Historische Wrestling Stories/Artikel

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Ich habe mir mal ueberlegt ein Thread zumachen ueber Wrestling Artikel,Zeitungsberichte oder Storys ueber das Wrestling.Also wer einen zeitungsbericht hat oder einen Artikel der kann ihn hier rein posten.Ich werde soweit es geht immer Artikel/Berichte/Storys hier posten,auf English.Ihr koennt es ergaenzen vielleicht weiss jemand mehr darueber oder was dazusagen :winke: Ich hoffe der thread wird voll.Also hier die ersten Wrestling Story`s die ich fand.

Stevens Point, Wisconsin
Stevens Point Daily Journal
Friday, April 23, 1926

Wrestler Murdered for His Failure to ‘Throw” Bout, Claim

Chicago, Ill., April 23 – (UP) – Reports that Andre Anderson, prize fighter and wrestler, was murdered for failure to comply with the demands of gambler that he “throw” a bout with Wayne “Big” Munn, were placed before authorities today for investigation.

Anderson was shot down and killed in a Cicero, Ill. Saloon nearly two months ago. Police at the time followed a theory that Anderson had been involved in a beer war.

Today, however, Chief of Dectectives Schoemaker announced he was in possession of information tending to show that Anderson’s murder was brought about because he had failed to “lay down” and allow Munn to win in a boxing exhibition match at Kansas City.



Thursday, December 24, 1925
Appleton, Wisconsin
Appleton Post Crescent

Munn Loses 1st Fight As Boxer

Big Wayne, Nursing Badly Bruised Chin, Drops Ring “Career” After One Round

Kansas City – (AP) – Nursing a battered chin, Wayne (Big) Munn, Thursday had given up dreams of a career in the prize ring. Munn concluded that the equipment necessary to success in the wrestling game avails nothing in boxing shortly after he stepped inside the ropes here Wednesday night with Andre Anderson, heavyweight boxer of Chicago. Gloves thudded on Munn’s chin and two minutes after the opening of the first round, he was counted out. It was his second and final appearance in the role of a boxer.

“I guess I wasn’t cut out for boxing,” Munn said after the bout. “I’ll stick to wrestling hereafter.”

Munn showed no aptitude with the gloves, scoring only one solid blow. He had no defense for the short straight jabs delivered by Anderson. The knockout came after the wrestler had been sent down for a count of nine.

Munn, weighing 259 pounds, had a 20-pound advantage over his opponent.



Bridgeport, Connecticut
Bridgeport Telegram
June 9, 1925

Former Wrestler Commits Suicide
New Britain, June 8 – (AP) – Philip Benefant, 40 years old, committed suicide by shooting himself with a revolver this morning at Maple Hill, Hewington. He entered a neighbor’s yard, placed the muzzle of the revolver in his mouth and pulled the trigger. Deather was almost instantaneous. For the past two years, Bonefant had been in ill health and feared that he might become helpless. At one time, he was a well-known wrestler. He is survived by his wife and a child, as well as his parents who live in this city.

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Hier noch ein paar weitere Artikel

Bridgeport Connecticut
Bridgeport Telegram
December 8, 1955

Wrestler Fined $25
Boston, Dec. 8 – (UP) Indian wrestler Don Eagle, a 220-pound terror of the ring, sought a rematch today with the judge who fined him $25 for allegedly beating up a landlady.

Eagle was free in $1,000 bond after appealing the fine imposed yesterday by Municipal Judge George W. Roberts. He denied a charge of assault and battery on Paula Kobbel, 120-pound proprietor of a Back Bay lodging house.



Statesville Daily Record
Statesville, North Carolina
January 17, 1945

Sports Parada
By Jack Cuddy
New York, Jan. 16 – (UP) – Jumping Joe Savoldi, one of the war’s mystery men, returns to the mat at Philadelphia tomorrow night after an absense of nearly 18 months – most of which were spent at various European fronts on secret missions for the armed forces.

