Combat Sports Historian and Martial Artist
On December 13, 1920, Ed “Strangler” Lewis defeated Joe Stecher for his World Heavyweight Wrestling Championship. Professional wrestling was a staged exhibition by 1920. However, such was the strong feelings between the men that the match may have been a “shoot” or legitimate match in which Lewis took the belt. Whether the outcome of the match was real, the feud
Evan “Strangler” Lewis, also called Evan Lewis “the Strangler”, was a professional wrestler from 1882 to 1899. Lewis was the first American Heavyweight Catch-as-Catch Can Wrestling Champion. He was also the first wrestler to perfect the “stranglehold” or “hang hold”, which modern MMA fans know as a guillotine choke. Lewis made his professional debut by winning a 64 man tournament
Martin “Farmer” Burns is famous today as the trainer of legendary wrestler Frank Gotch. “Farmer” Burns was a great wrestler in his own right. Burns won the American Heavyweight Wrestling Champion in the legitimate pro wrestling era despite being only 165 pounds. In 1891, Burns as the Iowa Heavyweight Champion took on J.C. Comstock, the Michigan Heavyweight Champion. J.C. Comstock was
On January 11, 1911, world heavyweight wrestling championship contender Stanislaus Zbysko faced the challenge of the powerful but less talented Peter “Giant” Nogert. Nogert was a South African wrestler, who came to the United States for a few years in the early 1910s. Due to a strong international reputation, a few American wrestlers had even claimed to be Nogert before
In November 1923, St. Louis Star-Times reporter Billy Murphy interviewed St. Louis wrestling promoter John Contos. Murphy proposed to Contos that the era of dominant wrestlers like William Muldoon was over. Murphy spoke about the recent match between “World Champion” Hardneck Phillips and the game contender Webster O’Malley. Phillips successfully defended his championship by throwing O’Malley after 1 hour, 50
William Muldoon was the reigning World Heavyweight Wrestling Champion and a noted physical culturist, when Muldoon was engaged by John L. Sullivan’s backers to get their fighter in shape. Sullivan was the reigning World Heavyweight Bare Knuckle Prizefighting Champion. He signed an agreement to meet his toughest challenger, Jake Kilrain, in July 1889. Sullivan admitted he was in bad shape,
On Tuesday, February 22, 1910, Ad Wolgast challenged World Lightweight Boxing Champion Battling Nelson for Nelson’s title at Richmond Arena in Point Richmond, California. The 28-year-old Nelson won the title by knocking out the great Joe Gans in 1908. Boxing experts did not expect Wolgast to defeat Nelson even though Wolgast held a newspaper decision over Nelson in 1909. Pundits
On October 14, 1932, RKO Pictures released The Phantom of Crestwood (1932), the film end to a radio play of the same year. The film concerns the murder of Jenny Wren or more properly “Who Killed Jenny Wren?” Wren, played by Karen Morley, blackmails several prominent men, who carried on affairs with her in the past. One of the men
Ed “Strangler” Lewis and Joe Stecher conducted one of the greatest rivalries of the early arranged professional wrestling exhibition era. Lewis and Stecher wrestled many times including a five and a half hour draw in 1916. Several of their early matches appeared to be legitimate. Legend also has it that Lewis actually had to beat Stecher in a “shoot match”
Stanislaus Zbyszko toured the United States in 1910 in preparation for a title match with World Heavyweight Wrestling Champion Frank Gotch later in the year. His tour brought him to St. Louis on May 29, 1910. Zbyszko was scheduled to meet highly regarded light heavyweight grappler Charley Olson. Olson was a skilled wrestler, who trained with St. Louis wrestler George