Evan Lewis Launches Pro Career

While researching the history of the American Heavyweight Wrestling Championship (1881 – 1922), I discovered Evan “Strangler” Lewis’ early matches in Montana. Prior to researching this topic, I thought Lewis started his career by winning a 64-man wrestling tournament in Montana during 1882. However, Lewis did not win the tournament.

In May 1882, Lewis wrestled in a Cornish wrestling tournament although the Butte Miner did not list the number of wrestlers who entered. Lewis lost two of his early matches in the tournament. Wrestler contested the matches via Cornish wrestling rules which required wrestling in a jacket like a judo top (gi).

Lewis impressed promoters because they signed him to a main event match with Edwin Edwards, who won the Cornish wrestling tournament. Edwards defeated Lewis in a Cornish wrestling match in May 1882.

Insiders believed Lewis to be superior in catch-as-catch-can wrestling. To make the match as even as possible, promoters arranged for the men to wrestle the first fall of the two-out-of-three fall match, by catch wrestling rules. The men wrestled the second fall by Cornish wrestling rules. If a third fall were needed to declare the winner, the referee would flip a coin to determine the style of wrestling for the third fall.

Lewis wrestled Edwards on Sunday evening, June 25, 1882, at the East Park Street wrestling grounds in Butte, Montana.

Whether the two previous matches allowed Lewis to figure Edwards out or he was already that good at catch wrestling, Lewis dominated the first fall.

From the beginning of the match, Lewis threw Edwards onto his stomach. Whether from a lapse of concentration or to play with his opponent a little bit, Lewis let Edwards up without pinning him.

Edward’s respite was short. Lewis threw him back on his stomach, secured a half-Nelson and turned Edwards to his back. Lewis took the first fall with Edwards little more than a spectator.

Edwards expected to tie the match after the ten-minute intermission. The men put on the jackets and commenced the Cornish wrestling fall.

To the surprise of Edwards, fans and even Lewis, Lewis avenged his two previous losses in Cornish wrestling to Edwards. Lewis threw Edwards for the second fall and match. Lewis dominated the match by winning in two straight falls.

If American professional wrestling remained a mixture of styles after the 1880s, Edwin Edwards would have achieved stardom. Only a skilled wrestler could hang with Evan “Strangler” Lewis. Once catch wrestling dominated the sport, a Cornish wrestling specialist like Edwards saw only modest success.

When catch-as-catch-can wrestling took over in America, Evan “Strangler” Lewis became the biggest American wrestling star of the 1880s and 1890s with the possible exceptions of William Muldoon and Martin “Farmer’ Burns.

If you liked this post, you may like Evan “The Strangler” Lewis: The Most Feared Wrestler of the 19th Century available in e-book, paperback and hardcover on Amazon.

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Sources: The Butte Miner (Butte, Montana), June 4, 1882, p.8, June 6, 1882, p. 8 and June 27, 1882, p. 8.

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