St. Louis Wrestler Surprises Gotch

oscar-wassem

Frank Gotch holds the title of America’s greatest legitimate professional wrestler.  Gotch competed in mostly legitimate contests with a few pre-arranged or “worked” matches thrown in the mix.  By 1904 or 1905, no one could really beat Gotch unless he allowed it. In the early years of his career, Gotch was not so dominant.  He dropped matches to his mentor,

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Fred Beell Overcomes Old Champ

fred-beell-light-heavyweight

On October 20, 1906, Fred Beell proved dynamite comes in small packages.  Beell, light heavyweight wrestling champion, defeated former American heavyweight champion Dan McLeod.  Beell parlayed an active 1906 into defeats of former American Heavyweight Champion Dan McLeod and current American Heavyweight Champion Frank Gotch. Beell won the American Middleweight (Light Heavyweight) Championship but remained out of the spotlight until

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Americus Beats Charley Olson

americus-gus-schonlein

On November 7, 1908, Charles Olson met “Americus” Gus Schonlein for the World Light Heavyweight Wrestling Championship.  The match proved to be as exciting as observers suspected it would be but it ended in controversy. Olson stood 6’01” but weighed only 170 pounds.  Born Max Flaskamp in Krefeld, North Rhine-Westphalia in 1879, he took the name Charles or Charley Olson

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