Dazzlers Corner: All-Star Wrestling Australia
All Star Wrestling. It’s been 25 years since l retired from the ring but I still have the love, passion and respect for the business. I don’t watch much wrestling from overseas anymore just bits and pieces, although I do love watching Will Ospreay and Kenny Omega from AEW.
Over the last few years l have gone to around 14 local wrestling shows here in NSW. When l go to the shows l sit right at the back of the venue and talk to as many people as l can from fellow wrestlers to fans to gauge their reactions to the show. I have been going to shows from All Star Wrestling, Rock and Roll Wrestling and IWA.
Today I want to focus on All Star Wrestling which is run by Mitch Christen which was first set up in 2018 in the Wollongong area and then in 2020 Mitch moved the business to Sydney, sadly Covid hit and basically nothing happened for a long time, Mitch really hit the road running many shows in 2022, Mitch brought in Keegan Brettle as the head trainer for their own wrestling school.
Mitch never wrestled himself but was a huge fan as a teenager of the WWE,ROH, TNA and ECW. Mitch did try to learn but quickly realised that was not athletic enough to wrestle himself but loved the business so the next big thing is to promote.
All Star have a good mixture of experienced workers which mix brilliantly with the next generation. Keegan Brettle, Jack Dullahan, Johnny Star, Mike Valuable and Jasmin Brettle, plus they bring in many guys from different promotions like Luke Watts, Jay Law, Ricky South and many others. What really is impressive to me is the new talent they are bringing through, the standout is Aries, who originally started training with Greg Bownds but then switched to All Star, on 7 shows that I have attended Aries has been involved in the best match on the card on each show. He would easily be successful in Japan and Mexico if he wanted to.
Another standout is Jimmy Zero, Jimmy is fairly new to the business but in that short time he is already very impressive, his athletic abilities are through the roof. He has great ring phycology which is something that you can’t teach. What l would love to see is Jimmy Zero turn Babyface and team up with his brother Aries and they team up to feud with the Belief for 3-4 months and end up as Tag Team Champs. They have a fantastic heel manager in Pierre Laurent who really knows how to work the crowd. Another one is The Puppeteer, who is so over with the crowd, a really nice guy outside of the ring and he is one who really works hard to improve himself, he has great potential. I love watching him work.
Bee Boy is another guy who is really over with the fans especially the kids. They have another rookie Jordan Gilley who looks impressive in the training sessions that I have seen, he has had a couple of matches but I haven’t seen them, he is another one who is a really nice guy outside of the ring and I wish him well for the future. Alex Box is another young exciting worker.
The only negative is they don’t have a permanent ring announcer, most of the announcements are made from the sound desk. To me it’s vital to have a ring announcer, firstly to have face to welcome and thank the crowd for coming to the show.
All Star Wrestling really deserves more respect that they are given, they are definitely on the right track to be a premier promotion in NSW.
Keegan Brettle with the All-Star fans (Photo: Marc K’Nell
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.
Nice write up Kenny