Exact details of Savoldi’s activities “over there” must remain cloaked for some time, upon orders from Uncle Sam, but no Hollywood scenarist is needed to imagine the perilous enterprises probably undertaken by this linguist, Notre Dame graduate, and bone-crushing athlete.

“I am not permitted to say much about my duties overseas,” the brawny, black-haired wrestler explained today at the Al Mayer-Toots Mondt booking office. “You see, I’m still subject to recall if they need me again.”

“Have you been discharged from the Army?”

“I wasn’t in the Army.”

“What were you in?”

“Let’s say I wasn’t in anything. Let’s just say I was working for the government on special assignment. Yes, I am permitted to tell what areas I visited. They were North Africa, Siciliy, Italy – including Salerno, and France – including Normandy. Yes, I was under fire – plenty, at times. No, I wasn’t wounded.” He grinned and added, “this scar on my cheek and these cauliflower ears came before the war.”

Jumping Joe, who contributed the “drop-kick” (under a man’s chin) to wrestling, probably was picked fo rhis secret duties because he provided a triple threat on the various fronts, with his languages, intelligance and brawn.

He speaks Italian without an accent, having been born and given his early schooling in Italy. He understands and speaks French fairly well, having lived in pre-war France more than eight months. At Notre Dame, under the late Knute Rockne, he won his varsity letter as a fullback for three seasons; and he was graduated with a B.S. degree. He won Jim Londos’ claims to the heavyweight wrestling championship in 1933, and lost them to Jim Browning in 1935. He played pro football with the Chicago Bears before turning to the more lucrative field of modified mayhem.

Jumping Joe admitted that he had made “good money” during 12 years on the mat. Now, at 36, he has a fine home at Harbert, Mich., where his 11-year old son, Joe Jr., enjoys a private beach on Lake Michigan. Just before the war, he opened a soft-drink manufactory; but he had to close after Pearl Harbor, because his brief career as a munufacturer did not entitle him to priorities on ingredients.

Savoldi believes that the war will have two effects uponw restling. “There will be a boom in the sport when peace comes,” he said, “for thousands of service boys have become interested in it because of their training in commando tactics. And this commando training probably will make future wrestling much rougher than it is now – with a tendency towards gouging, chopping, butting and kneeing. Meanwhile, modernized wrestling of the present must be given credit for contributing much to command tactics – improvements that have out-dated the old jiu-jitsu of the Japanese.”


Council Bluffs, Iowa
Council Bluffs Nonpareil
August 23, 1944

Former Iowa Mat Star Loses Life
Graettinger (AP) – Sgt. Bernard Doerning, 30, widely known Iowa wrestler before the war, was killed in France July 21, the war department has advised his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Arnold Doerning.

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Wednesday, October 15, 1952
Humboldt Standard
Eureka, California

Jim Londos, The Golden Greek, Has His Say About Wrestling

By Tim Canty
United Press Sports Writer

Chicago – Jim Londos, former Golden Greek of wrestling, today threw a half nelson on modern critics who claim that all the bouts are fixed and that grappling has fallen of as a sport.

Londos, last of the legitimate world champions, still is active in the sport that gave him world-wide prominence.

Past 50 – but looking 20 years younger – Londos wrestles about wrestels (sic) about twice a week and wins most of his matches.

“I get sick and tired of everybody knocking wrestling,” Londos said. “Actually it’s three or four times better than it was 20 years ago.”

The handsome grappler said that most sports fans who go to matches today would die of boredom at the wrestling bouts staged in the sports’ hey-day.

“It might have been interesting from a scientific angle,” he said, “but today you couldn’t fill a phone booth with those experts who would pay their way into an arena.”

Londos, who marathon struggles with Ed “Strangler” Lewis packed Wrigley field in 1934 pointed to the big crowds drawn by wrestlers such as “Gorgeous George,” “Cyclone” Anaya and “Argentine” Tony Rocca.

