Category: Early Professional Wrestling History

In 1880, William Muldoon would become World Heavyweight Wrestling Champion in the Greco-Roman style after defeating Thiebaud Bauer, the reigning champion.  Before he would accomplish this feat, Muldoon had to pay his dues and prepare for the title tilt with Bauer. In 1876, Muldoon caught the attention of former bare knuckle prizefighting world champion John Morrissey.  Morrissey was a former

Rarely does one fundamentally alter their profession but Stanislaus Zbyszko did just that on April 15, 1925 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.  Zbyszko defeated Wayne Munn in one of the last shoot (not staged) professional wrestling matches in the United States.  It was a shoot or legitimate match because Zbyszko double crossed the “Goldust Trio” wrestling promotion and beat Munn for the

I decided to start 2020 by using two examples from professional wrestling to discuss why you would change a historical account you wrote in the past.  In writing history, you are limited by the available sources on the subject matter.  Primary sources like diaries, official records and autobiographies are very valuable.  Other sources like newspapers are good as well but

Evan “Strangler” Lewis was a scary competitor.  Although he was not a large man at 5’09” and weighed 170 pounds, Lewis’ mastery of submissions made him an equal or better of most wrestlers of his era.  Jack Carkeek was a terrific wrestler but one match with Lewis almost caused him to retire. Lewis’ reputation was strongly related to his feared

On the same day Joe Stecher wrestled Stanislaus Zbyszko for the recognized version of the World Heavyweight Wrestling Championship in St. Louis, Ed “Strangler” Lewis challenged “Big” Wayne Munn for his disputed Michigan-Illinois World Heavyweight Wrestling Championship.  Lewis dropped the title to Munn in February 1925.  In April 1925, Zbyszko defeated Munn in a famous double-cross.  The match between Lewis and

At the beginning of 1911, the wrestling public considered three men to be the greatest challenge to reigning World Champion Frank Gotch.  Former champion George Hackenschmidt, Stanislaus Zbyszko and “The Terrible Turk” Yussif Mahmout wanted the chance to beat Gotch. Gotch, who was nobody’s fool, decided to take some of the starch out of his challengers by matching them up

Samuel Rachmann promoted the International Wrestling Tournament in New York during 1915.  Rachmann invited wrestlers from around the world to the tournament but his real intention was to establish European Greco-Roman Wrestling Champion Alex Aberg as the successor to the retired Frank Gotch as World Champion. Rachmann’s plan for establishing Aberg was going as planned after the tournament kicked off

On March 22, 1919, Ed “Strangler” Lewis met Wladek Zbyszko for the vacant World Heavyweight Wrestling Championship.  In a surprise victory, Zbyszko defeated Lewis to claim the title.  Unfortunately for Wladek Zbyszko, he would only have a cup of coffee with the belt.  A month or two later, Zbyszko lost the title to Joe Stetcher. This match was most likely

In early 1916, Martin “Farmer” Burns, who trained and managed Frank Gotch to the World Heavyweight Championship, began denying that he developed current American Heavyweight Champion Joe Stecher.   The claim seemed odd because Burns had been working with Stecher for several years.  Burns helped prepare Stecher for his championship bout with Charlie Cutler in 1915. In a way, what Burns

Frank J. Quinn, a local St. Louis attorney, served as the manager for professional wrestlers George Baptise, Charley Olson and Fred Beell.  Originally an admirer of George Baptiste, who was a legend in the St. Louis neighborhood around Cook and Vandeventer Avenues.  Baptiste would employ Quinn as his manger and later attorney for his tent and awning company. During his