names death_date death_place weight birth_place birth_date image article_title name
'' ` al hobman '' ' 21 september 2008 wellington , new zealand 110 kg lb on new zealand 23 april 1925 al hobman.png al hobman
 al hobman
al hobman

allan `` al '' hobman -lrb- 23 april 1925 -- 21 september 2008 -rrb- was a new zealand professional wrestler , trainer and promoter .
hobman was one of the first homegrown stars to emerge from the dominion wrestling union , and later steve rickard 's all star-pro wrestling , during the 1960s and 70s such as tony garea , peter maivia and the sheepherders .
hobman twice won the nwa new zealand heavyweight championship from john da silva in 1960 and steve rickard in 1964 with a combined reign of nearly 6 years as champion .
he and rickard were also the first new zealand tag team champions .
prior to wrestling , hobman had a successful athletic career playing rugby union at rongotai college as a lock for oriental rongotai as well as a professional bodybuilder winning both the mr. australasia and mr. new zealand bodybuilding competitions in 1951 .
hobman wrestled throughout the world during his career , most often in asia and the south pacific , but also had successful stints in the united states , most notably , against then nwa world heavyweight champion gene kiniski in 1969 .
he was a successful promoter both prior to and during his later career , mainly working with da silva 's central wrestling association , and trained a number of wrestlers with bruno bekkar at the famed koolmans gym including jock ruddock and butch miller ; two of his four children , kurt and linda hobman , both became wrestlers as well with the elder hobman staging the country 's first officially sanctioned women 's wrestling match between his daughter and dutch female wrestler monica schumaker .
he was among several new zealand wrestling legends involved with kiwi pro wrestling , one of the first wrestling promotions to open since the close of all star-pro wrestling in 1992 , and inducted into kpw 's new zealand wrestling hall of fame in 2006 .
he also attended live events made other public appearances until his sudden death two years later .
in 2009 , less than a year after his death , hobman was ranked no. 5 in a top ten list of new zealand 's greatest wrestlers by `` fight times magazine '' .