“These guys all have a style and they’ve capitalized on it, but what’s more important they can really wrestle,” he said.

“You take this kid Vern Gagne,” Londos said. “Well, he could have tired most of the wrestlers 20 years ago in knots. So could Ruffy Silverstein.”

Londos said that wrestling’s renewed popularity is proved by the fact that “wrestling in Chicago actually outdraws boxing.”

“And you have to remember that wrestling is televised here three times a week – that proves that the fans come out to see it even though they coud sit in their living room and get it for nothing.

“Another thing,” Londos said, “wrestlers have fan clubs all across the country and the top attractions in the business make more money than the country’s top boxers.”

Londos admitted that many of the present day grunt-and-groaners could double for some of Hollywood’s leading men when it comes to giving out with the pathos.

“But that’s what the fans want and it makes a better show,” he said.

“One thing,” he said, “a guy in this sport can just put on so much. He’s got to be in shape. I’ve seen wrestlers get thrown out of the ring and bounce on the cement of an auditorium.”

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Wednesday, February 17, 1960
The Sheboygan Press
Sheboygan, Wisconsin

Strangler Lewis Was Best of Mat Mashers, Former World’s Champion States

By Oscar Fraley

New York (UPI) – Rassling has grown to gigantic proportions under the omnipotent eye of the TV camera but only a handful of the moderns match the mat masters of the past.

That’s the word from Ed Don George. And don’t think this is an old guy living in the past.

Sure, Ed has bloomed to an overly robust 270 pounds, yet at 54 his black hair is full and bushy and his face – and ears – bear no telltale marks of the beef and cauliflower trade he practiced so long and successfully.

For Ed Don, who went all the way to the Olympic wrestling finals 32 years ago – and was one of those few undisputed world professional champions we know no more – still gives the accolade to such as Antonino Rocca.

Say Strangler Best

“He could go in any league, any time,” says George, “But he’s one of the few around today who could.”

Who was the greatest of them all?

“Well, I’d have to take Strangler Lewis,” Ed pondered. “He had size at 260 pounds; he had endurance and he had knowledge of the game. Jim Londos was the most clever of them all, but overall I’d take the Strangler against any of them.”

Modest prevents the big quiet man from including himself, but Ed Don was one of the great ones, too. He came out of Michigan as a civil engineer and tried his hand at it for six months. That was enough. George turned professional wrestler early in 1930 and before the end of the year was out had won the undisputed world heavyweight title from Gus Sonnenberg.

One-Time Promoter

In 13 years he piled up the bodies and the scratch which permits him to be happily retired today. Then came Pearl Harbor and one month later he was in the Navy, from which in 1946, he emerged as a commander.

Since then, Ed Don has been a promoter twice – and twice retired. His last venture, in Cuba, was knocked out by Fidel Castro’s revolution.

“Maybe I’ll be back again sometime,” he laughs. “But right now, I’m happy being retired. The last time, though, I got sick of watching those Pacific sunsets and finally went back into action out of sheer boredom.”

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Reno Evening Gazette
Reno, Nevada
Friday, April 29, 1949

Lady Wrestler, Friend Back in Jail Again

Johnnie Mae Young, Oakland’s 28-year-old lady wrestler, was back in trouble with the law today.

So was her photographer-bar-maid-waitress companion, Mary Anice Huse, 22, late of Monrovia, Ala.

How they got there was a source of considerable confusion. But these facts emerged as definite:

The husky, cigar-smoking Miss Young and the slight brunette, Miss Huse were both in the city jail, charged with robbery.

Their alleged victim, identified as Elmer J. Nelson, 38, was treated at Washoe general hospital early this morning for multiple brusies and lacerations of the face and forehead. Mr. Nelson, who gave his home variously at North Platte, Neb., and San Francisco, was still a little groggy at noon today from the effects of the beating he had received.

