Australia’s First Openly Gay Pro Wrestler Pens Autobiography

Professional wrestling has always had flashy, flamboyant characters who proudly wore sequins and feathery robes. People like “The Nature Boy” Ric Flair and Gorgeous George were the epitome of this on the global stage. Down here in Australia, Ken “Dazzler” Dunlop was paving a legacy of his own as Australia’s first openly gay professional wrestler.

In his autobiography Dazzler Dunlop: Inside My Squared Circle, the Australian Wrestling Legend and Hall of Fame Inductee reveals what it takes to be gay in the hyper-masculine world of professional wrestling. 

Ken’s wrestling career began in 1977 at 16 years old and would last until just three weeks before his 40th birthday.

As a lifelong wrestling fan, Ken watched wrestling with his family while growing up in the rural Victorian town of Moe, before ultimately being inducted into the Wrestling Hall Of Fame.

Ken On Oxford Street

While all of Ken’s achievements inside the squared circle are phenomenal, it is actually his personal journey that is truly remarkable.

While Ken grew up in Victoria he found his greatest wrestling success in Sydney after making a rather spur-of-the-moment decision to uproot his life and move.

As much of a career-defining decision as the move to Sydney was it was an even more pivotal moment in Ken’s personal life. When Ken moved to Sydney and ventured down to Oxford Street for the first time he was “quite shocked” by what he saw.

“When I first came to Oxford Street, I saw two guys walking down the street holding hands, two girls holding hands. And I just thought, Oh, wow,” Ken recalled. “You just didn’t see that in Melbourne because there was no sort of gay area… So just seeing that really blew my mind.”

At that moment Ken immediately knew he was where he was meant to be.

“It made me feel like I was normal… when I came up here and saw people being so open and accepting, it just felt right and you felt safe.”

Coming Out

After coming out to his family Ken then had to come out to his second family, his peers in the wrestling locker room. A process that was met with shrouded hostility according to Ken, “I didn’t get a lock of negativity but some of the older guys didn’t like me and I assume it was because of my sexuality.”

However, Ken does vividly remember one moment when the hostility reared its ugly, violent head.

“The only time I ever got really abused for being gay happened in the early 80s. It was a really big thing back then to have an earring in your left ear and I’d forgotten to take it out before a match. As the referee was telling us the rules, my opponent said ‘you fucking faggot, you’ve got your earring in’ before he leaned over and ripped it out, so there was blood pouring out everywhere. Then the bell rang and we started the match as normal. That really, really shocked me and not a word was said after the match. The guy didn’t apologise or anything. That day I lost all of my respect for that guy.”