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Big Things in Small Packages: The Superstar Bill Dundee

Posted: Sep 8th 2026 By: Brian Damage - RingTheDamnBell.com

There are a few wrestlers who are considered “legends”in the Memphis territory. People like Sputnik Monroe, Jackie Fargo, Jimmy Valiant and of course Jerry’ The King’ Lawler. There is another wrestler that stood just five feet seven inches tall that can be added to that list…a wrestler and a booker known as ‘The Superstar’ Bill Dundee.

William Cruickshanks was born and raised in Scotland until he was a teenager and his family moved to Australia. Cruickshanks admitted that he grew up a professional wrestling fan, watching some of the best British wrestlers there ever were and knew that he wanted to be one himself one day. Some discouraged his dreams due to his small physical stature of being 5’7 and only weighing around 160 pounds. So Cruickshanks got a job in the circus as a trapeze artist, but wrestling never left the back of his mind.

When promoter Jim Barnett came to Australia, Cruickshanks sought him and his wrestlers out to begin training. William was able to bulk up from 160 to around 230 pounds and his background as a circus acrobat helped him learn the ropes much quicker than others. When he finally made his pro debut in Australia at 19 years old in 1962, Cruickshanks wore a kilt to the ring to celebrate his Scottish heritage. The local promoters quickly rejected that gimmick and told Cruickshanks to wrestle as an Australian. They changed his name from William Cruickshanks to Bill Dundee. Bill of course was short for William and the last name Dundee derived from the nearby town he grew up in Scotland.

Dundee was then paired up with Australian wrestler George Barnes and the team almost immediately became successful. It was American wrestler Bobby Shane who liked what he saw from the duo and invited them to come with him back to the United States and wrestle there. Dundee and Barnes accepted the offer and soon they would make their U.S. debut as a heel team known as ‘The Australians in the Mid America territory run by Nick Gulas in 1974. According to Dundee, their team almost immediately became headliners with many of the fans in Tennessee hating them because they were foreigners.

By 1975, Dundee’s tag partner George Barnes became homesick and decided to leave the Memphis territory and return to Australia leaving Dundee to fend for himself. He was turned from a heel to a babyface and just as quickly as he got over as a heel when he first arrived in the States, the same happened as a babyface star. It was wrestler/promoter Big Bad John who dubbed Dundee ‘the Superstar.’ It was not only a homage to Billy Graham, but a way to advertise him as a really big deal when he came into a different territory. Dundee started wearing Elvis jumpsuits and other Elvis inspired attire to embrace Elvis’ home roots in the Memphis, Tennessee area. Dundee was also a lifelong fan of his and once even showed up unannounced to Graceland to meet his idol.

His punches were some of the very best in all of professional wrestling and he innovated a maneuver called the ‘sliding dropkick.’ A move where you place your opponent in a corner and run towards him until you go into a baseball slide dropkicking the person.

Starting in 1977, Bill Dundee was involved in one of the hottest feuds in the Memphis territory. His battles against Jerry ‘The King’ Lawler were legendary. The blood they both shed in this hotly contested feud completely sold out the Mid South Coliseum for weeks and months. Whether it was just a straight up brawl or Dundee and his wife Beverly both losing their hair in a match, or their Loser Leave Town matches…their feud made Memphis one of the hottest territories in the country. When they weren’t at each other’s throats battling over the Southern Heavyweight Championship, the two were a successful tag team. They won a number of regional tag team titles and even together won the AWA world tag team titles in 1987.

The most famous match that Dundee and Lawler had as a team was against the Blonde Bombers (Larry Latham and Wayne Farris) in a Tupelo Concession Stand Brawl in 1979. The two teams fought in the ring and then into the stands, up the stairs and into a concession stand throwing food and drinks and hitting each other with various objects in a wild and bloody brawl. Many have said that that particular brawl was the inspiration and laid the foundation of what would be Extreme Championship Wrestling a number of years later.

Dundee worked as both a top babyface and heel in Memphis. According to his longtime friend and tag partner ‘Wildfire’ Tommy Rich…Dundee just didn’t play the part of a heel or face, he lived it 24/7. When he was a face, he made sure to go out of his way to sign autographs and talk to fans outside the arenas and play nice. When he was booked as a heel, that is Dundee acted up, avoided fans and at times got himself in trouble with the law. Dundee was a staunch protector of kayfabe as many of the old school wrestlers were at the time, but according to Rich it was multiplied by 100 with him.

Superstar Bill Dundee wasn’t only known as a wrestler, but also for having a great creative mind in the business. Dundee credits learning how to book matches from Mark Lewin, who he said had some of the greatest ideas for finishes he ever knew. In 1983, Cowboy Bill Watts used Dundee as his booker for the Mid South territory based in Oklahoma and Louisiana. During the time that Dundee had the book between 1983 and 1985…were some of the hottest periods for Watts territory. Unfortunately, according to Jim Ross…Dundee was removed after having some internal creative conflicts with Watts.

While Dundee was a major star in Memphis for decades, by the early 1990’s all of the major territories were extinct. In 1993, he had an opportunity at a major national promotion in World Championship Wrestling. Unfortunately, it wasn’t as a wrestler, but as a heel manager named ‘Sir William’ to serve Lord Steven Regal. He often interfered in matches using his umbrella that he carried with him. The relationship between Dundee and WCW soured after about a year and Dundee soon left WCW and returned to his familiar home of Memphis and the USWA. ‘Gentleman’ Chris Adams credited Dundee with coming up the idea to have Adams feud with his real life student Steve Austin. That feud alone, helped bring business back to the USWA’s Dallas territory.

Bill Dundee stayed semi active as a professional wrestler up until 2019, when at 76 years old had his retirement match in an eight man tag team contest. Despite health issues, Dundee still made appearances at wrestling conventions and gatherings up until the day he passed away. “Superstar” Bill Dundee was inducted into the Memphis Wrestling Hall of Fame on May 13, 2017. Bill passed away on September 6, 2026 at the age of 82.