Roy Heffernan Laurence Roy Heffernan ( 12 July 1925 – 24 September 1992 ) was an Australian professional wrestler . Roy Heffernan toured all over the world , but is most famous for being one half of the original version of the tag team the Fabulous Kangaroos ( with Al Costello ) . The Kangaroos used an " Ultra Australian " gimmick complete with Boomerangs , bush hats and " Waltzing Matilda " as their entrance music . The first incarnation of the Kangaroos is the most famous of all the Kangaroo versions and is often credited with popularizing tag team wrestling in the late 1950s and 1960s . Costello and Heffernan are also regarded as one of the top tag teams to ever compete in professional wrestling . When the Kangaroos broke up , Heffernan left America to return to his home of Australia . In Australia , Heffernan was involved with Australia ' s version of World Championship Wrestling under booker Jim Barnett where he worked as a face ( good guy ) , the polar opposite of his time spent as a Fabulous Kangaroo . Both Heffernan and Costello died before the team was honored by being the first tag team inducted into the Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame in 2003 . The induction of the Fabulous Kangaroos started a tradition of inducting a new team every year . Biography . Starting out . Roy Heffernan was a native Australian , born in Lithgow NSW , and was an avid weightlifter and bodybuilder in his teens . He was trained by his father , who was also a bodybuilder , and won the Mr Australia title before making his wrestling debut at the age of twenty . Heffernan did not have an easy time moving up the ranks in Australian pro wrestling , as the belief at the time was that a wrestler really had to go overseas to North America and learn to be a pro before the bookers would even consider moving them up the rankings of the promotion . After working on the lower cards in Australia , Heffernan left his home country in 1953 to come to America in the hopes of attaining more success there . Fabulous Kangaroos . For years , Al Costello had been working on an idea for a new tag team and even had an idea of who his partner should be in this new tag team : a wrestler he had worked with some years ago ( Heffernan ) . The problem was that Costello and Heffernan had lost touch over the years , so the idea remained dormant until Costello went on a tour of Hawaii in 1956 . Costello mentioned his idea of an " Ultra Australian " tag team to fellow wrestler and future promoter , Joe Blanchard . Blanchard was good friends with Heffernan and knew that he was working in Stampede Wrestling at that point in time . Blanchard put the two in touch with each other , and soon after , Costello was off to Calgary , Alberta , Canada to join up with Costello . Costello and Heffernan made their debut as the Fabulous Kangaroos on 3 May 1957 for Stu Hart ’ s Stampede Wrestling promotion in a match against Maurice LaPointe and Tony Baillargeon . Only weeks after making their debut , the Kangaroos were working with the top tag teams of the promotion . After working in Stampede for a while , the Fabulous Kangaroos traveled across the United States , headlining shows wherever they went due to their ability to rile the crowd up with their heel ( bad guy ) tactics . On one occasion in August 1958 the Kangaroos , or " Kangaroo Men " as they were billed , nearly caused a riot in Madison Square Garden during a match against Antonino Rocca and Miguel Pérez . The fans began to throw fruit and stones after the match ended without a decisive winner , and the promoters had to step in , turn up the lights in the arena and play the National Anthem to stop a potential riot from breaking out . Everywhere the team went , they seemed to win championships ; be it the Texas version of the NWA World Tag Team Championship in Dory Funk , Sr . ’ s NWA Western States promotion , or the forerunner to the WWWF United States Tag Team Championship , the North East version of the NWA United States Tag Team Championship . During their time together from 1957 until 1965 , the Kangaroos wrestled in the United States , Canada , Asia and select tours of Australia and New Zealand . They worked for such companies as Capitol Wrestling Corporation ( the future World Wrestling Entertainment ) , Championship Wrestling from Florida , NWA Ohio , the Japan Wrestling Association and the World Wrestling Association in Los Angeles . The Kangaroos never forgot the territory that started it all and worked in Canada off and on over they years . The team not only worked for Stampede Wrestling while in Canada , but also worked for NWA All - Star Wrestling based in Vancouver , British Columbia . The Fabulous Kangaroos ’ 1965 run in NWA All - Star Wrestling turned out to be the last time the original Kangaroos teamed together . In June 1965 , the Kangaroos lost to Don Leo Jonathan and Jim Hardy and then split up . Heffernan left Australia to tour the world in 1953 and wanted to return to his homeland , while Costello was determined to remain in the United States at least for a while longer . Return to Australia . Roy Heffernan returned to his native Australia , and became one of the main wrestlers for World Championship Wrestling ( WCW ) ( the Australian version ) under promoter Jim Barnett . Heffernan retained his " Ultra Australian " gimmick complete with Bush hat and boomerang , but what had made him a heel ( bad guy ) in the United States made him a beloved face ( good guy ) in Australia . Heffernan ' s Fan Club Yearbook circa 1966 gives the following physical statistics for Roy Heffernan : neck 17 . 5 inches ; chest 48 . 5 inches ; waist 32 . 5 inches ; thigh 27 inches ; biceps 17 . 5 inches ; calf 17 . 5 inches . He was billed in 1967 as weighing 225 lbs . Costello was originally supposed to join Heffernan in Australia but it never worked out that way , leaving Costello in the United States while Heffernan wrestled as a singles wrestler . Later in his career , Heffernan became involved in the actual running of WCW before retiring in the 1980s . Death . Roy Heffernan died on 24 September 1992 in his home in Sydney , Australia from a heart attack . In 2003 , the Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame inducted Roy Heffernan , along with Al Costello , as the first ever tag team to be inducted into the Hall of Fame . From 2003 and forward , the Hall of Fame has honored other tag teams , but the Fabulous Kangaroos were given the honor of being the first team to enter the Hall of Fame ; in the tradition of the Kangaroos they were " billed as champions on arrival " one last time .