Dazzlers Corner: The Godfather Of Australian Wrestling – Roy Heffernan
Mr Roy Heffernan. Roy was born in Lithgow on 12/07/25, Roy started out as a body builder and at age 19 and won the Mr Australia title. Roy started his professional wrestling career at age 20 and in 1953 he moved to America to enhance his career. On the 3rd May 1957 Roy Heffernan and Al Costello formed the Fabulous Kangaroos, Roy actually hand made their Fabulous Kangaroos Flag which I have proudly in my collection.
In 1957 the National Wrestling Alliance presented an award to Roy and Al, the first wrestlers to sell out Madison Square Garden twice in three weeks, seating capacity 20,700 gate receipt $64,000.
One of Roy’s most treasured matches was against his idol Mr Lou Thesz, Roy always called him Mr Thesz and on Roy’s last night of wrestling in America Roy and Mr Thesz battled to a one hour draw.
Roy returned to Australia and worked for Jim Barnett’s World Championship Wrestling, Roy was the everything man for Jim, Roy would travel all over Australia and book the country shows, Roy would wrestle, referee or do the announcing whatever was required of him, Roy would often tell me and Lofty lots of stories about Jim Barnett and Roy would mimic his voice, Jim would say Oh Roy, then it was Roy Boy then Oh Roysy Pooh, Roy said that he often wanted to punch him in the face but Roy was getting really well paid so he said Jim can call him whatever he wants. Roy promoted his own shows around the clubs throughout NSW. Roy would book all his own shows and he would do the announcing and he had his best mate Douggie Johnson as his sidekick, Doug would referee. Doug was a really nice guy.
I first met Roy in June 1981 and we quickly became very good friends and he teamed me up with Wayne Pickford, and Roy started training us at Doveys Gym in Darlinghurst, but that got to hard for Roy as Doveys was on the 3rd floor of an old building and had plenty of stairs, so we started training at the Balmain Police Boys Club and then the St George Police Boys Club. We would train at St George on a Saturday morning and then we would go back to Roy’s unit in Monterey and his lovely wife Joyce would make us lunch and then we would all start drinking beer and Wayne and I were mesmerised by Roy’s amazing stories, we would stay for around 4 hours. Sometimes when Roy had to much to drink he would get out his telex and call people, occasionally he would hand the phone over to me and I got to speak to some amazing people, Roy would usually start off with Hello you big bastard it’s Roy, the Fabulous Kangaroo, the only one he always spoke to with respect was Mr Thesz, l had the pleasure of talking to Mr Thesz twice, Stu Hart, Red Bastien, JJ Dillon Giant Baba. In the late 80s Roy came up with my nickname Dazzler and Wayne’s nickname Lofty and they stuck with us for the rest of our careers.
In the early 1970s Roy used the gimmick King of the Ring, now I am not sure if Roy invented the idea but he used it many years before the WWE did. The first winner of the King of the Ring was Joe Marolt.
Early in 1992 Roy’s wife Joyce passed away and he was totally lost, as l lived close by l would drop around and see him 2 or 3 times a week and I would take him shopping, he was quite funny to take shopping, as he couldn’t walk much he would stand at the bottom of the aisle and yell out can anyone see the sugar, people would look around and if someone said yes he would walk down the aisle to get it, he would complain of people standing there talking blocking his way, as a joke l got a friend of mine to get a bell from a bicycle and weld on a spring clip and I gave it Roy and said put it on your trolley and ring it if someone gets in your way, only about a week later he went shopping on his own and he rang me laughing and said that l got him kicked out of Coles at Ramsgate because he was ringing his bell and he said that other people were coming up to him saying why hasn’t my trolley got a bell, in the end the manager came up and asked him to leave and Roy told him that his friend has thousands of these bells he could sell him, he thought it was so funny.
On Father’s Day that year l was doing a wrestling show at 2.30 in the afternoon so I went to visit Roy about 10.30am and he was already drunk and very upset, his first one without Joyce, he was watching a TV interview from Good Morning Australia with him and Joyce on it, l calmed him down and made him some lunch and he seemed much better and before I left l put him to bed, for some strange reason when he got up he decided to vacuum his lounge floor and unfortunately he fell over the cords and broke his back, sadly he laid on the floor until the next morning when his juice man came to deliver his drinks for the week and saw him through the window and called for an ambulance. Roy was in a bad way for the next few days and I would go in most nights and help feed him and help him shave. On the Tuesday night he tried to get up and walk but fell to the ground, the next night l was sitting there talking to him and he told me that he was going to die that night and thanked me for his friendship and being like a son to him. The next morning l received a phone call from the hospital saying that Roy had passed away. In all the years l was involved in the wrestling l have never heard one bad word said about Roy. He was loved and respected by everyone. Roy was known as the Godfather of Australian Wrestling. In my opinion Roy should be in the Hall of Fame of Australian Sports.
Roy Heffernan is a man that should never be forgotten.
Features. Ken ‘Dazzler’ Dunlop was a professional wrestler here in Australia from 1978-2000. A former promoter and referee Ken is also the author of ‘Inside My Squared Circle’ the first ever autobiography by an Australian professional wrestler. Ken covers history features for us here at PWdownunder.com while also touching on topics like concussions, injuries’, insurance and promoting in Aussie wrestling.
