Professional wrestling in Australia first gained distinction in the early 1900s, however there were very few shows promoted. Nonetheless, stars such as Clarence Weber, Jack Carkeek, Clarence Whistler and George Hackenschmidt toured the country. As time went on, the sport's popularity began to grow, particularly in the 1930s as people sought to find relief from The Great Depression.
Throughout the 1940s professional wrestling suffered due to World War II but in the 1950s it reached new highs as many stars from overseas were imported and created larger crowds and, in turn, a larger market. Established names such as Lou Thesz, Dr. Jerry Graham and Gorgeous George toured the country during the decade.
Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, Australia established its only major promotion in WCW Australia. WCW had a television deal with the Nine Network, the first in Australia to do so and attracted crowds between 2,000 and 9,000 people on a weekly basis. International stars such as Killer Kowalski, Ray Stevens, Dominic Denucci, Mario Milano, Spiros Arion, Karl Gotch, Bruno Sammartino, Gorilla Monsoon and local stars Ron Miller and Larry O'Dea were all involved with the promotion which grew steadily through the 1960s and was a well known product in the 1970s. However, with the introduction of World Series Cricket, WCW was left with no television deal and was forced to close down in 1978. This sent the Australian market into a large decline. With no access to any product anywhere in the world, the Australian market was almost dead until the World Wrestling Federation became a prominent figure in professional wrestling in the mid-1980s.
Australia has depended on the North American product since 1985. Hosting tours in 1985 and 1986 kept a solid viewing in the sport through programmes such as Superstars of Wrestling and Saturday Night's Main Event. Small local promotions have tried to take advantage of the popularity of professional wrestling in more recent times, but there has been nothing of note since the demise of World Championship Wrestling in 1978.
However the local scene has been the subject of controversy.
In September 2002, a promotion called Professional Championship Wrestling presented a show at the Rowville Community Centre in which two wrestlers faced off in a contest that used thumbs tacks in a ring surrounded by barbed wire. Melbourne talk back radio received phone calls claiming that the audience was "showered with blood". Despite claims by a promotion spokesman that the event was theatrical, the Professional Boxing and Contact Sports Board investigated on the grounds that such a claim was not enough. Police also investigated and the Knox City Council reviewed the promotion's use of the venue after being led to believe the event was a "family event".[1]
Australian wrestlers overseas
Individual wrestlers originating in Australia struggled for a long time to obtain any international recognition. Perhaps the two biggest names when one mentioned Australia were The Fabulous Kangaroos—Roy Heffernan and Al Costello. They were the only Australian wrestlers to make it big in the United States and held the Florida and Texas versions of the NWA World Tag Team titles as well as the north east version of the NWA United States tag team titles in the Capitol Wrestling Corporation (later to become WWE)[2] on three occasions, as well as being inducted into the Wrestling Observer Newsletter Hall of Fame.[3]
Australian wrestler Peter Stilsbury was brought into the WWF in the mid-1980s under the name Outback Jack in response to the mainstream popularity at the time of the Australian film Crocodile Dundee.[4] He appeared in several vignettes hyping his debut by showing Jack in the wilds of the Australian Outback, drinking beer with cows,[5] and came down to the ring to the theme song by Rolf Harris, "Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport".[6] Outback Jack started his career touring in Canada with Stu Hart's Stampede Wrestling.
It would be in late 2011 that things started to change. WWE signed an Australian female wrestler Tenille Dashwood to its development territory NXT. She was originally from Melbourne. Dashwood debuted as a clumsy dancer Emma, and in early 2014 was elevated to the main roster. On 6 April 2014 she became only the second Australian wrestler to perform on a WWE pay per view and the first ever woman to do so when she was a part of the Diva's Title match at WrestleMania XXX. She later appeared at the 2014 Survivor Series in November. In 2017 she became the first Australian to perform at three WWE pay per view events when she was part of the fatal five way for the Raw Women's Championship at No Mercy. She made it four at TLC in opposition to Asuka.
In 2017, Rhea Ripley joined WWE and participated in the Mae Young Classic.[22] The Adelaide-based wrestler known locally as Demi Bennett would go on to participate in the second Mae Young Classic in 2018, but at TV tapings in Birmingham, England, Ripley became the first Australian woman to win a WWE controlled title when she defeated fellow Australian Toni Storm in a tournament final to be the inaugural winner of the NXT UK Women's Championship.[23] Ripley consequently made her first pay per view appearance at the 2019 Royal Rumble as a participant of the Women's Royal Rumble match.[24] At Wrestlemania 37 Rhea defeated Asuka to win the Raw Women's Championship[25]
Shows from North American promotions have been held in Australia as early as 1985 when the WWF toured three cities, they did a second tour in 1986 across five cities. That was the last Australia saw of a live North American product until WCW did a Nitro and Thunder taping in Melbourne,[35] a Nitro taping in Brisbane and a Thunder taping and a house show in Sydney in 2000.
