52 Facts About Steve Rickard

Sydney Mervin "Merv" Batt, best known by his ring name Steve Rickard, was a New Zealand professional wrestler, trainer and promoter.

Steve Rickard had high-profile matches with Karl Gotch, Killer Kowalski, The Destroyer, Andre the Giant, Abe Jacobs and King Kong as well.

Steve Rickard is considered one of the most influential figures in New Zealand professional wrestling in the latter half of the 20th century.

Steve Rickard took over the Dominion Wrestling Union after the death of founder Walter Miller in 1959 and ran it for two years.

Steve Rickard was the creator of On the Mat, one of the country's longest running sports programmes from 1975 to 1984, and its short-lived spin-off The Main Event in 1990.

Steve Rickard served as President of the NWA during the early to mid-1990s first shared between himself, Howard Brody, Dennis Coralluzzo and Jim Crockett Jr.

Steve Rickard was a one-time a director of the Cauliflower Alley Club and honoured by the organization in 1997.

Steve Rickard, born Sydney Mervin "Merv" Batt, grew up in Napier, New Zealand.

Steve Rickard joined an amateur wrestling club at age 14, and left school that same year to work three jobs to help support his mother, younger brother Eddy and sister Val.

Steve Rickard eventually left the police force and bought the Hutt Park Hotel which he owned for the next 15 years.

Steve Rickard started competing as an amateur wrestler in Napier during the 1940s, wrestling in the national championships New Zealand wide, and later began training wrestlers himself.

Steve Rickard continued his training in Wellington and eventually opened one of the city's first gyms on Cuba Street.

Steve Rickard was wrestling on the amateur circuit with Ricky Walsh during this time and it was he who convinced Steve Rickard to begin wrestling professionally.

Steve Rickard began wrestling for local promoters in Wellington including shows for wrestler Al Hobman.

In 1963, Steve Rickard won his first major title when he defeated Hobman for the NWA New Zealand Heavyweight Championship.

Steve Rickard briefly lost it to Peter Maivia in Auckland on 3 August 1964, but regained it in Wellington three days later.

Steve Rickard wrestled throughout Canada and the United States early in his career.

Steve Rickard eventually became one of the top wrestlers to compete internationally during the 1960s and 70s and often faced many prominent stars of the era.

Steve Rickard was the opponent of many NWA World Heavyweight Champions in bouts outside North America, such as Jack Brisco and Dory Funk Jr.

Four months later in Tokyo, approximately 8,500 were in attendance when Steve Rickard fought to a double-countout with Kantaro Hoshino at the Sumo Hall.

That same year, while wrestling out of Singapore, Steve Rickard was visiting the Indonesian capital of Jakarta with several other wrestlers.

All six wrestlers fled to the runway where Steve Rickard flagged down a small plane getting ready to take off.

Steve Rickard was involved in other incidents during his international travels.

Steve Rickard was riding a train in India when it was bombed in a terrorist attack.

Steve Rickard was once stranded in Greece when the government closed down the country's airports during trouble with Turkey.

Steve Rickard later became a close friend of King Kong and who later asked him to take his place in a tour of India in early 1970.

Steve Rickard was scheduled to face Tiger Sucha Singh, a top star in the area at the time, and defeated him after 50 minutes.

That same year, Steve Rickard was profiled by Fight Times Magazine and which claimed that he was "rapidly becoming known as the greatest globetrotter in wrestling".

Steve Rickard had wrestled in the US earlier in his career and had a brief stint in the Carolinas where he teamed with fellow New Zealander Abe Jacobs before returning to Singapore choosing to honour a prior commitment with local promoters there by opening for them in their new season.

Steve Rickard's shows sold out the Wellington Winter Show Buildings ten weeks in a row and often had to turn away hundreds of spectators.

On one occasion, Steve Rickard had to rescue his wife from angry fans who, when told the show had sold out, began rocking the small ticket booth.

Steve Rickard had seen how successful televised wrestling had been in Australia and in the United States, and with Jim Barnett was involved with airing the short-lived Big Time Wrestling in 1972.

Steve Rickard used footage taken from one of his earlier events at the Wellington Winter Show Buildings had a film pilot made which he used to "pitch" the idea to TV1 but it passed on the show.

Steve Rickard had to wait two years until the founding of a second network, TV2, which was more favourable to the idea of a wrestling program.

The first episode of On the Mat premiered in 1975, with Ernie Leonard and Steve Rickard as the play-by-play announcer, and was an instant success.

Steve Rickard often stepped out of his role as announcer and actively competed on the show.

Steve Rickard started promoting outside New Zealand, purchasing the 50th State Big Time Wrestling territory in Hawaii from Ed Francis.

Steve Rickard had a television contract with KGMB-TV, retaining Lord Blears as his announcer, and featured Rick Martel, Siva Afi, "Pretty Boy" Larry Sharpe, Don Muraco, Rocky Johnson, Billy White Wolf, Karl von Steiger, Ripper Collins and other NWA stars.

Steve Rickard used many of his own wrestlers such as The Sheepherders and, based partly on their television appearances, were seen by US promoters and eventually brought to the United States.

Steve Rickard sold his territorial rights in Hawaii to Peter Maivia a year later.

That same year, the 54-year-old Steve Rickard won the national championship from Siva Afi and vacated shortly afterwards.

Steve Rickard was responsible for the unsanctioned title switch between Ric Flair and Harley Race at the Wellington Town Hall on 21 March 1984, and in Geylang, Singapore three days later.

Steve Rickard retired from active competition in 1989, shortly before his 60th birthday, as a result of a series of injuries sustained during his career.

Steve Rickard underwent surgery to have had both his hips and knees replaced, and an untreated shoulder dislocation sustained during an overseas tour would continue to trouble him for many years.

In 1990, Steve Rickard attempted another wrestling program called "The Main Event" which aired on TV3.

Steve Rickard served as president of the organisation, along with Howard Brody, Dennis Coralluzzo and Jim Crockett, Jr.

Steve Rickard was involved with the Cauliflower Alley Club, a professional wrestling and boxing fraternal society, and was on the board of directors at one time; he became an official honouree of the organisation in 1997.

Steve Rickard continued promoting wrestling events into the 21st century running occasional events in southeast Asia.

Steve Rickard has been referred to as "the Vince McMahon of New Zealand wrestling" by the New Zealand Herald and credited as "the man who turned wrestling into home entertainment" with his On the Mat program.

Steve Rickard has received praise from the internet wrestling community being called "one of New Zealand's greatest wrestlers" by the Pro Wrestling Torch.

On 3 September 2009, Steve Rickard celebrated his 80th birthday in Hawke's Bay which was attended by around 100 guests including former wrestlers Arthur Sneddon and Joe Fau.

Steve Rickard died on 5 April 2015 in Queensland, Australia.