Combat Sports Historian and Martial Artist
Posts about professional wrestling in the 19th Century.
Joe Acton was one of England’s best wrestlers during the 19th Century. 151-pound Acton went through England’s middleweight ranks before plowing through the heavyweights. After beating the best England had to offer including Tom Cannon, Acton decided to test his abilities in the United States. Joe Acton settled in Philadelphia at Arthur Chamber’s Champions Rest during the summer months of
Sorakichi Matsuda originally trained in sumo wrestling. When Matsuda decided to become a catch-as-catch-can wrestler, he was forced to travel to the United States. Professional wrestling would not become popular in Japan until the middle of the Twentieth Century. Upon arriving in the United States in 1883, it took Matsuda a few months to secure a match. He finally secured
Martin “Farmer” Burns reportedly trained over 1,000 wrestlers in his career as America’s foremost wrestling trainer. However, Burns was a great wrestler in his own right. Before he retired to train wrestlers full-time, Burns won the American Heavyweight Wrestling Championship from Evan “The Strangler” Lewis in 1895. Burns held the title for two years. In 1893, Burns was still
After several months of wrangling, Clarence Whistler met Duncan C. Ross on Monday, November 7, 1881 in a best three-out-of-five falls match. Two falls were to be conducted in catch-as-catch-can wrestling, which both men were considered adept at. Two falls were to be conducted in collar-and-elbow wrestling, which was a Ross speciality. The final fall would be conducted in Greco-Roman
Henry Moses Dufur held the World Heavyweight Collar-and-Elbow Wrestling Champion during the 1870s. By 1855, Dufur retired from professional wrestling to pursue his full-time profession of clothing tailor. Even during his wrestling career, Dufur worked as a tailor. Dufur told the correspondent from The Boston Globe that he was born in Richford, Vermont on June 5, 1943. This date of
Paul Pons was the Greco-Roman Wrestling Champion of France in the 1890s. He won a tournament at the Folies-Bergeres before winning a tournament in Russia in 1898. These victories allowed him to claim the World Greco-Roman Wrestling Championship. Pons capitalized on this notoriety by opening a gym to train wrestlers and strong men. Pons’ victory was particularly remarkable because of
During March 1891, George Baptiste travelled from St. Louis to Detroit to take part in a catch-as-catch-can wrestling tournament. While primarily a Greco-Roman wrestler, Baptiste would compete in the dominant American style of catch-as-catch-can. The 26-year-old Baptiste was an accomplished amateur and professional wrestler. Entering the Detroit tournament, Baptiste had lost only one match as a professional. The year prior,
Henry Moses Dufur specialized in collar-and-elbow wrestling when Dufur wrestled professionally in the 1870s and 1880s. Born on May 5, 1844, in Richmond, Vermont, Dufur wrestled primarily in the northeastern United States. On June 27, 1878, Dufur wrestled a return match with a wrestler named Cox at the Boston Baseball Park in front of five hundred fans. Five hundred fans
On August 26, 1886, Evan “Strangler” Lewis met the British Wrestling Champion Tom Cannon in Cincinnati, Ohio. During the legitimate wrestling era, other wrestlers feared the powerful Lewis because of his stranglehold. Lewis employed a carotid arterial strangle known as the rear naked choke in Judo. At least that was what I originally thought and most historians have quoted. Modern
Dominant champions like William Muldoon often had to accept handicap conditions to get fans interested in watching them wrestle. Since fans only considered Clarence Whistler skilled enough to really threaten his reign, Muldoon would often generate interest by either performing feats of strength or taking on the challenge of handicap conditions. On May 5, 1885, Muldoon met Matsuda Sorokichi, who