倫敦比冠軍更持久

上週五, 二月 17, 1922, 世界重量級摔跤冠軍斯坦尼斯勞斯·茲比斯科（Stanislaus Zbyszko）與弗朗索瓦·勒馬克（Francois Lemarque）和新星吉姆·隆多斯（Jim Londos）進行了一場差點比賽. 隆多斯距離成為職業摔跤界最大的票房冠軍還有幾年的時間，但他是聖路易斯最受歡迎的摔跤手. 路易.

雖然倫敦只有大約 5’06” 或 5’07”, he possessed a bodybuilder’s physique and a crowd-pleasing wrestling style. Londos would be considered a performer instead of shooter, a legitimate wrestler, or a hooker, skilled submission wrestler. 然而, Londos possessed enough wrestling ability that George Tragos wouldn’t let Lou Thesz wrestle Londos in the first year of Thesz’s career. Tragos feared Londos would attempt to injure Thesz, who Londos could see would be a future star.

Zbyszko wasn’t defending his championship on this night. Zbyszko agreed to pin Lemarque and Londos in 75 minutes or be considered the loser. If Zbyszko failed to beat both men, it could set up a future championship match with one or both men.

Usually St. Louis wrestling matches were held at the Coliseum but this card occurred at the Odeon on Friday, 二月 17, 1922. Two matches preceded the main event.

Lemarque weighed about 180 英鎊Zbyszko的 225 英鎊. He didn’t provide much competition for the champion. Zbyszko proceeded at an easy pace, throwing and pinning Lemarque at 14 分鐘, 52 秒. John E. 瑞, who wrote an article on the card for the 聖. 聖路易斯郵報 thought Zbyszko carried Lemarque that long as a courtesy.

Zbyszko left himself an hour to defeat Londos. Londos, 誰稱重 190 英鎊, would be a much tougher opponent for the champion.

Londos wrestled defensively at first as the onus was on Zbyszko to pin him. At the 7 分鐘大關, Zbyszko secured a hold and went for a flying fall, which would end the match in New York. 然而, 聖. Louis officials didn’t recognize the flying fall rule, so the match continued.

Londos went on the offensive and secured a number of holds on Zbyszko. 然而, Zbyszko used his great strength to power out of all the holds. Both men started sweating profusely making Londos’ headlock attempts futile.

Close to the hour mark, Zbyszko secured a front facelock, which looked like it would secure the fall for the champion. After a couple minutes, Londos was able to escape the facelock. 然而, the escape left Londos vulnerable to a counter. Zbyszko grabbed a toe hold before Londos could regain his feet.

Zbyszko looked to be the victor as referee George Baptiste asked Londos if he would submit. Londos shook his head vigorously and powered out of the hold at the last minute.

Zbyszko grabbed a double wristlock, which Londos countered by bridging. Zbyszko tried to stop the bridge by leaning his weight onto Londos’ chest. Londos was strong enough to continue the bridge and escape the hold.

For the next five minutes, Londos took over on Zbyszko applying a succession of holds. Zbyszko wrestled defensively and escaped the holds but had no more offense left. Londos couldn’t pin Zbyszko to beat him decisively but he did win the match as the bell rang to end the match. Zbyszko failed to pin Londos, so Londos won the handicapped bout.

This result could have setup a match between Zbyszko and Londos for the title in St. 路易. These plans were scuttled, 何時 和 “扼殺” 劉易斯 defeated Zbyszko to regain the title he lost to Zbyszko in May 1921.

Even though the matches were worked, Londos was scared of Lewis. Londos knew that if Lewis decided to shoot on him and make the match a legitimate contest, Londos would be unable to prevent Lewis from doing whatever he wanted. If Lewis wanted to embarrass Londos, Londos would be helpless to defend himself.

After Londos became a huge star, Lewis and Londos did work a few matches but only after Lewis put up a large cash forfeit, some said it was $25,000.00, to be given to Londos in the event of a double-cross. 在 1922, Londos was not in a good bargaining position, so he wasn’t getting near Lewis.

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Sources: 聖. 聖路易斯郵報, 二月 18, 1922 版, P. 6 和 妓女 通過盧·塞茲

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