Combat Sports Historian and Martial Artist
I’ve written in the past that Fall Guys: The Barnums of Bounce by Marcus Griffin is a problematic source. While Griffin has insider knowledge due to his time in the Buffalo promotional office in the 1930s, he wrote the book for the purpose of revenge against the promoters who fired him. The book contains factual information mixed in with interesting
James Hiram McLaughlin holds the distinction of being the first American professional wrestler. While people wrestled professionally before McLaughlin, he was the first to earn a professional living from wrestling. McLaughlin began wrestling professionally in 1860 at 16 years of age but the Civil War interrupted his career for a few years. McLaughlin began wrestling again in 1866. By 1877,
In the early 1920s, Christos Theofilou began wrestling as Jim Londos after several years as the gimmicky “Wrestling Plasterer”. Londos probably didn’t realize that the name change would be the first step into him becoming the biggest box office attraction in 1930s professional wrestling. The second step was his emergence as a main event wrestler in St. Louis. Born in
On July 4, 1922, Alan Eustace received his shot at the World Heavyweight Wrestling Champion Ed “Strangler” Lewis. Eustace, the Kansas Champion, won a qualifying match with “Farmer” Bailey in March 1922 to qualify for the match with Lewis. 31-year-old Eustace was the same age as “Strangler” Lewis but Lewis was far more experienced. Debuting at 14 years of age,
I was recently honored to be a guest on The Martial Culture Podcast. Coach Rene Driefuss and Matt Peters were excellent hosts. I truly enjoyed my time on their podcast. We spoke about one of my books, Gotch vs. Hackenschmidt: The Matches That Made and Destroyed Legitimate American Professional Wrestling in particular. However, we spoke in general about the history
Since its emergence as a spectator sport in the second half of the 19th Century, promoters and wrestlers were under a cloud of suspicion that they were working their matches. While professional wrestling would eventually consist almost exclusively of staged exhibitions, many, if not most, of the matches were legitimate contest prior to 1915. Promoters and wrestlers went to great
In early 1915, Sam Rachmann promoted the New York International Wrestling Tournament with the intention of replacing retired World Heavyweight Wrestling Champion Frank Gotch. Rachmann believed no one could defeat Aleksander “Alex” Aberg, Rachmann’s handpicked successor to Gotch, in Greco-Roman wrestling. Rachmann’s challenge was catch-as-catch-can was the dominant wrestling style in America. To get around this challenge, Rachmann recruited international
In 1922, future World Heavyweight Wrestling Champion Jim Browning began his career in Kansas. Browning moved from his hometown of Verona, Missouri in 1921 to train for a professional wrestling career. Tom Law, the Wichita, Kansas promoter, oversaw Browning’s training. By May 1923, Browning was already in the main event at smaller shows. On an Augusta, Kansas card, Browning wrestled
On March 3, 1922, Ed “Strangler” Lewis regained the World Heavyweight Wrestling Championship from Stanislaus Zbyszko. This event marked the beginning of one of the most dominant professional wrestling combines in history. Manager Billy Sandow, World Champion Ed “Strangler” Lewis and training partner/promotional genius Joseph “Toots” Mondt, known as the “Gold Dust Trio”, dominated the sport for the next six
In the early 1920s, Billy Sandow convinced Georgia promoter Tom Law to move to Wichita, Kansas and develop the area for future wrestling shows. The American Midwest would be a significant revenue generator for the Gold Dust Trio, which Sandow led with World Champion Ed “Strangler” Lewis and promotional genius Joseph “Toots” Mondt, in the 1920s. Law would produce two