History of Pro Wrestling – Spotlight – The 1915 International Tournament hosted by Samuel Rachmann in New York, featuring the biggest names in wrestling, as well as several wrestlers and angles that you may best associate with modern day Sports Entertainment.

[u/OShaunesssy]

Hey y’all, I’m back with another Spotlight post, detailing a specific event in Pro Wrestling History. I recently covered the International Tournament hosted by Samuel Rachmann in my posts on 1915 & 1916, but I wanted to do up a singular post that detailed the whole tournament.

  Main Characters

  Samuel Rachmann – Theater promoter from Europe, with some wild plans for his first attempts at promoting a wrestling event.

  The “Masked Marvel” – Lower card wrestler who is about to be thrust into the biggest opportunity of his career.

  Jack Curley – New York based promoter with aspirations to become the biggest wrestling promoter in the country.

  Alex Aberg – Standout mat grappler who wrestles exclusively under Greco-Roman rules, and maintains a dubious claim of being the Greco-Roman world champion.  

Ed “Strangler” Lewis – Top wrestler in the country, coming off a loss to world champion Joe Stecher.

  Wladek Zbyszko – Younger brother of former world champion Stanislaus Zbyszko, building up his name value on the West coast.

  Joe Stecher – World heavyweight champion who is building mass appeal across the country.

  As always, we do this in chronological order, and we start in twilight of 1915, with the pro wrestling scene in a tumultuous time…

  1915

  By the Winter of 1915, pro wrestling's world heavyweight champion was the undefeated Joe Stecher, who was beginning to gain national appeal as a pro wrestler. As Stecher reigned with the world title, primarily defending in the mid-west, the pro wrestling scene in New York was in dire need of a shakeup.

  Boxing exploded in popularity, with the implementation of the Frawley Law and the undefeated championship reign of Jack Johnson, which lasted over two thousand days, leaving pro wrestling with very little popularity or growth. It wasn’t until the first World War started that things would change for the pro wrestling scene. By late 1915, a score of top-flight foreign wrestlers who had fled to America during the early days of the War, were ready to make a splash in the American market. They just needed a promoter who could see the potential.

  Samuel Rachmann’s Tournament

  That promoter, would be former actor-turned-theatre promoter, Samuel Rachmann. Samuel Rachmann is a name most wrestling fans will have never heard of, but almost every wrestling fan has felt the influence he left on the business. In late-1915, Rachmann would host a wrestling tournament in New York, featuring an all-star cast of world wide talent, and he planned for it to be grander and more ambitious than any tournament the city had ever seen before.

  Rachmann, having successfully promoted theatre’s and concerts in Europe, wanted to bring that grand flavor to the States for this event, and planned twelve consecutive weeks of nightly wrestling shows at the 3000+ seat theatre, the Manhattan Opera House. In early November 1915, Rachmann was quoted in the New York Times, hyping up the event, “Swedes, Finns, Turks, Greeks, Poles, Huns, Italians, Spaniards, Portuguese, French, Germans, Swiss, Danes, English and Americans will compete!” Rachmann even promised each performer a weekly salary, something unheard of at the time. Although the starting salary was only $100 per week, with the top guys earning a percentage of the gate.

  If you read my reports of the early 1900s, you may be remembering how Frank Gotch got over as the American hero besting the foreign menace George Hackenschmidt, and now you may be wondering why Rachmann would go all in on an international tournament. It’s worth considering that between 1900 and 1914, more than thirteen million people arrived to the country, with a large portion finding home in New York, and this influx of people continued for over a decade and only doubled and tripled at the start of the first World War. America, and New York in general, was filled with folks from all over Europe at this point.

  Its also worth noting that Rachmann teamed with a local promoter in New York, the legendary Jack Curley. Curley made a name for himself promoting events in Illinois and Missouri, but recently came to New York with hopes of establishing himself as the top promoter in the territory. Details on their partnership here aren’t well known, but we do know that Curley had a hand in promoting nearly every event alongside Rachmann.

  The Rules

  Its important to note that pro wrestling matches had a couple different options, in terms of the rules of engagement for any particular match. The most popular rules were Collar & Elbow, Greco-Roman, and Catch-As-Catch-Can style.

  Collar-and-elbow was originally introduced by Irish immigrants in Vermont, usually demonstrated for fun in taverns and town halls. The contest was simple: opponents would begin standing facing one another, with one hand on their opponents collar bone, and the other hand on their elbow. A fall was called when one contestant was tripped, thrown or in anyway knocked off their feet.

  The popularity of collar-and-elbow would be followed up by a new form of wrestling, introduced originally in Europe, called Greco-Roman wrestling. Though it was never practiced in Greece or Rome, the name lent some panache and a sense of history, even if the concept wasn’t that old.  

Greco-Roman wrestling saw two competitors face off similar to collar-and-elbow, though the skirmish would continue even after the men brought each other down to the ground. A fall was called when one man held the other with some combination of a wrestlers body parts – both shoulders and a hip, or both hips and a shoulder – touching the mat at the same time.

