Ken Zimmerman Jr.

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

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”

Kedden, Március 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 és 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. Sajnos, 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.