Category: Historie profesionálního wrestlingu

V sobotu, Leden 30, 1904, George Hackenschmidt obhájil řecko-římský World Wrestling Championship proti Ahmed Medrali. “Ruská Lion” bude muset porazit “Hrozný Turek” udržet jeho šampionát. Pořadatelé vybrali obří Medrali, který byl 6’02” a 224 liber, porazit zdánlivě neporazitelný Hackenschmidt. George Hackenschmidt stál pouze 5’09” vysoký a vážil 209 liber. Despite his smaller

Března 22, 1881, Greco-Roman World Wrestling Champion William Muldoon met Collar-and-Elbow World Champion John McMahon at the Terrace Garden in New York City. Muldoon and McMahon met in a best-two-out-of-three-falls match. The first fall was conducted by Greco-Roman rules. The second fall would be contested using collar-and-elbow rules. The last fall would be decided via what The New York

Ve čtvrtek, Listopad 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

Broadcast companies were looking for content during the early days of television. Besides older movies and some broadcast company productions, sports were a source of programming for many television stations. The Dumont Television Network was one of the powerhouse networks in the beginning of the Golden Age of Television. One of their most popular programs was wrestling and the star

Yusuf Ismail only wrestled in the United States for six months in the first half of 1898. In his first significant match, he was disqualified for a vicious foul. In his only other significant match, he gave Evan “Strangler” Lewis the beating of his life. Yet his short tour of the United States made him a legend. Ismail entered the

Na čtvrtek večer, Listopad 25, 1909, World Wrestling mistr Frank Gotch potkal polský Wrestling šampion Stanislaus Zbyszko pro handicap utkání v Buffalu, New York. Gotch souhlasil vzdát zápas, kdyby nemohl hodit Zbyszko dvakrát za hodinu. Velikost Zbyszko a síla vytvořil problémy Gotch, který vážil 190 liber Zbyszko je 260 liber. Však, 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

Dominant champions like William Muldoon often had to accept handicap conditions to get fans interested in watching them wrestle. Since fans only considered Clarence Whistler skilled enough to really threaten his reign, Muldoon would often generate interest by either performing feats of strength or taking on the challenge of handicap conditions. Května 5, 1885, Muldoon met Matsuda Sorokichi, kdo

Frank Gotch, farmářský chlapec z Humboldt, Iowa, by porazit George Hackenschmidt pro mistrovství světa Heavyweight Wrestling v 1908. Toto vítězství a jeho následná porážka “Kopnutí” v 1911 odvetu stmelil Gotch místo jako jeden z největších zápasníků všech dob. Gotch was a very talented wrestler but he was not the undefeated wunderkind of legend. Gotch