“Strangler” Headlocks Caddock for Win

Ed “Strangler” Lewis is one of the greatest professional wrestlers and world champions of all time. Lewis’ signature move was the stranglehold, which Lewis started using as promoters and wrestlers transitioned professional wrestling to a prearranged or “worked” exhibition.

Lewis originally used the front face lock or guillotine choke. Lewis’ namesake Evan “Strangler” Lewis made the front face lock or “stranglehold” infamous in the 1880s.

Lewis and his promotion partners, Toots Mondt and Billy Sandow, “The Gold Dust Trio”, arranged the outcome of the matches. In 1915, wrestlers working matches started to dominate American professional wrestling.

If another wrestler did not go along with the prearranged outcome and tried to double-cross Lewis, Lewis could “shoot” or defeat the wrestler anyway in a legitimate contest.

Lewis designed a unique training device to build his strength for the headlock. Lewis had a craftsman build a wooden dummy head, which the craftsman cut in half and connected three large springs between the two halves of the wooden dummy head. Lewis squeezed the dummy’s head together and held it to develop his grip and squeeze strength.

When Lewis won the title the first time, Joe Stecher did not want to cooperate. However, Stecher did work the match with Lewis. In April 1922, Lewis took on another wrestler with legitimate skills in Earl Caddock.

Earl Caddock wrestled in college before meeting Martin “Farmer” Burns and Frank Gotch.  Burns and Gotch taught Caddock “hooking” or actual submissions skills.

Caddock wrestled professionally from 1915 to 1922 but Caddock won two world titles in that time. Caddock won one championship from Joe Stecher and one championship from Wladek Zbyszko.

While Caddock knew submission wrestling, Caddock worked the title matches with Ed Lewis. Caddock understood making money as he retired to start a Ford Dealership in his home state of Iowa. Caddock built this business into one of the most successful dealerships in the state.

On April 13, 1922, Ed “Strangler” Lewis met Earl Caddock for the World Heavyweight Wrestling Championship in Wichita, Kansas. Caddock surprised the crowd, but not Lewis when he won the first of three falls with a head scissors. Lewis was trying for his patented headlock when Caddock slipped behind him and applied a head scissors.

Lewis dropped the first fall to Caddock. Lewis knew he was putting a lot of trust in Caddock to not try a double-cross. Knowing he put himself at a disadvantage, Lewis was “cautious” after this fall.

The men tied up for the next fall which Lewis won with the headlock in 43 minutes. Lewis did not need the same time for the third fall which came at the 8-minute mark.

Caddock was defeated but not discouraged. Caddock wrestled Lewis for the title one more time in June 1922. After this loss, Caddock retired to run his Ford dealership.

Ed “Strangler” Lewis went on to be one of the most successful and respected wrestlers of the Twentieth Century. While Lewis worked his matches, he was good enough to legitimately defeat any wrestler, and did if they did not follow the planned outcome of the match. While Lewis wrestled few legitimate contests, Lewis could legitimately defeat any wrestler of his era.

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