The Royal Kangaroos was a

professional wrestling Professional wrestling is a form of theater that revolves around staged wrestling matches. The mock combat is performed in a ring similar to the kind used in boxing, and the dramatic aspects of pro wrestling may be performed both in the ring o ...

tag team Tag team wrestling is a type of professional wrestling in which matches are contested between teams of multiple wrestlers. Tag teams may be made up of wrestlers who normally wrestle in singles competition, but more commonly are made of establish ...

consisting of cousins "Lord" Jonathan Boyd and

Norman Frederick Charles III Norman Frederick Charles III (25 July 1941 22 August 2019) was an English professional wrestler who was known worldwide under the name Murphy the Surfie. Initially Charles competed both in North American and international promotions as part of ...

. The duo played off their

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

n heritage which included using a

boomerang A boomerang () is a thrown tool, typically constructed with aerofoil sections and designed to spin about an axis perpendicular to the direction of its flight. A returning boomerang is designed to return to the thrower, while a non-returning b ...

as their weapon of choice. Boyd and Charles were known for their brutal, brawling style. The Royal Kangaroos Trophy

History

Cousins Jonathan Boyd and Norman Frederick Charles III both came into the pro wrestling world with a solid amateur background behind them. Initially they wrestled in singles competition but a few years after their debut they decided to team up and head to

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...

. The two became known as The Royal Kangaroos, a name inspired by the legendary tag team the "Fabulous Kangaroos." Like the original Fabulous Kangaroos (Al Costello and Roy Heffernan) who were despised heels and started riots wherever they appeared, Boyd and Charles were vicious rulebreakers. Boyd and Charles worked mainly for

Pacific Northwest Wrestling Pacific Northwest Wrestling (PNW) (also known as Big Time Wrestling and Portland Wrestling) is the common name used to refer to several different professional wrestling companies, both past and present, based in Portland, Oregon, United States. T ...

in Oregon, capturing their first

NWA Pacific Northwest Tag Team Championship The NWA Pacific Northwest Tag Team Championship was a professional wrestling championship sanctioned by the National Wrestling Alliance and defended in its member promotion Pacific Northwest Wrestling, which promoted shows in the U.S. states of ...

from Kurt and Karl Von Steiger on 11 July 1971, their first reign lasted only 6 weeks before losing the titles to Frankie Laine and Big Snuka. The Kangaroos regained the titles and held on to them by hook or by crook until

Dutch Savage Frank Stewart (June 9, 1935 – August 3, 2013) was an American professional wrestler and wrestling promoter, best known for his time spent competing in Pacific Northwest Wrestling under the ring name Dutch Savage. Career Savage made his pro deb ...

and Beauregarde defeated them on 26 November 1971. The Royal Kangaroos regained the titles only a few short weeks later and would hold them until 17 April where they fell to the PNW Tag Team powerhouse of

Tony Borne Anthony Wayne Osborne (July 13, 1926 – August 27, 2010) was an American professional wrestler, better known by his ring name, "Tough" Tony Borne. Professional wrestling career Osborne was an amateur wrestler in both high school and in the Unit ...

and

Moondog Mayne Ronald Doyle "Lonnie" Mayne (September 12, 1944 – August 14, 1978) was an American professional wrestler in the 1960s and 1970s who frequently went by the name Moondog Mayne. He wrestled in various National Wrestling Alliance territories, as w ...

(it was their 11th reign together as PNW Tag Team champions). Like before the Kangaroos were not without the title for long as they cheated their way to a victory on 9 May. After losing the title to Dutch Savage and Moondog Mayne on 17 June the Royal Kangaroos ventured outside of the Portland Territory. The team would win the South Pacific World Tag Team Championship in 1974, a championship that represented Australia,

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

New Guinea New Guinea (; Hiri Motu Hiri Motu, also known as Police Motu, Pidgin Motu, or just Hiri, is a language of Papua New Guinea, which is spoken in surrounding areas of Port Moresby (Capital of Papua New Guinea). It is a simplified version of ...

, French Numea, Western Samoa and parts of Africa. After travelling around the world the Kangaroos returned to the territory that brought them the most fame and won their 5th PNW Tag Team Championship on 27 February 1975 when they defeated Dutch Savage and

Jimmy Snuka James Reiher Snuka (born James Wiley Smith; May 18, 1943 – January 15, 2017) was a Fijian American professional wrestler. He is better known by the ring name Jimmy "Superfly" Snuka. Snuka wrestled for several promotions from the 1970s to 2010 ...

