Bruno Bekkar

Who is Bruno Bekkar?

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.