Wrestling Heritage welcomes memories, further information and corrections
The name Bobby Burns, usually billed from Wellingborough, was seen on independent posters between 1964 and 1966, opponents included other rising stars Bob Anthony, Ray Leslie, Ray McGuire and Alan Serjeant. Johnny Williams. In tag matches he was often partnered with Gypsy Joe Smith. Whilst all the above went on to become familiar to television fans Bobby Burns simply disappeared.
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 own family had 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.
Another turn of events came in 1969. Heritage member Al Hibbert witnessed the unmasking of the White Phantoms at Wimbledon Palais. Beneath the masks were Bobby Burns and Gypsy Joe Smith. Now the Phantoms had been around since April of the previous year, meaning that Bobby Burns was not one of the original team. Or it could be we now have someone impersonating Burns in Britain, but surely that would be too absurd even for pro wrestling. Possibly. Or possibly not.
Bobby returned to Australia and could be found as a support wrestler using the name Bobby Burns. He’s listed in 1976 as 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
13370
Wrestling Heritage 