Episode 142 – Muldoon vs. Matsuda

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In this episode, I discuss a match between William Muldoon and Sorakichi Matsuda that the wrestlers intended to generate interest in a world title match between Muldoon and Matsuda.

News and Update

Don “The Lawmen” Slatton’s double-cross of Harley Race during May 1978 in Abileene, Texas.

Newspapers calling Adolph Ernst, Hackenschmidt’s imported trainer and imported training parnter. One of the challenges of gaining most information about early professional wrestling from the newspapers.

Main Content

On May 5, 1885, Muldoon met Sorokichi Matsuda, who Muldoon previously defeated in July 1884, in a Greco-Roman wrestling match. Muldoon agreed to throw Sorokichi five times in an hour or forfeit the match. The match drew 503 spectators to the match in New York City’s Irving Hall.

Muldoon weighed only 190 pounds for this match, well under his normaly 225 pounds. Matsuda weighed 160 pounds for this match.

Muldoon threw Matsuda around the mat but could not throw Matsuda onto his back for a fall. It took Muldoon twenty-four minutes to pin Matsuda for the first fall.

After wrestling twenty more minutes, Muldoon forfeited the match to Masuda knowing he could not throw Matsuda four more times in the remaining time limit.

Recommendations and Review

Pro Wrestling Time Tunnel: St. Louis in 1976

Billy Darnell vs. Hans Hermann (June 10, 1955)

Billy Darnell, a close friend of “Nature Boy” Buddy Rogers, spent most of his professional wrestling career working with his friend and being a member of Rogers regular crew of wrestlers. Darnell has most of this match.

Robert Hans Hermann was born in Boston and attended Tufts University and MIT. Besides his professional wrestling career as Hans Hermann, Hermann worked as a consulting engineer for the Nashua Corporation for thirty years. Hermann died only a few days after his 65th birthday of a massive heart attack in June 1980.

Dick Afflis vs. Ivan Rasputin (June 10, 1955)

Heel versus heel match, where the fans politely cheered Rasputin. It is a testament to the heat Dick the Bruiser drew in the 1950s that fans cheered both Ivan Rasputin and the “Big O”, Bob Orton, Sr., in matches against the Bruiser.

43-year-old Rasputin, born Hyman Fishman, wrestled only one more year before retiring. The Bruiser, sporting a black eye, was a 26-year-old up-and-coming wrestler. Bruiser won with a series of flying tackles and a body splash.

Great Yamato vs. Len Rossi (June 10, 1955)

Len Rossi was in the first years of his wrestling career. Yamato was a black belt in Judo, who started taking part in Judo matches at pro wrestling matches in the State of Washington in 1950. Yamato transitioned into professional wrestling, when Yamato discovered the money he could make wrestling.

The match ended in a draw. Yamato only lived five more years. On Friday, December 9, 1960, Yamato’s wife, or ex-wife, shot Yamato, while wrestling over his gun during an argument. Yamato died three days later on December 12, 1960. Prosecutors never charged his estranged wife as Yamato exonerated her before he died.

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