Q: IT IS WITH GREAT PLEASURE, THAT I AM JOINED BY ONE OF THE GREATS OF PRO WRESTLING, MARK LEWIN.
Thank you, It’s a pleasure to be on here, It’s a pleasure to be back in Australia, if you know Australia, you love Australia.

Q: WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU WERE ACTUALLY HERE IN AUSTRALIA MARK?
Oh, (thinks), um it was about 12 years ago, I passed through and I stayed for a few weeks. I’m here now to promote High Risk Championship Wrestling, we are bringing all the stars that have been on TV from the States, in fact I’ve personally booked each and everyone of these High Risk Wrestlers. I am the producer and director of this event which will be on Channel 9, and we are going to produce a show, infact it’s going to be 1 hour long and like the old days.

Q: SPEAKING OF WHICH, YOU WRESTLED AT FESTIVAL HALL IN MELBOURNE HERE WHICH IS WHERE HRW IS GOING TO TAKE PLACE, WHEN DID YOU LAST APPEAR AT FESTIVAL HALL?
Oh gosh, um, that would have to be a couple of deades ago. All of the famous stars, Spiros Arion, he was my partner at the time, the famous King Curtis, there are all throw backs to the past. There all the guys that came out here and made wrestling famous and went back to the United States to wrestle with all the promotions back there. This is just like coming back however, I just feel so comfortable. I want this federation to be bigger than anything you watch on air, we are planning on taking this global, I want it to be big, so get on the phone and tell your friends MARK LEWIN is back in town

Q: MARK, IM INTRIGUED AS TO WHAT MADE YOU GET INTO WRESTLING?
Well, I was wrestling in Amatuer in New York, that’s where I’m from of course, and a former World Champion Ed Don George (2 time NWA Heavyweight Champion 1930/33), he was famous during his era, he wrestled in New York. He saw me in an amatuer bout, I looked sorta like him, he was a famous Greek wrestler and we favoured each other in looks. And he sorts took me like his son, and sorta trained me into the professional ranks, infact he taught me the Sleeperhold, which I had great success, I beat Lou Thesz in the Olympic Auditorium in Los Angeles California in the early 60’s. I beat him and Ed Don George was in my corner at the time, I had tremendous support and that is how I actually got started.

Q: MARK, HOWEVER IF THERE WASN’T WRESTLING FOR MARK LEWIN, WHAT WOULD YOU HAVE BE DOING?

(LAUGHS) Oh, that’s a good question. I’ve been wrestling since I was 11 years old in the amatuer ranks then I went all the way through school. I wrestled and turned Pro at an early age and I was quite a good Boxer too, so it would have been in the Sports Field I’m sure, I even played a little bit of American Football. It’s interesting to note actually, that after I became famous in Australia, I went back to the States and everyone tried to imitate my style of wrestling. So I wanna give back to Australia what they gave to Mark Lewin because this is the country that made me famous worldwide

Q: MARK, DO YOU REMEMBER YOUR FIRST EVER PROFESSIONAL BOUT?
Yes I do remember it, I wrestled a fellow by the name of John Cretoria. He was pretty much heading for retirement, and I can remember how nervous I was being my first Pro bout. I was trying to get my laces on and I realized that the laces were all strayed at the end and I couldn’t get my boots on (pauses). You know I was SO EXCITED, I had the adrenalin worked up, and I ran into the ring and I ran so fast that that became my trademark, and I jumped over the top rope and I sprung out of the corner and I dropkicked this guy and I headscissored him and I hooked his arm and I slammed him to the mat (pauses), and all of a sudden the crowd exploded and I had him. So I started out my pro career with a win. You know, I went 7 years undefeated, I was undefeated also in the amateur ranks, I finally lost to Killer Karl Kox

Q: WHEN ACUTALLY WAS YOUR FIRST PRO BOUT?
Oh, well it was at Ocean Park Arena there right outside of Los Angeles California and the year would have been (pauses), oh god, (pauses) it was sooo long ago, somewhere in the early 50’s

(I HAND HIM A BOOK CALLED ‘100 YEARS OF PROFESSIONAL WRESTLING)
Oh wow, look its Wadi Ayuob (on the cover), he was a great ma, he wrestled with me as my partner a couple of times, along with Spiros Arion, I remember him. It’s a handsome picture of him.

