Joe Stecher Beats Ad Santel

Joe Stecher started out 1915, a fateful year for his career, with a victory over Adolph Ernst.  Ernst wrestled under the name Otto Carpenter for this match but was known to professional wrestling fans as Ad Santel.  Santel had a deserved reputation for being a vicious “hooker”, a wrestler skilled in submission holds.

Stecher was a 22-year-old Nebraskan, who made his professional debut in 1912.  The skilled amateur wrestler, who almost pinned Dr. Ben Roller as a high school student, quickly caught the eye of famed trainer Martin “Farmer” Burns.  Burns started training Stecher for the professional ring, when he was barely out of high school.

By this time, professional wrestling was beginning to transition into an era where most, if not all, wrestling matches were decided in advance.  Wrestlers would sometimes cooperate in a finish, many times at the behest of their promoter.  Occasionally, these matches became “shoots”, or real matches, because the wrestlers lost their tempers or it was a planned setup.

As both Stecher and Ad Santel were members of “Farmer” Burns wrestling group and Ernst was wrestling as Carpenter instead of his normal Ad Santel alias, it is probable that the match was fixed.  Ernst changed his name to protect the image of Ad Santel, the shooter.  In the era before mass media, wrestlers could wrestle under one name in one area.  When they moved to a new area, they could use a new name particularly if they lost a lot of matches in the old territory.

Stecher’s method of victory also leads me to believe the match was arranged in advance.  Stecher used his scissors hold to squeeze Santel until he was able to roll him onto his shoulders.  While the scissors hold can be used effectively, particularly on the neck or even head, it would be hard to do a body squeeze on a skilled submission grappler like Ad Santel.

While Ad Santel was a feared “hooker”, it doesn’t mean Stecher couldn’t have beaten him.  Stecher could have pinned Santel with his excellent wrestling skills.  While Santel could have avoided a submission, Stecher’s amateur skills would help him avoid Santel’s attacks as well.

Stecher legitimately held his own and sometimes got the better of Ed “Strangler” Lewis in their early matches.  Stecher and Lewis couldn’t stand each other and were the two young up-and-comers in the 1910s.  Many of their matches turned into “shoots” because of their dislike for one another.

While Stecher started the year with a victory, he probably could not have foreseen being accepted as Frank Gotch’s successor as World Heavyweight Wrestling Champion by the end of the year.

After Stecher won the match to crown an American Heavyweight Wrestling Champion, Gotch was going to come out of retirement to wrestle Stecher.  Gotch was going to lose to Stecher to put his stamp of approval on him.  Gotch also wanted to stop all the challenges, so he could enjoy his family time in retirement.  However, Gotch was too sick to wrestle Stecher and the match never happened.

“Farmer” Burns and Stecher thought their plans to replace Gotch had fallen through but something funny happened on the way to Plan B.  The fans started recognizing Stecher as Gotch’s replacement even without a victory over the former champ.  Stecher was the new champion.

His first serious challenge would be an old foe.  Ed “Strangler” Lewis began to eye a championship run of his own.  It would take him a few years to pull it off though.

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Sources: Omaha Daily Bee, January 17, 1915, p. 31

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