Combat Sports Historian and Martial Artist
Posts about 20th Century wrestlers, wrestling matches, and wrestling films.
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
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
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
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
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
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