Jim Browning stjärnor i hemstaden
Verona, Missouri är en liten stad i sydvästra Missouri. Överskrider aldrig 900 invånare i dess historia, endast 438 eller så kallade folk Verona hem i 1926. Yet, ett professionellt brottningskort hölls i staden på måndagen, Mars 22, 1926.
Utan den utbredda användningen av bilar eller vägar byggda för att hantera dem, resor skulle vara mycket svårt i 1926. Assuming you could only draw wrestling fans from Lawrence County, where Verona was located, the promoter had a pool of 24,000 fans to draw from.
Photo of Jim Browning in a wrestling pose from the Library of Congress (Public Domain)
The card was a success though as the Springfield News-Leader described a large crowd attending the matches. Jim Browning, a future world wrestling champion, was the main reason for the success of the card.
Browning was born in an unincorporated area of Lawrence County, Missouri, known as Verona on March 31, 1903. By the time Browning was in his teens, Verona had been incorporated into a town around 1916.
Browning, who weighed around 215 pounds, developed into a wrestler of some ability. To further his skill set, Browning moved to Emporia, Kansas in 1920 for professional wrestling training.
Browning started professional wrestling in 1923 and secured matches with some of the top wrestlers of the time: Stanislaus Zbyszko, John Pesek and Dick Daviscourt.
In one of his early matches, Browning scored a disqualification victory over former world champion Zbyszko. Promoters obviously saw significant potential in Browning.
I 1923, Browning started wrestling for George Hillis, a Springfield, Missouri based promoter, who promoted wrestling matches in southwest Missouri. The arrangement allowed Browning to move back to his hometown.
Normally, moving to such a small town would be a handicap for a professional wrestling career before widespread airplane travel was available. Since Springfield connected to St. Louis, Missouri by train, Browning was also within reasonable travelling distance to transportation hubs in St. Louis and Kansas City.
On the March 22, 1926 card, Browning was supposed to wrestle frequent world title challenger Dick Daviscourt. Emellertid, Daviscourt was pulled from the card to wrestle current world title claimant Joe Stecher in New York City.
Fans still turned out to see Browning wrestle lesser-known Jake Yonsko. Browning made Yonsko look good by dropping the first fall to Yonsko in 7 minuter, 10 sekunder. Yonsko secured the pin of Browning with a headlock.
Yonsko didn’t get any more offense after the first fall. Browning used a crotch hold to pin Yonsko in only four minutes to end the second fall. The third fall was even shorter. Browning pinned Yonsko in 1 minute, 10 seconds with a headlock and arm scissors.
The undercard was two matches featuring local wrestlers. Browning was the only significant name on the card but the crowd left the venue pleased with the night’s action.
Verona, Missouri was an odd location for a professional wrestling card but if you had good wrestler people wanted to see, you could successfully promote professional wrestling in smaller towns and venues. Without a star people wanted to support, you were risking a financial disaster.
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Sources: The Springfield Leader and Press, November 7, 1923 edition, p. 14 och The Springfield News-Leader, December 18, 1923 edition, p. 5 and March 24, 1926 edition, p. 5
