1915 New York Wrestling Tournament

The International Wrestling Tournament occurred in two phases between May 19, 1915 and December 31, 1915.  Fifty wrestlers would compete in the first phase of the tournament including World Greco-Roman Champion Aleksander “Alex” Aberg.  The second installment had 40 wrestlers including up and coming star Ed “Strangler” Lewis, who joined a month into the tournament on November 22, 1915.  The tournament is famous today for the introduction of the first masked wrestler, “The Masked Marvel”.

Samuel Rachmann, who promoted the tournament, was having a tough time filling the seats.  Legitimate professional wrestling matches lasted a long time.  Wrestlers would hold the same position sometimes for hours at a time.  My grandfather told me that when he was a kid, he would go to the matches with his uncle at the old Coliseum in St. Louis, MO.  They would often walk across the street, get some dinner and walk back to find the wrestlers in the same position as when they left.

Rachmann offered $1,000 to any wrestler, who could beat Aberg, leading up to the tournament.  The winner of the tournament itself was promised $50,000.  However, neither offer built much public interest in the tournament.  The first day of the tournament did not make it into the New York Tribune’s sports pages.  However, Rachmann hit on an idea.  Bring a little vaudeville to his tournament.

During the second installment of the tournament from October to December 1915, he planted a masked man in the front row of the tournament.  The masked man watched the first few days.  “The Masked Marvel” then began standing up at ringside demanding his rightful place in the tournament.

Believe it or not, this stunt actually worked.  Customers came to see the masked man at ringside.  They also began to demand he be allowed to enter the tournament.  In December 1915, he made his debut.

The Masked Marvel defeated his first opponent. He would beat all his opponents with the exception of Alex Aberg and Ed”Strangler” Lewis, who both beat him.  Wladek Zbyszko also drew with The Masked Marvel.   The Marvel’s manager gave the game away on December 29, 1915, when he called the masked man “Mort” in front of a New York Tribune reporter.

The reporter realized that The Masked Marvel was Mort Henderson, a journeyman part-time wrestler and railroad detective.  The Marvel and his manager denied it but it was proven in 1916, when The Masked Marvel was unmasked.

The Masked Marvel would signal the close of the legitimate wrestling era. Most of the matches in this tournament were legitimate but The Masked Marvel obviously had assistance in his competitive improvement.  When promoters realized shorter matches and prearranged outcomes increased their business, legitimate contests came to an end.

Aberg defeated Lewis in the semi-final by throwing him at 42 minutes. Lewis gave Aberg everything he could handle up to that point in the match. The New York Tribune said that Lewis hit his head on the floor so hard that it took him several minutes to regain his senses. Aberg defeated The Masked Marvel in an anti-climatic finale on New Year’s Eve, December 31, 1915.

Ed “Strangler” Lewis would go on to win the freestyle World Wrestling Championship from Joe Stecher in a legitimate bout in December 1920. Aberg would lose his life around the same time trying to escape the Russian Civil War. Aberg was attempting to escape through Southern Russia, when he contracted an illness and died.

The 1915 International Wrestling Tournament brought the legitimate professional wrestling era to an end in America,  This tournament, the Masked Marvel and predetermined outcomes would alter American professional wrestling forever.

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