Alias the Champ (1949)

gorgeous-george-and-wife

Broadcast companies were looking for content during the early days of television.   Besides older movies and some broadcast company productions, sports were a source of programming for many television stations.  The Dumont Television Network was one of the powerhouse networks in the beginning of the Golden Age of Television.  One of their most popular programs was wrestling and the star

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Gotch Meets Match in Zbyszko

frank-gotch

On a Thursday night, November 25, 1909, World Wrestling Champion Frank Gotch met Polish Wrestling Champion Stanislaus Zbyszko for a handicap match in Buffalo, New York.  Gotch agreed to forfeit the bout if he could not throw Zbyszko twice in an hour. Zbyszko’s size and strength created problems for Gotch, who weighed 190 pounds to Zbyszko’s 260 pounds.  However, Zbyszko

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Masked Marvel Throws Berner

aberg-masked-marvel-drawing

Wrestling promoter Samuel Rachman created the International Wrestling Tournament in Spring 1915 to highlight the abilities of Aleksander “Alex” Aberg.  Aberg was the Russian Greco-Roman Wrestling Champion.  Rachman believed Aberg could beat any wrestler. Rachman also wanted to lure Frank Gotch, the last undisputed World Heavyweight Wrestling Champion, out of retirement to wrestle with Aberg.  Gotch wrestled George Lurich in

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Stecher Beats Westergaard in Lincoln

stecher-wrestles-zbyszko

In a blog post last month, I wrote about the difficulty promoters had in staging the  Joe Stecher vs Jess Westergaard match.  Originally scheduled for Omaha, Nebraska, the Omaha Chief of Police and Police Commissioner were concerned about the match being prearranged or a “work”. They didn’t want gamblers being taken in by the exhibition. To prevent this occurrence, they

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Frank Gotch Pays His Dues

frank-gotch

Frank Gotch, the farm boy from Humboldt, Iowa, would defeat George Hackenschmidt for the World Heavyweight Wrestling Championship in 1908.  This victory and his subsequent defeat of “Hack” in the 1911 rematch cemented Gotch’s place as one of the greatest wrestlers of all time.  Gotch was a very talented wrestler but he was not the undefeated wunderkind of legend.  Gotch

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Jake Kilrain Boxes to a Draw

jake-kilrain

While famous for fighting John L. Sullivan in the last world championship prizefight contested under bare knuckle rules, Jake Kilrain also took part in many gloved bouts.  Prizefighting was transitioning from bare knuckle rules to gloved bouts under the Marquess of Queensberry Rules (early amateur and professional boxing) in the late 19th Century. Like Sullivan, Kilrain would fight in major

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Zbyszko Defeats Westergard

stanislaus-zbyszko-1909

On January 10, 1912, Stanislaus Zbyszko continued his campaign for another title shot with World Heavyweight Wrestling Champion Frank Gotch.  To press his claim, he secured a match with Gotch training partner and protegé, Jake Westergard.  Westergard claimed a questionable win over his mentor Gotch, who probably dropped the match to Westergard in a prearranged match. Zbyszko was a skilled

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Police Chief Prevents Wrestling Match

stecher-wrestles-zbyszko

Omaha Chief of Police H.W. Dunn created headlines on March 28, 1915, when he issued an order banning the advertised professional wrestling match between Joe Stecher and Jess Westergaard.  The April 6, 1915 match was scheduled for the Omaha Auditorium. The chief actually issued the order at the behest of Superintendent of Police A.C. Kugel.  Kugel issued a statement to

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