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Post by crimsoncross on Dec 14, 2008 16:44:10 GMT -5
To throw a name out and a wrestler that might be great to have and a possible first would be a Indian Wrestler in Chief Kit Fox...
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Post by captaincold on Dec 25, 2008 11:49:48 GMT -5
Ad Santel born Adolph Ernst, was a practitioner of catch wrestling. Santel claimed he was paid by Frank Gotch to purposely injure the knee of Georg Hackenschmidt during a training session, in order to insure that Hackenschmidt wasn't 100% for his rematch against Gotch. Ad Santel fought one of the early clash-of-the-styles matches in modern martial arts history against Tokugoro Ito, a 5th degree black belt in Judo from Japan, who claimed to be the world Judo champion. Santel defeated Ito when a slamming takedown rendered the judoka unable to continue the point and proclaimed himself the world Judo champion. Ito returned the favor in their next match, however, defeating Santel by submission. Ad Santel fought Judokas from the Kodokan from 1914-1921. The judokas he fought included 4th degree black belt Daisuke Sakai and 5th degree black belt Reijiro Nagata, all of whom Santel defeated. Ad Santel also drew with 5th degree black belt Hikoo Shoji. The challenge matches stopped after Santel gave up on the claim of being the world Judo champion in 1921 in order to pursue a career in full time professional wrestling. The impact of these performances on Japan was immense. The Japanese were fascinated by the submissions taught in catch wrestling. Japanese fighters travelled to Europe in order to either participate in various tournaments or to learn catch wrestling at European schools such as Billy Riley's Snake Pit in Wigan, UK. Santel lost his World Heavyweight Championship to Gobar Goho of Calcutta(now Kolkata),India in 1922 in San Francisco.
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Post by captaincold on Dec 25, 2008 11:52:10 GMT -5
Farmer Burns By 1880, Martin Burns had developed a formidable reputation; and at 19, he wrestled his first match against a professional grappler when he battled David Grafft to a 2 hour and 19 minute draw. He then honed his skills against the top pro wrestlers of the day, losing decisions to Henry Clayton and Tom Connors in 1886 and 1887 respectively. The defeat to Clayton particularly irked Burns, as he was unable to offset the feared stranglehold that subsequently earned Clayton the moniker Evan “Strangler” Lewis (long before the more famous Ed “Strangler” Lewis was ever born). Consequently, Burns launched into a rigorous program of neck development; and soon built an immense 20” neck that possessed such strength that he could be dropped six feet on a hangman’s noose to no effect (a stunt that Burns would often perform at carnivals and fairs). While on a trip to Chicago in the spring of 1889, Burns saw a sign offering $25 to anyone who could last fifteen minutes against top grapplers Jack Carleek and Evan Lewis. Burns accepted the challenge and showed up at the Olympic Theater dressed in his regular farmer’s overalls. Consequently, the event’s announcer introduced Martin to the crowd as “Farmer” Burns; and the “Farmer” promptly made a monkey out of Carleek, throwing him across the stage before being declared the winner after fifteen minutes. The next challenge was Burns’ much-awaited rematch against Evan “Strangler” Lewis, who was now the reigning Catch-as-Catch-Can Heavyweight Champion, having defeated Joe Acton on March 14, 1887. However, fifteen minutes proved not enough time for Lewis to throw Burns; and again, the unknown “Farmer” was declared the winner and