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Chapter Three: Geoff Brown of Australia
#PWHS #Interview #Australia #Melbourne #WCW #Barnett #MyBoy
Spiros Arion
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Terry Kent
It is my pleasure to be speaking to Geoff Brown from “down under” in Australia. Through your postings Geoff in PWHS I have found out what a hotbed of wrestling was, and especially for many American stars in the far away land of Australia. I just had to “pick your brain” and find out more about the exciting wrestlers and storylines. Thank you Geoff.
Geoff Brown
It’s my pleasure Terry; I’d be glad to answer any question you have to the best of my ability.
Question 1
How did you discover Professional Wrestling?
Answer
Watching it on TV; at a guess I would say I was 5 years old and the year was 1965.
Question 2
At what age were you when you attended your first matches? Get to sit at ringside?
Answer
I was 6 and a half when a neighbor took my brother and I to Festival Hall in Melbourne. The main event was Mark Lewin Vs. Skull Murphy. We had seats a fair way back but it was right near the dressing room the wrestlers came out from.
Question 3
Any special memories from your first matches live?
Answer
I remember going up and touching Bearcat Wright who had beaten Professor Tanaka. Bearcat seemed to be 10 feet tall to me at that age.
Question 4
Were there several large wrestling companies?
Answer
The only promotion I knew of at the time was the Jim Barnett and Johnny Doyle promotion World Championship Wrestling (WCW) because it was on TV. There was other promotions but I was not aware of them.
Question 5
Were there multiple TV shows to watch? Were there any American shows shown?
Answer
In Melbourne, where I live, the only TV program was WCW that was on at 12 midday on Sundays. This served to promote the following week’s promotion at Festival Hall which was on Saturday nights. The only wrestling we got was Barnett and Doyle’s promotion. Most people, I think, like myself were pretty much oblivious to what was going on anywhere else in the world. Even though I was aware that there was wrestling in other states in Australia it all seemed to centre about what happened in Melbourne to me back in the 60s and 70s. We started getting Sydney’s TV show that was filmed and shown on Saturdays after a while. It was used in Sydney to promote their own Friday night cards, but in Melbourne they simply edited out their following weeks card promo and edited in our Melbourne Festival Hall card that was to be held that night .
Question 6
Were American wrestlers coming over at the same time every year- in other words, were they seasonal, Or were they coming and going all year?
Answer
Barnett and Doyle would basically bring in different wrestlers for 2 to 3 months at a time. On average there would be 8 international wrestlers here at one time. They would come and go at different times so there always seemed to be a fresh face in the line-up. I think the secret to their success here was they never let the wrestlers stay too long that they got stale with the fans. For example they would bring in Killer Kowalski for 3 months. Then he might leave but return 3 months later and it was all new again. The timeframe that Barnett & Doyle would bring in wrestlers for would be enough to build up an angle or a feud that could culminate into several weeks of main events. Then it wound up with a finish that satisfied the fans.
Mostly the first time the new arrival came in without any build up. Depending on who the wrestler was it was often the commentators (Jack Little in particular) who would really talk them up once they arrived. The interviews in particular were very influential in how a new wrestler got across while other times it was simply how good they were in the ring. Playboy Gary Hart one time got on TV and said he had not seen one half decent looking Australian woman while he had been here, which immediately had the female wrestling fans hating him and any wrestler associated with him . As a result more women would go to the stadium to boo him and his wrestlers proving that in wrestling just as many people went to hopefully watch somebody get beat as they did to want to watch them win.
Question 7
Were their times when there were only Australian wrestlers that were on the card?
Answer
Barnett and Doyle only used the local Australian wrestlers on the undercards to the overseas wrestlers that were the main eventers. A couple like Roy Heffernan and Larry O’Day were given a small push, but basically the locals were not used higher up the card or in main events until around 1974/75. Ron Miller and Larry O’Day took over running the promotion at that point. Even then, they kept at least 6 overseas wrestlers on the roster in the top of card matches.
Question 8
How large were the biggest shows? What cities? What auditoriums?
Answer
Promotions were held weekly in Melbourne and Sydney, as well as regularly in other cities and states like Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth. They would also wrestle in regional cities like Geelong, Newcastle and even Tasmania. Many wrestlers could often be wrestling six nights a week including doing television on Saturdays in Sydney and Sundays in Melbourne. As far as crowd figures go I can only say from experience from attending Festival Hall in Melbourne regularly in the '70s that the venue held about 5.000 and it was almost always a full house with hundreds lined up in the street wanting to get in when the full house sign went up.