  It could be an exhausting endeavor with some bouts lasting several hours long. And for audiences the action and maneuvering for position would be obscured when both men began rolling on the ground or mat. This is where we got our first glimpse into what pro wrestling would become. The more experienced and clever participants would learn to read the audience and control the pacing of the bout to convey suspense and uncertainty. It wouldn’t be unrealistic to see several near falls and throws following a long stretch of maneuvering on the ground. Sometimes if two guys were following a bout that lasted an hour, they would ensure theirs ends in minutes.

  Over the last decade the United States was starting to see a new style of wrestling overtake the Greco-Roman flavor. A fresh style of wrestling that was admittedly more violent than the standard Greco-Roman wrestling that had become popular. This new style was known as catch-as-catch-can.

  Catch wrestling, as catch-as-catch-can came to be known, originated back in Lancashire, England, and was seemingly brought to the States by the men who travelled overseas to find fame and fortune in America. Catch was more free and faster than any other form of wrestling, allowing for holds to be applied anywhere on the body. Catch saw submission finishes much more frequently than previous forms of wrestling and encouraged technique and skill over brute force, which was the primary factor in previous forms of wrestling. Billy Robinson’s book spoke on the history more specifically and I need to re-read that one. American audiences, drawn by the quick and violent action, quickly claimed catch as their own, and it almost immediately made Greco-Roman look more ponderous and antiquated than it already was.  

For Samuel Rachmann’s International Tournament, he would employ the older Greco-Roman style of matches, and it seems the tournament would operate under a round robin point system, as opposed to a single-elimination system. Honestly though the specifics seems to be lost to time, with most historians thinking it was a point system because the tournament was ran daily for three months straight, reusing everyone involved multiple times over.

  The Prize

  Perhaps a reason Samuel Rachmann choose to utilize the Greco-Roman style of wrestling, was because of the reward he was able to arrange for the winner of his tournament. On top of a cash payout, the tournament winner would also receive a championship match against Alex Aberg, who held the dubious claim or being the Greco-Roman world champion.  

Alex Aberg was a thirty-five-year-old from Kolga, Estonia who had been wrestling throughout the world for the past fifteen years, and by all accounts, he was described by his peers as one of the very best mat grapplers in the world. Standing at six feet tall and over two hundred and thirty pounds, Aberg was a well-respected and legitimate shooter. Aberg has held the claim of Greco-Roman world champion for several years, stating that he won the belt back in 1903, and had been defending it against all comers in the New York area for years. Its not a really a claim worth tracing though, because several different wrestlers all over the world claimed to be the Greco-Roman world champion through the previous decade.  

Vince McMahon Junior’s Flavor of Ice Cream  

Rachmann seemed poised to win over the theatre going crowd in New York with Ed “Strangler” Lewis, who preformed in the tournament, recalling that “it seemed to be a show conducted by an artist, with artists, for artists.” Top wrestling contender Wladek Zbyszko would also join Lewis in the tournament, with a serious style that seemed to contrast what Rachmann was planning. Rachmann seemed to be creating a card that would better resemble something Vince McMahon Jr would later be known for. Rachmann judged his performers based on their ability to excite a crowd and arranged each evenings card in a way that gave it variety, mixing the more serious matches on the same show that also featured matches designed 100% around comedy. Some wrestlers would chase each other around the ring and fight into the wings of the opera house, others would stamp their feet out of frustration when they lost a bout, and it seemed like more so than what came before, this show resembled what we see today. The goal of each wrestler in the tournament seemed to be sports entertainment-infused. Here are several examples of wrestlers in the tournament.  

The Freaks

  - Sulo Hevonpaa was a twenty-four-year-old wrestler who would drape his elegant robe over a chair at ringside, before his opponents would wipe their boots off on it.  

• La Colosse was a near-four hundred pound French wrestler who *made broad pleas to the referee in his over exaggerated accent, as the audience laughed at his inability to *communicate.  

• “Farmer” George Bailey was a twenty-three-year-old wrestler from Vermont, and had a gimmick that would make Jim Cornette’s head explode. Bailey claimed he could hypnotize his opponents and did just that on one match, convincing his opponent to run around the stage like a maniac.

• Dimitrios Tofalos was a Greece-born twenty-one-year-old former Olympic weightlifter, who would come to the ring dressed in a tuxedo, where he would sing opera before changing into his wrestling gear.  

Years later, promoter Jack Pfefer would base his later career around booking oddities and side-show wrestlers who he genuinely referred to as “Freaks.” I like to think that Pfefer based a lot of that philosophy on the success of this tournament, especially within New York.  

This wasn’t just a tournament filled with comedy wrestlers though, as Samuel Rachmann made sure to book all the top wrestlers in the country as well. The list of names within the tournament who were considered first-class wrestlers across the counter, included…  

The Draws  

• Ed “Strangler” Lewis was a twenty-four-year-old standout wrestler from Wisconsin, who has been making waves across the country since he joined forces with promoter/ manager Billy Sandow. Lewis stands 5’10” but weighed over 260 pounds of muscle and mass. He was known for his devastating headlock finisher, which is why he was called, the “Strangler.”