was subsequently lauded as a wrestling hero the next day in Chicago newspapers. Following Farmer Burns’ emergence as a premier grappler, he traveled the country, taking on the greatest wrestlers of the day, while also beating all comers at carnivals. Though he weighed just 165 pounds, he regularly defeated men who outweighed him by as much as 50-100 pounds. At the time, professional catch-as-catch-can (freestyle) wrestling often used no time limit, and a match was usually decided when a wrestler “threw” his opponent to the ground. However, Burns became known as the master of the pinfall, as he perfected the art of trapping his opponents’ shoulders to the mat while contriving such dangerous maneuvers as the full and half-nelson, hammerlock, double-wrist lock, chicken wing, and a variety of submission toe holds. Farmer Burns soon encountered the renowned Sorakichi Matsuda, who is regarded as Japan’s first-ever pro wrestler, and who had been a top challenger to World Wrestling Champions William Muldoon and Ernest Roeber during the previous decade. The two faced off in Troy, NY on May 13, 1891, and Burns scored his biggest win yet when he pinned Matsuda in just four minutes. As a result, Farmer Burns soon became known as the world’s premier all-around grappler; and between 1890-93, he never lost a single fall. Then, on March 2, 1893, Evan Lewis was recognized as wrestling’s American Heavyweight Champion when he beat Ernest Roeber to unify the American Greco-Roman Title with the Catch-As-Catch-Can Championship. This set up yet another rematch between Farmer Burns and Strangler Lewis; and on April 20, 1895, Burns pinned Lewis to capture the title. Burns would go on to reign as wrestling’s American Champion for two years until he was finally beaten by Dan McLeod and Tom Jenkins in 1897. Nevertheless, Farmer Burns’ greatest contribution to wrestling’s evolution may be as a trainer. He opened a gymnasium in Rock Island, Illinois in 1893, and helped to establish schools that enlightened young grapplers to the world of catch wrestling. In 1899, Burns defeated a 21-year old Iowan named Frank Gotch, but he recognized his raw talent and recruited him as his prized student. Burns would then mold Gotch into perhaps the greatest wrestling champion of all-time, as he defeated George Hackenschmidt in 1908 to claim the undisputed World Heavyweight Title. In addition, Farmer Burns also served as a teacher to a myriad of grapplers who would transform the sport in the early 1900’s, including future World Champion Earl Caddock, future Middleweight World Champion and Champion Wrestler of the A.E.F. Ralph Parcaut, as well as creative pioneer Joseph “Toots” Mondt. Burns was so respected as a trainer that he was even recruited to serve as the conditioning coach for boxer Jim Jeffries’ 1910 title bout against Jack Johnson. In 1914, Burns published a 96-page mail-order course entitled The Lessons in Wrestling and Physical Culture, which incorporated breathing techniques, calisthenics, stamina exercises, and Eastern martial arts principles, thus becoming the bible for all aspiring wrestlers during the early 1900’s. Moreover, it is said that Ed “Strangler” Lewis, the great wrestling champion of the 1920’s and 30’s (and the eventual teacher of Lou Thesz) got his start in wrestling by following Burns’ training methods. Consequently, it is because of Burns’ many efforts that his native state of Iowa has subsequently become the nation’s amateur wrestling capital, with the University of Iowa consistently serving as an NCAA powerhouse, and with the International Wrestling Institute and Museum also based in Newton. Martin “Farmer” Burns died at age 76 on January 8, 1937.
