Combat Sports Historian and Martial Artist
Posts about professional wrestling from 1870 to 1930.
When the 1915 New York International Wrestling Tournament restarted in October 1915, a mysterious masked man sat at ringside demanding an entry into the tournament. Prior to the masked man’s arrival, the tournament had been lightly attended. The attraction of the masked man sitting at ringside attracted both fan and newspaper interest. Crowds started showing up for the matches. After
In late 1902, Harvey Parker, a professional wrestler who began wrestling in 1900, travelled to St. Louis to challenge the local wrestling community. Parker may have thought St. Louis to be an easier town than “Farmer” Burns territory in Chicago and Iowa. However, Parker would discover two capable wrestler in St. Louis, George Baptiste and Oscar Wasem. By 1902, George
During March 1891, George Baptiste travelled from St. Louis to Detroit to take part in a catch-as-catch-can wrestling tournament. While primarily a Greco-Roman wrestler, Baptiste would compete in the dominant American style of catch-as-catch-can. The 26-year-old Baptiste was an accomplished amateur and professional wrestler. Entering the Detroit tournament, Baptiste had lost only one match as a professional. The year prior,
On April 21, 1884, Duncan C. Ross met Sorakichi Matsuda, also known as Matsada, the first Japanese professional wrestler in the United States. Matsuda immigrated to the United States to pursue his dream of becoming a professional wrestler because it didn’t really exist in Japan at the time. 28-year-old Duncan Ross was born in Turkey of Scottish descent on March
On August 26, 1886, Evan “Strangler” Lewis met the British Wrestling Champion Tom Cannon in Cincinnati, Ohio. During the legitimate wrestling era, other wrestlers feared the powerful Lewis because of his stranglehold. Lewis employed a carotid arterial strangle known as the rear naked choke in Judo. At least that was what I originally thought and most historians have quoted. Modern
Estonia gave birth to three of the greatest wrestlers of the first two decades of the 20th Century: Georg Lurich, George Hackenschmidt and Aleksander “Alex” Aberg. As part of the Russian Empire at the time, Estonia contained a number of elementary and high schools with superior physical education programs. Lurich and Hackenschmidt both started out as weightlifters and transitioned into
On Saturday, November 25, 1899, St. Louis wrestling fans experienced a shock, when a visiting wrestler easily threw local champion Oscar Wasem in a little over 20 minutes. After the easy victory, fans smelled a rat, when the “Indianapolis Cyclone” spoke with a Lancashire accent. Oscar Wasem surpassed George Baptiste as St. Louis’ wrestling champion in the mid-1890s. Wasem possessed
William Muldoon, the World Greco-Roman Wrestling Champion and physical culture proponent, came to Los Angeles on Tuesday, April 15, 1884 to face the local wrestler Fred Bauer. The match took place at the local Turnvereine Hall in Los Angeles. Muldoon was so confident of victory that he stipulated that he would throw Bauer ten times within an hour or he
The International Wrestling Tournament occurred in two phases between May 19, 1915 and December 31, 1915. Fifty wrestlers would compete in the first phase of the tournament including World Greco-Roman Champion Aleksander “Alex” Aberg. The second installment had 40 wrestlers including up and coming star Ed “Strangler” Lewis, who joined a month into the tournament on November 22, 1915. The
I first read about William Muldoon in a biography of John L. Sullivan, the last bare knuckle heavyweight champion. Sullivan ushered in gloved boxing by refusing to take part in any more bare knuckle bouts. The last major bare knuckle bout was fought by Sullivan against Jake Kilrain in 1889. Odds were against Sullivan, a binge drinker indulging heavily between bouts. He was