The Peloponnesian War of 431 BC – 404 BC between the warring Greek city states of Athens and Sparta over supremacy in Greece, was the metaphor for the battle between two Greek professional wrestling teams at last month’s Battle Championship Wrestling (BCW) 55. Fighting for supremacy in Melbourne, it seems there is room only for one winning Greek team in BCW.
The Melbourne based pro wrestling promotion entity is owned and run by Greek Cypriot Australian solicitor Matthew Phaedonos, who is bringing Greekness back to wrestling, where it all began.
Phaedonos’ love of pro wrestling is a product of his uncle’s and grandparents’ regular attendance of World Championship Wrestling at Festival Hall.
Airing on Channel 9 in the 60s and 70s, World Championship Wrestling was used to promote weekend live pro-wrestling matches at Festival Hall.
At the height of its popularity, many of the fans were immigrants – Greek, Italian, and Lebanese – so it was no accident that some of the Greeks’ heroes were wrestlers like the ‘Golden Greek’ Spiros Arion.
Thousands of Greek Aussies flocked to witness his Greek greatness.
“I think with Greeks there’s always been this affinity with watching pro wrestling that comes from the family,” Phaedonos told Neos Kosmos.
“For me it was the grandparents, but mainly my uncle, but I hear a lot of these stories where it’s sort of goes back to whether it’s their parents, grandparents, or some relative in the family going back to Festival Hall.”
His uncle’s passion for pro-wrestling was in full bloom before Phaedonos was born, and it is this passion that rubbed off on young Matthew in the 1980s. Before he could even talk, he found himself in front of the TV watching WWF (now WWE).
At the age of eight Matthew began attending free wrestling shows with his father at a shopping centre in Endeavour Hills, which was closed off for the show .
He even saw some of the big-names his relatives would follow back in the day like Mario Milano.
Fast forward, Phaedonos maintained his love for pro wrestling into adulthood, so much so that he found himself owning half of a company called Outback Championship Wrestling after attending a show with his brother, friends, and the company manager.
By 2016 the company was going to fizzle out and shut down because the other owner was moving overseas.
Phaedonos wasn’t too upset, as he didn’t think they had any sort of business chemistry, and decided to rename it BCW, and has been going strong since.
“I learned a few lessons through Outback Championship Wrestling, from trial and error, and from speaking to talent from overseas and then listening to the Australian wrestlers.”
“There is a difference when you listen to perspectives from different wrestlers from different countries and then you sort of learn how to time a show and put it together.”
Over the years BCW has seen different wrestlers through their doors, including big names from WWE such as, Drew McIntyre, Bobby Lashley, Ken Anderson, Buff Bagwell, Santino Marella, Scott Steiner and Rob Van Dam.
In 2018, BCW rolled the clock back and had an appearance from a Festival Hall regular, Italian-American Dominic DeNucci.
“Shane Douglas, who was trained by DeNucci, mentioned to me that DeNucci hadn’t been to Australia since 1968. Do you mind if you can work out a way to get him to come back one last time?”
“So, we brought him out and that seemed to be a big hit with the old fans or people that knew of him because of their parents and grandparents, when he tag-teamed here in the 1960s.
“We actually made a T-shirt for him, and he said that was his first ever T-shirt that he ever had made for him because they didn’t have merchandise back in those days.”
DeNucci passed away three years later in 2021, so Phaedonos gave the Aussie wrestling fans one last night with the wrestling legend from a bygone era.
Now BCW are looking to re-engage multicultural fans, like the old days, especially Greeks.
Readers may recall The Parea from previous stories, well Gabriel Aeros and Eli Theseus were the duo reigning supreme over the tag team division, but another pair of Greeks thought there was only enough room for one Greek team in Melbourne.
The Greek Sexy Boys, Levi Nixon and Sam Yannis defeated The Parea to finally win the BCW Tag Team Titles, and they celebrated with a Zorba dance in the middle of the ring.
Phaedonos talked about Nixon and Yannis and his close connection to them, having been there for their entire journey.
“We’ve almost developed them ourselves – they’ve come to my law firm, to practice promos and really get their characters on point, initially inspired by Thanasi Kokkinakis and Nick Kyrgios and how they went through the Australian Open.”
He says there’s an affinity with people that have been raised the same way, given they are from a Greek background.
“I am proud of them because I got to assist them in their journey quite personally, so it was good to see it come full circle and actually see the fans at a show whether they were Greek or not cheer for them.”
There’s an untapped market when it comes to wrestlers like The Sexy Greek Boys and The Parea, someone that represents their heritage, without inciting hate for another culture, something that has long been the case for the bigger companies in the past.
We have two Greek teams fighting because BCW isn’t big enough for the two of them, The Parea reigned over the tag team division but The Sexy Greek Boys took control with a sneaky roll up to claim back their kingdom.