. The Australians would go on to dominate the Portland tag team division as they held on to the titles for 10 months before finally being unseated by Savage and Snuka on 25 December. Their sixth and last run with the PNW tag team title only lasted 3 days as they won the gold from and then lost it back to the combination of

Jesse Ventura Jesse Ventura (born James George Janos; July 15, 1951) is an American politician, actor, and retired professional wrestler. After achieving fame in the World Wrestling Federation (WWF), he served as the 38th governor of Minnesota from 1999 to 2 ...

and

Apache Bull Ramos Manuel Ramos (August 3, 1937 – May 27, 2006) was an American professional wrestler, better known as Apache Bull Ramos. From his debut in 1956 until the 1970s, he primarily worked as a heel and had notable feuds with Bruno Sammartino, Dutch Savag ...

between 5 June and 8 June. After working for Pacific Northwest for a number of years, the Royal Kangaroos headed south a bit to work for the

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

based World Wrestling Alliance. In San Francisco the duo won the S.F. version of the

NWA World Tag Team Championship The NWA World Tag Team Championship is a professional wrestling world tag team championship created by the National Wrestling Alliance. From 1948 to 1982, the NWA allowed member promotions to create their own territorial version of the "NWA World ...

from Pat Patterson and

Tony Garea Anthony Gareljich (born 20 September 1946) is a New Zealand retired professional wrestler, better known by his ring name, Tony Garea. He is best known for his appearances in the United States with the World Wide Wrestling Federation/World Wrestl ...

on 18 September 1976. Their run with the gold ended on 4 December when they lost to Jimmy and

Johnny Valiant John L. Sullivan (born Thomas Sullivan; November 25, 1946 – April 4, 2018) was an American professional wrestler and manager, better known by his ring name, Johnny Valiant. He competed in the World Wide Wrestling Federation (WWWF), which be ...

. After losing the gold the Royal Kangaroos moved on from the San Francisco territory and headed further north to join

Stu Hart Stewart Edward Hart (May 3, 1915 – October 16, 2003) was a Canadian amateur and professional wrestler, wrestling booker, promoter, coach, trainer, football player and sailor. He is best known for founding and handling Stampede Wrestling, a ...

Stampede Wrestling Stampede Wrestling was a Canadian professional wrestling promotion based in Calgary, Alberta. For nearly 50 years, it was one of the main promotions in western Canada and the Canadian Prairies. Originally established by Stu Hart in 1948, the prom ...

promotion in

Calgary Calgary ( ) is the largest city in the western Canadian province of Alberta and the largest metro area of the three Prairie Provinces. As of 2021, the city proper had a population of 1,306,784 and a metropolitan population of 1,481,806, makin ...

. In June 1977 the duo defeated

Leo Burke Léonce Cormier (born June 29, 1948) is a Canadian retired professional wrestler. He was born in Dorchester, New Brunswick. He competed across Canada, in several American promotions, and wrestled internationally for both Puerto Rico's World Wr ...

and Keith Hart for the

Stampede International Tag Team Championship The Stampede International Tag Team Championship was the main tag team title in the Canadian professional wrestling promotion Stampede Wrestling. It was created in 1958 as the NWA International Tag Team Championship (Calgary version). When promote ...

but dropped it to Leo Burke and his new tag team partner Bobby Burke only a short time later. After their run in Stampede the duo briefly worked for the

NWA Mid-Atlantic Jim Crockett Promotions Inc. is a family-owned professional wrestling promotion headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, United States, restarted by Jim Crockett's son and Jim Crockett Jr's brother, David Crockett. Founded in 1931, the promo ...

where they held the Mid-Atlantic Brass Knucks Championship. After teaming for over 7 years together the Royal Kangaroos broke up, Charles returned to Stampede for some time while Jonathan Boyd returned to the Pacific Northwest. Jonathan Boyd would later find fame as one half of

the Sheepherders The Bushwhackers are a professional wrestling tag team who competed first as the New Zealand Kiwis and then as The Sheepherders during their 36-year career as a tag team. They wrestled in the World Wrestling Federation, Jim Crockett Promotions, ...

alongside Luke Williams while Norman Frederick Charles III remained a singles competitor.

Championships and accomplishments

*All-South Wrestling Alliance **ASWA Georgia Tag Team Championship (2 times) * Big Time Wrestling ''(San Francisco)'' **

NWA World Tag Team Championship (San Francisco version) The National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) member NWA San Francisco promoted a professional wrestling tag team championship under the name NWA World Tag Team Championship from 1950 until 1961 in and around their local territory until it closed. When S ...

( 1 time) *

Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling Jim Crockett Promotions Inc. is a family-owned professional wrestling promotion headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, United States, restarted by Jim Crockett's son and Jim Crockett Jr's brother, David Crockett. Founded in 1931, the promot ...

**NWA Mid-Atlantic Brass Knuckles Tag Team Championship (1 time) *

( 6 times) *''Ring Around The Northwest Newsletter'' **Tag Team of the Year (1975) *

( 1 time) *Other titles **South Pacific World Tag Team Championship (1 time)

References

External links

Normal Fredrick Charles III’s official Royal Kangaroos homepage
{{DEFAULTSORT:Royal Kangaroos, The Independent promotions teams and stables Australian male professional wrestlers Professional wrestling in Australia Stampede Wrestling alumni