officially recognized champion was Maori wrestler Ike Robin who won the title in Auckland on 17 March 1925, and held it until his retirement the following year; the title continued to be defended for almost 70 years. Prior to his retirement, Robin and Stanislaus Zbyszko, a one-time World Heavyweight Champion, faced each other in a three-match series at the Auckland Town Hall in 1926. One of their matches lasted for several hours before ending in a time limit draw which, according to the New Zealand Railways Magazine, had "gone on for many weary hours and when midnight Saturday chimed and Sunday commenced the match had to cease". Despite the vast geographic distances, professional wrestling as practiced in the South Pacific region followed along the same lines as professional wrestling in Canada and the United States. Association with the NWA (1930s–1940s) In 1929, the country's first professional wrestling promotion, the Dominion Wrestling Union, was established. It was originally under the control of the New Zealand Wrestling Union, a governing body which oversaw both amateur and professional wrestling, until hiring American-born promoter Walter Miller in 1935. Miller, who had been in the wrestling business since 1914, was able to bring in some of the top stars in the US throughout the 1930s and 1940s. In 1937, the promotion featured Dr. Gordon McKenzie, Tom Meade, Don Mclntyre, Hal Rumberg, Ray Richards, Sam Stein, Jack Forsgren, John Spellman, Matros Kirilenko, King Kong Cox, Chief Little Wolf, Frank Marshall, Rusty Wescoatt, Glen Wade, Joe Woods, Frank Judson, Don Noland, Vie Christy, Francis Fouche and Ed "Strangler" Lewis. The American wrestlers, who then travelled by boat, spent the three-week trip in training prior to their arrival. Canadian wrestler George Walker claimed the New Zealand-version of the British Empire/Commonwealth Heavyweight Championship upon his arrival in New Zealand in 1929. Former Canadian Olympian Earl McCready was recognized as champion when Walker left to compete for a rival promotion in 1935, and legitimised his claim to the title by defeating Walker on 9 November 1937; his second and last reign lasted from 1940 to 1953. Other stand-out stars included Dean Detton, Ken Kenneth, John Kattan and African-American wrestler Jack Claybourne. It was Lofty Blomfield, however, who was arguably New Zealand's most popular wrestler of the period. He was the first New Zealand Amateur Heavyweight Wrestling Champion in 1931 and the first undisputed New Zealand Heavyweight Champion seven years later.