(Photo by Phil Cole/Getty Images)
Preface: Australian media tycoon Kerry Packer took control of Consolidated Press Holdings after his father’s death in 1974. One of the company’s primary holdings, The Nine Networks, was rating poorly; to increase ratings, Packer subscribed a heavy schedule of sports programming.
Being a rather large fan of cricket, the game was an obvious choice for Packer to fuel the ailing networks ratings. After having several offers for the television rights rejected by the Australian Cricket Board, CPH decided to simply start their own competition.
Shrouded in secrecy, World Series Cricket poached top players from around the world and was set to be bigger than Ben-Hur. Lured by financial security, 50 of the world’s best cricketers signed on.
After a seven-week court case, World Series Cricket was given the go-ahead. The competition started on the Dec. 2, 1977.
Once WSC debuted, World Championship Wrestling Australia was pulled off the air.
The “Golden Age” of Australian pro wrestling had come to an abrupt end. By the end of 1978, WCW had collapsed, unable to sustain itself without a TV deal.
For nearly 30 years, Australians relied heavily upon American wrestling promotions such as WCW, TNA, and WWE. For over half that time, a weekly dose of sports entertainment within the comfort of their homes wasn’t a luxury available to people down under.
The choice of the country's free-to-air networks in the early '90s to show WWE and WCW programming in late-night time slots wasn’t a smart move, as the shows failed to get viewers at one am. Enter pay television.
Australia didn’t have any form of pay television until Jan. 1, 1995, when satellite provider Galaxy finally made the option available to all capital cities in the country. Regional areas didn’t have the option until 1997.
It was at this time that Fox Sports Network and Turner Classic Movies began showing Raw and Nitro respectively. Pay-per-view made its debut in Australia via Main Event, giving both WWE and WCW another sales outlet in the southern hemisphere.
By the start of 1999, both promotions were offering live PPV events, albeit only the major four WWE shows were shown. All WCW PPV events had been shown since 1997.
It was at this time that wrestling promotions started to spring up all around Australia. Sydney-based IWA and AWF did surprisingly well at the time, utilizing the popularity of the American product to maximize attendance.
As the popularity of pro wrestling rose, so did costs. Many promotions folded without even making a dent in the landscape.
WCW came to Australia in October of 2000, managing to receive mainstream exposure. One of Australia’s highest-rating shows, The Footy Show, had Scott Steiner and Dennis Rodman make an appearance. The tour was soured when Juventud Guerrera was arrested after being found in the hallway of a hotel naked, screaming, and under the influence of PCP.
In the year 2000, the FOX 8 channel started showing SmackDown! on a weekly basis. Unfortunately, the joy of Australian fans was short-lived. In September 2002, WWE fans were thrown into chaos when the deal between FOX8 and WWE fell apart. The failure of the deal not only cost Australian fans SmackDown!, it also cost them the monthly PPVs.
It was a huge blow to both fans and WWE itself. The promotion had booked its first Australian tour in 16 years, which was very successful considering only RAW was on the air at the time. The WWE has been back to the land “down under” on a regular basis since then, sometimes running two tours a year.
The lost of SD! and PPVs was devastating for another reason.
Due to the brand split of 2002, we missed almost all of Australian wrestler Nathan Jones’ stint with the company. Jones is by far the best-known wrestler from the country in recent times.
Having worked for World Wrestling All-Stars in 2001/2002, Jones went to WWE carrying the weight of expectation of the entire country on his shoulders. The pressure of the WWE schedule brought Jones to the brink of exhaustion. He left WWE on Dec. 6, 2003, about 12 months after signing with the company.
By the time SummerSlam came around in 2003, an agreement had been made, and Australians had both SD! and the PPVs back, much to the relief of Australian fans. Raw made the move to FOX 8, making it the home of WWE in Australia.
Velocity, Heat, and WWE Experience were added in 2005, the later two making a home on Saturday afternoon programming alongside the replay of Raw, just as WCW Australia had done over 30 years before.
When the shows were cancelled in the US, they continued to be shown in Australia for some time to fulfill contractual obligations.
The Australian TV debut of ECW in September of 2006 had die-hard fans doing back flips around their lounge rooms. Despite the show being the third tier of WWE programming, Australians went NUT for ECW.
Last year, FOX 8 began screening TNA’s iMPACT to huge ratings on Saturday nights. The first few weeks of iMPACT out-rated every WWE show on the channel. After the gloss wore off, iMPACT fell back to ratings slightly behind the WWE shows.
The state of professional wrestling in Australia has improved dramatically since WCW Australia closed its doors in 1978. Due to the exposure of the North American product, there is a market and a place for Australian-made product.
Almost 30 years after the last WCW Australia show was broadcast, the promotion that took its name from the defunct company’s major belt, IWA, debuted on national TV.
IWA on Aurora was the first Australian-made wrestling show to hit TV screens across the country. Although the company makes only short series of the show, it has been somewhat successful.
The quality of the show continues to improve as time rolls on. The camera work has improved greatly since the first series but still has a long way to go.
Where they looked uncomfortable in the first series, the wrestlers themselves have become more accustomed to being on camera. The storylines are more developed, but the focus is still on the in-ring action.
To be honest, the show has such an Australian flavor I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone that has trouble understanding our accent!
Although the steps are small, Australian promotions are still taking them. IWA is not the only promotion making an impact on the now blooming Australian scene.
Companies such as Perth-based Explosive Pro Wrestling and Melbourne-based Pro Championship Wrestling Entertainment are utilizing Internet video streaming sites like YouTube to get their product seen not only in Australia but around the world.
PCW held the first barb wire match on Australian soil back in 2002, gaining mainstream notoriety when a mother that had taken her child to the match called a local talk-back radio station. A wrestler heard the mother's call and called the station himself in attempt to clear the air. The resulting police investigation was included in news broadcasts nationally.
AWF celebrated its 10th anniversary last weekend with international stars Al Snow and Chris Masters attending the show. The promotion has regularly used international stars including Bryan Danielson, Sean Waltman, Sabu, Raven, and Nigel McGuinness in its events.
With the major promotions gaining mainstream exposure, the future of Australian pro wrestling looks bright once again. Who knows—maybe one day we all could watch what Australia produces.
Pigs might fly too!
Author's note: “NUT” is a tribute to Pat Patterson. Pat was an integral part of the Australian Pro Wrestling scene in the 1960s.
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