Al Costello was the creator and original member of the tag team The Fabulous Kangaroos, whose "Ultra Australian" gimmick complete with boomerangs, bush hats and the song "Waltzing Matilda" as their entrance music, existed in various forms from 1957 until 1983.
29 Facts About Al Costello
1.
2.
Al Costello was either an active wrestler, or a manager in all versions of The Fabulous Kangaroos.
3.
Al Costello later formed other versions of The Fabulous Kangaroos with Ray St Clair, Don Kent and Tony Charles.
4.
Al Costello officially retired from wrestling in 1983 but still made a few brief returns to the ring after that.
5.
Al Costello excelled at school sports and became interested in weightlifting at an early age.
6.
Al Costello came up with the name "Al Costello", thinking it sounded tough like a portmanteau of Al Capone and Frank Costello.
7.
Al Costello travelled across Asia, where he did see some success; he won the Malaysian Heavyweight title in 1939, as well as the South Africa trophy in 1949.
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Al Capone 8.
In 1952, Al Costello began wrestling in America, hoping to finally break through and make a big name of himself.
9.
For years, Al Costello had been working on an idea for a new tag team; he even knew who he wanted for a partner: a wrestler he had worked with some years ago named Roy Heffernan.
10.
Al Costello mentioned his idea of an "Ultra Australian" tag team to fellow wrestler, and future promoter, Joe Blanchard.
11.
Blanchard put the two in touch with each other, and Al Costello was off to Calgary, Alberta, Canada to join Heffernan and finally make his tag team a reality.
12.
Heffernan had left Australia to tour the world in 1953 and wanted to return to his homeland, while Al Costello was determined to remain in the United States for a while longer.
13.
Al Costello was originally supposed to return to Australia as well and work for WCW, but those plans never came through.
14.
Al Costello began wrestling for Georgia Championship Wrestling, where he teamed up with Louis Tillet to form a tag team known as "The Globetrotters"; a name that played off Al Costello's Australian and Tillet's French heritage.
15.
Al Costello then moved to the NWA Mid-America territory near Nashville, Tennessee.
16.
In Mid-American, Al Costello teamed with Herb Welch to win the Mid-American version of the NWA World Tag Team Championship, which they held for just over 2 months.
17.
On his way back to the United States, Al Costello had a stopover in Detroit, Michigan, where he met Cleo Williams.
18.
In 1967, Al Costello reformed The Fabulous Kangaroos, this time teaming up with Ray St Clair.
19.
Al Costello had a full hip replacement and was forced to retire from active competition.
20.
Al Costello actually stepped into the ring on occasion as part of special six-man tag team matches.
21.
Al Costello reformed The Fabulous Kangaroos once more, this time teaming up with wrestler Tony Charles.
22.
In 1981, Al Costello convinced Kent to don the bush hat and pick up the boomerang.
23.
Al Costello got Kent to team up with Bruno Bekkar, who was mostly known from working in his native New Zealand and Australia.
24.
Kent and Bekkar worked a tour for the WWC, while Al Costello served as their manager.
25.
The final storyline involving The Fabulous Kangaroos saw Al Costello bring in JJ Dillon to act as his short-term replacement while he was "away on business".
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Al Capone 26.
Not long after Al Costello retired, Kent and Johnny Heffernan went their separate ways.
27.
In 1992, at the age of 71, Al Costello retired from his job in Florida and began teaching wrestling.
28.
Al Costello started to manage The New Fabulous Kangaroos in 1993, a team consisting of Mickey Doyle and Denny Kass who worked for "Motor City Wrestling".
29.
On 22 January 2000, Al Costello died from a combination of pneumonia and heart problems, in Clearwater, Florida.