AHHH...THE GOOD OLD DAYS

THEY were the legends who thrilled me and my fellow grappling fans way back when when TV only had two colours ...BLACK & WHITE

Stars such as Mario Milano, King Curtis, Brute Bernard, Bulldog Brower, Spiros Arion, Killer Kowalski and the sinister Tojo Brothers- who threw salt in Mark Lewins eyes on national tv and laughed while Mark trashed the set.

And let's not forget our homegrown heroes Ron Miller, Larry O'Dea and George Barnes, who matched up to the visiting yanks talent more than equally....For thousands of people, for many a year,  World Championship Wrestling was the real deal.

Not only at my place but right across the east coast, family', religiously tuned into World Championship Wrestling, an institution on TCN 9 at midday on Saturdays and Sundays

The company  did three TV shows a week and 300 live shows a year - which would average 15,000 punters a week at Festival Halls in Melbourne and Brisbane and initially The Sydney Stadium , then onto the Hordern Pavilion, where Fox Studio's now stands.

The guys would get 1000 people at the airport to meet them when they got into town for that nights show, the talent stayed at all the big hotels of the day and more often than not upgraded by the airlines, as an example one trip to Perth saw Lewin, Curtis , Miller and company get mobbed by up to , some say, 6,000

The big years for the WCW program were from 1964 to 1978 and the reasons it was so successful were the weekly TV show, the different nationalities, the characters and those fantastic promo's by Bulldog Brower, Ox Baker, Steve Rackman, Gary hart and Big Bad John...BUT, the best promo in the business then and I think he would still hold up today was King Curtis, who made a huge impact whenever he had control of the mic, Curtis was  the grand master of the ear shattering promo, In those days he was absolutely incredible. and like a real pro,  none of his promo's were written for him, I dont know where he came up with the stuff, it was just phenomenal.

Also.. local hero's ranks, were among others, Johnny Gray, Kevin Martin, Roy Heffernan...AND THEN..there was Mario Milano, the master of the abdominal stretch, he came to Australia in 1966 from Brazil and never left, after leaving the ring, Mario had a number of businesses including a pizza shop and travel agency and lives in retirement in Melbourne with the occasional stint as "Commisioner" for promotions around Melbourne..HELL..he could still run for mayor and win

The recently departed Killer Karl Kox, who had gained infamy by dropping commentator Jack Little on his head during an episode of WCW, a wrestling story that made main stream news at the time I might add,  became a prison warden after he was done "brainbusting " other wrestlers..its been said that one day an inmate reminisced how he used to watch Kox all the time, Kox replied  "Well, thats strange, now I watch you all time .

Recently  Ronnie Miller revived a lot of peoples memories of the halcyon days with a triple DVD release called Ruff Tuff & Real, which provides an amazing, historical, flashback into what really was a phenomenon in Australian's live's.

The DVD includes footage of the time Milano grew a moustache and turned heel on his tag partner Tony Puglisi and walked off with Gary hart while Kox and The Spoiler put Puglisi through an arse kicking ad a 1/2, best part was when longtime ref and former champion wrestler himself "Wallaby" Bob McMaster suggesting he may have been hypnotised or mesmerised by the Playboy

And what about those moves  - the sleeper hold (Mark Lewin), the brain buster (Killer Karl Kox), the coconut butt (Bobo Brazil) and the Indian death lock (Chief Billy White Wolf).

Commentator Jack Little - wrestling's version of Ray Warren- would often warn the audience that a competitor had a "foreign object down his trunks" and " thats all there is, there isnt anymore"

Then there were also my personal favourites,  the mysterious masked wrestlers, who, without fail hailed from "parts unknown". The Spoiler, The Masked Medics, The Assassins among others

Miller and his long-time tag team and business partner O'Dea started their wrestling careers at a little gym near Wentworth Park Dog Track, they did all the hard yards in the stadiums and smaller shows, and when they came back from a successful stint working for Eddie Graham in Florida, in 1973 they purchased WCW...But WCW it wasn't to last forever and it took a wrestling hating program director and  World Series Cricket - which took its regular Saturday / Sunday time-slot - to spell the end for televised wrestling

WHERE ARE THEY NOW:...well, what i could find anyway

Ron Miller: Retired and living in Tweed Heads

King Curtis: deceased

Mark Lewin: Living in the US and is married to a Tahitian princess

George Barnes: Ran successful trucking business

Spiros Ario: Retired and living in Greece

Ox Baker: Farmer, New York state

Killer Karl Kox: deceased

Professor Tanaka: deceased

Brute Bernard: Died playing Russian roulette in a bar

Skull Murphy: Committed suicide after a failed romance

Bruiser Brody: Stabbed to death in a dressing room in Puerto Rico. Nobody saw a thing.

Big Bad John: Fatally shot in Tennessee bar

Abdullah the Butcher: Runs a restaurant in Carolina and was recently inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame

Bill Dundee - went to the states and became a succesful booker in Memphis, Watts UWF and WCW

and my favorite jobber, Jan Jansen: now in the fitness industry on the South Coast of NSW