Episode 47 – Londos vs. Carnera

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In this episode, we discuss the careers of Jim Londos and Primo Carnera leading into a review of the 1950 wrestling match.

Update

We start off with an update about our recording schedule. One of the team is on the injured reserve, so we will be recording on Skype for the next several episodes.

I have converted the majority of my books to audiobook. You can see them here or search for them on Audible.

Main Content

We review the match between Jim Londos and Primo Carnera from 1950. Londos was 52 years old at the time of the match. Primo Carnera was 43 years old.

Jim Londos was the biggest box office star in professional wrestling history. Londos started out as a carnival strongman. While working the carnivals, some of the wrestlers taught Londos catch wrestling.

Londos knew how to both work and shoot although Londos was never on the level of Ed “Strangler” Lewis, Joe Stecher, and John “The Nebraska Tigerman” Pesek as a shooter and hooker, skilled submission wrestler.

Londos emerged as star in the 1920s, but achieved superstardom in the 1930s. Londos attracted 30,000+ fans to baseball stadiums for the first time since the second Gotch-Hackeschmidt match in 1911.

Primo Carnera came to the United States in 1930 to campaign for the World Heavyweight Boxing Championship. Carnera stood six feet six inches tall and weighed about 260 pounds. The massive Carnera won 89 fights knocking out 72 of the opponents.

However, New York mobster Owney Madden owned Carnera’s contract. For years, it was rumored that the mob fixed a number of Carnera’s fights. Carnera won the World Heavyweight Boxing Championship in June 1933. Carnera held the title until June 1934 when Max Baer knocked Carnera out.

After retiring from boxing and trying his hand at acting, Jules Strongbow trained Carnera for professional wrestling in 1945. Strongbow used Carnera extensively in Los Angeles as well as sending him as an attraction to other territories.

By the time of this match, Carnera had been wrestling for 5 years.

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