The Fabulous Kangaroos

The Fabulous Kangaroos
Heffernan (right), Berry (center) and Costello (left)
Tag team
Members	Al Costello Roy Heffernan Ray St. Clair Don Kent Tony Charles Bruno Bekkar Johnny Heffernan
Name(s)	The Fabulous Kangaroos The Kangaroos The Kangaroo Men
Billed from	Australia
Debut	1957
Disbanded	1983
Years active	1957-1983
Promotions	CWC FCW JWA All-Star NWA Western States NWA New Mexico NWA Mid-America WWA WWA (LA) EAS IWE WWC Independent circuit

The Fabulous Kangaroos was a professional wrestling tag team that existed in various forms from 1957 until 1983. The first incarnation of The Fabulous Kangaroos was formed when Italian Australian Al Costello teamed with Australia native Roy Heffernan and adopted an "Ultra Australian" gimmick complete with boomerangs, bush hats, and the song "Waltzing Matilda" as their entrance music. Costello and Heffernan are arguably the most famous version of The Kangaroos, regarded as one of the top tag teams to ever compete in professional wrestling, and are often credited with popularizing tag team wrestling in the late 1950s and 1960s.

Later versions of The Kangaroos saw Al Costello team with Ray St. Clair in 1967, and then with Don Kent from 1968 until 1974. Don Kent went on to team with Bruno Bekkar, and later Johnny Heffernan (a storyline cousin of Roy Heffernan) to keep The Fabulous Kangaroos name alive until 1983.

The Fabulous Kangaroos made their last appearance in 1983, but almost a decade later, the then 72-year-old Al Costello managed a team known as "The New Fabulous Kangaroos" in the American Independent circuit. The New Fabulous Kangaroos consisted of little known wrestlers Mickey Doyle, Denny Kass and Al Snow; of the three, only Snow went on to national and international recognition.

Both Costello and Heffernan died before The Kangaroos were honored as the first tag team to ever be inducted into the Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame in 2003, which started a tradition of inducting a new team every year.

"The Fabulous Kangaroos" were the brainchild of Al Costello, who had spent the first 18 years of his wrestling career as a fairly unsuccessful singles competitor. In 1956, Costello mentioned his idea of an "Ultra Australian" tag team to fellow wrestler, and future promoter, Joe Blanchard. Blanchard happened to be a good friend of Roy Heffernan, who had previously trained with Costello and became his choice for a partner. Costello and Heffernan made their debut as The Fabulous Kangaroos on 3 May 1957, for Stu Hart’s Stampede Wrestling promotion of Canada, in a match against Maurice LaPointe and Tony Baillargeon. Only weeks after making their debut, The Kangaroos were working with the top tag teams of the promotion.