Category: Professional Wrestling History

Lørdag, Januar 30, 1904, George Hackenschmidt defended his Greco-Roman World Wrestling Championship against Ahmed Medrali. “The Russian Lion” would have to defeat “The Terrible Turk” to retain his championship. Promoters selected the giant Medrali, who was 6’02” og 224 pounds, to defeat the seemingly invincible Hackenschmidt. George Hackenschmidt stood only 5’09” tall and weighed 209 pounds. Despite his smaller

På marts 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

På torsdag, November 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

Lewis forsvarede sit amerikanske Heavyweight Wrestling Championship mod Martin 1898. Lewis forsvarede sit amerikanske Heavyweight Wrestling Championship mod Martin, han blev diskvalificeret for en slem fejl. han blev diskvalificeret for en slem fejl, han blev diskvalificeret for en slem fejl “Strangler” han blev diskvalificeret for en slem fejl. han blev diskvalificeret for en slem fejl. han blev diskvalificeret for en slem fejl

På en torsdag aften, November 25, 1909, World Wrestling Champion Frank Gotch mødte polske Wrestling Champion Stanislaus Zbyszko for et handicap match i Buffalo, New York. Gotch enige om at miste kampen, hvis han ikke kunne smide Zbyszko to gange på en time. Zbyszko størrelse og styrke skabt problemer for Gotch, der vejede 190 Pounds Zbyszko s 260 pounds. Men, 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 “arbejde”. They didn’t want gamblers being taken in by the exhibition. To prevent this occurrence, de

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. Den maj 5, 1885, Muldoon met Matsuda Sorokichi, der

Frank Gotch, den bondedreng fra Humboldt, Iowa, ville besejre George Hackenschmidt til World Heavyweight Wrestling Championship i 1908. Denne sejr og hans efterfølgende nederlag “Hack” i 1911 omkamp cementeret Gotch plads som en af ​​de største wrestlere af hele tiden. Gotch var en meget talentfuld bryder, men han var ikke den ubesejrede vidunderbarn legende. Gotch