Historische Wrestling Stories/Artikel

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Dallas Morning News, Oct. 30, 1958

Assault charged to 3 wrestlers

"Three wrestlers were charged Wednesday with the Tuesday night beating of a one-legged man in the Oriental Cafe, 1112 Main.

"Named in the misdemeanor assault complaints were: Philip Kekauliki Sylva, 28; Johnny Valentine, 29, and Frank Falzarno, 28.

"Felip Reyes Salmaron told police the three wrestlers came up to his booth in the cafe and one stuck his fingers in his (Salmaron's) eyes. He said all three beat him about the head and body and Valentine tossed some water at him.

"The complaints were filed in Judge Dean Gauldin's county criminal court."



Was fuer eine Freak Story. Damals war es normal das Wrestler provoziert wurden und das ganze in einer kleinen Lektion endete. Es war sogar von vielen Promotern gewollt das solche Stories in die Oeffentlichkeit kommen. Aber ein Einbeiniger? Das klingt schon sehr Bizarr.

[Nefercheperur]

Wisconsin Post, March 27, 1924

CHICAGO – Ed (Strangler) Lewis, world’s heavyweight wrestling champion, was married here late on Wednesday to Miss Bessie McNear of Kansas City, Mo. Billy Sandow, Lewis’ manager, to whom the champion is under contract not to marry while champion, was kept locked in a hotel room by Lewis’ friends until after the ceremony.

The ceremony was performed by Dr. Fred Stone at the First Methodist temple in the heart of the loop. Lewis and his bride were accompanied by Mr. and Mrs. J.B. Braffield of Chicago

Sandow is said to have prevented Lewis’ marriage last year to a Russian princess whom the champion met in Paris. Miss McNear, an attractive brunette, met Lewis in Kansas City where he staged many of his important matches. The champion, who is about 35 years old, once was married to a San Jose woman physician from whom he is divorced.



Anmerkung: Lol ich liebe diese Story, wie Sandow damals schon das Kayfabe hochielt. Eine Russische Prinzessin.

[Nefercheperur]

July 24, 1928
Los Angeles Times

Meyers Is Suspended For Year

Ex-Middleweight Mat Champion Set Down for Disgraceful Conduct

Chicago, July 23 (AP) - Johnny Meyers, former middleweight wrestling champion, today was suspended for one year and fined 66 2-3 per cent of his purse by the Illinois State Athletic Commission for what it termed his "disgraceful and unbecoming conduct" in his match with Karl Pojello last week. Pojello won the match which ended in a fist fight with Meyers taking the leading part.



PS: Ein Wrestler wird fuer ein Jahr suspendiert weil er seine Faeuste einsetzte. Das muesste man mal heute einigen Refs sagen, die 10 mal pro Match einen 4 Count machen, und den Wrestler jedesmal nur verwarnen. ;)

[Nefercheperur]

18 July 1928
Los Angeles Times

Big Munn Suspended For Listless Bout

Tulsa (Okla.) July 17 (AP) - Wayne (Big) Munn of Nebraska, once claimant to the heavyweight wrestling championship, was suspended from the mat for a year by the City Athletic Commission today for his poor showing against Marin Plestina here last night.

Members of the city commission said the decision would bar Munn from all States governed by teh National Wrestling Commission. They recommended that he retire permanently from the mat game. Munn's purse was forfeited.

Plestina won the first fall in 29:17 and the second and final fall in 8:31, both with body slams.

[Nefercheperur]

15 June 1957
Washington Post and Times Herald
Washington D.C.

Angry Fans Stone Wrestling Zebra Kid

Columbus, Ohio, June 14 (AP) - A Columbus cab driver told police last night that Johnny Walker, 32, of St. Louis, who wrestles professional as the "Zebra Kid," jumped in his taxi to escape about 50 angry fans hurling bricks and stones.

Damage to the cab was estimated at $100. A police ambulance took Walker to White Cross Hospital for treatment of face and head cuts. Cause of the disturbance, which followed a bout at a local wrestling arena, was not determined.


Auch nicht schlecht, The Zebra Kid loesst ein Fanaufstand aus

[Nefercheperur]

24 March 1933
Minneapolis Tribune
By George A. Barton

"Mat Fans Prefer Clever Wrestling."

It is in my opinion that the wrestlers would help their own business in Minneapolis by giving the mat enthusiasts of the city more real wrestling and less of the roughhouse and clown stuff.
Wrestling followers of Minneapolis have been educated to appreciate good wrestling in which skill and good sportsmanship dominated. After watching such starts of the past as Frank Gotch, Georges Hackenschmidt, Yussiff Mahmout, Stanislaus Zbyszko, Fred Beell, Henry Ordemann, Jess Westergaard, Charley Cutler, Dr. B.F. Roller, Joe Stecher, Earl Caddock, Strangler Lewis, Marin Plestina, John Pesek, John Freberg (before Freberg sacrificed good wrestling for acrobatci work and acting), Joe Carr, Walter Miller, Johnny Meyers, Max Luttbeg, Harvey Parker, Mike Yokel and Charley Olson, it is disgusting to local grappling adherents to get much enjoyment from the clownish antics of the present crop of wrestlers.

