[3] A later mention of a wrestling championship for Australia being actively contested came in April 1901 when Jim McDermott, billed as champion of New South Wales, challenged Indian wrestler Buttan Singh to a bout to determine the champion of Australia,[4] which Singh won on April 16.
[13] Due to the lack of organisation many professional bookings fell through and the newspaper The Sporting Globe hosted a meeting of professional wrestlers, chaired by Weber, at which it was decided Meeske and Joe Bailey were the two wrestlers with the best claim to the heavyweight championship and a bout was scheduled for November 22, 1922, which Meeske won becoming recognized as the undisputed champion of Australia.
[18] In December 1932 the company Stadiums Ltd. booked a match between Tom Lurich and Bonnie Muir as a championship decider due to Meeske not wrestling at their stadium in Sydney for an extended period with the decision being met with criticism from the public with Lurich responding by arguing that he had beaten Meeske previously, although as a foreigner he had been ineligible for the title at the time of his victories under the established rules.
[29] In 1938 a bout between Eddie Scarf and Jim Bartlett was billed as being for the heavyweight championship with Scarf being reported as champion after his win,[30] however Lurich continued to be billed as the unbeaten reigning heavyweight champion by Stadiums Ltd. until dropping the title to George Pencheff in December, 1939.
[31][32] Leo Demetral issued a public claim to be the only legitimate heavyweight champion of Australia in July 1940 based on having beaten Billy Meeske in a match in 1938, ignoring Bucht's earlier victory, and he challenged others to wrestle him for the title,[33] losing it to Fred Atkins in August.