Ken Zimmerman Jr.

On St. Patrick’s Day 1908, Martin “Farmer” Burns met the small but powerful Fred Beell.  While both wrestlers weighed 165 pounds, “Farmer” Burns stood 5’11” to Beell’s 5’04”.  The 32-year-old Beell had a big age advantage over the 47-year-old Burns though.  Burns debuted in 1879, when Beell was 3-years-old. The men were scheduled for a match in Omaha, Nebraska, one

Ed “Strangler” Lewis enjoyed one of the most successful careers in professional wrestling. Although Lewis wrestled in mostly staged exhibitions, he possessed legitimate wrestling skills. Future protege Lou Thesz said many times Lewis could beat any wrestler at any time, so he was the ideal world champion in the modern era of prearranged matches. However, early in his career, Lewis

At the end of December 1916, a strange event occurred.  John F. Olin, a local Massachusetts wrestler, won a match with the current World Champion Joe Stecher.  The referee declared Olin the winner after Stecher walked away from the match. Before the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) made changes to the rules in the 1950s, championships changed hands through disqualification or

John “Tigerman” Pesek wrestled several “shoot” matches during the “worked” era of the 1920s.  By this time, American professional wrestlers cooperated with each other to put on exciting matches for the fans.  Results were predetermined by promoters and managers.  Legitimate contests or “shoots” were rare.  When they did occur, it was normally to settle a dispute among promoters or a

At the end of 1905, Fred Beell was traveling America hyping up a match with former American Heavyweight Wrestling Champion Tom Jenkins.  Beell was a former American Heavyweight Wrestling Champion having defeated Frank Gotch in a “worked” match in New Orleans during December 1903.  He lost the title back to Gotch a few weeks later. Capable wrestlers, Jenkins and Beell

Joe Stecher and John “Tiger Man” Pesek were legitimate wrestlers in a primarily “worked” era, where matches were predetermined unless someone decided to double-cross the other wrestler or promoter by turning the match into a legitimate contest.  Double-crosses only worked, if the wrestler could legitimately win the match. John Pesek didn’t like the worked nature of wrestling and often turned

As the wrestler jumped off the mat, he grabbed the referee by the lapel with his good arm.  “Why didn’t you stop it?”  As Referee Siler tried to pull free, Duncan Ross’ seconds grabbed him and pulled him away.  The men told Ross, “He can’t stop it.  You have to submit.” Ross screamed, “I’m out of here.”  As Ross walked

In 1922, New York promoter Jack Curley ran afoul of the Gold Dust Trio, manager Billy Sandow, World Heavyweight Wrestling Champion Ed “Strangler” Lewis and wrestler/promotional genius Joseph “Toots” Mondt.  The Trio controlled the world championship and froze Curley out of booking the champion. To get even with the Trio, Curley began aggressively promoting Olympic wrestling silver  medalist and collegiate

Stanislaus Zbyszko traveled to the United States in 1909 seeking a match with recognized World Heavyweight Wrestling Champion Frank Gotch. To get in shape for this challenge and build anticipation for the title match, Zbyskzo toured most of the major cities in the United States. During May 1910, Zbyszko arrived in St. Louis for his match with capable wrestler Charles