Tag: Catch-as-Catch-Can Wrestling

Frank J. Quinn, a local St. Louis attorney, served as the manager for professional wrestlers George Baptise, Charley Olson and Fred Beell.  Originally an admirer of George Baptiste, who was a legend in the St. Louis neighborhood around Cook and Vandeventer Avenues.  Baptiste would employ Quinn as his manger and later attorney for his tent and awning company. During his

In early 1916, Martin “Farmer” Burns, who trained and managed Frank Gotch to the World Heavyweight Championship, began denying that he developed current American Heavyweight Champion Joe Stecher.   The claim seemed odd because Burns had been working with Stecher for several years.  Burns helped prepare Stecher for his championship bout with Charlie Cutler in 1915. In a way, what Burns

By the end of the 1910s, professional wrestling promoters booked wrestlers in worked or pre-arranged wrestling matches.  Occasionally, usually as a result of a double cross, fans would see an actual contest or “shoot” match between the wrestlers.  One of these matches occurred in late 1921 and arose from a feud between Tex Rickard, primarily a boxing promoter, and Jack

This week’s post is to finish up the story of the double cross involving Dick Shikat and Danno O’Mahony.  The origins for the double cross actually began in a match with Ed “Strangler” Lewis in Madison Square Garden on June 9, 1932. While this match was a prearranged exhibition, the wrestlers had been in discussion about Lewis dropping the belt

The April 12, 1887 edition of the St. Paul Daily Globe carried a story about the bout between feared professional wrestlers, Evan “Strangler” Lewis and “Little Demon” Joe Acton.  Other wrestlers feared Lewis’ ability as a submission expert particularly his abilities with the stranglehold.  Joe Acton, while undersized at 150 pounds, was a ferocious wrestler. The bout should have been

On March 22, 1919, Ed “Strangler” Lewis met Wladek Zbyszko for the vacant World Heavyweight Wrestling Championship.  In a surprise victory, Zbyszko defeated Lewis to claim the title.  Unfortunately for Wladek Zbyszko, he would only have a cup of coffee with the belt.  A month or two later, Zbyszko lost the title to Joe Stetcher. This match was most likely

I’m writing this post to correct an earlier post I wrote about double crosses in professional wrestling.  I originally thought double crosses ended after Stanislaus Zybszko double crossed the Gold Dust Trio. Zbyszko, after agreeing to lose to Munn, defeated him in what turned into a legitimate contest for the World Heavyweight Wrestling Championship. Ed “Strangler” Lewis, who dropped the

Martin “Farmer” Burns was a professional catch-as-catch can wrestler as well as wrestling and physical cultural trainer.  Despite great success as a professional wrestler, even winning the American Heavyweight Championship, he is more famous as a wrestling trainer. Martin “Farmer” Burns was born February 15, 1861 in Cedar County, Iowa.  Both then and now, wrestling is in an Iowan’s blood.

I wrote this post due to a conversation I was tagged in on Twitter about the 1911 rematch between Frank Gotch and Georg Hackenschmidt for the World Heavyweight Wrestling Championship.  Jim Cornette, who besides being one of the best managers in professional wrestling is also a noted pro wrestling historian, talked about the double cross in the second Gotch-Hack match

When “The Russian Lion” George Hackenschmidt toured America in 1905, he left the country unimpressed by the state of American wrestling.  The current World Heavyweight Wrestling Champion, known as “Hack” to much of the wrestling public, toured several cities in an attempt to arrange a match with American Heavyweight Wrestling Champion Tom Jenkins. Hackenschmidt won the world title in Greco-Roman