I have seen crowd figures in clippings of crowds of up to 14,000 attending matches in Sydney in 1965 . Over the years the venue changed in Sydney a few times so crowd figures often fluctuated . Melbourne and Brisbane always held wrestling at the same venue's that were similar in size. Depending on what you read I have seen figures that range from 5,000 to 5,500. Melbourne's Festival Hall is still here today and it gives its official capacity as 5,445 for a concert . I can only say that from memory whenever I was there the place was packed to the rafters.
Question 9
Who were the main stars? Who were the heated rivalries?
Answer
WCW started in October 1964 and ran until December 1978. Over that time I would say we saw most of the top wrestling stars here at one time or another. From an Australian point of view I think the most memorable one’s, because they made quite a few trips here, are: Killer Kowalski, King Curtis, Mark Lewin, Spiros Arion, Mario Milano, Skull Murphy, Brute Bernard, Bulldog Brower and Killer Karl Kox to name just a few. Others we saw here sometimes only once or more times were Bruno Sammartino, Dory Funk Jr, Dusty Rhodes, Dick Murdoch, Dominic Denucci, Ray Stevens, Tiger Singh, Jack Brisco ,Andre the Giant etc.
Question 10
What was the best heel or hero turn you remember?
Answer
Perhaps the most memorable rivalry /feud/angle we had here was in 1973 called “The War”. It was billed as the war to who controlled wrestling in Australia. It was between Big Bad John’s Army that consisted of Bulldog Brower, Waldo Von Erich, Abdullah the Butcher, Don Fargo, The Great Tojo among a few others up against “The People’s Army” that consisted of Mark Lewin, King Curtis, Spiros Arion, Sheik Wadi Ayoub and several others. The booker for this “war idea” I learned in later years was Mark Lewin. Ironically in 1996 the idea that Eric Bischoff is credited with coming up with [see end notes] of the NWO takeover of WCW in America was a straight out take off of Lewin’s “WAR” angle that ran in Australia more than 20 years earlier. The WAR also saw the most memorable heel/face turn in Australian WCW history. Killer Karl Kox was brought in by Big Bad John to be the jewel in the crown of Big Bad John’s Army, but Kox turned and joined Lewin and company in The People’s Army. Kox gave a very memorable interview on TV the next day when he announced he had promised his dying mother on her death bed he would change his evil ways and he gave her his word as a former marine! Kox went from the hated villains to one of the most loved good guys after that.
Question 11
Any different rules there versus American rules - for instance, the British have rounds.
Answer
When Barnett and Doyle started here in 1964, they did away with the rounds system that had been used in Australia.
Question 12
Any managers there?
Answer
We had some great managers in Australia during the WCW years. Playboy Gary Hart, Big Bad John, Don Carson, JJ Dillon, Bobby Shane and Steve Rackman all enjoyed great success here. It was in Australia that Bobby Shane went from wrestler to manager and he was absolutely brilliant in the role. I have always believed that had it not been for Bobby’s untimely and tragic death in 1975, that he would have gone on to achieve much greater success in that role in wrestling for many years after.
Question 13
Were there any famous riots at the wrestling arenas during these years?
Answer
Crowds would often get worked up over the antics of the villains in matches but nothing ever too serious. As far as getting into trouble outside the ring with fans there are no really bad stories I have heard with the exception of Buddy Austin getting shot in the stomach on New Years eve in 1968 in an incident at a Sydney nightclub. Pedro Morales was hit over the head with a beer jug in the same incident. Ironically they were both here to begin wrestling in the new 1969 season that was starting on January 3 and they were to be opponents. Morales went home without wrestling a match in Australia while Austin returned in 1970.
Question 14
What were the TV shows like? Were they an hour long in length?
Answer
The TV programs were one hour in duration. Usually it was 4 matches plus interviews to promote the upcoming stadium show. Often the TV matches would be a main overseas star against a local. Although the local wrestler would nearly always lose the matches, they were not the typical squash matches that we saw in later years when the WWWF began getting shown on TV here.
Question 15
What would Americans find different watching wrestling in Australia?
Answer
Because Barnett and Doyle started the promotion here, our TV program was obviously based on how the American’s presented their shows. One very successful thing that was used during the run of WCW here was that Australia has a lot of Italian and Greek’s living here. When any Italian or Greek wrestler gave an interview they would do it in English, then speak in their own language to their fans. The benefit of that was evident by the massive number of Italian and Greek fans who would show up at the stadiums.
Question 16
Who were Australian stars that maybe we never heard of?
