Christmas Night Wrestling Fiasco

On Christmas Night 1911, Stanislaus Zbyszko met Giovanni Raicievich in a much-anticipated heavyweight wrestling bout.  Zbyszko, who was campaigning for a rematch with World Heavyweight Wrestling Champion Frank Gotch, agreed to throw Raicevich 3 times in 90 minutes or be declared the loser.

As the men entered the famed Madison Square Garden in New York City, Zbyszko was clearly the favorite.  However, the heavily muscled Italian champion posed a physical threat to Zbyszko at least.  Both men were powerful wrestlers skilled at the upper body throwing style of Greco-Roman wrestling.

Zbyszko had traveled from Poland to the United States in 1909 with intention of challenging Frank Gotch for the world title he won from Georg Hackenschmidt in 1908.  Zbyszko earned a shot with Gotch but the match was controversial.

Off the customary handshake to start the match, Gotch tackled Zbyszko, who was taken by surprised and pinned within the first 5 seconds of the match.

Furious at the dirty tactic, Zbyszko complained about what he saw as a foul.  When the referee threatened to disqualify Zbyszko, if he did not go on with the second fall, the Polish champion reluctantly agreed but was not mentally right the rest of the match.  Gotch took advantage of Zbyszko’s broken concentration to take a second straight fall.

After the win, Gotch refused to wrestle Zbyszko again until he beat all the current contenders.  Zbyszko didn’t want to wrestle Yussif Mahmout, who he despised, so he took this match with the Italian champion in the hope of getting another title shot.

Confident of victory, he tied up with Raicievich to start the match.  Raicievich realized that by not losing he would win, so he took a very defensive posture during the first fall.  Zbyszko strained to throw the powerful Raicievich, who constantly sat down on his hips lowering his center of gravity.  It took Zbyszko 37 minutes and 50 seconds to gain the first fall.  Zbyszko would have to beat this pace to score the other two falls.

After a 10-minute rest, Zbyszko and Raicievich continued the match.  At the 4 minute mark, Zbyszko tried to execute another throw, which put him in a vulnerable position, when both men fell to the mat.  Raicievich began trying to force Zbyszko’s shoulders to the mat.  Realizing the bad position he was in, Zbyszko started sliding toward the edge of the mat.

When Zbyszko was able to get one shoulder to the edge of the mat, former American Heavyweight Wrestling Champion Tom Jenkins, who was the referee, patted Raicievich on the back to reposition the men in the middle of the mat.  However, Raicievich misunderstood the signal.  He stood up and threw his hands in the air to celebrate.  Raicievich thought he scored a pin and left the ring as his supporters cheered him wildly.

Jenkins yelled for Raicievich to return.  However, he could not hear over the celebration of his supporters, who carried him from the ring.  After waiting several minutes, Jenkins disqualified Raicievich and awarded the match to Zbyszko.

The controversial decision was reported in most newspapers across the United States.  While Zbyszko didn’t do anything wrong, the controversy over his victory gave Gotch an excuse not to give him a rematch.  Gotch would wrestle until 1913 but never agreed to another title shot with Zbyszko.

Zbyszko continued to wrestle in the United States until 1914.  He would eventually return to Europe in frustration over his inability to secure a rematch with Gotch.  He returned to the United States in the 1920s, when he would “win” a couple of world titles in the staged era.

Raicievich would get a title shot with Gotch but, as normally happened when he faced world-class competition, Raicievich lost the match.  Raicievich’s legacy is a good but not great wrestler.

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Sources: Lake County Times (Hammond, Indiana), December 26, 1911 edition, p. 3

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