Police said they still weren’t sure:

1. Who was involved in the attack.
2. Where it took place.
3. What precipitated it.

The district attorney’s office, after a brief talk with the well-bruised Mr. Nelson this morning, issued four robbery complaints against Jane Doe, Jean Doe, Richard Doe and John Doe.

Miss Young and Miss Huse were arrested on the Jane Doe and Jean Doe warrants. Gordon Thompson, duputy district attorney, said there “wasn’t much doubt that they were the women involved,” but that complaints bearing specific names wouldn’t be issued until positive identification could be made.

From the welter of contradictory statements surrounding the story, police drew this story today:

Mr. Nelson, who arrived in Reno for a visit only recently, dropped in at a Commercial row restaurant late Thursday night for a bite to eat.

While there, he engaged in conversation with the waitress, whom he later identified as Miss Huse.

Shortly after he had told her that he had “come into a sum of money through the sale of some property ,” he said, she told him she wanted him to meet “a very nice girl.”

It wasn’t but a matter of minutes, Mr. Nelson groggily told police, that Miss Young put in an appearance.

Then, he said, began a round of several local clubs. Police said they weren’t sure which establishments were involved, because Mr. Nelson “was pretty hazy in his descriptions.”

Mr. Nelson said he cashed travelers checks in the amount of $260 at three of the clubs, $160 of which he lost over various tables. In the meantime, he sadly related, he had bought “several” drinks for himself and Miss Young.

When he decided to hold onto the last $100, he continued, Miss Young took exception to his stand. So, Mr. Nelson averred, did the bartender at the place.

“The next thing I knew,” the victim told police, “these two guys were in an argument with me. Then they held me down on the floor and that girl (Miss Young) began kicking me in the face.”

Police said the “two guys” were still unidentified today.

When Mr. Nelson finally got back to his feet, he said, Miss Young and the two men were gone.

So was his $100.

He staggered out to the street, and was picked up by police, battered and bleeding, in front of a West Second st. hotel at about 3:45 a.m.

Miss Young allegedly admitted to officers she had been with Mr. Nelson during the night.

She also assertedly admitted there had “been a little trouble.”

And last, officers said, she hinted she might have “worked Mr. Nelson over” because he made certain “improper advances.”

Miss Young and Miss Huse, who gave their Reno address as 1247 West First st., were until this morning free on $4000 and $2500 bail respectively on a earlier robbery charge.

They were charged several months ago with beating Salvadore Manriquez of Sacramento, and dumping him from a car on the Pyramid lake road north of Sparks. Mr. Manriquez, who also reported his cash missing following the incident, almost died of exposure.

The district court trial in that case is set for May 17.

Not involving in the latest incident, according to police, was Eva McDevitt, blond Texas bar owner, who also faces robbery charges in the Manriquez case.

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Friday, November 2, 1928
The Bismarck Tribune

Billy Sandow Granted Divorce and Offspring
Kansas City, Nov. 2 – (AP) – Billy Sandow, manager of Strangler Lewis, world’s heavyweight wrestling champion, was granted a divorce from Mrs. Ethelyn Sandow yesterday. Sandow alleged his wife had shown such disresepct for him before his friends that his health had failed and was unable to sleep. He was awarded custody of their only child, an eight year old son.


Gettysburg, Pennsylvania
Gettysburg Times
July 31, 1989

Buddy Rogers
Lauderdale-By-The-Sea, Fla. (AP) – After an insult from a much younger man, old pro wrestler Buddy “Nature Boy” Rogers added some injury.

A 30-year old rowdy picked on the wrong old man, police said last week. Rogers, 68, had just ordered lunch in a sandwich shop when Theodore Terhune of Pompano Beach burst in looking for someone named Mike.

When he was told Mike wasn’t there, he began verbally abusing a pair of employees, police said, and Rogers asked him to quiet down.

