Divided Championship is Available
For years, I believed the version of the Divided Championship era that I read about in The Fall Guys (affiliate link) by Marcus Griffin and other sources. Stanislaus Zbyszko double-crossed the Gold Dust Trio by shooting on Wayne “Big” Munn and defeating Munn legitimately in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania during April 1925.
A month later, Memorial Day 1925, Zbyszko dropped the legitimate world title to Joe Stecher in St. Louis, Missouri. On the same day, Munn dropped a disputed version of the world title to Ed “Strangler” Lewis in Michigan City, Indiana. So far, all this information is true.
Divided Championship book cover
The sources said Lewis and Stecher defended their titles quite differently. Lewis continued to act like the undisputed world champion defending his title against all comers. Stecher feared his partners in the double-cross of Munn would double-cross Stecher, so Joe Stecher virtually retired the championship. This information is false.
As late as 2024, I believed this version of events. It was not until I started researching John “The Nebraska Tigerman” Pesek’s career for Shooter in a Worked World: John Pesek and the 1920s Promotional Wars that I started to doubt the account. Pesek had been part of an attempt to double-cross Stecher but Billy Sandow, Lewis’ manager, instigated the plot, not Stecher’s partners.
Historians have done Joe Stecher a great disservice in their telling of the Divided Championship era. Stecher had the stronger claim to the world championship. Stecher also proved the most active champion.
In the end, Lewis won the reunification match, a legitimate contest, in St. Louis during February 1928. The victors write the history. Due to personal challenges, Joe Stecher could not contest this distorted view of the Divided Championship.
I wrote Divided Championship: Stecher and Lewis After the Double-Cross to set the record straight on this important time in professional wrestling history. As usual, truth is stranger than fiction. The true story deserved to be told. This book should set the record straight particularly for Joe Stecher.
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