It may be all right for the stumblebums of the wrestling game to punch and maul one antoher around, but I happen to know that Joe Stecher, John Richthoff, Jimmy Londos, Ray Steele, Jim McMillen, Allan Eustace, Fred Grabmeir, John Freberg, John Pesek, Marin Plestina and Charley Hansen who will appear here from time to time, are really very fine wrestlers. Such being the case, the promoters should see to it that they do some legitimate wrestling in which holds and various other tricks of offense and defense are given the preference over hitting and kicking.

In the two shows arready held, Richthoff is the only grappler who gave the fans what they relly want - scientific demonstrations of wrestling.

[Nefercheperur]

Friday, 2 Maerz 1962
Toronto, Ontario
Toronto Daily Star

Barn Burns While He Refs Wrestling Bout

Wrestler Bill Stack's new $35,000 barn on his farm near Oshawa burned down last night while he was refereeing last night's wrestling match at the Maple Leaf Gardens.

Five cow and a number of pigs perished in the blaze. Oshawa fire department officials are still investigating the cause.

The barn was rebuilt a year ago after being destroyed in a fire on Halloween in 1960.

[Nefercheperur]

24 December 1943
Los Angeles Times

Wrestler Fined $100 in Beating of Serviceman

Santa Monica, Dec. 23. Rube Wright, 250-pound wrestler, was fined $100 in Police Court here today on a battery complant charging him with having kicked and otherwise battered Robert C. Barber, chief specialist, United States Coast Guard.

Witnesses said Barber, who is an amateur boxer weighing 170 pounds, had knocked the professional wrestler down after Wright assertedly called Barber an offensive name. The ensuing fight, which took place on the Santa Monica pier in the early morning hours of Dec. 11 was said to have turned into an affray in which no holds were barred.

Barber testified that after knocking the wrestler down he told him to get up, but Wright suddenly grabbed him by the leg and threw him off balance. Wright then proceeded to kick him and otherwise batter him, Barber testified.

Judge John L. Webster sentenced Wright to 30 days in the County Jail but suspended the sentence and placed him on probation.

[Nefercheperur]

22 August 1934
Los Angeles Times

Londos Sued for $30,800 Back Salary

The wrestling industry was thrown into something of a furor yesterday when Jim Londos, leading claimant to the world's heavyweight title, was accused of hiring a "Polooka" to feel out prospective opponents.

Pete Ladjimi, who said he was the feeler-outer, sued Londos for $30,800 claimed due as back salary for a year's work at $600 a week. He said he was paid only $1600.

The complaint said Ladjimi was hired to grapple with other exponents of the grunt and groan business to determine whether they were sure to fall victims to Londos in subsequent matches. Any he felt were too big and fast were passed up by Londos, the suit added.

Londos is here to meet Jim Browning of Missouri in a match billed for the championship tomorrow night.

[Nefercheperur]

February 13, 1938
Los Angeles Times

Dave Levin, Back from Dead, Returns to Mat Soon

By Jack Singer

They said he was too nice to be a wrestler.

That was when "Dapper Dave" Levin, the Brooklyn butcher boy, who started by slicing hams and ended by wrestling with them, lay at death's door on a hospital cot in a New York hospital.

Suffering from hemoletic streptococcus, which may sound like a new wrestling hold, but is actually blood poisoning in its most vious stage, his strength ebbing, his mind wandering, Levin looked up at his doctor through clouded feverish eyes and smiled bravely: "How long before I'll be wrestling, Doc?"

Death Sentence

"Pretty soon, son, pretty soon," reassured the doctor and then he tip-toed over to the corner of the room where he conferred in a whispered huddle with his associates.

"He won't last the day," he said gravely. The medicos, like four stern judges pronouning the death sentence, nodded grimly. It was all over but the burial.

But Levin, the corpse, clung to that bare thread of life with all the strength and tenacity of one of his wrestling grips.

He was delirious for weeks. He was given two blood transfusions. He was confined to his hospital like a prisoner for three months, livign on liquids. From a strapping giant of 195 pounds, the muscle and sinew fell away until he resembled a thin skeleton of a man of bones and bare flesh.

But he lived.

Bad Dream

And now, as Dave Levin looks back, much as he would some horrible, unreal nightmare, he says:

"I guess I just wasn't good enough to due just yet and join Gotch and all those other good wrestlers."

Levin, the handsome butcher boy, didn't hold the championship long enough to capitalize on it. He won it from Ali Baba in June, 1936, and lost it to Dean Detton in September of the same year. An innocent rope burn on the back of his left leg, which became infected, sent him to the hospital in January.

"You're a very sick boy," said the doctor. "Do you know anyone who would be suitable for a blood transfusion?"

"Sure," Dave said brightly. "Call up Jake Pfeffer's office at the Hippodrome. He'll get somebody."

Friends Report

That afternoon, ten burly, hulking creatures with strangely cauliflowered ears that revealed their trade as well as if they had presented a business card, reported to the hospital. "We're here for dat transmusion business," they grunted laconically.

Oddly enough, Bobby Bruns, whom Levin had wrestled in his last match, was selected for the blood-giving operation.

Almost fully recovered, training on the rings and exercising his way back to health, Levin expects to return to the mat within three months.

"Wrestling took my health and my money," he says. "It owes me something now."

But he's still too nice to be a wrestler.