Category: Early Professional Wrestling History

Joe Stecher started out 1915, a fateful year for his career, with a victory over Adolph Ernst.  Ernst wrestled under the name Otto Carpenter for this match but was known to professional wrestling fans as Ad Santel.  Santel had a deserved reputation for being a vicious “hooker”, a wrestler skilled in submission holds. Stecher was a 22-year-old Nebraskan, who made

On June 11, 1976, Joseph “Toots” Mondt died enroute to Christian Northeast Hospital in North St. Louis County.  Mondt had moved to St. Louis in 1969 to help take care of his wife Alda’s mother.  After her mother died in 1971, the Mondts decided to stay in St. Louis, where Alda had been born and raised. Mondt was a legendary

Wayne “Big” Munn’s a meteoric rise in professional wrestling.  Debuting in 1924, Munn “won” the World Heavyweight Wrestling Championship from Ed “Strangler” Lewis in early 1925.  His fall was just as quick.  By 1926, Munn was retired. A college football lineman from Nebraska, Munn was recruited into professional wrestling by Billy Sandow, defacto leader of the Gold Dust Trio.  The

Fred Beell was a strong, talented professional wrestler at the turn of the 20th Century.  Beell gave all the best wrestlers of the day tough contests but his lack of size often hampered his ability with world class wrestlers. Although powerfully built, Beell was generously listed at 5’06”.  At his heaviest, Beell never exceeded 170 pounds.  While possessing a bodybuilder’s

When William Muldoon retired from professional wrestling in 1889, he intended for his protege, Ernst Roeber, to become the new World Heavyweight Wrestling Champion.  Since Muldoon always defended his championship in the Greco-Roman wrestling style, his choice made sense.  Roeber was arguably the best Greco-Roman wrestler in America at the time. However, the wrestling fans and journalist, covering the sport,

In a recent post, I wrote about Charles Green’s unsuccessful attempt to defeat Evan “Strangler” Lewis in 1889.  A year later, Green had greater success with another American wrestling legend, Martin “Farmer” Burns. The soon-to-be 29-year-old Burns was an excellent wrestler but wasn’t yet on the level of Evan Lewis.  However, he would have to be in the top 10

The Gold Dust Trio’s dominance of professional wrestling in the early to mid-1920s bred lots of resentment with other wrestlers and promoters.  This professional jealousy led to a famous double-cross in 1925.  From this time on, the world title was disputed as Joe Stecher held one version, while Ed “Strangler” Lewis held the other version. Due to the real resentment

The following excerpt is from my new book Double Crossing the Gold Dust Trio, which will be out this summer. During the summer (of 1921), the Zbyszko brothers received word that their mother was gravely ill.  Making quick preparation, they let Curley and the other promoters know they would be leaving as soon as they could arrange passage on a

Charles Green, a skilled English catch-as-catch-can wrestler, traveled to the United States in the late 1880s to wrestle the best American wrestlers.  Green got his opportunity on July 21, 1889, when he wrestled American Heavyweight Catch-as-Catch-Can Champion Evan Lewis.  To prepare for this match, Green took a handicap bout with journeyman wrestler Bert Scheller in late June. Scheller was born

Whether it was a double-cross or an attempt to setup a legitimate contest, Paul Bowser’s attempt to secure a match between Joe Stecher and Joe Malcewicz nearly resulted in a riot on March 11, 1926.  Events of the previous year actually set this debacle into motion. From the end of 1922, the Gold Dust Trio of Ed “Strangler” Lewis, his