Dazzlers Corner: Families in Australian Wrestling
By Ken Dunlop
Families in Australian wrestling. As most of you know in the USA and Canada there are many wrestling families, like the Von Eric’s, The Harts, the Funks, the Rhodes, the Windhams, the Armstrongs, the Guerreros, the Flairs and quite a few more, but did you know that we have a large number of family groups right here in Australia.
I am writing this list only up until the end of my career in 2000. I know that there are several more but I just don’t know them all except the Eagles family. I will start of with Father and Son combinations, the first family would possibly set a world record, a father and two sons but one son was a midget wrestler, the Davis Family, Noel Grumpy Davis (wrestled from 1955-1989) Bruce Bruiser Davis (1985-2001) and BJ Davis (1987-1989). Then we have Bobby Burns (Bill Rawlings) who wrestled in the 50s,60s, 70s then became a referee for at least another decade, then his son Dynamite Danny Burns, who was a great worker and a really nice guy but sadly took his own life in his mid 2000s.
Next Alex Iakovidis (1950s and 1960s) and Con Iakovidis (1980s, 1990s) Con also went on to promote right into the 2000s. Next Andy Harpas (1970s, 1980s and 1990s) and his son Daniel Harpas. Next up we have Brothers, Tony and Charlie Kontellis (1960s, 70s, 80s) Con and John Tolios (Con 1950s, 60s, 70s) and John (1970s, 80s, 90s) John was a great guy who always offered advice to the new young talent), next George and John Chami, John wrestled as John Santos. Not sure of the years they worked but I worked with both of them in the 1980s.
Next there is me Ken Dazzler Dunlop and my younger brother Allan who wrestled as Red Hot Ricky Diamond, both of us had over 20 years in the ring and we both taught many young wrestlers. Allan and I teamed up on a few occasions and we won the Australian Tag Team Titles in 1995. I am very proud of Allan’s achievements in the business, we are both in the NAW Australian Wrestling Hall of Fame.
Last on my list is TNT, Greg Bownds and his brother Flex Power, l know that Greg started in the mid 1990s and is still running shows today and training the next generation, l don’t know anything about his brother.
