Also known as Roy Hefferman
By Graeme Cameron
Wrestling Heritage welcomes memories, further information and corrections.
Roy Heffernan made his debut at Sydney’s Leichhardt Stadium in 1948, travelling the well-worn path from bodybuilding to wrestling. It wasn’t long before the globe-trotting bug bit.
By the time he reached the UK in 1953, he had already appeared in New Zealand, Singapore, India and Pakistan.
Roy followed his first UK stint with tournaments in Germany, then he worked in South Africa before eventually returning to the UK in 1955. The 1953 tour had been mainly in Northern England but when he returned in 1955 he travelled more extensively. Opponents included Jack Pye, Dave Armstrong and a Royal Albert Hall bout with the German Hermann Iffland.
He is of course best known for his partnership with fellow Aussie Al Costello as The Fabulous Kangaroos in North America. Uniting in the Stampede promotion in Canada the villainous pair, guided by manager Wild Red Berry, rose to the top of the tag team division.
Wearing their Australian military slouch hats and jackets, carrying souvenir boomerangs and led to ring by Berry carrying the Australian flags. American fans had not seen anything like them before.
They captured sixteen titles, appeared in numerous main events and twice sold out Madison Square Garden against Argentina Rocca and Miguel Perez.
They are regarded as one of, if not THE greatest tag teams in history. Roy returned to Australia in 1965, having a brief success as a main event villain before serving out the rest of his career as an undercard blue-eye.
Demoted, quite wrongly in some eyes, to a preliminary worker Roy was required to do his duty when facing American visitors. He received marginally more respect than other Aussies. His hand was usually
raised against other locals and occasionally against Americans who had
failed to live up to expectations or were about to leave the country.
Most of the time he did his duty for the big names, the same as other Aussies. He was used as the measuring stick for new American arrivals.
He retired at the end of 1972 and transitioned into refereeing for WCW and on the club circuit. He made a brief comeback in 1973 and opened an independent clubs promotion in 1975.
Roy Heffernan died of heart failure on 24th September, 1967.
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