Australia Australia is a country in the southern hemisphere and is seen as a continent although some see it as the largest island in the world . It has a population of over 22 million people , with over half concentrated in five of the country ' s state capital cities ( Sydney , Melbourne , Brisbane , Perth and Adelaide ) . Professional wrestling in Australia makes up only a small part of Australian culture . While the North American or Japanese product have large , globally renowned organisations such as World Wrestling Entertainment and New Japan Pro Wrestling with several hundred smaller promotions , Australia only has approximately 40 small active independent circuit promotions which exist in all but one of the states and territories ( the Northern Territory ) . Tours from WWE are regularly sold out in capital cities such as Melbourne , Sydney , Perth and Brisbane . History . Until the 1960s , wrestling in Australia was all over the place . It consisted of mostly single matches on shows that also contained boxing contests . It didn ' t stop the likes of stars such as Clarence Weber , Jack Carkeek , Clarence Whistler and Georg Hackenschmidt touring the country before World War 2 , and Lou Thesz , Dr . Jerry Graham and Gorgeous George during the 1950s . In 1962 in Melbourne , a promotion called International Wrestling came to the attention of the mainstream media when Australian rules football player Murray Weideman announced that he would be wrestling in the promotion . Crowd numbers jumped , thanks to the support of the fans of the football club Weideman played for - Collingwood . Weideman worked for two months between August and October 1962 usually as a tag team partner to Salvatore Savoldi - a largely unknown face in wrestling - against Butcher Vachon and either George Bollas or another unknown in Pierre La Chappelle . These matches were held at Festival Hall , and were refereed by infamous heel Dirty Dick Raines . In 1964 , Australia established its only major promotion in World Championship Wrestling . WCW had a television deal with the Nine Network , the first in Australia to do so and attracted crowds between 2 , 000 and 9 , 000 people on a weekly basis . International stars such as Killer Kowalski , Ray Stevens , Dominic DeNucci , Mario Milano , Spiros Arion , Karl Gotch , Bruno Sammartino , Gorilla Monsoon and local stars Ron Miller and Larry O ' Dea were all involved with the promotion which grew steadily through its life . However , with the introduction of World Series Cricket , WCW was left with no television deal and was forced to close down in 1978 . This sent the Australian market into a large decline . With no access to any product anywhere in the world , the Australian market was almost dead until World Wrestling Entertainment became a prominent figure in professional wrestling in the mid - 1980s . Australian professional wrestling now plays only a minor role in mainstream Australian culture , with most Australian professional wrestling fans being fans of the WWE not even knowing a local independent scene even exists , or treat it with contempt - in all States and territories of Australia ( except the Northern Territory ) . As a whole , Australian Professional wrestling and the promotions , wrestlers , and events are considered on par with most other promotions around the world - it is only the distinct lack of promotion and lack of leadership that leaves a big gap open , and lets many talented and experienced wrestlers fly under the radar and go virtually unnoticed of both local , interstate and overseas wrestling fans . There have been two attempts to restore the role that WCW once played , in 2002 by Andy Raymond with the Australian Wrestling Supershow and in 2004 by James Brock with NWA Australia . Both failed .