Ron Miller - Wrestling Legend, Promoter
& Producer

Ron
Miller is a true legend of Australian professional
wrestling, who was very much part of the reason
of the success of World Championship Wrestling.
Profile
Born
Sydney Australia 1941
Always
a keen all-round sportsman Ron played rugby league
with Eastern suburbs in Sydney, where he was noticed
by promoter Hal Morgan while training and wrestling
at a Police Boys club.
He
then trained at the hard school of Hal Morgan
and Jim Deakin in Australia and later in Florida
USA.
Turned
pro in 1964 and wrestled in clubs throughout Australia
and N.Z. and started on the World Championship
Wrestling circuit.
1971
teamed with Larry ODay to tour the USA for
2 years. While based in Florida, becoming Florida
Tag Team Champions, then returning home via Germany,
Japan and the East.
During
the next few years Ron and Larry ODay held
many Tag Team Titles, and he occasionally teamed
successfully with his good friend Andre.
Ron's
talent was well known and highly respected. He
was constantly in demand and toured Australia
and the World wrestling the best as Australian
Heavyweight Champion, a title which he held for
a record length of time.
During
these years Ron and Larry ODay became shareholders
in WCW with Jim Barnett, and later owning World
Championship Wrestling (Australia). They continued
to produce T.V. programmes and promote over 300
shows a year in Australia, Asia and the South
Pacific regions.
In
a long and successful career which had many highlights,
including over 20 trips to the USA to wrestle
and attend NWA meetings. His matches for the NWA
World Heavyweight Championship with Harley Race
and Dory Funk were classics to be remembered.
After
retiring he became involved training young people
in various youth clubs and for the Dept.of Youth
and Community Services.
SPECIAL
MEMORIES OF :
HAL
MORGAN Gave me the best advice I ever had, he
said that if you want to make it to the top be
respected and last in this business, perfect your
wrestling skills and keep yourself fit. Then you
can look after yourself and make a living anywhere
in the world,
ROY
HEFFERNAN Was an inspiration to us all. He was
a pioneer in weight training and wrestling skills.
He reached the top in the USA with his partner
Al Costello as the Fabulous Kangaroos.
GEORGE
BARNES A super talent who had the ability to wrestle
main events anywhere in the world, but chose to
remain mostly in Australia combining wrestling
with a successful business.
JACK
LITTLE Started it all in 1964 when he contacted
American promoter Jim Barnett about the possibilities
out here. The weekly TV series was the basis of
the success of World Championship Wrestling.
KEN
MEDLIN Australian Light Heavyweight Champion and
a great performer, had a career to be proud of
in which he wrestled the very best and remained
on top for a long time.
ANDRE
A friend with whom I shared many great experiences.
He was the ultimate professional always making
himself available for publicity, special appearances
etc.
LARRY
ODAY My wrestling and business partner.
Larry was involved in pro wrestling from the early
60s worldwide at the highest level till
he passed away in 1997.
Website
World
Championship Wrestling
Articles
The
gurus of grapple, by Jon Geddes - 7th December
2007
(Credit:
The Daily Telegraph)
THEY
were the legends who thrilled and chilled Aussies
with their antics in, and often out, of the wrestling
ring for two decades.
Stars
such as Mario Milano, King Curtis, Brute Bernard,
Bulldog Brower, Spiros Arion, Killer Kowalski
and the sinister Professor Tanaka - who threw
salt in opponents' eyes - became household names.
And
let's not forget our homegrown heroes Ron Miller,
Larry O'Dea and George Barnes, who matched it
with best of them.
Forget
the glitz and showbiz associated with today's
WWE. World Championship Wrestling was the real
deal.
People
of all ages religiously tuned into World Championship
Wrestling, an institution on TCN 9 at midday on
Saturdays.
"We
did three TV shows a week and 300 live shows a
year - which would average 15,000 a week,"
66-year-old Miller said, who is retired and living
at Tweed Heads.
"You
would have 1000 people at the airport to meet
you. We stayed in first class hotels and would
get upgraded by the airlines."
On
one trip to Tokyo, Miller and the other wrestlers
were mobbed by 10,000 fans.
Miller
said 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 language-crunching
interviews.
There
is no bigger character than King Curtis, who made
a huge impact whenever he visited.
"For
the last 26 years the King has had a hire company
with surfboards and everything on Waikiki Beach,
in his native Hawaii," Miller said.
"He
was a really good professional guy and the master
of the interview.
"In
those days he was absolutely incredible. None
of his rants were scripted. I don't know where
he got it from. It just came to him from the top
of his head.
"And
then there was Mario Milano. He came to Australia
in 1966 and never left."
After
leaving the ring, Milano had a number of businesses
including a pizza shop and travel agency and lives
in retirement in Melbourne.
Killer
Karl Kox became a prison warden. One day an inmate
reminisced how he used to watch Kox all the time.
"Now
I watch you all time time," Kox replied.
A
former Australian champion himself, Miller has
revived those halcyon days with a DVD called Ruff
Tuff & Real, which provides an amazing insight
into what really was a phenomenon in Australian
life.
The
DVD includes rare footage of the dark time Milano
grew a moustache and turned bad guy, with referee
Bob McMaster suggesting he may have been hypnotised
or mesmerised by his manager.
And
what about those sensational moves - the sleeper
hold (Mark Lewin), the Texan 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 Frank Hyde
- would often warn the audience that a competitor
had a "foreign object down his trunks".
There
were also those mysterious wrestlers, often masked,
who hailed from "parts unknown".
Miller
and his long-time tag team and business partner
O'Dea started their wrestling careers at a small
gym in Wentworth Park.
"We
did all the hard yards in the small clubs and
gyms and learnt some hard lessons and how to respect
the business," Miller said.
"By
1973 we owned it."
But
WCW wasn't to last forever and it took something
with the viewer appeal of World Series Cricket
- which took its regular time-slot - to spell
the end.
Miller
and O'Dea remained close friends until O'Dea died
in 1997.
These
days Miller keeps fit by diving into the water
rather than on to the canvas mat.
"I've
got new knees and new hips. I'm like a mechanical
man. Most of the guys are like that," he
said.
And
Miller told a story proving the old wrestlers
really were a special breed.
He
said Killer Kowalski, 79, got married for the
first time last year to his blushing bride of
78.
When
Killer was asked: "Why would you get married
now?", he replied: "She told me she
was pregnant so I had to do the right thing."
WHERE
ARE THEY NOW:
Ron
Miller: Retired and living in Tweed Heads
King
Curtis: Runs a beach hire business on Waikiki
Beach
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: Prison warden
Professor
Tanaka: Ran a fishing boat before passing away
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. "He
doesn't have a menu, he tells you want to eat,"
Ron Miller said
Steve
"The Crusher" Rackman: Executive manager
of a gym
Jan
Jansen: Former Bondi parking ranger. Now in the
fitness industry on the South Coast
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Media Man Australia does not represent Ron Miller,
however has collaborated on a number of occasions
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