Spiros Arion (Spiros Manoussas)
Born: 10/3/49

“The Golden Greek” Spiros Arion is one of the top world traveled professional wrestlers of
the 20th century. Despite confusion, Arion is very much still alive, and a good deal of the
confusion comes from the fact that another famed Greek wrestler, Andreas Lambrakis, died
in 1997, and this was Arion’s mentor, and he had even been billed as his son. Wrestling
historian Libnan Ayoub, cleared the confusion by actually speaking to Arion in Australia
where he resides.

It is noted that Arion was born in Egypt, but travelled to Greece, and his wrestling career took
him all over the United States, the UK, Australia, Asia, South Africa, and the Far East.

Many championships decorated this double tough wrestler who is said to have competed in
the Olympic Games in Rome, in 1960, in amateur wrestling.

An example of the kind of action that Arion was a part of was a match pairing Arion with Mil
Mascaras against Antonio Inoki & Giant Baba!

Arion teamed with both Bruno Sammartino and “Chief” Jay Strongbow in the WWWF, and had
violent fall outs with both stars. Manager “Classy” Freddie Blassie convinced Arion to turn on
Strongbow and they attacked ferociously destroying the “Chief’s” ceremonial headdress and
shoving the feathers in his mouth. This led to singles clashes with both Strongbow and
Sammartino in front of many a packed house in the Northeast.

There was also a tag match that pitted Arion and Victor Rivera against Bob Backlund and
Peter Maivia. This is the match where Maivia turned on Backlund and his manager Arnold
Skaaland, which launched another heated issue.

There is a band called Art of Burning Water that has a song called “Spiros Arion”.
Online there are many comments from someone claiming to be Spiros Arion in Hobart,
Australia, about political and business issues affecting the area, including Tasmania. Could
this be the “Golden Greek”?

There was a wrestler named Alex Arion that was in Ring of Honor during the formative years
of the company, as the tradition of naming oneself’ after the greats is continued in the 21st
century.

Biography by Robert Murillo
Spiros Arion Wrestling History
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