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Post by captaincold on Dec 25, 2008 11:56:46 GMT -5
Tom Jenkins At the turn of the twentieth century, "Rough Tom" was the most feared matman in America. The 225 pound former ironworker from Ohio was renowned for his strength and damaging style. Frank Gotch judged Tom Jenkins to be the strongest wrestler he ever faced. Jenkins thought nothing of mixing it up in the roughest fashion possible; his style was wide open at all times with plenty of elbow shots to face and body. When choke-holds became illegal, Tom invented his "jaw-lock" which he used to choke his opponents. While opponents came onto the mat unarmed, Tom's rock-hard sharp calloused hands could and did flay the skin right off a man's face and body. He was a cagey veteran of hundreds of bouts with all the fighting heart of a true champion. The harsh realities of the times were hard on the Jenkins family. Tom's father, Thomas Jenkins of Wales, returned to his home in Holland from extended mining operations training in Russia to find his first wife and all of his children dead in the Great Potato Famine. He married his second wife, Mary Williams of Wales, in Scotland. They had three daughters who all died quite young in Scotland. Thomas and Mary Jenkins moved to England where their first three sons, Timothy, Abraham and John, were born. Timothy died in England before the family immigrated to Bedford, Ohio. Their final two sons were born in America: Timotheous and then, on August 3, 1872, future wrestling champion Thomas. The Jenkins family moved to Newburg (still in the Cleveland area) when Young Tom was five. The spirited Young Tom needed firm guidance at Woodland Hill School which was backed up frequently by Old Tom's very firm hand at home. It was a rainy Fourth of July holiday in the summer of 1881 following Young Tom's second grade year that changed his life. Five independent youngsters found their cannon firing salute to Independence Day spoiled by rain-dampened black powder. But the creative cannon battery team came up with a great idea in the early morning hours of July 5th: build a fire under the cannon to dry out the wet powder. The predictable explosion blew the two-foot iron cannon apart injuring four boys. Tom got the worst of it with iron fragments and black powder specks embedded in his broken-jawed face, neck, and chest. Dr. Brooks worked to save Tom's eyesight by confining Young Tom to a quiet darkened room for close to a year. Tom's right eye was blind for life with limited sight in his left eye. Tom's formal education was over when Dr. Brooks told Tom the strain of reading with his weak left eye could blind him totally. The year 1882 found the illiterate second grade graduate out on the streets of the greater Cleveland area. He entertained himself with pranks and petty theft. Enterprising Young Tom would steal from street vendors and sell his loot to other vendors a few blocks away. It was a fast and busy life for Cleveland's own little Oliver Twist and by the time he was twelve years of age Tom had been in many scrapes and formally arrested eight times. But Tom explained, "There wasn't never no meanness in me. These were just the pranks of a wild kid who was trying to keep busy doing something, but you got pinched easy in them days." The self-described Wild Kid needed hard jobs to keep him busy and away from trouble. Tom worked as a water and spike boy for a railroad repair crew when he was just ten. He was always energetic but began to build his infamous strength before he was twelve years old working the bellows as an apprentice chain maker. By age twelve he was making tire irons. Then at sixteen years of age Young Tom got the job that would shape him into the rock hard man who could overpower the greatest wrestlers in the world. Tom was promoted to Rougher in Newburg's American Wire & Steel Mill, No. 9. A two-man team of Roughers used heavy tongs to carry white-hot 100 pound steel ingots to grooved rollers. The powerful Roughers had to work quickly feeding the steel back and forth through the fast moving rollers while it was still red-hot. As the 100 pound ingot was pressed out longer and thinner it acquired a wicked curl that would catch and maim or kill a Rougher who was not nimble on his feet. Years of fourteen hour days in this life threatening training regimen built the future wrestler's strength, reflexes, agility, and rock hard calloused hands. The door to opportunity opened in early 1891 with an exhibition wrestling match scheduled among the events at a benefit for an injured waterboy. When professional wrestler Al Wood's opponent did not show, eighteen-year-old Tom was drafted by his fellow millworkers to fill in. Compensating for his lack of skills with his strength and agility, Tom fought the professional to a draw. This moral victory won Tom fame at work and more: George Patton, a mill manager, arranged for three wrestling lessons a week with Luke Lamb in Cleveland. Tom continued as a full-time Rougher while training with other millworkers on breaks and practicing his new wrestling skills at night. Beginning his wrestling career slowly while still holding down his Rougher day job, Tom beat professionals Pete Shumacher and Hans Spiegel--both in straight falls. In May of 1893 Tom quit the mill to go pro. Tom proved to be invincible on the mat. In his first seven years of wrestling Tom had yet to lose a single fall but his professional career floundered as he was swindled of his winnings by one greedy manager after another; Tom couldn't read a contract. In 1898 things turned around. In February he got the best partnership of his life with his marriage to his one true love, Anne Lavinia Gray of England. He also got Harry Pollock as his first honest manager. Pollock arranged Tom's shot at the big time with a match