Al Hobman
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Al Hobman
Allan "Al" Hobman (23 April 1925 – 21 September 2008) 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 nota ...
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Wellington
Wellington ( mi, Te Whanganui-a-Tara or ) is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the second-largest city in New Zealand by metro area, and is the administrative centre of the Wellington Region. It is the world's southernmost capital of a sovereign state. Wellington features a temperate maritime climate, and is the world's windiest city by average wind speed. Legends recount that Kupe discovered and explored the region in about the 10th century, with initial settlement by Māori iwi such as Rangitāne and Muaūpoko. The disruptions of the Musket Wars led to them being overwhelmed by northern iwi such as Te Āti Awa by the early 19th century. Wellington's current form was originally designed by Captain William Mein Smith, the first Surveyor General for Edward Wakefield's New Zealand Company, in 1840. The Wellington urban area, which only includes urbanised ar ...
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Bruno Bekkar
Bryan Ashby is a retired New Zealand professional wrestler and trainer, known by his ring name Bruno Bekkar, who competed for Steve Rickard's All Star-Pro Wrestling and for other promoters in New Zealand and Australia from the early 1960s until his retirement in 1992. One of the country's biggest stars during the 1970s, he is a three-time NWA New Zealand Heavyweight Champion and a former NWA Australia Heavyweight Champion. He also teamed with Don Kent in the Puerto Rico-based World Wrestling Council as the fourth incarnation of the Fabulous Kangaroos and together twice won the WWC North American Tag Team Championship in 1981. During his professional career, Ashby and Al Hobman trained several wrestlers out of Koolman's Gym in Wellington, most notably, Jock Ruddock and Butch Miller. Ashby is credited for first introducing Luke Williams to pro wrestling and who later joined Miller to form the Sheepherders. He was one of several veterans involved in Kiwi Pro Wrestling, one of ...
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IHC New Zealand
IHC New Zealand is a New Zealand organisation providing support and care for people of all ages with intellectual disabilities. It began as the Society for Intellectually Handicapped Children, hence the IHC acronym. IHC advocates for the rights, inclusion and welfare of all people with an intellectual disability and supports them to live satisfying lives in the community. There are 13,000 young families who struggle with the pressures of raising a child with an intellectual disability, and 29,000 adults with an intellectual disability across New Zealand. IHC is New Zealand's largest provider of services to people with intellectual disabilities and their families, supporting more than 6000 people. Its history reaches back over 60 years to a group of families who set up an association to lobby for a better deal for their children. IHC believes people with an intellectual disability have the right: * to be treated with respect and dignity * to have a say in their own lives * to live ...
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Special Guest Referee
In professional wrestling, a referee is an authority figure present in or near the ring during matches. The referee's purpose is similar to that of referees in combat sports such as boxing or mixed martial arts, that is, as an arbiter of the rules and the person charged with rendering decisions. In reality, the referee is, like the wrestlers, a participant in executing a match in accordance with its script including its pre-determined outcome, and is responsible for controlling the flow of the match and for relaying information or instructions from backstage officials to the wrestlers. Like wrestlers, referees are also responsible for maintaining kayfabe, and must render decisions in accordance with the promotion's kayfabe rules. Purpose The kayfabe purpose of a professional wrestling referee is to render decisions ( pinfalls, submissions, disqualifications, countouts) during a match but the legit purpose they serve is to transmit messages to wrestlers about the progress of ...
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Lofty Blomfield
Meynell Strathmore Blomfield (18 July 1908 – 29 June 1971) was a New Zealand professional wrestler, known by his ringname Lofty Blomfield, who was arguably the country's most popular wrestler during the 1930s and 40s. He competed primarily for promoter Walter Miller and the Dominion Wrestling Union for nearly 20 years where he defended the NWA New Zealand Heavyweight Championship against many of the top stars of the National Wrestling Association from 1936 until his retirement 1949. He is credited for inventing "The Octopus Clamp", an early version of the Scorpion Deathlock, and is the longest reigning heavyweight champion in the history of professional wrestling in New Zealand. In addition to the national title, Blomfield also held the NWA British Empire/Commonwealth Championship and the NWA Australasian Heavyweight Championship. In 1938, he became the first New Zealander to wrestle for the NWA World Heavyweight Championship when he fought then champion Bronko Nagurski to a t ...
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New Plymouth
New Plymouth ( mi, Ngāmotu) is the major city of the Taranaki region on the west coast of the North Island of New Zealand. It is named after the English city of Plymouth, Devon from where the first English settlers to New Plymouth migrated. The New Plymouth District, which includes New Plymouth City and several smaller towns, is the 10th largest district (out of 67) in New Zealand, and has a population of – about two-thirds of the total population of the Taranaki Region and % of New Zealand's population. This includes New Plymouth City (), Waitara (), Inglewood (), Ōakura (), Ōkato (561) and Urenui (429). The city itself is a service centre for the region's principal economic activities including intensive pastoral activities (mainly dairy farming) as well as oil, natural gas and petrochemical exploration and production. It is also the region's financial centre as the home of the TSB Bank (formerly the Taranaki Savings Bank), the largest of the remaining non-governm ...
