Posts about catch-as-catch-can or catch wrestling matches, the dominant style of wrestling in the United States after 1890.
John Berg was a good enough wrestler to beat Martin “Farmer” Burns twice but was mostly thought of as a good lighter wrestler. Berg held the World Light Heavyweight Wrestling Championship in the late 1910s and competed for the Middleweight Title, which was contested at 158 pounds. Berg missed weight by four pounds but won the match. Berg wrestled in […]
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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 […]
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If wrestling fans know of Anton “Tony” Stecher, it is as the long-time promoter of professional wrestling in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Stecher started promoting professional wrestling in the Twin Cities during 1933. Stecher built the Minneapolis Boxing and Wrestling Club into a powerful local wrestling promotion. Stecher was also one of the early members of the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA). Stecher […]
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On Monday, June 25, 1934, current World Champion Jim Browning defended his world title against Jim Londos. Browning dropped the title to Londos in a match to end the promotional war which led to the double-crosses of the early 1930s. 20,000 fans crowded into Madison Square Garden to see the match leading to a $40,000 gate. Jack Curley enjoyed a […]
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On January 10, 1910, recently arrived Polish wrestler Stanislaus Zbyszko took on Charlie “The Kid” Cutler in a best two-out-of-three falls match. Cutler had been a boxer in a troupe run by John L. Sullivan before transitioning to wrestling. While Cutler was extremely tough, Stanislaus Zbyszko had been wrestling since his youth. Zbyszko used these skills to overcome Cutler and […]
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Ad Santel gained his reputation as a dangerous catch wrestler from his frequent bouts with judoka from Japan during the 1910s and a story from the second George Hackenschmidt training camp for the Frank Gotch rematch. According to legend, Frank Gotch paid Santel, a skilled submission wrestler, $5,000.00 to injure Hackenschmidt’s knee in training. While this story may or may […]
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“Don’t break my leg!” As the two muscular men struggled in the center of the ring, the man on top continued to work on the downed man’s legs. Again, the man on bottom yelled, “Please don’t break my leg!” Frank Gotch looked over at his rival George Hackenschmidt, who was writhing in obvious pain. Despite a severe knee injury, Hackenschmidt […]
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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 […]
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In a recent post, I wrote about Charles Green’s unsuccessful attempt to defeat Evan “Strangler” Lewis in 1889. A year later, Green had greater success with another American wrestling legend, Martin “Farmer” Burns. The soon-to-be 29-year-old Burns was an excellent wrestler but wasn’t yet on the level of Evan Lewis. However, he would have to be in the top 10 […]
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Over the past twenty years, preservationists have found several wrestling films from the 1920s through the 1950s that were assumed lost. Fans can watch most of the newly discovered films on YouTube. One of the surviving films is eighteen minutes of an hour, twenty minutes match from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1930. Jim Londos wrestled Dick Shikat (video link) for a […]
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