The View From Down Under (Special): An Australian Legend Retires

Last night at South Sydney Juniors Leagues Club, the father of modern day Australian Wrestling Mark Mercedes retired from inside the ring. While many outside Australia may only remember him via a short stint in WCW in the late 90’s, here in Australia he is the (or was until Friday) the face of wrestling. While I personally only briefly had a chance to view Mark in the ring from IWA’s short stint on Australian TV through the Aurora channel with Austar, the legacy he will leave the Australian wrestling scene will be huge.

 


 

He will bow out of wrestling in Australia with a farewell match against (possibly) the new face of Australian wrestling Tyson Gibbs:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3vCsJvuMYEg[/youtube]

Mark Mercedes Retires after 21years.  

(Care of http://www.iwawrestling.com.au/news.php)

IWA Entertainment would like to officially announce after 21years of professional wrestling Mark Mercedes will retire and  perform his final match on Thursday September 26th At South’s Juniors Club at Kingsford in Sydney Australia. Mark Mercedes began amateur wrestling at the age of 18years old, shortly won the City of Sydney, NSW State and Australian Championships. He then went on to compete in Olympic game trials before turning professional in 1992.

Mark then moved to Florida USA where he began training at The Malenko wrestling school under Boris, Dean & Joe Malenko. In 1993 he co-promoted and performed on the largest national wrestling tour of its time Wrestle Riot 93 featuring – Jake The Snake Roberts, Don Muraco, Junk Yard Dog, Jim The Anvil Neidhart, and many more.

mark mercedes 1

After Wrestle Riot He went on to gets his first big break back in the USA performing for Ted Turner’s WCW World Championship Wrestling, on the TBS network against Ravishing Rick Rude. After the success of WCW Mercedes continued in the independent wrestling scene in both USA, Australia & New Zealand before landing a big contract in Germany working for Otto Wanz’s CWA Catch Wrestling Association.  This gruelling one year tour through Europe ended in late 1997, where Mercedes returned back to the USA and began work again for WCW which at this time was the biggest wrestling company in the world. Mark went on to perform at one of WCW biggest ever Monday Night Nitro show at the Atlanta Georgia Dome in front of 43,000 people. Working alongside Hulk Hogan, Bill Goldberg, Randy Macho Man Savage, DDP Diamond Dallas Page, Sting and many more.

mark mercedes 2

After WCW Mercedes began to continue working in Australia forming the IWA International Wrestling Australia and formed a business relationship with business partner Tyrone Townsend which lasted over ten years. IWA went on to be the most successful wrestling touring company in Australia performing on average 5-10 shows per month year in year out. Mercedes also began to tour Japan, the Pacific Islands and performed on the WWA Pay per view in Auckland New Zealand against Rick Steiner and continued to keep himself busy both on the road performing and promoting events.

mark mercedes 3

In 2007 IWA International wrestling Australia were successful for the first time in 30years and returned Australian wrestling to a national audience on the Aurora channel with the Foxtel and Austar network. Three seasons followed with many national tours backing up the television show. In 2010 Mercedes reduced his in ring performances and moved to backstage to concentrate on producing and directing live events. On Thursday 26th September 2013 a long and historic career will end for Mark Mercedes, who was a pioneer in Australian wrestling. IWA is looking forward to saying goodbye to Mark and thank him for his dedication Australian wrestling. It will be a chance to say good bye and a thank you.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-oXBO_vaVY [/youtube]

 

Hooroo and good luck Mark

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