the People section, he studied philosophy at The University of Sydney. He may have stopped wrestling to concentrate on his studies. The number of appearances suggest he had a day job and if he was studying as well, that would leave no time for wrestling. It appears that Val Cerino retired at the end of 1957 and was enticed to come out of retirement to make one final appearance in 1964but what exactly happened is unknown. 

He did eventually retire to Tagun in Queenland, a suburb of the Gold Coast city where he died age 96 

Opponents: Len Holt, Ray Greenfield, Dallas Brown, Norm Ryan, Snowy Dowton, Bern Tamplin, Alan Pinfold, Allen Sherry, “Count” Alf Greer, Rocky Riley, Bud Cody, Bob George, Ken Thorne, Frank Potter, Jack Parker, Ray Green, Charlie Gammage, Tony Kontellis

Next Time: Cometh the legends 

Page added 23/09/2025

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