Episode 5: Wild Claims

July 11, 2022 Ken Zimmerman Jr. Podcast

In this episode, I will be talking about some of the wild claims fans, wrestlers and wrestling historians make about professional wrestling matches.

Update

I recently discovered that before Mildred Burke was even born, wrestling fans and reporters recognized Cora Livingston as the first women’s wrestling champion. Cora learned to wrestle in the carnivals. A pro from 1906 to 1925, she married Paul Bowser in 1913, when both were professional wrestlers. After Paul Bowser established himself as the promoter for the city of Boston, Massachusetts, Cora retired to assist him with the promotion.

I will be writing about Cora in the future. I am sure she will be the focus of a future podcast.

Artist rendering of Zbyszko vs. Aberg from February 27, 1914 Boston Globe (Public Domain)

Main Content

In early 1914, Stanislaus Zbyszko realized that Frank Gotch would not wrestle him again. Before he left for Poland and joined the Polish Army as a lieutenant, Zbyszko wrestled fellow Greco-Roman wrestler Alex Aberg for the World Heavyweight Greco-Roman Wrestling Championship.

The match drew 5,000 fans to the Boston, Massachusettes Mechanical Building. 5,000 fans was a great crowd in this era.

I recount the match, which Zbyszko won two-out-of-three falls. I originally wrote about his match in 1915.

When I wrote about this match on my blog around 2015, a reader left a comment stating that promoters paid Aberg $10,000 to drop the match to Zbyszko. I discuss why this claim does not make sense from a business or financial perspective.

Financially, if we use the high-ticket price of $2.00 for 5,000 fans, Touhey paid his entire gate of $10,000 to Aberg to lose the match. Touhey did not draw a $10,000 gate for this match.

Gambling is the other significant source of income during this era. A specialty wrestling match with an unknown wrestler does not draw big bets.

From a business perspective, you would pay the established wrestler, who is leaving America to return to Poland, to lose to the newcomer with ambitions to replace Frank Gotch as the recognized World Heavyweight Champion. Aberg would not drop his first big match in the country, if he wanted fans to recognize him as Frank Gotch’s replacement.

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