against the great Martin "Farmer" Burns in Cleveland. Tom took Burns in straight falls to make a claim on the American heavyweight title. Tom finished out a great 1898 with the birth of his first daughter Lavinia. Tom continued undefeated, meeting and beating all championship claimants including a win over Ernest Roeber on July 5, 1901 to set up a winner-take-all match with Dan McLeod of Hamilton, Canada. On November 7, 1901 Tom met McLeod in Cleveland and Dan McLeod pinned Tom in thirty-six minutes. Tom was devastated. By some accounts this was the very first time Tom had ever been pinned in a match. How did he handle this? Tom came back to take the second fall in twenty-two minutes and the deciding third fall in nineteen minutes. Thomas Jenkins, now the undisputed American heavyweight catch-as-catch-can champion, had showed his true mettle. Tom defended his title against all challengers; even when he had blood poisoning so severe he had to wear a buckled leather brace on his infected left leg. McLeod used the buckles against him in a December 25, 1902 title match until Tom had to forfeit the third fall and his title to McLeod. But Tom healed and came back strongly in 1903 beating Frank Gotch in straight falls on February 22nd and beating McLeod in straight falls on April 3rd to regain the American title. 1904 began with a January loss to Gotch in Bellingham, WA. and a July two to one loss to George Hackenschmidt in England. But 1904 did bring Tom his second daughter, Audrey. Tom finished out 1904 by returning to his old Rougher job in Newburg. With family and friends about him, Tom's health and strength returned and 1905 became the year of Tom's greatest comebacks. February 1, 1905 he lost to Gotch two falls to one but came back to defeat Frank Gotch on March 15th to regain his American heavyweight championship title for the third time. Two weeks after being beaten by Hackenschmidt on May 4th Tom came back to wrestle his greatest match. On May 19, 1905 Tom took the first and third falls to defeat Frank Gotch and defend his national title in an incredibly tough two hour match. The wrestling series between Tom Jenkins and Frank Gotch was one of the most brutal rivalries in all of American sports. Tom was the only wrestler ever to defeat Frank Gotch three times in all-out shoot matches. When Gotch took back the title for keeps on May 23, 1906, Tom was already deeply committed to his new career. Thomas was thirty-three in 1905 when he faced his greatest challenge. President Theodore Roosevelt had appointed Tom boxing & wrestling instructor of the United States Military Academy at West Point. The tag of "Rough Tom" took on a whole new meaning with the illiterate second-grade educated retired champion assuming the title of Professor at West Point. Tom would be responsible for the finest young educated minds produced in America. Tom later recounted thinking, "They ain't hiring me to teach reading and writin'. All they want outa me is boxing and wrestling, and I can give 'em plenty of that." Tom's patient wife Lavinia spent endless hours helping her husband memorize manuals of West Point regulations. And Tom learned to read and write. And the honest straight-forward plain-spoken Professor had a great career at West Point, training cadets for 37 years. Pop Jenkins was idolized by the cadets. It is estimated that before retiring in 1942 Tom applied his none-too-gentle hands to over 13,500 West Point cadets and taught them how to be tough, both on the mat and in life. After retirement the old retired champion and West Point legend lived quietly in nearby Cornwall-on-Hudson, New York with his beloved wife and helpmate. Before Lavinia died, Mr. and Mrs. Jenkins celebrated their fifty-second wedding anniversary in 1950. Tom was right at home in Cornwall-on-Hudson. During his West Point years he had put in twenty-five years instructing students at the New York Military Academy prep school in Cornwall-on-Hudson. Tom's elder daughter Lavinia, who had been a career nurse since she was nineteen-years-old, cared for Tom in his last years. Mr. Thomas T. Jenkins died on June 19, 1957 at eighty-four years of age. He is buried with honors at the United States Military Academy at West Point. Postscript: In 1962 George Hackenschmidt wrote of his 1939 visit to Jenkins at West Point, "Tom showed me around the training quarters and I saw his cadets at work. It was a stimulating thing to see the pride of the old-time champion in his work and in his team. The high esteem he held was evident at a glance and there must have been many of those during the war that so soon came (World War II) who look back in gratitude to the strength and endurance Tom's training had imparted to them." Among Pop Jenkins hands-on pupils were George S. Patton, Omar Bradley, and Dwight Eisenhower. George Hackenschmidt recognized that the influence of Tom's no-holds-barred fighting spirit had an effect on our world today far beyond the wrestling mat. Brigadier General John Thomas Corley was one of the most decorated officers of World War II. General Corley related that in the thick of the Battle of the Bulge when his command had been overrun, "I was punchy for want of sleep. I went into a dugout to think. I put my head down on a table and dozed off. I was a cadet again and in Tom Jenkins' wrestling room. I could hear him saying, 'Mister, what do you weigh? You don't have to be as big as the other fellow to win.' I did not surrender the battalion. General Bradley sent tanks and rescued us." While recognizing that Tom was a truly great wrestling champion, the life and teachings of Thomas Jenkins ultimately far transcended his wrestling honors. - John E. Rauer
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Post by TTX on Dec 25, 2008 14:18:33 GMT -5
I'd love Farmer Burns and Tom Jenkins in the game.