Q: IN THE BOOK IT LISTS SOME VENUES YOU WRESTLED AT, IE: WHITE CITY IN
SYDNEY, BASKETBALL STADIUM, BUT HOW DIFFERENT WAS IT TO WRESTLED IN THOSE SMALL VENUES THEN FRONT UP AT MADISON SQUARE GARDEN?
You know, I was the youngest wrestler to ever wrestle in MSG. I was 17 and that was, oh god, your dating me now, I’m old but I’m mean. The old gardens would have held about 28,000 people and I had 22 straight sellouts there, of course that was my home town. All of the stadiums in those years were just rocking with wrestling, we had such a great number of wrestlers, I mean, I had my fallouts with different wrestlers, oh they were toughies or baddies as they are called, there was King Curtis, oh, Killer Kowalski, infact I saw him recently and he actually trains some of the wrestlers who are coming out here.

Q: AFTER WRESTLING, WE DIDN’T SEE YOU IN THE WRESTLING CIRCLE FOR YEARS
UNTIL NOW… WHY IS THAT MARK?
It’s funny that you bring that up you know, the magazines that I was featured in they were all collectors- all sold out. To get my videos is very very difficult there all sold out. I said to myself, whenever I come back to wrestling I’m going to do it like Frank Sinatra said ‘My Way’ and this is my opportunity now to do it my way. I’ve got an open ticket here in bringing the kind of wrestling that I BELIEVE in. I’m not interested in bringing wrestling that isn’t of high quality. I’m not interested in girls running around without their clothes on, that it’s not wrestling. I’m going back to what the marquee says, Wrestling. I’m not interested in Sports Entertainment, I’m interested in powerful impact high risk wrestling. I was a wrestler, 100 per cent, so I know what the fans want, and they want
wrestling. I never bothered to go and get involved in something in the last few years, but I admire the great athletes in all of the organisations.

Q: DO YOU WISH THEN MARK, THAT WRESTLING COULD GET BACK TO JUST BEING
WRESTLING WITHOUT ALL THE EXTRAVAGANCE?
I’m not asking wrestlers to be circus performers. I’m asking them to be wrestlers, I believe in Hardcore, I really do, I believe in brute force, I believe in extreme moves IN THE RING. I don’t want anyone to come down from the ceiling like a trapeze artist, my wrestlers take extreme risks but it’s IN THE RING, nothing to do with all this dancing all any of that type of thing, of course , my wrestlers have colour but when the bell rings we got the hardcore wrestlers in the ring. Look, wrestling does have it’s violence to it, but that’s my kind of wrestling, I’ve never let a fan down, you will
get your money’s worth from Mark Lewin.

Q: IN YOUR TIME, WERE YOU EVER HONESTLY AFRAID TO STEP IN THE RING WITH SOME OF THE GREATS?
You know you don’t have to be a big man to wrestle. It helps. Once you have an opponent on the mat you're both the same size. I always felt that everybody puts their pants and shoes on in the same way. As for Fear. Fear (thinks) There has been those moments where I have had second thoughts while going against different opponents, but I always been able to overcome it, I’ve always had that indefinable something about having the guts to go forward, I always got by my fears that way. When I was in the service, I saw some combat and I always felt ‘Well, there’s a job to be done and whatever will be will be. Que Sera Sera’

Q: IF I MAY MENTION SOME NAMES OF GREATS OF WRESTLING, YOUR MEMORIES OF
THEM. FIRSTLY, ANDRE THE GIANT.
Yes, I wrestled him, I wrestled him in Dallas Texas and I wrestled him in Europe a couple of times and at Royal Albert Hall in London, you know, Andre was the kind of guy who when he smiled I always thought of a piano (laughs), like a keyboard on a piano you know (laughs again). Oh and when he drank a beer, it always seemed to disappear in his hand you know. He was a truly a huge big star and also on that same night in London was Primo Canera another giant.

