Tag: Catch-as-Catch-Can Wrestling

Nan 1922, New York promoter Jack Curley ran afoul of the Gold Dust Trio, manager Billy Sandow, Mondyal lour lit chanpyon Ed “Strangler” Lewis and wrestler/promotional genius Joseph “Toots” Mondt. The Trio controlled the world championship and froze Curley out of booking the champion. To get even with the Trio, Curley began aggressively promoting Olympic wrestling silver medalist and collegiate

Stanislaus Zbyszko traveled to the United States in 1909 seeking a match with recognized World Heavyweight Wrestling Champion Frank Gotch. To get in shape for this challenge and build anticipation for the title match, Zbyskzo toured most of the major cities in the United States. During May 1910, Zbyszko arrived in St. Louis for his match with capable wrestler Charles

Sou Desanm 14, 1922, a crowd of 10,000 fans filled the St. Louis Coliseum to watch the rematch between current World Heavyweight Wrestling Champion Ed “Strangler” Lewis and former champion Stanislaus Zbyszko. Lewis “bat” Zbyszko for the title in Wichita, Kansas in March 1922. Unknown to these fans, the plan was for Zbyszko to lose the match to Lewis but

Nan mwa janvye 1905, well-regarded wrestler Gus Schoenlein, also known as Americus, agreed to meet Fred Beell in Schoenlein’s hometown of Baltimore, Maryland. Schoenlein expected to beat Beell easily. At 5’10” ak 210 liv, “Americus” towered over the 5’04”, 170 pound Beell. While Beell was powerfully built, Schoenlein’s 40 pounds was a mountainous advantage. Both men were skilled wrestlers though. Second,

When Billy Sandow and Ed Lewis decided Stanislaus Zbyszko’s title reign had run out of promotional steam, they decided to “win” back the title in March 1922. St. Louis promoter John Contos was able to secure the big rematch, which would occur at the St. Louis Coliseum nan Jedi, Desanm 14, 1922. Nan tan sa a, American professional wrestling outside of

Nan Jedi, Novanm 22, 1923, St. Louis promoter John Contos hosted a controversial card topped by a match between Joe Stecher and Dan Kolov, an up-and-coming Bulgarian wrestler. The card was covered by John E. Wray, the Sports Editor for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. The card was controversial because two of the biggest stars in wrestling were advertised but didn’t

Yusuf Ismail only wrestled in the United States for six months in the first half of 1898. In his first significant match, he was disqualified for a vicious foul. In his only other significant match, he gave Evan “Strangler” Lewis the beating of his life. Yet his short tour of the United States made him a legend. Ismail entered the

Sou yon jou lannwit Jedi, Novanm 25, 1909, Lit Mondyal Champion Frank Gotch te rankontre Polish Lit Champion Stanislaus Zbyszko pou yon match andikap nan Buffalo, New York. Gotch dakò pèdi bout a si li pa t 'kapab voye jete Zbyszko de fwa nan yon èdtan. Gwosè Zbyszko a ak fòs kreye pwoblèm pou Gotch, ki te peze 190 liv Zbyszko a 260 liv. Sepandan, Zbyszko

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

Frank Gotch, ti gason an soti nan fèm Humboldt, Iowa, ta defèt George Hackenschmidt pou Mondyal lour Championship Lit a nan 1908. Viktwa sa a ak defèt li nan ki vin apre “Hack” nan la 1911 rematch simante plas Gotch a kòm youn nan luteur yo pi gran nan tout tan tout tan. Gotch was a very talented wrestler but he was not the undefeated wunderkind of legend. Gotch