Pesek Palm acerta Rickard no Wrestling

No final da década de 1910, professional wrestling promoters booked wrestlers in worked or pre-arranged wrestling matches. Occasionally, geralmente como resultado de um duplo cruzamento, os fãs veriam um concurso real ou “shoot” partida entre os lutadores. Uma dessas partidas ocorreu no final 1921 and arose from a feud between Tex Rickard, principalmente um promotor de boxe, e Jack Curley, que era principalmente um promotor de wrestling.

Rickard and Curley partnered to promote a boxing event in New York City that failed financially. Both men blamed the other. Wanting to get back at Curley, Rickard started promoting professional wrestling.

About this time, Curley lost the rights to promote Madison Square Garden. The New York State Athletic Commission awarded the license to promote wrestling at Madison Square Garden to Rickard based on his success as a boxing promoter. However, desafiar Curley com sucesso e criar um produto competitivo, Rickard had to secure wrestlers the public wanted to see. It wouldn’t be easy because Rickard was an outsider and not affiliated with any of the promotions, who booked the wrestlers.

Rickard secured the services of a skilled, legitimate wrestler, who was out of favor with the established promoters. Marin Plestina started wrestling professionally in 1910. World Heavyweight Wrestling Champion Frank Gotch and Gotch’s trainer Martin “Agricultor” Burns trained Plestina for professional wrestling. Plestina challenged current World Heavyweight Champion Ed “Strangler” Lewis to a title match but Lewis ignored the challenge.

Depois de assinar com Plestina, Rickard harassed Curley for almost two years before Curley agreed to match Plestina with one of Curley’s wrestlers. Curley would not book Plestina against Lewis or one of the top contenders. Em vez, Curley booked John “Tigerman” Pesek to wrestle Plestina.

Pesek era um conhecido “prostituta”, o termo de luta livre para um lutador de finalização habilidoso. Pesek pode quebrar seu braço com a chave de pulso dupla ou rasgar os ligamentos da perna com o apoio do dedo do pé. Even though he weighed 185 libras, he had knocked out larger wrestlers by slamming them. However, Pesek did not enter the ring to beat Plestina in this contest.

Quando os lutadores entraram no ringue do Madison Square Garden em novembro 15, 1921, fans could see Plestina, que teve uma lesão no cotovelo, não estava em boas condições. Incapaz de treinar antes da luta, Plestina era um alvo fácil para Pesek.

With Plestina’s visibly injured arm, Pesek poderia ter garantido uma chave de pulso dupla no início e terminado a partida com uma vitória. However, Pesek wanted to ruin the show, então ele bateu com a palma da mão, butted, arrancou os olhos de Plestina e cometeu todas as faltas do livro.

After a few minutes, os fãs começaram a vaiar alto. O árbitro desclassificou Pesek três vezes. No final da terceira desqualificação, Pesek jumped from the ring, terminou a partida e saiu da arena com nojo.

The stench of the bout caused Rickard to quit promoting wrestling. Rickard said after the match that he was going back to boxing. Curley e sua equipe haviam alcançado seu objetivo.

 

Pesek was a skilled wrestler although not on the level of Ed “Strangler” Lewis. Lou Thesz em seu livro Prostituta talks about his conversations with Thesz’s mentor, Ed “Strangler” Lewis. Even though Pesek served as Lewis’ policeman for several years, Lewis did not mention Pesek as being on his level.

Promoters enlisted Pesek to turn back one more promotional challenge two years later but Pesek hurt his career badly in 1926. After working two worked matches with current World Champion Joe Stecher, Pesek double-crossed Stecher in the third match with a double wristlock. Pesek forced Stecher to submit but the referee disqualified Pesek. The fans rioted but Stecher kept his title. Promoters stopped booking Pesek regularly after he attempted to steal the title.

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Sources: St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Novembro 16, 1921 edition, p. 19 e Banco de Dados de Pro Wrestling

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