Pro Wrestling was CRAZY Back in the Day

[Big Red Machine]

Found this story in yesterday's Observer. It's AMAZING how different wrestling was back then:

The Amsterdam, NY-based pro wrestling Hall of Fame announced its 2015 class. They do it by eras and the same number get in every year. Going in from the pre-1949 era is the Great Gama and Joe Malciewicz. Gama was the Indian legend. Malciewicz, nicknamed The Utica Panther, was an excellent shooter. In 1926, when Joe Stecher was world champion, promoter Paul Bowser set up a double cross where Malciewicz replaced a scheduled opponent in a world title match against champion Joe Stecher. The story behind the match is Bowser booked Stecher in a title match on March 11, 1926, in Boston, offering him a $12,000 purse, which was gigantic money for one match. Stecher’s people knew Bowser was affiliated with Strangler Lewis’ camp, and Stecher had gotten the world title from Stanislaus Zbyszko, who stole it by submitting Wayne Munn, a giant famous football player of the time who was supposed to lose it back to Strangler Lewis in an attempt to build the biggest gate in history. Zbyszko then got a $50,000 payoff to lose two straight falls to Stecher. Bowser promoted the match around Stecher defending against “The Unknown,” although the local newspapers reported it was probably Malciewicz. A story was reported that Malciewicz was the uncrowned champion, having beaten Earl Caddock in Utica in 1919, but that somehow he was talked about of claiming the title because it wasn’t supposed to end like that. In reality, Malciewicz and Caddock went to a draw, and Malciewicz got his hand raised, but the match was in 1921, after Caddock had lost the title to Stecher in 1920 in their famous Madison Square Garden match. Bowser told Stecher his opponent would be Jake Brissler, who would not have been any kind of a challenge for Stecher, a legit shooter himself and amateur national champion before going pro, to worry about. Tony Stecher, Joe’s brother, demanded the money up front. Brissler came to the ring, as did Lou Grace, who the Stecher’s picked as referee as part of the deal to defend on a show by a promoter who had ties to Lewis. But then, Malciewicz, sitting at ringside, was announced by the ring announcer as The Unknown. Then Gracie, the referee, was not allowed in the ring. The Stechers, seeing the double-cross coming, walked out of the ring. Bowser then announced Malciewicz as the new world champion via forfeit. Malciewicz then did a match with Ned McGuire and won. The Stechers explained they had a problem with the referee but would put up $10,000 against his $10,000 for a match with Malciewicz. The local press reported that it was an attempted double cross that failed and Malciewicz was never referred to as world champion after that. I’m not sure that a failed double-cross makes someone a Hall of Famer, as Malciewicz otherwise wasn’t one of the top tier guys of his era, but a second-tier star, but it’s a famous story and Utica isn’t far from Amsterdam. Malciewicz, always called “Old Waffle Ears” by the local press, was actually more influential as the promoter of the Northern California wrestling territory from the 1930s until he was being run out of business by Roy Shire, passing away at the age of 65 as his promotion failed in 1962. It was in San Francisco that Lou Thesz got his first break, which is why he was so loyal to Malciewicz, and Malciewicz did promote two of the biggest matches of the 1950s, the two Cow Palace bouts with Thesz vs. Leo Nomellini.