Combat Sports Historian and Martial Artist
From late 1921 to 1923, John Contos promoted professional wrestling in St. Louis, Missouri. However, Contos decided to leave promotion to focus on managing the career of budding star Dan Kolov. Prior to leaving St. Louis, Contos sold the promotion to Tom Packs, his nephew and assistant in the promotion. Packs’ first card was scheduled for Friday, January 4, 1924.
When discussing Stanislaus Zbyszko’s title reign from 1921 to 1922, the main reason given for taking the title from him was that his title reign was a box office failure. Do the numbers validate this belief? Prior to wining the championship, Zbyszko wrestled former champion Joe Stecher at the 71st Regiment Armory in front of 7,000 fans. In 1915, the
When William Muldoon retired as the World Heavyweight Greco-Roman Wrestling Champion in 1889, there was no ready successor to the championship. Evan “Strangler” Lewis was the best wrestler in the United States not named William Muldoon but his specialty was catch-as-catch-can wrestling. The best American Greco-Roman wrestler, Clarence Whistler, had died in Australia during 1885. Muldoon’s handpicked successor was German-born
Joe Stecher started out 1915, a fateful year for his career, with a victory over Adolph Ernst. Ernst wrestled under the name Otto Carpenter for this match but was known to professional wrestling fans as Ad Santel. Santel had a deserved reputation for being a vicious “hooker”, a wrestler skilled in submission holds. Stecher was a 22-year-old Nebraskan, who made
World Heavyweight Wrestling Champion Ed “Strangler” Lewis wrestled hundreds of legitimate wrestling matches with Joseph “Toots” Mondt over the years. During conversations with his young protégé, Lou Thesz, Lewis said he only had to worry about losing to two wrestlers in his long career. Only Mondt and Stanislaus Zbyszko had a chance of defeating him in a legitimate contest. One
On Sunday, December 14, 1924, “Big” Wayne Munn wrestled Joseph “Toots” Mondt in the main event of the wrestling card at the Kansas City, Missouri, Convention Hall. 10,000 fans showed up to cheer on Munn, a former college football player for the University of Nebraska. Munn was billed at 6’06”, which may have been an exaggeration but he was significantly
The biggest American pro wrestling match of the 19th Century occurred on April 21, 1895 in Chicago, Illinois. Evan “Strangler” Lewis defended his American Heavyweight Wrestling Championship against Martin “Farmer” Burns. The 34-year-olds were both skilled with “hooks” or submission holds making them the top of the food chain in legitimate professional wrestling. Lewis had been undisputed champion since 1893
On April 14, 1909, World Heavyweight Wrestling Champion Frank Gotch met Yussif Mahmout, a skilled Bulgarian wrestler, in Chicago, Illinois for his title. Fans considered Mahmout a tough challenger primarily because they had not seen him wrestle. Emil Klank, Gotch’s manager, convinced foreign wrestlers with good reputations like Mahmout and Stanislaus Zbyszko to travel to America to challenge Gotch. Fans
Aleksander “Alex” Aberg made headlines in 1917 during a lawsuit over his refusal to fulfill a wrestling committment in Boston during March 1917. Aberg agreed to wrestle Wladek Zbyszko, his main opponent during the 1915 New York International Wrestling Tournaments, for Boston promoter George Touhey. However, Aberg pulled out of the bout shortly after signing an agreement to wrestle his
After marrying his wife Gladys and beating Georg Hackenschmidt a second time, both in 1911, World Heavyweight Wrestling Champion Frank Gotch began to wrestle a more limited schedule. His wife Gladys was not a big fan of wrestling and wanted her new husband to spend more time at home in Humboldt, Iowa. In the world of wrestling at the time,