George Hackenschmidt

I shouldn't call it a belt yet.

That is the championship that Frank Gotch held that secured him the title with the recognized world champion George Hackenschmidt in 1908.

But the American Heavyweight Wrestling Championship had a long storied history and it originated around 1881.

While the match was not billed for the American Heavyweight Wrestling Championship, that's really the match between Edwin Bibby and Duncan C. Ross is considered the first match for the title, which established the title.

Um, wrestling has been around professional wrestling as we know it has been around since the 1930s.

Um, so I'm sure if you have to go way back to the days of George Hackenschmidt or maybe even, uh, days of Bruno San Martino, or even prior to that days of gorgeous George, you can do it.

I would love.

Now I'm going to make a request, uh, live here on the show professor i've been begging you guys to do this i'm asking you guys to do an ovw show oh

And 125 years ago, there was a man named Hack.

His whole name was George Hackenschmidt.

But Hack owned, at the time, every strong or every strength record in existence that In the year 1900, George Hackenschmidt held every strength record in existence.

And there were a lot of them, and he had them all.

This is a strong guy.

It's a little bit highbrow for Albie, It's a kid's book, and it talks – the super skill that she has is breath control, which Albie does not have, but that's a lovely book.

And a book that I just read recently, a fitness book by Hackenschmidt, George Hackenschmidt.

So he was a German author, fitness guru, and into the – he was like a generation and a half earlier than Joseph Pilatus.

But when you read his book, it's so similar to Return to Life through Contrology.

Someone hated Harley Race.

Hackenschmidt or whatever.

Fez, I think it was like Fez.

Fez hated Race or whatever, right?

Yee-hoo doing going up, climbing the ropes.

What the hell climbing the ropes for? It's

crazy because Meltzer's point is, because everyone now thinks of Harley Race as the Tez or the Hackenschmidt, where it's just all this incredibly basic, simplistic, credible stuff.

But to the prior generations, he might as well have been Nick Jackson.

There you go.

The feared team of Von Hesse and Killer Brooks against Frank Gotch and George Hackenschmidt.

There you go.

I remember seeing that match at the

Who's your favorite 1940s tag team?

Hackenschmidt and Gotch.

Damn it.

I thought I had them there.

Had a great time.

Yeah.

Him and Hackenschmidt.

Thank

Other wrestlers became famous for particular holds or styles of attack.

and londis would eventually become associated with techniques including the airplane spin arm controls and leg-based finishing holds to understand the championship landscape we also need to remember the influence of frank gotch gotch had become one of america's greatest wrestling celebrities for his championship victories over george hackenschmidt Their contests in 1908 and 1911 attracted extraordinary attention.

Gotch represented an earlier model of wrestling superstardom, the celebrated American champion whose matches could become major public events.

Following Gotch's retirement and death, wrestling continued to produce exceptional competitors, The likes of Joe Stecher, Earl Kadek, Stanislaw Sobisko, Vladek Sobisko, Ed Lewis.

His success following the 1930 championship victory was extraordinary.

He had become the sport's biggest attraction since Frank Gotch and that comparison is important as Gotch had been one of the most celebrated wrestlers in the early 20th century.

His victories over George Hackenschmidt helped establish professional wrestling as a major sport in America and now 20 years later, Londis was attracting that level of public interest and that level of fame.

Londis' commercial importance was compared to that of Jack Dempsey in boxing, and Dempsey was one of the greatest sporting celebrities of the 1920s.

I think that the biggest problem is the glut of pay-per-views.

And the, the r- the reason I think that is because back in the day, and I know that's my day bec- before me was Lou Thesz, and Frank Gotch, and, you know, George Hackenschmidt, and obviously it was very different then.

But when I was growing up watching wrestling, you had WrestleMania every year, and that was it.

Starrcade, WrestleMania.

It was part of the Russian Empire.

So A. Berg, George Lurich, and George Hackenschmidt all came from the Estonian area.

And they're three of the greatest wrestlers who ever lived and a real source of pride.

for the Estonian wrestling fans, Estonian sports historians.