Category: Professional Wrestling History

På 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” and 224 pounds, to defeat the seemingly invincible Hackenschmidt. George Hackenschmidt stood only 5’09” høy og veide 209 pounds. Despite his smaller

På Mars 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

On Thursday, November 22, 1923, St. Louis-promotoren John Contos var vert for et kontroversielt kort toppet av en kamp mellom Joe Stecher og Dan Kolov, en kommende bulgarsk bryter. Kortet ble dekket av John E. Wray, sportsredaktøren for St.. Louis Post-Dispatch. Kortet var kontroversielt fordi to av de største stjernene i bryting ble annonsert, men ikke gjorde det

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 kjempet bare i USA i seks måneder i første halvdel av 1898. I sin første betydningsfulle kamp, han ble diskvalifisert for en ond foul. I hans eneste andre viktige kamp, ga han Evan “Strangler” Lewis livets juling. Likevel gjorde hans korte omvisning i USA ham til en legende. Ismail kom inn i

On a Thursday night, November 25, 1909, World Wrestling Champion Frank Gotch met Polish Wrestling Champion Stanislaus Zbyszko for a handicap match in Buffalo, New York. Gotch agreed to forfeit the bout if he could not throw Zbyszko twice in an hour. Zbyszko’s size and strength created problems for Gotch, who weighed 190 pounds to Zbyszko’s 260 pounds. However, Zbyszko

Wrestling promoter Samuel Rachman created the International Wrestling Tournament in Spring 1915 to highlight the abilities of Aleksander “Alex” Åberg. 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

I et blogginnlegg forrige måned, Jeg skrev om vanskeligheter arrangørene hadde med å iscenesette Joe Stecher vs Jess Westergaard-kampen. Opprinnelig planlagt til Omaha, Nebraska, Omaha politimester og politikommisjonær var bekymret for at kampen ble forhåndsplanlagt eller a “arbeid”. De ønsket ikke at spillere ble tatt inn av utstillingen. For å forhindre denne forekomsten, 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. Mai 5, 1885, Muldoon met Matsuda Sorokichi, som

Frank Gotch, gården gutt fra Humboldt, Iowa, ville beseire George Hackenschmidt for World Heavyweight Wrestling Championship i 1908. Denne seieren og hans påfølgende nederlag “Hack” i 1911 omkamp sementert Gotch sin plass som en av de største brytere i all tid. Gotch var en svært talentfull fotballspiller, men han var ikke den ubeseirede wunderkind av legende. Gotch