Posts about Greco-Roman wrestling matches and other wrestling styles such as collar-and-elbow wrestling, side hold wrestling, Cornish wrestling, etc.
Joe Acton was one of England’s best wrestlers during the 19th Century. 151-pound Acton went through England’s middleweight ranks before plowing through the heavyweights. After beating the best England had to offer including Tom Cannon, Acton decided to test his abilities in the United States. Joe Acton settled in Philadelphia at Arthur Chamber’s Champions Rest during the summer months of […]
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On Friday, May 12, 1905, World Heavyweight Wrestling Champion George (Georg) Hackenschmidt toured the United States after defeating reigning American Heavyweight Wrestling Champion Tom Jenkins. One of Hackenschmidt’s stops was the “Gateway to the West”, St. Louis, Missouri. Hackenschmidt agreed to throw three wrestlers in under 90 minutes. He accomplished this feat in less than 19 minutes after the third […]
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In a testament to his foresight and vision, the World Wrestling Champion William Muldoon was preparing to be a fitness trainer even while at the height of his powers as a wrestler. Muldoon held the championship from 1880 until he retired in 1890. During his reign, he often gave exhibitions to attract attention to his way of training. The Saturday, […]
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When World Heavyweight Wrestling Champion William Muldoon retired in 1889, he hoped his protege Ernest Roeber would be recognized as the new champion. However, Muldoon won his title in Greco-Roman wrestling, which was the German-born Roeber’s expertise. Unfortunately, the exploits of Martin “Farmer” Burns and Evan “The Strangler” Lewis catapulted catch-as-catch-can wrestling into the dominant style of professional wrestling in […]
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When the 1915 New York International Wrestling Tournament restarted in October 1915, a mysterious masked man sat at ringside demanding an entry into the tournament. Prior to the masked man’s arrival, the tournament had been lightly attended. The attraction of the masked man sitting at ringside attracted both fan and newspaper interest. Crowds started showing up for the matches. After […]
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On September 15, 1919, St. Louis citizens woke up to read about the death of one of their oldest citizens, Alexander Baptiste. Just a few months before his 101st or 102nd birthday depending on which source you believed, Alexander Baptiste passed away from intestinal disease. For years, Alexander was known as one of the fittest St. Louisans. An early advocate […]
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Estonia gave birth to three of the greatest wrestlers of the first two decades of the 20th Century: Georg Lurich, George Hackenschmidt and Aleksander “Alex” Aberg. As part of the Russian Empire at the time, Estonia contained a number of elementary and high schools with superior physical education programs. Lurich and Hackenschmidt both started out as weightlifters and transitioned into […]
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Dominant champions like William Muldoon often had to accept handicap conditions to get fans interested in watching them wrestle. Since fans only considered Clarence Whistler skilled enough to really threaten his reign, Muldoon would often generate interest by either performing feats of strength or taking on the challenge of handicap conditions. On May 5, 1885, Muldoon met Matsuda Sorokichi, who […]
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The International Wrestling Tournament occurred in two phases between May 19, 1915 and December 31, 1915. Fifty wrestlers would compete in the first phase of the tournament including World Greco-Roman Champion Aleksander “Alex” Aberg. The second installment had 40 wrestlers including up and coming star Ed “Strangler” Lewis, who joined a month into the tournament on November 22, 1915. The […]
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Alex Aberg defeated many notable foes in the greatest year of his professional wrestling career. In 1915, Aberg competed in both the Spring and Fall versions of the New York International Wrestling Tournament. Competing exclusively in his preferred style of Greco-Roman wrestling, Aberg defeated Dr. Benjamin Roller, Wladek Zbyszko and Ed “Strangler” Lewis along with a number of journeyman wrestlers. […]
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