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Post by captaincold on Feb 6, 2009 23:03:42 GMT -5
MAN MOUNTAIN DEAN He was born in New York City and from childhood was remarkably large in stature. This trait led to a lifelong interest in competitive sport, and also made it easy for him to lie about his age in order to join the Army at the age of fourteen. While enlisted he saw duty on the Mexican-U.S. border with John J. Pershing, and was later sent to France where he participated in combat during World War I. Also during this period (1914) he began his wrestling career using the ring name of "Soldier Leavitt". After the war, Leavitt embarked on a career in athletics. Although signed for a brief time (1919–20) with the Brickley's Giants football club, he concentrated most of his efforts toward the less lucrative field of professional wrestling. He competed in the ring for a time under the name "Hell's Kitchen Bill-Bill" (a "hillbilly" reference which was suggested to him by the writer Damon Runyon) but eventually settled on the moniker of "Stone Mountain". Leavitt wrestled with limited success at first, and after an injury took a job as a police officer in Miami, Florida. It was here he met his wife, Doris Dean, who also became his manager. After her idea, he adopted the nickname "Man Mountain" and substituted the more Anglo-Saxon-sounding last name of Dean. At well over six feet in height and weighing in excess of 300 pounds, Dean was an imposing figure. To this he added a long, full beard as part of his ring persona. Dean was one of the first professional wrestlers to emphasize showmanship in the sport, and it worked to his advantage. After a highly successful wrestling tour of Germany which had been booked by his wife, he was invited to take a job in the UK as stunt-double for Charles Laughton in the movie The Private Life of Henry VIII. This would be the beginning of a subsidiary movie career for Dean, who would appear in various roles in twelve other movies, playing himself in five of them. One of the movies in which he portrayed himself was the Joe E. Brown comedy The Gladiator, a 1938 adaptation of Philip Gordon Wylie's 1930 novel Gladiator. Meanwhile he continued a fairly successful wrestling career, participating altogether in 6,783 professional bouts and commanding fees upwards of $1,500 for each match. In 1937 he retired from the ring to a farm outside of Norcross, Georgia. Dean ran for a seat in the Georgia House of Representatives in 1938 but withdrew his candidacy, citing discomfort with the political process. During World War II he again joined the Army despite his age, and finally left with the rank of master sergeant. Afterward he studied at the University of Georgia's school of journalism. He appeared as a guest on the December 29, 1944 episode of the radio program It Pays to be Ignorant. During the program, broadcast from New York City, Dean gave his weight as 280 pounds (127 kg). Writer Damon Runyon, suggested one of Leavitt's early fighting namesHe died of a heart attack in his home in Norcross at the age of 63 in 1953, and is buried in Marietta National Cemetery under a military marker bearing his birth name and an erroneous year of birth (1889). (If this year of birth is erroneous, then Leavitt died at age 61.)
