squared circles - part one

DING DING DING.

That sound of the ring bell before an epic match, two athletes putting on a spectacle for the millions (altogether now) AND MILLIONS, of wrestling fans. Yes, us adults will face the non-believers, the ever so interesting ‘You know wrestling is fake right?’. Well yes, so is Eastenders and the Walking Dead. Does it stop those shows entertaining millions? Wrestling today is the ultimate show. Pyrotechnics that you couldn’t see anywhere else, athleticism the likes of which you couldn’t even witness in most Olympic sports, storylines so enthralling that even the most famous Hollywood script writers get jealous. So where did this multi-million industry come from? The less knowledgeable fan will tell you it all started with the different territories in America. Some might even be convinced that it all started with Vince McMahon (really?). Even the more hardened fans might believe that professional wrestling all began in the early 20th century. Well sit back, relax and absorb hours of knowledge as I take you on a journey over several articles of professional wrestling, from this one exploring the true beginnings of the sport all the way to Roman Reigns (sorry).

So, how did it actually begin? Well the earliest official record of professional wrestling (excluding early Olympic wrestling) dates back to the 1800’s. More specifically, in the 1830’s, muscle-men would put on shows where they would challenge members of the audience to knock them down for a hefty prize of 500 francs.  The first notable ‘promoter’ was a French showman named Jean Exbroyat. Already a hugely popular circus and theatre show organiser, in 1848 Exbroyat formed the first wrestlers Circus Troupe and introduced a rule that competitors could not execute any holds below the waist. Now, the more hardened wrestling experts will recognise this as a different name; flat hand wrestling. No? Okay, I’m being clever. This style actually became known as Greco-Roman wrestling, a style still heavily used today in professional wrestling and MMA. The popularity of this new form of wrestling soon exploded in France and spread across Europe, most notably to Austria and Hungary (geography/history experts will know that at this time, these two were still known as the Austrian Hungarian Empire). As the popularity grew, so did the profitability, which in turn led to Denmark and Russia introducing the sport as a weekly event. It soon became one of the most popular sporting event, leading to the introduction of the first ever professional world wrestling championship and wrestling’s first ever star, Paul Pons, who won the Championship in 1898. Born in 1864, Pons was a Frenchman, known by his ring name ‘Le Colosse’, or to us English speaking folk, The Colossus. He won the title by defeating Russian competitor Wladislaus Pytlasinski. Soon, Pons shot to fame, with fans lining up for hours just to meet the big Frenchman. His success led him to open the first wrestling class ran by a professional wrestler in Paris.

Paul Pons AKA The Colossus, First World Professional Wrestling Champion

He held the title for 2 years before finally losing to a big Bulgarian Brut (no not him), Nikola Petroff in 1900 in front of a record setting sporting crowd at the Exposition Universelle in Paris. Pons continued to wrestle up until the age of 44. In his final match in 1909 he was defeated by local hero Giovanni Raicevich in Milan. He published a book in 1912 on the history of wrestling which quickly became a bestseller before he passed away 3 years later in 1915. He is still considered to be one of the greatest Greco-Roman wrestlers of all time, especially in his native France, where he was inducted into the French Sporting Hall Of Fame in 2012.

Despite its popularity in France and other European countries during the mid-19th Century, professional wrestling had still not gained a great following in the United Kingdom and the United States. Particularly in the United Kingdom, the separation in class was at an all-time high and the typical demographic of wrestling fans in France was working class males. However, the same class in the United Kingdom were working ridiculously long hours for very little pay and wrestling was seen as something that most people in this demographic could not afford to enjoy the show. However, come the late 19th century, a new style of wrestling was introduced to both sides of the Atlantic known as the ‘catch-as-can’ style. Widely dismayed by the French and Russians, catch-as-can was seen as incredibly unorthodox, mainly because it allowed all holds, including those below the waist. Both styles Greco-Roman and catch-as-can were competitive styles of wrestling but as the 20th century begun, promoters and wrestlers alike were seeing the value in the entertainment factor of the sport over the competitiveness. The idea was to start choreographing matches, to the extent of pre-determining the winner before the match had even started. Yes folks, you guessed it, incredibly the start of ‘sports entertainment’ as we know it actually started in the very first decade of the 20th Century. So, with a new style of wrestling and a whole new direction for the sport, there was inevitably room for a new star to be born. That star was Georg Hackenschmidt.

Georg Hackenschmidt was not only the most popular wrestler in the United Kingdom at the time, he also won the first ever ‘free-style’ heavyweight champion of the world. Born in Livonia, Georg started his professional wrestling career in Estonia but lived most of his life in London. Nicknamed ‘the Russian lion’, he actually has more of an impact on wrestling as we know it than you might think. In a match in 1906, Hackenscmidt grabbed his opponent in by the hair in the centre of the ring, pulled him close and wrapped his huge arms around the body. He proceeded to lift him up and squeeze as tight as he possibly could (which I’d imagine was quite tight given the size of those biceps). His opponent then dropped to the floor, with Georg being declared the winner. Does that move sound familiar? Yes, Georg Hackenschmidt invented the bear hug. As if that wasn’t innovative enough, in another match he decided to something similar except from behind. And rather than grabbing the around the midriff, he lifted his opponent from underneath the arms and slammed him down.

