Bruno Bekkar
| Bruno Bekkar | |
|---|---|
| Born | New Zealand |
| Professional wrestling career | |
| Ring name(s) |
Bruno Bekkar Bruno Bekker Bruno Becker Brian Ashby |
| Billed weight | 114 kg (251 lb) |
| Retired | 1992 |
Brian 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 3-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 the three major companies in New Zealand, and was inducted into KPW's New Zealand Wrestling Hall of Fame in 2006. In 2009, Ashby was ranked #6 in a top ten list of New Zealand's greatest wrestlers by Fight Times Magazine.
Brian Ashby debuted in the early 1960s. He spent some time in Australia early in his career, competing under his real name, and faced Dory Funk, Jr. in Melbourne and Brisbane in late-April 1965; he lost to Funk on both occasions. He briefly held the NWA Australian Heavyweight Championship around this time before losing the title to Larry O'Dea in Sydney on 7 May 1965. Like many New Zealand wrestlers of the period, Ashby became an established journeyman wrestler by the end of the decade and was a very big favourite in Singapore and Malaysia. He was also one of the earliest to wrestle in North America alongside fellow New Zealanders such as Pat O'Connor, Abe Jacobs, John da Silva, Steve Rickard and Robert Bruce.
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