In 2016, House of Hardcore presented House of Hardcore 15 in Melbourne, before returning in 2017 for a tour of Melbourne, Sydney, Perth, Adelaide, and Brisbane. They returned in 2018 for a tour of Perth, Melbourne, Sydney, and Sunshine Coast, the 2018 tour also saw the NWAWorld Heavyweight ChampionNick Aldis made four championship defences against Mark Cometti, Jonah Rock, Robbie Eagles and Jack Bonza.
On 26 January 2018 Progress Wrestling announced an Australian tour for April 2018, which would see them partner up with local promotion.[citation needed]
Various Australian wrestling shows like World Series Wrestling have featured overseas talent not signed to a major North American promotion.
In late 2022, NJPW announced NJPW Tamashii, a series of events that would be held in Australia and New Zealand.[47] The Tamashii brand was officially launched in September, with the first Australian show taking place on 13 November in Sydney.[48]
Throughout the 1990s, both WCW Monday Nitro and WWE Raw were broadcast pay television networks with WCW Monday Nitro on TNT and WWE Raw on Fox Sports.
In September 2002 negotiations between FOX8 and WWE fell through and SmackDown! was cancelled. This situation (that also affected WWE pay per views) continued until August 2003 when SmackDown! returned on Saturday nights. RAW was moved from Fox Sports to FOX8 and was shown on Friday nights. In order to prevent spoiler hunting on the internet, FOX8 moved WWE programming to timeslots closer to their United States air date. Finally it start airing RAW live on 4 February 2014[50]
In February 2005, WWE Heat, WWE Velocity and The WWE Experience were added to Fox8 and set up a large wrestling program on Saturdays and Sundays. Despite Heat, Velocity and Experience all being cancelled in the United States the shows continued to be shown in Australia to fulfill contractual obligations. When SmackDown! was moved to Friday nights in the United States, in Australia it remained on Friday afternoons. ECW on Sci Fi began broadcasting in Australia from 2 September 2006 in the place of WWE Velocity on Saturdays.
TNA Impact! began airing on 5 April 2008 on Fox8. It had been airing on Saturday nights on Fuel TV at 8.30pm AEST from June 2011, but this ceased in November 2014 when Fuel was absorbed by Fox Sports. For the remainder of 2014 and into 2015 it was shown on Main Event free of the usual charges, until 27 June 2015.[51]
Free to air wrestling programming has been scarce on Australian television in recent times. However, with the conversion to Digital Television, several wrestling programs were purchased. In June 2008, WWE After Burn aired on Channel 9 on Sunday afternoon. However, it later aired at 1am on Tuesday mornings. TNA Xplosion began airing on One HD in prime time at 8:30pm on Thursday but by late 2010 it had been replaced in effect by the WWE Experience.
Pay-per-views in Australia are shown on Main Event, the only provider in Australia. WWE's major pay-per-viewsRoyal Rumble, WrestleMania, King of the Ring, SummerSlam and Survivor Series began to be shown on pay-per-view by the late 1990s. Main Event has been broadcasting pay-per-views for both WWE starting from the late 1990s until the present time (including the Fanatic Series from October 2006 for a time) and WCW pay-per-views from around the same time until they were bought out in March 2001.
At the beginning of 2003 WWE pay-per-views were also lost to Main Event in the same deal that cost Australian fans SmackDown. Village Cinemas showed them for a few months until August 2003 when they returned to Main Event, starting with SummerSlam. A special NWA-TNA package replaced it in early 2003 but only lasted a year. NWA-TNA pay-per-views were shown once a month throughout 2003 during a time when they were being presented weekly in the United States.
After just over 3 years, NWA-TNA made its return—now just TNA. Beginning with TNA Sacrifice 2006 on 27 May 2006 on tape delay, this continued for 12 months before events started being broadcast live in May 2007. This ceased after the transmission of Slammiversary on 29 June 2015.[51]
Three World Wrestling All-Stars pay per views also aired live in Australia—WWA The Inception, WWA The Eruption and WWA The Reckoning.
^Jones was originally meant to team with The Undertaker but was (kayfabe) beaten down by their opponents before the match. Jones appeared later in the match.