Stecher Beats Westergaard v Lincolnu

In a blog post last month, I wrote about the difficulty promoters had in staging the Joe Stecher vs Jess Westergaard match. Originally scheduled for Omaha, Nebraska, the Omaha Chief of Police and Police Commissioner were concerned about the match being prearranged or a “work”. They didn’t want gamblers being taken in by the exhibition. To prevent this occurrence, they banned professional wrestling in Omaha.

Undeterred, the promoters scheduled the match in nearby Lincoln on April 14th 1915. It was important that the match take place in Nebraska because they wanted to capitalize on the popularity of Joe Stecher, who was born in Dodge County, Nebraska. Stecher was considered a contender for the world title vacated by Frank Gotch upon his retirement in 1913. The promoters hoped that Stecher’s popularity would lead to a full house and a bigger gate for the event.

The match turned out to be slightly anticlimactic as Stecher had no problem disposing of Westergaard, a very strong wrestler from Des Moines Iowa. Stecher took the first fall in only 14 minutes with his powerful leg scissors. After the typical 5 na 10 minutes rest between falls, Stecher needed only 5 minutes to defeat Westergaard again with the same leg scissors hold.

Stechers’ scissors hold was feared and rightfully so. If you apply the legs around the neck, you can actually strangle someone with the leg scissors. I’ve used it as a Brazilian Jiu Jitsu headlock escape. It is also extremely painful around certain parts of the body like the waist. Some people will tap out just from the pain.

Westergaard was fine though, because as the officials in Omaha feared, this match was a “work” or prearranged exhibition. Stecher was supposed to win this match to set himself up as the heir apparent to Frank Gotch. Later in the summer, Stecher would wrestle Charlie Cutler for the American Heavyweight Wrestling Championship, a title previously held by Frank Gotch before he defeated George Hackenschmidt for the world title in 1908.

Gotch, Stecher and Westergaard were all trained by Martin “Zemědělec” Burns. They were in the same promotional group and unlikely to legitimately wrestle each other. It’s likely that if Stecher beat Cutler in the summer that Stecher and Gotch would wrestle a “worked” match at the end of 1915 nebo brzy 1916. rytec “winning” over Gotch would transfer Gotch’s World Champion legitimacy to Stecher.

Why Gotch would let Stecher win is two-fold. První, a young powerful wrestler like Stecher might actually be able to beat Frank Gotch in a legitimate contest. At that point in their careers, Stecher was 21 going on 22 and competing with the best wrestlers in America. Gotch, in his late 30s, had been retired for two years and not training.

The main reason Gotch was motivated to lose a match to Stecher though was to end the constant challenges from other wrestlers. When Gotch retired in 1913, he wanted to spend time with his wife and son on his Iowa farm. He did occasionally tour with the Sells-Floto Circus for a little extra money but he was done with professional wrestling matches. However like a retired gunslinger, there was always some young gun who wanted to make his reputation on Gotch’s name. Gotch was sick of these challenges by 1915.

Stecher would continue his successful run leading into his summer match with Charlie Cutler. I’ll tell that story in another post.

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Source: North Platte Semi-Weekly Tribune, Duben 16, 1915 edition, p. 3

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