5 Reasons Why Australian Pro Wrestling Is Practically Unheard Of

1. The Ignorance Of The WWE

For six decades Australia were not only dominant but we were innovators in the world of wrestling. People a generation behind me still talk to this day with great fondness the days when on Saturday afternoon they would sit down and watch the likes of Killer Kowalski and Mario Milano take on the worlds best professional wrestlers. And this trend continued through the golden years of the 80's, where kids like me grew up with Hulk Hogan, the Macho Man, Big John Studd, King Kong Bundy, Ricky Steamboat and Andre the Giant, just to name a few. But then something happened when the 1990's rolled around. Everything stopped. Dead. And seemingly overnight. The last thing I remember seeing promoted WWE wise in the 90's before it made it's return in 1998 (and that was only because WCW had started broadcasting down under) was Wrestlemania 6. The Ultimate Warrior vs Hulk Hogan. Then bam, nothing. No WWF, no WCW, no NWA, no Wonderful Women of Wrestling (all of these we got at one time or another) and no local wrestling. And with the successfully led Tina Turner publicity machine that was Rugby League at the time, professional wrestling was dead and buried in this country in terms of any form of mainstream popularity. Suddenly we had to wait SIX MONTHS TO A YEAR for a ppv to come out on VHS. After the fact. And it has taken this long for the market to be substantial again. And I have to ask the question why? Becuase when you look back at the history of how WWE corporate likes to treat it's Australian fanbase it is again, seemingly only out of spite. Especially the debacle in 2003 when we lost both Smackdown AND ppvs because Vince decided in his infinite wisdom to raise the price of his programming so ridiculously high (it was rumoured to be around 400%) that the cable network had no choice but to just cancel the broadcast. I had to travel to Sydney CITY to watch Wrestlemania 19 live at the main cinema who were the only ones who could afford to get it live. What kind of madness is that? Especially considering they recently made serious bank with Global Warning. Nowadays they travel out once a year to do house shows. Which they sell out or come close to every single time. But have they ever taped a RAW or a Smackdown down under? Or even a damn Superstars? Nope. Hell, even WCW managed to do that and they were going down the gurgler at the time. And the thing is, if they did announce a live taping of RAW or Smackdown, they could easily pull in the same numbers like they did at Global Warning. Now imagine that, "Welcome to Monday Night Raw in front of a staggering 50,000 people." How in the blue hell is that not best for business? Vince McMahon truly has lost it, as I would like to point out that again, it is not rocket science. Australia does have a substantial and extremely talented "roster" of wrestlers (some of which I hope to report on at a future date if permitted) and if given the same treatment as any other territory in the world, not only would we show you just how good we are down here but I guaran_damn_tee that in time we will be at the top of the mountain, the proverbial cream of the crop and the future of the industry. Ooooooooooh Yeaaaaahhhhh! (A special thanks to Big Daddy Julian James for various bits of info and pics)