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.
World Heavyweight Wrestling Champion Ed “Strangler” Lewis was scheduled to meet former champion Stanislaus Zbyszko at the St. Louis Coliseum on Thursday, December 14, 1922 but the match was almost called off due to disagreements over the selection of a referee. It was only after the intercession of St. Louis promoter John Contos that both men agreed to St. Louis
Polish wrestler and strongman Stanislaus Zbyszko first came to the United States in 1909 to campaign for a shot at World Heavyweight Wrestling Champion Frank Gotch. He received and lost the match in a legitimate contest during 1910. Zbyszko continued wrestling for a few more years and actually won the World Greco-Roman Heavyweight Wrestling Championship in 1914 from hated rival
On Tuesday, December 12, 1916, local favorite, John “The Nebraska Tigerman” Pesek wrestled fellow shooter, Al “Dutch” Mantell, in a worked match. Pesek recently trained with fellow Nebraska wrestler and recognized World Champion Joe Stecher prior to this match. Pesek developed a notorious reputation for shooting with other wrestlers. However, Pesek was a 22-year-old up-and-comer still learning to wrestle, when
In the early 1880s, Sorakichi Matsuda, or Matsada in most American newspapers, traveled to the United States to wrestle professionally. Japan did not have a developed professional wrestling circuit, so Matsuda thought he would bring the sport back to Japan after an apprenticeship in the United States. After training for a while, Matsuda signed an agreement to wrestle the first
Oscar Wasem started his career in St. Louis, Missouri under the tutelage of George Baptiste. Wasem was a good enough wrestler that Wasem defeated a young Frank Gotch in 1901. Wasem, the St. Louis Champion, pinned Gotch, the Iowa Champion. While Gotch went on to be America’s greatest legitimate professional wrestler, Wasem remained a solid journeyman. Wasem supplemented his professional
I recently discovered a three minute clip on YouTube, which included two of Jim Londos’ matches from the 1930s. In the first match, Londos wrestles Abe Coleman. In the second match, Londos wrestles a mixed styles match with Oki Shikina, who was trained by Taro Miyake, the Judo black belt and professional wrestler. Londos was the biggest box office star
On Friday, November 27, 1891, former American Heavyweight Wrestling Champion Joe Acton wrestled future World Heavyweight Boxing Champion Bob Fitzsimmons in San Francisco, California. The men wrestled for a reported $1,000.00 purse. Acton usually gave up size to his opponent but Acton outweighed the 148-pound Fitzsimmons by seven pounds. The men wrestled a two-out-of-three falls match according to catch-as-catch-can wrestling
On December 17, 1923, Jim Browning wrestled a rare match in his hometown of Verona, Missouri. Four hundred fans from the surrounding area crowded into the venue to watch the match between Browning and Clarence Jenkins, a wrestler from Emporia, Kansas. Both Browning and Jenkins wrestled most of their matches in Kansas during 1923. Browning was starting a career that
On November 18, 1938, former world wrestling champion Jim Londos wrestled current world champion Bronko Nagurski, the great former football player for the Chicago Bears. The men wrestled in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania for Nagurski’s version of the world wrestling championship. You can view the 14-minute match in its entirety on YouTube. When I viewed the match for the first time, several
On May 5, 1898, Yusuf Ismail wrestled Tom Jenkins in Cleveland, Ohio. Ismail only toured the United States for six months in the early part of 1898. Ismail wrestled less than ten matches but left a path of destruction remembered to this day. Ismail made a powerful impression by easily defeating both Evan “Strangler” Lewis. Ismail also made a strong