Wrestling Heritage

By Graeme Cameron

A British History of Australian Wrestling
By Graeme Cameron

Part 21:

1975-78: And The Walls Came Tumbling Down

 As mentioned in the last part of this series, in 1975 wrestlers Larry O’Dea (Larry Davies) and Ron Miller (Reg Parker) took over what was a declining promotion that nobody else wanted. The period 1970-74 saw the final appearances of Dominic DeNucci, Killer Kowalski, Killer Karl Kox, Mark Lewin, Big Bad John, Tony Parisi, Tiger Jeet Singh, Tex McKenzie and in 1976, Spiros Arion. All of these wrestlers had featured in numerous main events during the promotion’s most successful years. Only King Curtis (Iaukea), Brute Bernard, Waldo Von Erich and Bulldog Brower returned.

O’Dea and Miller did not have the financial resources, business background or contacts that Jim Barnett had, and it showed. In 1977, they moved from the Hordern Pavilion to Flemington Markets in Sydney’s west, claiming that the fan base was now in the Western suburbs of Sydney. They also presented some cards in clubs. They did give greater prominence to Australian wrestlers.  Among those who benefited from this were Johnny Gray, George Barnes, Kevin Martin, Les Roberts and Steve Rackman. While the latter was long overdue, in truth, these were cost cutting measures. Ron Miller making himself Austra-Asian champion and declining to drop the belt to anyone for the entire time they were running the promotion was also likely a contributing factor to the promotion’s decline.

They did manage to attract some big names. Andre the Giant toured twice, (1976, 1978) as did NWA World heavyweight champion Harley Race in 1977 and 1978, defending the belt against Ron Miller both times. Former NWA world champions Giant Baba and Dory Funk Jr also toured as did future AWA world champions Ric Martel and Mr. Saito and legendary wild man Bruiser Brody. Despite these big names, the quality of the presentation was overall not of the standard of previous years.

On the club wrestling scene, Hal Morgan had retired in 1971 and handed the promotion over to Jim Deakin, who a year later merged it with the rebel promotion, then retired himself. By the end of 1973 this had also folded. In 1976, Roy Heffernan opened a club-based independent promotion, followed by local wrestler Steve Rackman doing the same in 1977.

However, everything was brought to a shuddering halt at the end of 1978 when the owner of the Nine Network, Kerry Packer, cancelled WCW’s TV show. WCW had appeared in the Saturday midday time slot for just over 14 years, but Packer now wanted that time for his new creation, “World Series Cricket”. Without TV, O’Dea and Miller felt the promotion was not viable and closed the doors, presenting a final card in December 1978. It should be noted that Packer was a wrestling fan. It’s probably fair to say that if the show had been doing well, he would have moved it, not cancelled it. The consequences of this will be discussed in the next, and final part, of this series. 

The final four years of WCW saw the appearance of these names familiar to Heritage readers, Spiros Arion, Terry Garvin, Andre the Giant, Butcher (Crusher) Branigan and John DaSilva. Australians were Ron Fury and El Greco, with a brief return from retirement by Frank Hurley, plus Paul Lincoln returning after 24 years in the U.K, appearing as Major MacDonald Lincoln, a haughty British military officer.

John Csom, who had taken over from George Gardiner, made one final attempt to rival WCW in 1975 with three cards which featured Wadi Ayoub, Prince Kumali, Rasputin (Angus Campbell) and Paul Lincoln as both himself and Dr. Death plus Bobby Burns in support matches. These were this promotion’s final cards.

The British presence included the return of Bobby Burns in 1975 after a three-year absence and a brief return from retirement by Spike Robson in 1977, plus the wrestlers profiled below. We begin with someone who CLAIMED to be from the UK but……..

STEVE RACKMAN (1973-78)

Steve Rackman was not English but, speaking in a perfect, educated middle-class English accent, played the part so well that any reference you might find will state that he was “born in the UK”. The fact that he could do this should be no surprise. You see, Steve Rackman was also an actor. Many of you have seen him.  His face is familiar to millions of people as “Donk”, Crocodile Dundee’s outback pub drinking buddy in all the Crocodile Dundee movies. He appeared in many more movies, the best-known being “Last of the Knucklemen”,”Turkey Shoot” and “Mad Dog Morgan”.

As a wrestler, Steve Rackman claimed to be born in the UK (though he never actually named a hometown or county). A villain, he played a tough guy based on the Kray twins, claiming to have worked as a doorman/ bouncer in the toughest parts of London.

Steve Rackman was in fact born Donald Kerr in Melbourne in 1942. Kerr showed promise as an Australian Rules football player, making the Under-18s of one of the professional teams, but never progressed to the senior level.

As wrestler Steve Rackman, he was a heavyweight. He made his first appearance for WCW in 1973, spending the year doing his duty to all the top blue-eyes. It was in this period that he appeared in a TV commercial with the British dance/percussion group “Stomp,”,the group playing workers who started performing in their break and Rackman as the foreman who ordered them back to work.

