Combat Sports Historian and Martial Artist
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When Wladek Zbyszko travelled from the United States to Brazil for a lucrative tour on
Who is the greatest legitimate professional wrestler to wrestle in the United States? How do
On April 3, 1908, American Wrestling Champion Frank Gotch met World Wrestling Champion George Hackenschmidt
In November 1923, St. Louis Star-Times reporter Billy Murphy interviewed St. Louis wrestling promoter John Contos. Murphy proposed to Contos that the era of dominant wrestlers like William Muldoon was over. Murphy spoke about the recent match between “World Champion” Hardneck Phillips and the game contender Webster O’Malley. Phillips successfully defended his championship by throwing O’Malley after 1 hour, 50
William Muldoon was the reigning World Heavyweight Wrestling Champion and a noted physical culturist, when Muldoon was engaged by John L. Sullivan’s backers to get their fighter in shape. Sullivan was the reigning World Heavyweight Bare Knuckle Prizefighting Champion. He signed an agreement to meet his toughest challenger, Jake Kilrain, in July 1889. Sullivan admitted he was in bad shape,
On October 14, 1932, RKO Pictures released The Phantom of Crestwood (1932), the film end to a radio play of the same year. The film concerns the murder of Jenny Wren or more properly “Who Killed Jenny Wren?” Wren, played by Karen Morley, blackmails several prominent men, who carried on affairs with her in the past. One of the men
Ed “Strangler” Lewis and Joe Stecher conducted one of the greatest rivalries of the early arranged professional wrestling exhibition era. Lewis and Stecher wrestled many times including a five and a half hour draw in 1916. Several of their early matches appeared to be legitimate. Legend also has it that Lewis actually had to beat Stecher in a “shoot match”
No one took advantage of the No Decision era of professional boxing like Battling Levinsky. Levinsky was a skilled defensive boxer, who took little damage during his fights. When Ring Magazine asked him why he was so active, sometimes taking 3 fights in a day around New York, Levinsky said, “I like money and I never get hurt.” Levinsky was
On Tuesday, March 22, 1910, Dr. Benjamin Roller met Stanislaus Zbyszko in a legitimate wrestling match. Professional wrestling would transition from legitimate contest to staged exhibition between 1910 and 1920. Dr. Benjamin Roller graduated from the University of Pennsylvania by playing professional football. Roller accepted an academic appointment in physiology where he assisted in the writing of a textbook. Dr.
Wladek Zbyszko’s legacy is often overshadowed by his brother Stanislaus Zbyszko. Stanislaus, who was 12 years older, posed the last real threat to Frank Gotch’s World Heavyweight Wrestling Championship. Wladek Zbyszko was a skilled wrestler in his own right. Unfortunately, he didn’t arrive in the United States until 1914, when most wrestling matches were prearranged. Wladek had proved his bona
I’ve frequently found the biggest challenge in researching early professional wrestling is separating fact from fiction. Even when the wrestlers competed in legitimate matches, they often inflated outcomes, built up apocryphal folklore around their victories and made up fanciful tales to explain away their losses. Professional wrestling sprang from the carnivals and retained the promotional instincts of this art. St.
On January 10, 1910, recently arrived Polish wrestler Stanislaus Zbyszko took on Charlie “The Kid” Cutler in a best two-out-of-three falls match. Cutler had been a boxer in a troupe run by John L. Sullivan before transitioning to wrestling. While Cutler was extremely tough, Stanislaus Zbyszko had been wrestling since his youth. Zbyszko would use these skills to overcome Cutler
Tom Allen was born in Birmingham, England but fought some of his most famous fights in America. In 1867, Allen moved to St. Louis, the largest city west of the Mississippi. Allen never left and would use St. Louis as his home base to train for prizefights. Allen fought mostly in bare knuckle prizefights as American boxing would not be