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Post by captaincold on Apr 29, 2009 20:26:07 GMT -5
Wladek Zbyszko Wladek Cyganiewicz was born in Krakow, Galicia, Austria-Hungary. The date of his birth has been commonly stated to be November 20, 1891. He attended the University of Krakow and earned a Doctor of Law degree from the University of Vienna. Wladek followed his older brother Stanislaus into professional wrestling. Cyganiewicz was a hard name to both spell and pronounce. Early in his career, Stan changed his ring name to Zbyszko and when Wladek turned to the mat sport he also used that last name. His first match in America was at Chicago's Empire Theater on January 17, 1913 and Wladek defeated Alexander Angeloff in the time of two minutes and twenty seconds. He soon began moving up the ranks. The Manhattan Opera House held a major wrestling tournament in 1915. In a brutal match against Alexander Aberg, the pair wrestled three hours and forty minutes to a draw. By 1917, Wladek claimed the world's mat championship based on a victory over Ed "Strangler" Lewis in San Francisco's Civic Auditorium on June 5. Lewis' claim was based on a win over John Olin, who had won a questionable decision over titleholder Joe Stecher in 1916. Later in the fall another tournament was held at the Manhattan Opera House. In the final tournament contest, held on December 22, Zbyszko defeated Ed "Strangler" Lewis in one hour and forty seven minutes and was awarded the world's championship. Wladek lost his claim to the world's title on February 8, 1918 in Des Moines by losing to Earl Caddock. After each wrestler had won a fall, referee and noted Chicago newspaper writer Ed Smith awarded the decision to Caddock, a native son of Iowa, when the time limit expired. In 1919, rumors circulated that champion Caddock, who was fighting in France during the war, was retiring. This news resulted in Joe Stecher, "Strangler" Lewis and Wladek all fighting over the championship. Wladek again claimed the title during this muddled period. Finally Stecher defeated Caddock in 1920 to clear up the claims to the championship. Wladek, along with his brother Stan, traveled the world. Besides touring Europe, the brothers were well-known in Brazil and Argentina throughout their active years. They even brought their own troop of wrestlers to South America. Over many years, they trained wrestlers including Johnny Valentine and Harley Race. In a famous 1934 Rio de Janiero contest against the noted Helio Gracie, the pair wrestled to a draw in jiu-jitsu style.proving that Wladek was a very good wrestler. Surprisingly, Wladek wrestled in Chicago as late as 1950. He was an eminent pianist and a real ladies man, who made headlines for the latter. The February 11, 1964 issue of the Kansas City Star ran a long story on Wladek. He was trying to get a patent for his Zbyszko exerciser which he said had more than six-hundred exercises from which to choose. In the article, Wladek rated the Great Gama and Ivan Podubny as the best wresters he ever saw. He said that Hans Steinke was the strongest. Zbyszko also praised Ed "Strangler" Lewis, Joe Stecher and John Pesek as being great wrestlers. Wladek Zbyszko passed away on June 10, 1968, at his farm in Savannah, Missouri.
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Post by inquisator on May 8, 2009 14:31:05 GMT -5
I've Got my bootlegs of Brute Bernard and Skull Murphy.......They were a great tag team........coupled with Skull Murphy's Sad story and the great friendship Bernard offered him.....
I'd like to see Bulldog Brower
If you want real old school
Lord Lansdowne his English Lord gimmick inspired Gorgeous George
Or Lightweight Dutch "Roughouse" Mantell (technically the first wrestler to appear on film as he was a member of the Keystone Kops from the silent film era
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Post by jasonjaconetti on May 9, 2009 15:48:48 GMT -5
Everyone of these would be great adds to the game.
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Post by TTX on May 9, 2009 16:11:06 GMT -5
There's lots of old school guys who would be great int he game. I'm looking forward to getting Pesek and hopefully Muldoon (and maybe Lewis sooner or later. It's why I know LOW can go for years if wanted)
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