The change in management in 1974 saw a change of fortune. He got his break when he became Terry Garvin’s “bodyguard”. He began appearing in more high-profile matches against top blue-eyes. While the matches were more competitive, he still mostly lost to them. In 1975, he challenged Ron Miller unsuccessfully for the World Brass Knuckles title, then teamed with an American, The Missouri Mauler (Larry Hamilton) to win the Austra-Asian tag team title from Miller and Larry O’Dea, losing it to O’Dea and another American, Bobby Hart three weeks later. In his hometown Melbourne in 1976, he opposed Andre the Giant in a cage match.  However, it soon became apparent that Steve Rackman was a better talker than a wrestler and he assumed the role of “manager”. He had a stable of villains, Including Butcher (Crusher) Brannigan, Killer Karl Krupp and Bugsy McGraw. 

In 1977, he started a club-based independent promotion in opposition to Roy Heffernan, in which El Greco, Spike Robson, Ron Fury and Earl Black all made appearances. He continued promoting until the early Eighties, then handing it over to others so he could concentrate on his acting career. He appeared in over 40 TV shows and movies in Australia. In the Eighties, he worked mainly in Southeast Asia, appearing in a number of movies, TV shows and commercials there.

For a number of years, Steve Rackman owned several gyms, the most well-known being in the Sydney beachside suburb of Coogee. He would from time to time make appearances in his old promotion between acting jobs.

Opponents: Danny Little Bear, Mario Milano, Johnny Gray, Alan Stevens, Don Murraco, John DaSilva, Ron Miller, Buddy Silver Wolf, Bull Ramos, Tex McKenzie, Tony Parisi, Mike Pappas, Andre the Giant

LES THORNTON (1974, 1978,1985)

When Salford’s Les Thornton arrived in Australia in 1974, he was billed as the British Commonwealth heavyweight champion. As previously mentioned, he engaged in a series of title defences against Pat Barrett under essentially Mountevans rules. He played the subtle villain, wrestling scientifically until he felt his title was under threat, then bending the rules to retain it. 

After this series, the title was never mentioned again. From this point, Thornton mainly worked mid-card matches in the subtle villain role. He challenged Larry O’Dea unsuccessfully twice for the TV title and teamed with American Don Carson in a tournament to fill the vacant Austra-Asian tag team title, won by Barrett and Greek immigrant Tony Kontellis. He also had several non-title matches with Ron Miller and defeated Spike Robson in an all-Salford affair.

Thornton’s 1978 tour began in April, lasting until the end of July. Having opposed Pat Barrett on his last tour, this time they were tag team partners, gaining a notable victory over former Austra-Asian tag team champions Kevin Martin and Johnny Gray. Once Barrett left at the end of April, Thornton worked as a villain in mid and lower card matches, sometimes teaming with wrestlers such the wild man Brute Bernard. He opposed two other British wrestlers, defeating Bobby Burns and drawing with Mike Dallas. He had no victories of note, and it could be argued that the promoters did not make the best use of his talents.

Les Thornton also toured Australia a third time in 1985 as part of the WWF (now WWE) contingent of wrestlers He was used a lower card villain, twice defeating The Tiger and losing by disqualification to Italian-born Canadian veteran, Tony Parisi, who was a well-known face in Australia between 1968 and 1974.

Opponents: Pat Barrett, Larry O’Dea, Ron Miller, George Barnes, Mario Milano, Spike Robson, Samoan Teo, Don Carson, Kevin Martin, Randy Als, Kid Hardy, Chris Gulas, John Tolios, Bobby Burns, Mike Dallas, Tony Agostino, Brett Small, Andy Harpas, Rocky Romero, Jim Demeris, Dennis Lykouris, The Tiger, Tony Parisi

RASPUTIN/ANGUS CAMPBELL (1975) 

In June 1975, Angus Campbell appeared on the three cards in Sydney promoted by John Csom. He appeared as Rasputin, a name he had previously used in Germany, Japan and New Zealand. On June 1, he opposed Lebanese wrestler John Saade. On June 7 Rasputin teamed with Paul Lincoln to oppose the Saade brothers, John and Andre, and on June 15, he opposed the other Saade brother, Andre. The results of these bouts are unknown.  These were Angus Campbell’s only three appearances in Australia. 

OPPONENTS: John Saade, Andre Saade 

MIKE DALLAS (1976-78)

Warrington’s Mike Dallas likely arrived in Australia sometime in 1976. In February 1977, Dallas defeated Greek immigrant Harold Kalivouris to win the WCW Australian light heavyweight title. He held it for only a month before losing the title to Ken Medlin. Dallas then largely spent the rest of the next two years chasing Medlin for the title, but always coming up short, although he did win a non-title match. When the promotion closed Dallas returned to England. 

Opponents: Harold Kalivouris, Ken Medlin. Bobby Ragan, Joe Marolt, Peter Spence, Les Thornton

DANNY LYNCH (1978) 

Danny Lynch made a very brief tour of Australia in 1978, lasting only the few weeks of February. The only records for him from this period are a win over local Sydney wrestler Kid Hardy and a tag team match, in which Lynch teamed with Aussie Les Roberts in a loss to former Austra-Asian tag team champions Larry O’Dea and Bobby Hart. In March, Lynch was scheduled to team with American Randy Als in a tournament to decide the vacant tag team title but, for reasons unknown, did not appear and made no further appearances in Australia.

Opponents: Kid Hardy

Page added 25/08/2026

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