Combat Sports Historian and Martial Artist
Posts about 20th Century wrestlers, wrestling matches, and wrestling films.
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
Omaha Chief of Police H.W. Dunn created headlines on March 28, 1915, when he issued an order banning the advertised professional wrestling match between Joe Stecher and Jess Westergaard. The April 6, 1915 match was scheduled for the Omaha Auditorium. The chief actually issued the order at the behest of Superintendent of Police A.C. Kugel. Kugel issued a statement to
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
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
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