Tag: Catch-as-Catch-Can Wrestling

In November 1923, St. Louis Star-Times reporter Billy Murphy interviewed St. Louis wrestling promoter John Contos.  Murphy proposed to Contos that the era of dominant wrestlers like William Muldoon was over.  Murphy spoke about the recent match between “World Champion” Hardneck Phillips and the game contender Webster O’Malley. Phillips successfully defended his championship by throwing O’Malley after 1 hour, 50 […]

Ed “Strangler” Lewis and Joe Stecher conducted one of the greatest rivalries of the early arranged professional wrestling exhibition era. Lewis and Stecher wrestled many times including a five and a half hour draw in 1916. Several of their early matches appeared to be legitimate. Legend also has it that Lewis actually had to beat Stecher in a “shoot match” […]

Stanislaus Zbyszko toured the United States in 1910 in preparation for a title match with World Heavyweight Wrestling Champion Frank Gotch later in the year.  His tour brought him to St. Louis on May 29, 1910.  Zbyszko was scheduled to meet highly regarded light heavyweight grappler Charley Olson. Olson was a skilled wrestler, who trained with St. Louis wrestler George […]

On April 3, 1908, American Wrestling Champion Frank Gotch met World Wrestling Champion George Hackenschmidt for the World Title at Dexter Park Pavilion in Chicago, Illinois. Hackenschmidt was undefeated as a professional but had been World Champion for approximately 7 years. Gotch was a year older but considered an up and comer. Fans and reporters covering the sport considered Gotch […]

On Tuesday, March 22, 1910, Dr. Benjamin Roller met Stanislaus Zbyszko in a legitimate wrestling match.  Professional wrestling would transition from legitimate contest to staged exhibition between 1910 and 1920. Dr. Benjamin Roller graduated from the University of Pennsylvania by playing professional football.  Roller accepted an academic appointment in physiology where he assisted in the writing of a textbook. Dr. […]

Wladek Zbyszko’s legacy is often overshadowed by his brother Stanislaus Zbyszko.  Stanislaus, who was 12 years older, posed the last real threat to Frank Gotch’s World Heavyweight Wrestling Championship. Wladek Zbyszko was a skilled wrestler in his own right.  Unfortunately, he didn’t arrive in the United States until 1914, when most wrestling matches were prearranged.  Wladek had proved his bona […]

I’ve frequently found the biggest challenge in researching early professional wrestling is separating fact from fiction.  Even when the wrestlers competed in legitimate matches, they often inflated outcomes, built up apocryphal folklore around their victories and made up fanciful tales to explain away their losses.  Professional wrestling sprang from the carnivals and retained the promotional instincts of this art. St. […]

Besides being the preferred venue for professional boxers and wrestlers to train when in St. Louis, the St. Louis Business Men’s Gymnasium hosted smaller boxing and wrestling events. In 1898, former American Heavyweight Wrestling Champion Martin “Farmer” Burns wrestled Oscar Wasem in front of a small crowd at the Business Men’s Gymnasium. Burns was transitioning into training wrestlers full-time and […]

On December 16, 1917, Frank Alvin Gotch lost a three week battle with uremic poisoning.  Doctors attempted to keep his kidneys going through an operation in Chicago but it provided only temporary relief.  Gotch intended to travel to Hot Springs, Arkansas to try and restore his health.  The operation ended this hope.  Gotch spent the last couple weeks only able […]

On Monday, February 7, 1887, Evan “Strangler” Lewis and “Little Demon” Joe Acton met at Battery D in Chicago, Illinois.  It would be the first of several exhibition bouts between the men.  They performed these exhibitions in the larger Midwestern cities in early 1887.  Like the St. Paul match I covered in an earlier post, Lewis and Acton agreed to […]