Wrestling Heritage welcomes memories, further information and corrections
The name Bobby Burns, a middleweight usually billed from Scotland, was seen on British wrestling programmes from 1961 until 1966. He was a busy worker, working for independent promoters, most notably Paul Lincoln. Opponents included other rising stars Bob Anthony, Ray Leslie, Ray McGuire Alan Serjeant and Johnny Williams. Whilst all the above went on to become familiar to television fans Bobby Burns simply disappeared mid 1966. The mystery remained unsolved for over fifty years until John Shelvey told us Burns had emigrated to Australia in the mid 1960s around the time his family also emigrated. Heritage member, Graeme Cameron, solved another mystery with the help of his friend, wrestler Big John Marshall. Reports of Bill Rawlings wrestling in Australia had been dismissed by Bill’s son. Big John. John Marshall knew the Australian Rawlings well, confirmed he was a British wrestler, but it transpired it was Bobby Burns using the name.
Graeme managed to secure confirmation of records of matches in Melbourne, in May, 1968, all using the name Bill Rawlings. It appears that he spent the first year of his Australian career in Melbourne and moved to Sydney in 1969, where there was work in the clubs as well as for the World Championship Wrestling promotion. In Sydney during 1969 he mostly worked as Bill Rawlings but sometimes in the clubs as Bobby Burns.
He’s listed in 1976, as Bobby Burns, working for WCW and appeared in an 8-man tag team match on their final card for the year on December 10th. There’s a record of him appearing on one of two WCW cards on February 14, 1978 held simultaneously at venues on opposite sides of Sydney. Mike Dallas also appeared on one of these cards but whether they wrestled each other or were even on the same card is unknown.
With or without a mask Bobby Burns remains an intriguing mystery. Do get in touch if you can add more.
Graeme Cameron has provided the following Bobby Burns matches:
20/4/68 Melbourne Festival Hall Billy Dundee beat Bill Rawlings (opening prelim)
13//7/68 Melbourne Festival Hall Bill Rawlings beat Paul Aspiotis (opening prelim)
2/11/68 Melbourne Festival Hall Harold Kalivouris beat Bill Rawlings (opening prelim)
18/4/69 Sydney Stadium Billy Dundee beat Bill Rawlings (2nd match)
25/4/69 Sydney Stadium Billy Dundee drew Bill Rawlings (opening prelim)
3/5/69 Sydney Stadium Ken Medlin beat Bill Rawlings (opening prelim)
17/5/69 Sydney TV Murphie the Magnificent beat Bill Rawlings
Page added 25/07/2024
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