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A
tight new hold on our TV? by Ross Brundrett - 18th
July 2006
(Credit:
Herald Sun)
Mediaman interviewed and pitched
It might just be crazy enough to work . . . the return
of wrasslin' to the telly. Not the steroid-pumped
US hyperbole version, but World Championship Wrestling,
Australian-style.
Back
in the 1960s it was big. Compulsive viewing on a Sunday
for a generation of mainly young male viewers.
Sandwiched
between the footy review and Epic Theatre were the
big men in trunks pulled up way too high.
Chairs
smashed on heads. Blood flowing like claret. Sometimes
maybe it was claret. People threatening other people
with extermination.
Killer
Kowalski, Brute Bernard, Andre the Giant, Skull Murphy,
King Curtis, Big Chief Little Wolf and the darling
of the Italian community, Mario Milano.
"Oh,
it was big all right," said Milano, still alive
and kicking but hazy about just how old he is these
days.
"Guess,"
is all he would say.
Somewhere
in his 60s probably, but you wouldn't say that to
the man who made the "Abdominal Stretch"
his signature bout-stopper.
"Wrestlers
today can't do that move. They try but they haven't
got the arms and the legs for it," he said.
Milano
still gets stopped in the street by fans who watched
him at Festival Hall or on TV.
"It
did a lot for the sport (the TV show)," he said.
"Jack
Little (the over-the-top American host of the show)
was a great man," Milano said.
"I
remember when I went to his funeral there was only
a few people there. That was very sad, a man who helped
so many.
"We
used to do four or five bouts, live in the studio,
and there would be interviews with Jack.
"Sometimes
there was, you know, more fighting out of the ring
than in it."
These
days Milano lives a quiet life in suburban Gladstone
Park, but says he has been heartened by whispers among
people in the wrestling business that the Australian
version could return to the small screen.
"Geez,
I hope so," he said.
"The
American wrestling has some big men, but there is
too much talking and not enough action."
While
Milano has hung up his tights for good there is a
chance, if the sport does make a television comeback,
that he will return as a referee.
"I
hear (Nine boss) Eddie McGuire was a fan. It would
be good if he got it back on TV. Have you got his
phone number?" he asked.
Media
Herald-Sun
News
Limited
Mediaman
Profiles
Wrestling
Mario
Milano
Italy
Melbourne
Festival
Hall, Melbourne
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