Muscle Man Built Strong Foundation For Australian Wrestling: George Julio Interview

Muscle man built strong foundation for Australian wrestling.

George Julio was born tough. In Malta, he was known as ‘muscle man’ and earned fame in magazines and newspapers through bodybuilding, soccer, wrestling and boxing. He had 25 professional boxing matches. ‘My first match knocked me down. The second knocked me down. My family never liked what I was doing. Anyway, I won 10 matches.’

George moved to Australia by himself at the age of 17 and lived with his uncle. He continued body building and wrestling training, starting in small promotions. It was only after he married and had a daughter that he got his big break.

‘I didn’t know that around the corner of my house was the Booker for Festival Hall wrestling, I forget his name. Every Sunday I used to take my daughter to my mother-in-law and passed near his house. There was a bunch of blokes there looking at me because I had a good body, but they didn’t know I trained in wrestling.’

The Booker tracked George down through his wife. ‘One time my wife went shopping and this lady said excuse me, the guy who passes with the little girl, that’s your husband? She said her husband would love to talk to me. My wife told them to come the following day at 9.00pm when I got home from the gym.’
The visit was a surprise to George. ‘My wife, she didn’t tell me they were coming. I came in the night and sit down, I was eating dinner and hear the door: boom, boom. I went and opened the door and I see this man. I let him in and he said look, I coach and push people. I’m the Booker for Festival Hall and work all the time on the television. That’s how I started and trained with people like Sam Rossi.’

George became a technical wrestler who brawled a lot, with a lot of punching, kicking and holds. He prided himself on listening to the people in the crowd. ‘At first I was a baby face with another company, there was another guy like me and the promoter said choose who is the bad guy and the good guy.’
He decided to try his hand at playing heel. I said look, let me try and if I feel good then I will do it. We wrestled in Geelong and the people loved the other guy and hated me. I enjoyed it when people bloody hated me and would throw things in the ring. I said oh, this is the style I want.’

George defied the crowd to develop his nickname. ‘I got the name Hitman because I don’t look like a killer. People they say when I boxed, mate you don’t look like a bastard. That’s why I go against the opinion of the people. One time I was wrestling and the coppers came and they said he’s a good man.’
George shared the formula for his time wrestling at Festival Hall. ‘We brought a few wrestlers from America, did a show and they would lose their asses. The American goes but the promoter gets money.’

He described the market as being tough and the shows unprofitable. ‘The promoter was promoting Australian wrestling with the Americans, but to bring the Americans cost too much and they always lost money. There was a sea of promotions and in that time, promotions tried to destroy each other.’
He blames the downfall of the promotion on Ron Miller and Larry O’Dea, who took over from Jim Barnett. ‘In that time Festival Hall started coming at the end. Miller and O’Dea killed it because they were asked to bring new faces. They didn’t want to do it because it would cost a lot of money. So they stopped bringing new faces from America. This stupid man said to production you need us, we don’t need you. That’s the biggest mistake he done, wrestling has finished from television.’

The wrestling lifestyle hadn’t suited George and helped push him in a new direction, which he started in the 1980s. ‘In that time I was married and had a daughter, so I didn’t like having to go to train then go with the coach and get drunk. I said look, I don’t like that way I saw life and the way it was going and decided I was good enough to train people. I started training mates.’

George quickly built a strong reputation as a trainer and has trained hundreds of people over his career. He attributes his success to training proper techniques that would help trainees protect themselves in the ring.

‘I can train amateur wrestling and I can train professional wrestling. With amateur wrestling, I would put them in the ring and the boys would destroy themselves. You need to teach them 50/50. You tell them that wrestling is bullshit the way we do it, but we do things serious because you have to.’
Wrestling evolved over George’s career. ‘In my time in wrestling, the opponent punched you for real. Now wrestling became bullshit. But people don’t know how hard it is to perform bullshit –it is much harder. You understand?’

George would help trainees understand the most important part of wrestling: ‘You need to tell a story. You see wrestlers and matches where you punch a guy in the jaw and he gets up like it was nothing. I fought boxing, I’ve been knocked down and you tell me if I hit you in the jaw, you gonna get up? But if you play it right, you sell it, and make a little bit of comeback, and you came strong again, that’s better.’
He is unimpressed by some of the wrestling he sees today. ‘Now wrestling is Mickey Mouse. The boys of today, they go in the ring and you see them flipping, jumping, look, punches with the elbow and on the jaw. The people they are so stupid to believe that. There is too much acceleration, too much. If you want to see flipping and this and that, go see gymnastics. Wrestling is like you do a movie, the good, bad and the ugly. People fall in love with that.’

He is proud of his own trainees. ‘All the boys I trained, all have done very good. I’m really proud of Mad Dog – he is one of the craziest. I like hardcore but I don’t like it because wrestlers get hurt. I don’t mind watching it.

‘There were others like Lobo, JXT, Fox, Jake Navara, Jake Lindo and Mike Manson. Some of them went to America and some have promotions now like JXT, Fox and Mike Manson. And I trained girls like Vixen, she was 14 when she came here and used to bring her mother. Lowzen brought her boyfriend who was nearly seven foot. I trained a lot of people over the years. I was with PCW and trained people for them, like the Enforcer.’

George promoted through New Age Wrestling (NAW), which he ran for nearly two decades from 2004 to 2022. NAW was a platform to showcase his trainees and only came to an end during the pandemic, which created challenges including additional venue charges and staffing issues.
We asked George whether he enjoyed getting back in the ring last year, when he entered a street fight with Mason Stoneheart for Victorian Professional Wrestling. ‘I went okay. My body is full of pain, now I put a patch on my shoulder. I’m not a sook.’

He was feeling both his age and responsibility to the profession he loves. ‘I enjoyed it because the people helped me to enjoy it. I don’t want to give a bad name to the wrestling. I was an old man, 78 at the time, jumping in and doing this. Wrestling is not for 78, it’s for the young people. I’m not really happy with how I went because I like to do a good job. But for the people that was good. For me, you make more bullshit.’
He isn’t considering further matches. ‘A company asked me, come in a six-man tag team and we will look after you. I said no because I didn’t want to give a bad name to the wrestling. My time is finished. I enjoy watching wrestling, training people, giving advice and not wrestling.’

George shared his advice for current wrestlers. ‘I love wrestling but I’m seeing a lot of Mickey Mouse wrestling. Like sometimes in the ring they talk too much.

Look, what they are doing is good, but they need to slow down in the ring and sell what the other wrestler does to you. Don’t make it come back like nothing. The heel needs to control the match and the babyface needs to be smart.

You need to make people feel sorry for him. And when the heel tells him, make a comeback. If you are a good heel you need to think for your opponent. If you stay on the babyface too much you kill the match.’
His main advice focuses on the crowd. ‘Wrestlers need to learn to listen to the crowd and respond. If I go in a wrestling match and I don’t make the people scream and jump, I go in the dressing room crying. I want the people to enjoy themselves.

You need to show people what you are doing is true, make them believe in that. When they go out from the show, they will say what a good show. It was bullshit but what a good show.’

George is honoured to receive his Australian Wrestling Pioneer award from PW Downunder. ‘It’s beautiful, very good. When I ran the promotion we would give awards to the old guys because they deserved something. They did their jobs and now we have wrestling.’

A special presentation for George will be held on June 28th at the Baccus Marsh Public Hall. Tickets and more info and be found here. Thanks to Mayhem Pro, Alpha Trophies and Australian Wrestling Cards.