Georg Hackenschmidt, regarded as the first Wrestling Superstar

When questioned about his move by a fan, he called it the ‘hack squat’, which would develop over time to become what we know today as the full nelson. After dominating England by beating all the top superstars in the four other big names in the country, Tom Cannon, Tom Connors, Tom MacInerney and Tom Clayton (no really, they were all called Tom), Georg decided to travel to Australia followed by America and then Canada. Following a long tour of wrestling almost daily, for 3 years, he took some time off before returning to the UK to defeat Scottish champion Alexander Munroe. After a couple more matches, he was reaching the twilight years of his career but was about to etch his name in to wrestling history by initiating arguably the greatest rivalry in the history of the sport, Hackenschmidt vs Gotch.

Georg Hackenscmidt Vs Frank Gotch at Comiskey Park, 1911

ank Gotch is to this day widely seen as the most illustrious wrestler of all time, he was almost undoubtedly the most popular. He was the first American Wrestling hero, well before Hulk Hogan and his influence on the sport should not be underestimated. After Hackenschmidt had beaten Tom Jenkins to successfully retain his World Heavyweight Championship, Gotch, who had already been champion by also defeating Jenkins a year before in 1904 wanted his opportunity at the title again, only to be told that he hadn’t proven himself as worthy by Hackenscmidt. Gotch was furious but regardless, the bout never happened with the Russian lion opting to sail back to England instead as the first ever undisputed champion (sorry Jericho). However, 3 long years later, Gotch got his match. The bout happened on April 3rd 1908 at the Dexter Park Pavilion in Chicago and Hackenschmidt maintained that the popular American was going to be an easy opponent.

So much so, he refused to train for 3 months before hand in order to ‘give Gotch a chance of beating me while I am large bellied’. It backfired, however, Gotch was in fantastic shape and Hackenscmidt was in the worse shape of his wrestling career. Speed, ability and perseverance got the capacity Chicago crowd hooked, almost every person cheering for their homeland hero. Controversy followed, with Georg claiming his opponent was overly oiled and demanded to the referee that he showered off. The complaints were dismissed and the match lasted an unbelievable 2 hours before Gotch picked up the win after Hackenschmidt declared to the referee he was not fit to continue. Despite the hostility, Hackenschmidt got up off the canvas and shook the hand of his fierce rival, before announcing to the raucous crowd ‘I surrender the championship of the world to Mr Gotch’. The match was due to last for 2 falls but Hackenschmidt stated he could not go through anymore after the 120-minute brawl. He later stated He is the king of the class, the greatest man by far I ever met. After going nearly two hours with him, my muscles became stale. My feet also gave out. I had trained constantly against the toe hold and had strained the muscles of my legs. When I found myself weakening, I knew there was no use continuing and that I had no chance to win. That was the reason I conceded the championship to him. I have no desire to wrestle him again. A return match would not win back my title."

Gotch went on to reign supreme with a then record 5-year title reign. In fact, the only people in history to hold a world title longer than him are Bruno Sammartino, (WWF World Heavyweight Championship, 7 years and 8 months) Lou Thesz (NWA Title, 7 years and 7 months) and Verne Gagne (AWA World Heavyweight Title, 7 years and 3 months). Despite Hackenschmidt’s previous comments that he would not wrestle Gotch again, a rematch did happen September 4th 1911 at the newly opened Comisky Park in Chicago.

Frank Gotch, whose career spelled over 14 years

The bout drew a record gate of $87,000 dollars (approximately 3 million 458 thousand pounds today!) but was surrounded in controversy as Hackenschmidt had a severely injured knee coming from his training partner ‘Dr Roller’ in a warm up session. This would become even more controversial years as wrestler Ad Santel told Lou Thesz that it was not Roller who injured Georg at all and it was not an accident. He claimed that it was him who was paid $5000 dollars by Frank Gotch’s camp to deliberately injure him and make it look like an accident. The claims were never corroborated by either Gotch or Hackenschmidt, the latter in particular was adamant that a training injury is all it was. Despite the controversy, the match went on and was a lot less spectacular than the original. Gotch won with straight falls in just 30 minutes. This loss would be the end of Geor Hackenscmidts career and he retired that same year. He went on to become a pioneer in weightlifting and fitness before passing away in 1968 in his home in London. Frank Gotch went on to perform in the Sells-Floto Circus, where he would challenge any man to last 15 minutes with him without being pinned or conceding for the prize of $500 (for the record, he never had to pay). He died in 1917 at the age of 40, highly rumoured to be caused by syphilis. However, the official cause of death was listed as uremic poisoning.
After the retirement of Wrestling’s biggest stars, the popularity of the sport began to slow down. Although still a favoured pastime, fans started to grow tired of the current stars, feeling as though there was a lack of innovation from the performers. The London City Council then banned professional wrestling in the late 1930’s, which appeared to have killed the sport in England leading in to World War 2. The American scene however, was about to pick up, thanks to 3 men and a lot of innovation…
But that story is for next time! Now you know the origins, you can relax in the knowledge that wrestling is a traditional as it gets and you can prepare for the next stage of our journey on the history of professional wrestling!

Mike Burns may be scouse, but lets not hold that against him. He is a lifelong wrestling fan and gamer, happeist when bodyslamming Mario in a game I've just made up.
Mike has also fought in the policital arena for his local council.