“He called me an old man,” said Rogers, in his day the star of the pro wrestling circuit and still powerfully built. “He said: ‘if you want a piece of me, you can have me right now.”


Ironwood, Michigan
Ironwood Daily Globe
July 15, 1955

Rogers-Rogers Suit Is Settled
Los Angeles (AP) – An out of court settlement has been reached between actor Buddy Rogers and wrestler “Nature Boy” Rogers under which the wrestler agrees never to use the names Buddy and Rogers together in his professional life.

Buddy Rogers had sued the wrestler for $200,000 damages, but his lawyer, Sull Lawrence, said his client actually wanted no damages and that no money was involved in the settlement.

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Wednesday, June 20, 1934
East St. Louis, Illinois
East St. Louis Journal

Sonnenberg Scarred After Years of Bouts
Boston (UP) – Gus Sonnenberg, the wrestler, is a “marked man.”

The former Dartmouth football star, whose famed flying tackle made him champion for more than anything else to modernize wrestling, bears almost countless relics of his years inside the ropes.

They include two cauliflower ears, a twisted nose, several dents in the head, many broken bones that have since healed, and eyes that have required treatement many times.

Gus has made at least haft a dozen trips to hospitals for serious injuries. He suffered a fractured collarbone at Toronto; was treated for a severe case of blood poisoning in Minneapolis; and was in a St. Louis hospital for 10 days with internal injuries suffered in a bout with Jim Londos.


Friday, April 20, 1934
East St. Louis, Illinois
East St. Louis Journal

French Wrestler Back Seeking World Title
Montreal (UP) - Henri DeGlane, giant French wrestler, returned from his native France the other day and warned all claimants to the world's wrestling title that he is read (sic) to prove that Henri DeGlane is the only one who deserves to be called champion.

"It will not be very long until I am champion of the world again," said the one-time titleholder in an interview here. "Before I'm through I'm going to show them that they're all out of step but Henri DeGlane. From Don George right down I'll show them all, not forgetting Jim Browning and his phoney wine-barrel airplane."

Here's what he will do to the various title claimants when he gets them in the ring:

Joe Malcewicz: "I never can spell his name and nobody will be interested in trying to after I wash him up for keeps."

Jim Londos: "I'll twist his nose into his ear."


News Journal
Mansfield, Ohio
Friday, August 29, 1969

Wrestler in More Trouble
Lancaster (UPI) – Jerry Graham, a professional wrestler arrested while trying to take his mother’s body from a hospital in Phoenix, Ariz., was held in jail here today on a charge of leaving the scene of an accident.

Graham, a native of Buckeye Lake, Ohio, was held under $200 bond after leaving the scene of an accident after his car hit another near here Thursday.

Fairfield County sheriff’s officers said there were no other warrants out for his arrest.

Graham was held for mental observation and then released after he was accused of shooting at a doctor and biting a nurse as he ran from a Phoenix hospital with his mother’s body over his shoulder about two weeks ago.

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Burlington, North Carolina
Times-News
Thursday, June 22, 1972

Highlightin Sports
By Bill Hunter

Promoting is big business

George Becker, who probably made in excess of $50,000 a year – some say much more – wrestling for promoter Jim Crockett of Charlotte, decided that Crockett was making perhaps three or four times more money – some say much more – than he was making.

So the popular Becker, known primarily for his tag team role with equally popular Johnny Weaver, bolted the Crockett organization and became a promoter himself.

Evidently, the pitfalls of promoting were greater than Becker realized, and the dollars that Crockett was making with his established outfit didn’t seem to flow into the coffers of the new wrestling group.

At any rate, he left the front office end of the business and is back grunting and groaning before paid audiences again, although not as often as he did.

Crockett for years has had the wrestling business sewed up in the state of North Carolina, a virtual monopoly. Joe Murnick in Raleigh, a fine promoter in his own right, takes care of cards in the eastern part of the state,a nd it was Murnick, along with his sons, who promoted the wrestling events held in Burlington.

