Combat Sports Historian and Martial Artist
Posts about 20th Century wrestlers, wrestling matches, and wrestling films.
On January 10, 1910, recently arrived Polish wrestler Stanislaus Zbyszko took on Charlie “The Kid” Cutler in a best two-out-of-three falls match. Cutler had been a boxer in a troupe run by John L. Sullivan before transitioning to wrestling. While Cutler was extremely tough, Stanislaus Zbyszko had been wrestling since his youth. Zbyszko would use these skills to overcome Cutler
On December 16, 1917, Frank Alvin Gotch lost a three week battle with uremic poisoning. Doctors attempted to keep his kidneys going through an operation in Chicago but it provided only temporary relief. Gotch intended to travel to Hot Springs, Arkansas to try and restore his health. The operation ended this hope. Gotch spent the last couple weeks only able
Rarely does one fundamentally alter their profession but Stanislaus Zbyszko did just that on April 15, 1925 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Zbyszko defeated Wayne Munn in one of the last shoot (not staged) professional wrestling matches in the United States. It was a shoot or legitimate match because Zbyszko double crossed the “Goldust Trio” wrestling promotion and beat Munn for the
I decided to start 2020 by using two examples from professional wrestling to discuss why you would change a historical account you wrote in the past. In writing history, you are limited by the available sources on the subject matter. Primary sources like diaries, official records and autobiographies are very valuable. Other sources like newspapers are good as well but
On the same day Joe Stecher wrestled Stanislaus Zbyszko for the recognized version of the World Heavyweight Wrestling Championship in St. Louis, Ed “Strangler” Lewis challenged “Big” Wayne Munn for his disputed Michigan-Illinois World Heavyweight Wrestling Championship. Lewis dropped the title to Munn in February 1925. In April 1925, Zbyszko defeated Munn in a famous double-cross. The match between Lewis and
On April 7, 1914, 22-year-old Wladek Zbyszko met 22-year-old Ed “Strangler” Lewis would meet in the first of many matches between the two men. They would cooperate in a number of worked or “prearranged” matches. Lewis in fact dropped his American Heavyweight Wrestling Championship to Wladek Zbyszko in 1917. In the early 1920s, Lewis would drop his World Heavyweight Wrestling
Frank J. Quinn, a local St. Louis attorney, served as the manager for professional wrestlers George Baptise, Charley Olson and Fred Beell. Originally an admirer of George Baptiste, who was a legend in the St. Louis neighborhood around Cook and Vandeventer Avenues. Baptiste would employ Quinn as his manger and later attorney for his tent and awning company. During his
Samuel Rachmann promoted the International Wrestling Tournament in New York during 1915. Rachmann invited wrestlers from around the world to the tournament but his real intention was to establish European Greco-Roman Wrestling Champion Alex Aberg as the successor to the retired Frank Gotch as World Champion. Rachmann’s plan for establishing Aberg was going as planned after the tournament kicked off
In early 1916, Martin “Farmer” Burns, who trained and managed Frank Gotch to the World Heavyweight Championship, began denying that he developed current American Heavyweight Champion Joe Stecher. The claim seemed odd because Burns had been working with Stecher for several years. Burns helped prepare Stecher for his championship bout with Charlie Cutler in 1915. In a way, what Burns
By the end of the 1910s, professional wrestling promoters booked wrestlers in worked or pre-arranged wrestling matches. Occasionally, usually as a result of a double cross, fans would see an actual contest or “shoot” match between the wrestlers. One of these matches occurred in late 1921 and arose from a feud between Tex Rickard, primarily a boxing promoter, and Jack