Combat Sports Historian and Martial Artist
Posts about catch-as-catch-can or catch wrestling matches, the dominant style of wrestling in the United States after 1890.
On Monday, June 25, 1934, current World Champion Jim Browning defended his world title against Jim Londos. Browning dropped the title to Londos in a match to end the promotional war which led to the double-crosses of the early 1930s. 20,000 fans crowded into Madison Square Garden to see the match leading to a $40,000 gate. Jack Curley enjoyed a
On January 30, 1930, Gus Sonnenberg defended his AWA World Title, based in the Boston promotion of Paul Bowser, in Boston Arena against former world champion Joe Stecher. Two minutes of film survived from the hour-long match. Gus Sonnenberg traded on his celebrity as a professional football player to become a wrestling star. Sonnenberg helped the Providence Steam Roller win
https://mcdn.podbean.com/mf/web/yrvcvp86fj5ja5zg/Episode_72_agae9.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadUpdate I am giving away Wayfarer in a Foreign Land: Sorakichi Matsuda Wrestles in America between Monday, December 30, 2024 to Friday, January 3, 2025. Dan and I will release the next episode on Monday, January 13, 2025. Main Content I discuss the October 1916 mixed styles match between Taro Miyake and Ad Santel.
On Memorial Day, May 30, 1925, Joe Stecher defeated Stanislaus Zbyszko in a worked match to reclaim the World Heavyweight Wrestling Championship that Stecher had lost in December 1920. Stecher was part of a conspiracy that paid Stanislaus Zbyszko to double-cross Wayne “Big” Munn in April 1925. Zbyszko defeated Munn legitimately in one of professional wrestling’s most famous double-crosses. As
On Thursday, July 9, 1925, Ed “Strangler” Lewis made one of the early defenses of his version of the World Heavyweight Wrestling Championship in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Lewis wrestled Howard Cantonwine in front of 5,000 fans at McNulty Park. After Stanislaus Zbyszko double-crossed Sandow’s and Lewis’ promotional group by defeating Wayne “Big” Munn legitimately, both Joe Stecher and Ed “Strangler” Lewis
On Thursday, March 31, 1881, 200 fans filtered into New York’s Turnverein Hall to watch Clarence Whistler wrestle Henry Moses Dufur in a three-out-of-five-falls catch-as-catch-can wrestling match with both wrestlers wearing jackets. The promoters used the rules and jackets to even the chances of each wrestler to win. Clarence Whistler specialized in Greco-Roman wrestling. Whistler took World Heavyweight Wrestling Champion
When the great Jack Johnson defeated Tommy Burns for the World Heavyweight Boxing Championship, the boxing establishment started searching for a “white hope” to defeat Johnson. In desperation to find someone to defeat Johnson, promoters and sports writers started lobbying former World Heavyweight Champion James J. Jeffries to end his retirement to fight Johnson. Jeffries retired undefeated in 1905. After
On Friday, March 11, 1932, wrestlers George Tragos and Rudy Dusek faced boxers, Stanley McRae and Tom Pivac in wrestler versus boxer bouts. It took the fans longer to get to their seats than it took the combatants to complete the bouts. The men fought the pair of bouts in Memphis, Tennessee at the Auditorium. Fans know George Tragos, a
On August 2, 1947, Max M. King Productions released Killer Dill (1947), a crime film that professional wrestler Mike Mazurki plays “Little Joe”, a henchman playing both sides of a gang feud. Stuart Erwin stars as Johnny “Killer” Dill, a lingerie designer and salesperson, who people mistake for a gangster. After accidentally involving himself in a gang war, his
Jim Londos developed into professional wrestling’s biggest box office star during the 1930s. Londos wrestled main events against Ed “Strangler” Lewis and Jim Browning at baseball stadiums. These matches drew crowds of more than 30,000 fans for the first time since the second Gotch vs. Hackenschmidt in 1911. When Londos wrestled in Greece, Londos drew crowds estimated to be at