For a while, he was part of the travelling show promoted by Henry Jasper Redfern in Sheffield, England, and often billed as the "strongest man on earth".

[7] They later met up at a Hay Street venue, and Dinnie won again – but because he had taken French leave (absent without approval) from duty, he was suspended pending an inquiry, for which he then resigned and returned to the music halls.

[4] On Friday 12 June 1908 at the Melbourne Athletic Club, Exhibition Street, in the catch-as-catch-can wrestling style, Dinnie with 'an undefeated record' competed with Buttan Singh.

[9] The meeting between the 'burly Scotchman and the sinewy Hindu', weighing 14 stone 10 pounds (93 kg; 206 lb) and 11 stone 4 pounds (72 kg; 158 lb)) respectively, saw Singh use Dinnie's force to his own advantage, with a result that neither man could throw the other: 'Dinnie was too heavy and powerful for Buttan to pin to the mat, and Buttan was too clever for Dinnie.

[10] A return match for the 'championship of Australia' and £100 on Saturday night, 15 August 1908, was organised, with Dinnie securing two out of the three falls, 'his great strength telling'.

[4] By December 1908, Dinnie lost to American champion Frank Gotch (1877–1917), in Sheffield, England in very quick successive bouts.

[17] In Saturday, 5 July 1924, aged 48, at a concert and dance evening around the town of Dalwallinu, mid-west WA, Dinnie did some displays of weight lifting with ease, holding 'the onlookers spell bound for several seconds'.

[4] The catch-as-catch-can and Cumberland wrestling styles held sway until the Americans introduced variations such as Boston crabs, splits and toeholds.

Keeping in shape, he did win by two falls to one over wrestler Jumbo Johnson at Collie in south-west WA in 1919, but otherwise did little mat work.