Al Costello

Early life Costa was born in the village of Lingua, in the Italian island of Santa Marina Salina, Sicily, and lived there until his family immigrated to Australia when he was six years old.

Wrestling career Early career Al Costello made his professional wrestling debut in 1938, but the man that would be known as "The Man of a Thousand Holds" 20 years later, found little success early in his career. The general belief in Australian professional wrestling at the time was that a wrestler had to go to North America and learn how to be a pro before the bookers would even consider pushing them up the card. Later that year, Costello and Heffernan started working for Dory Funk's NWA Western States promotion based in Amarillo, Texas. Here, The Kangaroos won their first title as a team when they defeated Pepper Gomez and El Medico to win the Texas version of the NWA World Tag Team Championship on 17 November 1958. Their first title reign was short lived, however, as Gomez and Rito Romero defeated them to regain the titles two weeks later.

Between 1957 and 1965, The Kangaroos wrestled in the United States, Canada, Asia and select tours of Australia and New Zealand. They worked for such companies as Capitol Wrestling Corporation (the future World Wrestling Entertainment), Championship Wrestling from Florida, NWA Ohio, the Japan Wrestling Association and the World Wrestling Association in Los Angeles, California. The Internationals worked mainly in Tennessee and Texas for NWA Western States. In Texas, Costello and Von Brauner won the Texas version of the NWA World Tag Team Championship, a title Costello and Heffernan had held in 1958. The team was also billed as the first NWA American Tag Team Champions, titles that were also recognized by World Class Championship Wrestling in addition to the Western States promotion. The Internationals lost the American Tag Team title to Fritz and Waldo Von Erich on 21 February 1967.

After recovering from his hip surgery, Costello returned to active competition at age 56. The fact that he was able to recover from such a major injury is credited to his almost-fanatical style of healthy living. As a devout vegan, Costello credited his meat-free diet with his recovery, as well as the remarkable shape he was in for a man of his age. On 14 May 1994, Kass and Snow defeated Canadian Lighting again to win the Border City Wrestling (BCW) Can-Am Tag Team Championship, unifying the two tag team championships. A week later, The New Fabulous Kangaroos lost both sets of titles to Scott D'Amore and "Irish" Bobby Clancy. After losing the unified MCW/BCW Tag Team championships, The New Kangaroos split up; Snow focused on his World Wrestling Federation career while Costello retired for good, never making another wrestling related appearance.

Death On 22 January 2000, Costello died from a combination of pneumonia and heart problems, in Clearwater, Florida. In 2003, Al Costello and Roy Heffernan became the first tag team to ever be inducted into the Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame. Alex Turk Promotions (Winnipeg) International Tag Team Championship (2 times) - with Roy Heffernan National Wrestling Alliance NWA Hall of Fame (Class of 2013) NWA All-Star Wrestling NWA Canadian Tag Team Championship (Vancouver version) (4 times) - with Roy Heffernan NWA World Tag Team Championship (Texas version) (2 times) - with Roy Heffernan (1), Karl Von Brauner (1) NWA Detroit NWA World Tag Team Championship (Detroit version) (3 times) - with Roy Heffernan (2), Ray St. Clair (1) World Wrestling Association WWA World Tag Team Championship (2 times) - with Don Kent Worldwide Wrestling Associates WWA World Tag Team Championship (1 time) - with Roy Heffernan WWA International Television Tag Team Championship (2 times) - with Roy Heffernan World Wrestling Council WWC World Tag Team Championship (1 time) - with Don Kent Wrestling Observer Newsletter Wrestling Observer Newsletter Hall of Fame (Class of 1996) with Roy Heffernan and Don Kent