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.
At the beginning of 1911, the wrestling public considered three men to be the greatest challenge to reigning World Champion Frank Gotch. Former champion George Hackenschmidt, Stanislaus Zbyszko and “The Terrible Turk” Yussif Mahmout wanted the chance to beat Gotch. Gotch, who was nobody’s fool, decided to take some of the starch out of his challengers by matching them up
An age old question in combat sports is “Who will win between a boxer and a wrestler?” The speculation around this question led to several boxer versus wrestler matches through out history, most notably the disaster between Muhammad Ali and Antonio Inoki in 1976. The matches are mostly no-win affairs except at the box office, which is why both promoters
On December 23, 1903, Frank Gotch traveled to Bellingham, Washington to take on a 6’05”, 215 pound Native American wrestler from Montana. Wrestling fans in the area considered Chief Two Feathers to be unbeatable. Frank Gotch was not impressed with his reputation but he gave Gotch the most uncomfortable 15 minutes of his young career. Chief Two Feathers entered the
On Tuesday, January 19, 1909, Dr. Benjamin Roller, a Seattle physician and pro wrestler who was good enough to win the American Heavyweight Championship, inexplicably decided to try his hand at professional boxing. His opponent was friend and sparring partner, “Denver” Ed Martin, who would win the Colored World Heavyweight Boxing Championship. Dr. Benjamin Franklin Roller was a unique athlete
I recently finished Evan “The Strangler” Lewis: The Most Feared Wrestler of the 19th Century. Evan Lewis was a skilled submission expert during the legitimate professional wrestling era although he did take part in a couple prearranged matches. In January 1886, Evan Lewis used his dreaded stranglehold on Sorakichi Matsada. According to several newspapers, Lewis attempted to “strangle Sorakichi to
On Monday, December 13, 1920, Ed “Strangler” Lewis won the first of six World Heavyweight Wrestling Championships from Joe Stecher. The fact he won the title from his biggest rival and business enemy must have been particularly satisfying. A year before this match, Stecher and Lewis met in a match lasting over three hours. Lewis made a mental error in
Frank Gotch took the American Heavyweight Wrestling Championship from Tom Jenkins in December 1903. Gotch intended on following up this triumph with a match for World Heavyweight Wrestling Championship from George Hackenschmidt. Gotch wanted to meet “Hack” in St. Louis during the 1904 World’s Fair. Unfortunately for Gotch and St. Louis, the match would not occur until 1908 in Chicago,
The fate of much of St. Louis’ historic buildings prove the old real estate adage. It’s all about location, location, location. If the building is in the South St. Louis, it has a better chance of being saved than a building on the North Side. The same could be said for buildings located in the center of the city except
Stanislaus Zbyszko was born Stanislaw Jan Cyganiewicz on April 1, 1879 in Jodlow, Poland, which was part of the Austria-Hungarian Empire. According to Wikipedia, he chose the ring name Stanislaus Zbyszko because it was the name of a fictional Polish knight. An article in the Walla Walla, Washington newspaper, The Evening Statesman’s Tuesday, February 8, 1910 edition, publicized Zbyszko’s university and