Crockett has many wrestlers under contract, and his oragnization can put on wrestling programs in two or three cities on the same night. Most of the events are held in larger towns where the attendance is likely to be very good.

It was not always that way, however, for even Crockett had to start small and work his way into the bigtime. Years ago many of the bouts were held in high school gyms before 200 or 300 people.

Television Helped it Grow

But the sport grew, thanks in part to the cathode tube and the huge audiences that watched the sport – if it can be called a sport – on television. Now it’s hard to book a match with that organization if less than 3,000 people can be accomodated, and the days of wreslting in out-dated high school gyms are over.

Not so for the new group that is beginning to provide competition for Crockett. Johnny Gordon, Bobby Brooks and Bob Hooper are the officers of Carolina Wrestling Promotions, and it is that group that is promoting this Saturday night’s card at Fairchild Park. Becker, as we mentioned, was a ramrod in the outfit for awhile, now is no longer connection with it other than in a performing capacity.

In the past, the local baseball club did business with the Crockett gropu, and everything, actually, was quite satisfactor if you overlook the fact that getting dates was not easy and getting Friday or Saturday night dates – the only ones which will really get the fans out – were about as easy as pulling a tooth with a pipe wrench.

Jon Richardson tried several times to line up a date with Crockett’s group and was never able to get a commitment. The new group was more than willing to come here, offered the baseball club a higher percentage and gave them the vital Saturday night date.

“We’re new,” said Brooks, a vice president of Carolina Wrestling Promotions, “and like any new organization, we’re starting out rather small and hoping to build.

“There was no friction between Becker and the Crockett group that I know of. There was a belief that there was room for competition with them, particularly since they were hitting the big cities and the sport was not availabel to many of the smaller towns.

“Right now, we’re going into these smaller places, and while we’re not drawing the big crowds at the present time, we’re well satisfield with the way things are going. We have 15 or 20 wrestlers in our organization and are working to get more.

“We feel that our wrestlers put on a program that is actually more exciting than that put on by the Crockett group. At least, that’s what a lot of fans tell us.”

Well-Known In Other Areas

The names are new, at least. There’s The Bruiser, who is famous in the Detroit area. And Ripper Ox is well-known in mat circles in half the United States, says Brooks, who notes that a wrestling bear has been added to the roster (he’ll be here Saturday night).

One of the organization’s founders, Gordon, takes to the mat as the famous Flash Gordon, and he’ll probably draw the assignment of taking on the 600 pound bear at Fairchild Park Saturday night.

As we talked to Brooks, it developed that Becker may not be able to make Saturday night’s card. He was on a trip to New York earlier this week.

Wrestling fans will see a group of new wrestlers, new names as the new promoters try to gain a foothold among grunt and groan fans in North Carolina. Whether it can buck the smooth-running Crockett organization is a moot question, but fans who see Saturday night’s card can get some idea of their own.

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Sunday Morning, August 15, 1965
Augusta Chronicle-Herald
Augusta, Georgia

Happy’s ‘panting’ for sales
Augusta’s Happy Humphrey, the slim shoe cobbler, may have lost a few pounds but he’s a heavyweight in the salesmanship department.

The former wrestler who made headlines by losing 570 pounds on a Medical College of Georgia diet, is selling his old trousers for $50 a pair.

Latest buyer is a San Francisco man who wants a pair of the king-size trousers for the Kalico Katz Square Dance Assn.’s annual hoedown there Oct. 23.

The square dance caller plans to dye them pink – he is know (sic) as “Pink Pants” – to liven things up a bit.

If the market holds, Happy said, he may have to “whip up” a few extra pair since he has only two more sales to make before his present stock is exhausted.

Happy – his real name is William J. Cobb – has little use for the trousers now. He has dropped from a whopping 802 pounds to a mere 232.

