Combat Sports Historian and Martial Artist
Posts about professional wrestling history from 1870 to 1930.
I recently finished Evan “The Strangler” Lewis: The Most Feared Wrestler of the 19th Century. Evan Lewis was a skilled submission expert during the legitimate professional wrestling era although he did take part in a couple prearranged matches. In January 1886, Evan Lewis used his dreaded stranglehold on Sorakichi Matsada. According to several newspapers, Lewis attempted to “strangle Sorakichi to
Ed “Strangler” Lewis is one of the top two American professional wrestlers of all-time. While Lewis was a legitimate submission wrestler, who could beat anyone in a wrestling contest, he worked almost exclusively in prearranged exhibition matches. In 1929, he took part in a match with professional football player turned wrestler, Gus Sonnenberg. Sonnenberg was on the Providence Steam Roller,
On Monday, December 13, 1920, Ed “Strangler” Lewis won the first of six World Heavyweight Wrestling Championships from Joe Stecher. The fact he won the title from his biggest rival and business enemy must have been particularly satisfying. A year before this match, Stecher and Lewis met in a match lasting over three hours. Lewis made a mental error in
An age old question in combat sports is “Who will win between a boxer and a wrestler?” The speculation around this question led to several boxer versus wrestler matches through out history, most notably the disaster between Muhammad Ali and Antonio Inoki in 1976. The matches are mostly no-win affairs except at the box office, which is why both promoters
Frank Gotch took the American Heavyweight Wrestling Championship from Tom Jenkins in December 1903. Gotch intended on following up this triumph with a match for World Heavyweight Wrestling Championship from George Hackenschmidt. Gotch wanted to meet “Hack” in St. Louis during the 1904 World’s Fair. Unfortunately for Gotch and St. Louis, the match would not occur until 1908 in Chicago,
For my birthday this year, I purchased one of my favorite books, The Way to Live in Health and Strength (affiliate link) by Georg Hackenschmidt. Georg Hackenschmidt set many weightlifitng world records before focusing on professional wrestling. Hackenschmidt would win the World Heavyweight Wrestling Championship in 1901. Hackenschmidt would reign as undefeated World Champion for 7 years until losing his
William Muldoon, a former New York City detective, won the World Greco-Roman Wrestling Championship by defeating Thiebaud Bauer. Muldoon reigned for ten years before retiring as champion. After retiring, he began to make a living as a personal trainer. Muldoon trained wrestlers but really came to prominence after getting a woefully out of shape John L. Sullivan fit for his
On June 4, 1883, the Greco-Roman World Heavyweight Wrestling Champion William Muldoon faced skilled French wrestler Jules Rigal in San Francisco, California. When the wrestlers stripped to their trunks for the match, it was obvious Muldoon’s power would prove a formidable challenge to Rigal. Muldoon stood around 6 feet tall and weighed between 193 and 210 pounds during his career.
I first read about William Muldoon in a biography of John L. Sullivan, the last bare knuckle heavyweight champion. Sullivan ushered in gloved boxing by refusing to take part in any more bare-knuckle bouts. John L. Sullivan and Jake Kilrain fought the last major bare-knuckle bout in 1889. Odds were against Sullivan, a binge drinker indulging heavily between bouts. He was in terrible
How often have you heard it best to use short copy or long copy for Internet marketing. Copy editors will advocate short copy, while other copy writers advocate long copy. One person who believed in the use of long copy for selling his services was William Muldoon. Muldoon was the Greco-Roman World Wrestling Champion until he retired to become a