Answer
Australia had several wrestlers on our undercards during the '60s and '70s that went on to achieve bigger success overseas than they did here. Billy Dundee is the best example. Johnny Boyd went over to America and became Lord Johnathan Boyd. He formed a tag team in America with a local wrestler who had used a Gorgeous George type of gimmick in Australia. His name here originally was Murphy the Surfie who then became Murphy the Magnificent. In the U.S he became Norman Fredrick Charles III and he and Boyd became The Royal Kangaroo’s. Other wrestlers who appeared on our local scene before gaining notice in the U.S were Les Roberts (Dingo the Sundowner) Hans Schroeder (although always billed as being from Germany) Johnny Gray, Ron Miller and Larry O’Day (The Australians), George Barnes, Tony Garea who wrestled here as Tony Garcia who was from New Zealand . Both Bushwacker’s/ Sheepherders Luke Williams and Butch Miller wrestled here individually in their early days as Gorgeous Teddy Williams and Brutal Bob Miller. One local wrestler who achieved main event status in Australia that never went over to the U.S was Rocky Romero. He won the brass knucks title here defeating The Great Mephisto. Sheik Wadi Ayoub was a Lebanese wrestler based in Australia who was very well known throughout Asia and Europe who main evented in Australia but never went to America.
Question 17
What is a list of other visiting Foreign wrestlers?
Answer
Australia saw several wrestlers from other parts of the world before they became known in America. Billy Robinson, Les Thornton, Pat Barrett to name a few. The Tojo Brothers from Japan came out in 1973. One of them was Akihisa Takachiho aka The Great Kabuki. Other names that I remember that appeared on our cards from what I thought were “exotic” places were Akim Manuka from Albania , Fred Burger from Austria and George Lackey from Latvia.
Question 18
What would you like to tell us in closing?
Answer
I often think I was very lucky to have been born in 1960 and being a wrestling fan during the golden years of wrestling here 1964 to 1978. I was the right age at the right time when I was regularly attending the stadium shows between 1972 and 1974.
During those years my sister worked in the city at a Florist Shop that was two doors away from the place where you made the bookings for the Saturday night stadium shows that went on sale each Monday morning at 9 am. Because she was practically next door and would book the tickets for me I was always either in the front or second row seats so all my memories of watching wrestling are from right up close. I think that is why I am still a fan of those old days today. I saw bloody cage matches. A loser leaves town match that Killer Karl Kox defeated Chief Wahoo McDaniel where there were women openly crying that he had to leave. I saw Bulldog Brower pick up Haystacks Calhoun. I had Tarzan Tyler practically fall on top of me while trying to get away from Spiros Arion when they took the battle outside the ring and into the crowd. I had King Curtis shake my hand and thank me for signing a petition to get Big Bad John banned from Australia during “The War”. That was kind of funny because I actually was supporting Big Bad John’s Army during that battle. I got to see so many of the greats in action along with women wrestlers and the midgets that I appreciate more now than I probably did then. Wrestling has always been a hobby for me that has resulted in making a lot of friends worldwide because of it. Probably the most satisfying thing about it though is that through my hobby I have been able to provide the families of The Oklahoma Kid, Hercules Cortez and Big Bad John with some memorabilia of them from their wrestling days in Australia that they had previously never seen or known about. In the process I have had the wonderful experience in later years of meeting many of the local wrestlers I grew up watching and even had a phone call back in 1998 from Killer Kowalski himself when he was staying at the house of another friend I met through wrestling in San Diego.
Terry Kent
Geoff, thank you so much for enlightening us Yanks on the exciting wrestling times in Australia during the Golden Years. I would love to watch the many feuds and storylines you have alluded to. Thankfully, we have a few of these moments captured for the world to see on Youtube. Once again, Thanks!
Unique content strictly for the Professional Wrestling Historical Society.
Interview with Geoff Brown.
Interviewer: Terry Kent.
Published: 2014.
Fan Interview: #3.
Editor: Jimmy Wheeler.
Updated: March 26, 2019.
Interview with Geoff Brown.
Interviewer: Terry Kent.
Published: 2014.
Fan Interview: #3.
Editor: Jimmy Wheeler.
Updated: March 26, 2019.
Editor's Note:
Eric Bischoff credits the initial concept for the New World Order coming from an angle worked between New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) and Union of Wrestling Forces International (UWFi).
Eric Bischoff credits the initial concept for the New World Order coming from an angle worked between New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) and Union of Wrestling Forces International (UWFi).
An interview with Peggy Latham: Part One by Terry Kent - Read Here.
An interview with NJPW Gaijin Eric by Terry Kent - Read Here.
Other interviews on the #PWHS website can be Read Here.