He now works for a shoe repair shop here and is apparantly doing all right for himself. But, two years in a hospital is a long time and Happy admits that he could use some extra money.

“Anybody wants to buy a pair of pants for $50 just call me,” he said.



Tuesday, August 17, 1937
Augusta Chronicle
Augusta, Georiga

Musician Lauds Wrestlers

Ex-Violinist Turned Grunt and Groan Specialist Says Tossers Are ‘High Class’ – Professionals Really Earn Money – Mortality Rate High

By Paul Mickelson

New York, August 16 – (AP) – A talk with Ray Fabiani, a sensitive man who gave up a brillant career as a concert violinist to promote professional wrestling, leaves a warmer spot in one’s heart for the groan and grunt boys.

Since pro wrestling went in for gag and burlesque stuff, it always has struck me as a sport for rubes with a flock of bums getting paid for rough stuff that no longer goes in saloons and taverns. But Fabiani, whose real name is Aurelio, insists wrestlers are high class fellows who save their dough and pay a terrific price to get it.

So heavy is the toll, says Fabiani, that 35 wrestlers have died of injuries on the mat during the last three years.

“Sure, they all are experts in the art of tumbling,” he said, “but even so the fatality rate is exceptionally high. Don’t think they don’t earn every cent they get. Those who do escape with their lives are lucky if they aren’t crippled. For instance, there’s Joe Stecher – one of the very best and cleanest. Today, Joe is a physical wreck, trying to recuperate in a naval hospital outside of Minneapolis. I couldn’t help but cry when I saw poor Joe. He made money but how he’s earned it. Incidentally, do you know no pro wrestler can get insurance? The risk is too great.”

The average wrestler, Maestro Fabiani estimates, makes from $20,000 to $30,000 a year. The greatest drawing card of them all, of course, was Jim Londos, who drew a total gross gate of approximately $11,000,000 over three years. Gus Sonnenberg ranked next to the Greek Adonis over the golden era.

“If you check further,” continued Fabiani, “you’ll never find a real down and outer wrestling man. They’re different than the average run of fighters. Your average fighter comes from pool halls and street corners; your average wrestler is a college man or a farmer who left a plow to toss bodies around. You seldom see an old wrestler broke. The high percentage of old fighters is busted, flat and down and out.”

It was Londos who got Fabiani to leave the concert stage to take up wrestling promoter. After a performance at the Chicago Civic Opera 13 years ago, Londos came back stage to compliment Fabiani on his violin solo. They became fast friends, Fabiani became interested in wrestling, and promoted his first show in Baltimore as Marie Jeritza, noted soprano, held up her hands in horror at the thought of Fabiani leaving violins for grunters.

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Friday Morning, January 5, 1968
Augusta Chronicle
Augusta, Georgia

Hope this fan wasn’t really that rabid
Columbus, Ga. (UPI)
A masked heavyweight professional wrestler, who works under the name of “Mr. Wrestler,” had to be rushed to a hospital Wednesday night after accepting a challenge from a fan and having his finger bitten off.

The match had been set up two weeks earlier when the unidentified fan, a pretty hefty fellow himself, dared “Mr. Wrestler” to take him on.

During the Wednesday night match, the fan bit one of the professional’s fingers off at the knuckle.



das ist einer der beruehmtesten shoots und Skandale im Wrestling.Der Fan schlug Mr Wrestler hinterruecks nieder (Tim Woods) und biss ihm tatsaechlich ein Finger ab.Tim Woods stand auf schnappte sich denn Fan und stach mit einem Finger dem Fan in die Augen.Der Fan kann froh sein das er an Tim Woods geraten ist,jeder andere Wrestler haette dem Fan die Augen ausgestochen.Ein paar Wochen nachdiesem match hatte Tim Woods ein NWA World Heavyweight Title Match gegen Gene Kiniski das abgebrochen werden musste weil Woods zustark blutete an seinem verlorenen Finger.