Q: KILLER KOWALSKI
I wrestled him here, I beat him in Perth, I beat him in Festivall Hall. I’ve had numerous matches with Kowalski. Killer Kowalski, oh I can remember him back as far as when he kneedropped Yukon Erik off the toprop in Montreal and took Yukon’s ear off, and that was a famous happening you know, cause they banned that high risk move coming off with the knee drop, so they also started baning certain things because of that. (laughs) Whereas nowadays, there is nothing to ban.

Q: PEDRO MORALES
(laughs) He tells a story of when he was a fan in MSG, he had just come over from Puerto Rico and he was watching me wrestle at MSG. He said that he stood up, I was wrestling Brute Bernard, and he got up and threw his popcorn box and Brute Bernard. You know, back then he was a fan, then years later he was in the dressing room with me and often said that he often mimicked his style while watching me wrestled. He’s a great guy, good fun to be around, he’s quick and fast, I see him once in a while around New York (pauses) It brings back memories this.

Q: DOMINIC DENUCCI
He’s around in Pennsylvania, he decided to live in the States. Dominic is a good friend, he was with me in the late 60'’. I made lots of friends back then, Dominic, Spiros- he was my tag team partner for 10 years or 12 years then he came to New York and we wrestled as tag team partners in MSG for Vince McMahon Sr. I started out there with Sr. and now Jr. runs the WWF so I have a history with the McMahons.

Q: MARK , IN THEDECADES YOU WRESTLED, WHAT WAS YOUR SINGLE GREATEST MOMENT?
Apart from doing this promotion which is a fulfilment of a dream, I would have to say beating Lou Thesz for the World Heavyweight Wrestling Championship and we have that belt here, it’s up for grabs. (pauses) This really does bring back a lot of memories. Coming back to Festival Hall will be like a dream. Like a dream come true. It will be like bringing the mountain here.

MARK, ON BEHALF OF ALL WRESTLING FANS, ONCE AGAIN, THANKYOU FOR YOUR TIME.
It’s a pleasure, Thankyou.

Words From The High Risk Warrior

'I am the one who is going to Australia with HRCW in July, I work under the name Luminous & I also do the paint gimmick. I trained at Larry Sharpe's Monster Factory in Jersey back in 91 thats when it first started. I've been mistaken for the Ultimate Warrior from day one, even before I started the paint. Ironic that Gary Hart the Warriors manager back in the day came up with the Luminous gimmick for me. I currently live in Dallas, Tx. The whole Warrior thing came about when I was working at the Sportatourium a few years back. The crowds thought that I was him. I've been contacted by Mr. Hellwig before, and I ask you what am I to do cut off my hair and stop weight training? I have nothing but respect for the Warrior and I could think of a lot worse guys to be compared to . I am 6' 4', 29O lbs. legitimately and if people think that I resemble him I should feel honored.

Melbourne shows will be filmed for television and screen on Channel 9 over the next 6 weeks after that in the afternoon around 12-1pm.

TV commercials were taped at the GTV nine network today with Sam Kekovich. The commercials air tommorrow, and tickets will go on sale as of the 21st June,1999. Note that we have secured High Risk Warrior, D.O.A. and the Pitbulls tag-team champions who destroyed the British Bulldogs and Nailz

14 June 1999

The Dates , Times and venues are released for the period July - August 1999. ( See Upcoming Shows)

High Risk Championship Wrestling will have shows in every State of Australia.

Shows will be seen in Melbourne, Sydney, Newcastle, Brisbane, Adelaide, Perth, Canberra, Launceston and Wollongong.

Tickets on sale next week.