Combat Sports Historian and Martial Artist
Posts about 20th Century wrestlers, wrestling matches, and wrestling films.
In 1922, New York promoter Jack Curley ran afoul of the Gold Dust Trio, manager Billy Sandow, World Heavyweight Wrestling Champion Ed “Strangler” Lewis and wrestler/promotional genius Joseph “Toots” Mondt. The Trio controlled the world championship and froze Curley out of booking the champion. To get even with the Trio, Curley began aggressively promoting Olympic wrestling silver medalist and collegiate
Stanislaus Zbyszko traveled to the United States in 1909 seeking a match with recognized World Heavyweight Wrestling Champion Frank Gotch. To get in shape for this challenge and build anticipation for the title match, Zbyskzo toured most of the major cities in the United States. During May 1910, Zbyszko arrived in St. Louis for his match with capable wrestler Charles
On December 14, 1922, a crowd of 10,000 fans filled the St. Louis Coliseum to watch the rematch between current World Heavyweight Wrestling Champion Ed “Strangler” Lewis and former champion Stanislaus Zbyszko. Lewis “defeated” Zbyszko for the title in Wichita, Kansas in March 1922. Unknown to these fans, the plan was for Zbyszko to lose the match to Lewis but
In January 1905, well-regarded wrestler Gus Schoenlein, also known as Americus, agreed to meet Fred Beell in Schoenlein’s hometown of Baltimore, Maryland. Schoenlein expected to beat Beell easily. At 5’10” and 210 pounds, “Americus” towered over the 5’04”, 170 pound Beell. While Beell was powerfully built, Schoenlein’s 40 pounds was a mountainous advantage. Both men were skilled wrestlers though. Second,
(This post is an exert from my newest book Masked Marvel to the Rescue: The Gimmick That Saved the 1915 International Wrestling Tournament available on Amazon.) The fall version of the 1915 International Wrestling Tournament was struggling with attendance and interest, when promoter Sam Rachmann struck promotional gold by introducing a masked wrestler into his tournament. The Masked Marvel stormed
When Billy Sandow and Ed Lewis decided Stanislaus Zbyszko’s title reign had run out of promotional steam, they decided to “win” back the title in March 1922. St. Louis promoter John Contos was able to secure the big rematch, which would occur at the St. Louis Coliseum on Thursday, December 14, 1922. By this time, American professional wrestling outside of
On Saturday, January 30, 1904, George Hackenschmidt defended his Greco-Roman World Wrestling Championship against Ahmed Medrali. “The Russian Lion” would have to defeat “The Terrible Turk” to retain his championship. Promoters selected the giant Medrali, who was 6’02” and 224 pounds, to defeat the seemingly invincible Hackenschmidt. George Hackenschmidt stood only 5’09” tall and weighed 209 pounds. Despite his smaller
On Thursday, November 22, 1923, St. Louis promoter John Contos hosted a controversial card topped by a match between Joe Stecher and Dan Kolov, an up-and-coming Bulgarian wrestler. The card was covered by John E. Wray, the Sports Editor for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. The card was controversial because two of the biggest stars in wrestling were advertised but didn’t
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
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