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Pat O'Connor (wrestler)
Patrick John O'Connor (22 August 1924 – 16 August 1990), was a New Zealand amateur and professional wrestler. Regarded as one of the premier workers of his era, O'Connor held the AWA World Heavyweight Championship and NWA World Heavyweight Championship simultaneously, the latter of which he held for approximately two years. He was also the inaugural AWA World Heavyweight Champion. He is an overall two-time world champion. Early life Patrick John O'Connor was born on 22 August 1924 in Raetihi, New Zealand, to parents John Frederick and Isabella. While he attended high school at Feilding Agricultural High School, he also helped tend to the sheep and cattle on his parents' farm. He later attended Massey Agricultural College, and later served for six months in the New Zealand Royal Air Force in 1945. Amateur wrestling career Before entering the world of professional wrestling, O'Connor was an amateur wrestler. He trained under Dave Scarrow, and later Don Anderson, while ...
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Tony Kontellis
Antonios "Tony" Kontellis (Greek: Αντώνιος Κοντέλλης; born 1935), is a former Greek-Australian professional wrestler. Kontellis has worked for many wrestling promotions throughout his career, including WCW Australia and WWWF for Vince McMahon Sr. Career Kontellis participated in the Greek team for the 1956 Olympics in Melbourne, Australia but a training injury forced him to withdraw. Travelling to South Australia to visit relatives, he was convinced to enter professional wrestling by a local wrestler. He was training in a gym when he was noticed by a visiting American wrestler, Lou Newman, who served as a mentor during Kontellis's early career. In 1957, Kontellis teamed with Norm Ryan to compete for the vacant Australian Tag Team Championship. They faced Jon and Frank Morro to determine the new champions but were unable to win the title belts. In 1960, he travelled to Pakistan and feuded with King Kong Czaja before moving on to Canada. Whilst in Toronto, ...
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Invercargill
Invercargill ( , mi, Waihōpai is the southernmost and westernmost city in New Zealand, and one of the southernmost cities in the world. It is the commercial centre of the Southland region. The city lies in the heart of the wide expanse of the Southland Plains to the east of the Ōreti or New River some north of Bluff, which is the southernmost town in the South Island. It sits amid rich farmland that is bordered by large areas of conservation land and marine reserves, including Fiordland National Park covering the south-west corner of the South Island and the Catlins coastal region. Many streets in the city, especially in the centre and main shopping district, are named after rivers in Scotland. These include the main streets Dee and Tay, as well as those named after the Tweed, Forth, Tyne, Esk, Don, Ness, Yarrow, Spey, Eye and Ythan rivers, amongst others. The 2018 census showed the population was 54,204, up 2.7% on the 2006 census number and up 4.8% on the 2013 ...
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Kaitaia
Kaitaia ( mi, Kaitāia) is a town in the Far North District of New Zealand, at the base of the Aupouri Peninsula, about 160 km northwest of Whangārei. It is the last major settlement on New Zealand State Highway 1, State Highway 1. Ahipara, Ahipara Bay, the southern end of Ninety Mile Beach, New Zealand, Ninety Mile Beach, is 5 km west. The main industries are forestry and tourism. The population is as of which makes it the second-largest town in the Far North District, after Kerikeri. The name Kaitāia means ample food, kai being the Māori language, Māori word for food. The Muriwhenua are a group of six northern Māori people, Māori iwi occupying the northernmost part of the North Island surrounding Kaitaia. History and culture European settlement The Kaitaia Mission Station was established between 1833 and 1834 after a series of visits by Church Missionary Society (CMS) representatives including Samuel Marsden, and at different times, Joseph Matthews and Wi ...
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Wellington Town Hall
The Wellington Town Hall ( mi, Te Whare Whakarauika) is a concert hall and part of the municipal complex in Wellington, New Zealand, which opened in December 1904. It has been closed to the public since the 2013 Seddon earthquake, and it is currently undergoing extensive strengthening work. History The foundation stone for the building was laid in 1901 by the Duke of Cornwall and York (later George V). The organist and choirmaster Maughan Barnett composed an ''Ode'' for the occasion. Construction began the following year. It was officially opened on 7 December 1904. The Town Hall was originally fronted (on the Cuba Street side) with a Roman styled portico and a 150-foot clock tower. A clock was not installed in the tower until 1922, when John Blundell, owner of '' The Evening Post'' newspaper, donated one. In 1934 the tower was removed as a precaution following the 1931 Hawke's Bay earthquake, and the main portico, pediment, balustrade, parapet and bold cornice were also ...
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Best 2 Out Of 3 Falls
Many types of wrestling matches, sometimes called "concept" or "gimmick matches" in the jargon of the business, are performed in professional wrestling. Some gimmick matches are more common than others and are often used to advance or conclude a storyline. Throughout professional wrestling's decades long history, some gimmick matches have spawned many variations of the core concept. Singles match The singles match is the most common of all professional wrestling matches, which involves only two competitors competing for one fall. A victory is obtained by pinfall, submission, knockout, countout, or disqualification. Some of the most common variations on the singles match is to restrict the possible means for victory. Duchess of Queensbury Rules match A Duchess of Queensbury Rules match is a singles match contested under specific, often disclosed rules is replaced by a title usually meant to sound traditional for one combatant. A wrestler challenging another wrestler to a matc ...
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