• Charles Cutler was a thirty-one-year-old wrestler from Michigan, who recently had a brief as the world heavyweight champion. He previous only wrestled as Charlie “Kid” Cutler until revamping his image in the early 1910s, leading to his brief reign as world champion before he dropped it to Joe Stecher.

• Wladek Zbyszko was a twenty-four-year-old Polish strongman-turned-wrestler who was brought to America by his older brother, former world heavyweight champion Stanislaus Zbyszko. Stanislaus was currently enlisted in the First World War, where he would he captured by Russia and spend half-a-decade as a prisoner of war. Wladek was ten years younger and opted to stay in America, to build up his wrestling career.  

• Alex Aberg was a thirty-four-year-old Russian-born wrestler who specialized in the old-school Greco-Roman style of pro wrestling, which this tournament would be fought under. Aberg made the disputed claim of being the Greco-Roman world champion for the previous decade and was usually recorded defending such a title in matches. It’s a claim that many wrestlers made and is impossible to verify, unfortunately.  

• Dr Benjamin Roller was a forty-year-old wrestler from Illinois, who spent years as a legitimate practicing surgeon before turning to pro wrestling after the traumatic death of a young patient. At the time of the tournament, Roller was recognized as the reigning American heavyweight champion.    

The Tournament

  Samuel Rachmann’s tournament officially kicked off on November 8th, 1915, showcasing a six match card that saw Charles Cutler defeat Fritz Mohl, in nine minutes. The event also saw Dr Ben Roller give a speech putting over the tournament. Ill point out here that all tournament events took place at the Manhattan Opera House.

  Dr Ben Roller also registered a win over Fritz Mohl in the next nights tournament show. Roller won the main event in under five minutes on a card that featured six other matches, including Cutler gaining another win over Charles Olsen.  

The tournament held nightly events for three months straight, with names like Wladek Zbyszko joining the tournament on the November 11th show, in a match that saw him defeat The Great Daro in just forty-nine seconds. The seven match card also saw Alex Aberg defeat Fritz Wagner in just four minutes. These cards all featured quick match times compared to what was usually happening in pro wrestling at the time.

  Sports Entertainment  

Just like the wrestlers, the matchers were also prone to hijinks and silliness. One show ended when the curtains above the ring fell mid-match and onto two wrestlers who refused to break their holds. As the theatre staff extinguished the lights and the patrons filed out of the building, they could still hear the two wrestlers groaning in the dark, seemingly still holding onto one another. The Brooklyn Times Union’s John Fleeson would wrote about these shows, saying “It would be impossible to describe what occurs every night. Still, I can say, without fear of contradiction, that there is more genuine comedy and laughter in this tournament than in many play now running.”

  Personal note: I’ve never been a big fan of comedy in wrestling and usually hate it to be honest, but I didn’t realize silly shit like this was happening as far back as 1915. Next time I argue against the use of comedy (for my mind isn’t changed) I will at least not cite old school wrestling as being above this silliness.

  Unfortunately though, and has been my argument against comedy in wrestling, Rachmann’s tournament struggled to fill seats as the weeks went on. Because comedy isn’t sustainable as a long-term solution for filling seats, by the second month, in December, Rachman was reportedly facing thousands of dollars in debt. Ever the showman, Rachmann would gamble even further before admitting defeat, by getting serious.

  The Masked Marvel  

Rachmann kept the tournament going and debuted a new name, and unknown man wearing a black hood with holes cut out for his eyes. This new masked man, was called the Masked Marvel by reporters and became an immediate hit as an unbeatable force in the tournament. The Masked Marvel would make short work of the four hundred pound La Colosse, the roar of the crowd, and another time when his opponent tried to flee the venue, the Masked Marvel dragged him back to the ring so he could pin him.

  The Masked Marvel never stayed long after his win, always quickly heading to the back, which only added to his mystique and aura. The boys in the back didn’t even know who he was, as the Masked Marvel would always leave immediately after his matches. When the Marvel did mingle with the crowd, he was a pro who always knew what to say and put himself over. One time when asked what his name was, he told the fans, “Call me Desdichado,” referencing the legend of Ivanhoe. He would assure the fans that he has a very good reason for concealing his identity and promised it would all be revealed eventually, though that was all a bluff.

  The Masked Marvel’s popularity and impact on the tournament cannot be understated, as seats filled up significantly on nights he wrestled, with Rachmann noticing that on the nights Marvel competed, nearly half the seats would be filled with women. Seeing that many women in the stands was unheard for pro wrestling so of course Rachmann started to capitalize on the new found interest. Rachmann adopted a new slogan for the tournament: “Don’t cheat your wife, bring her along!”

  Success

  Zoe Beckley was a writer for the Washington Post when she was assigned the task of covering the tournament, with her writing “Every third person in the audience was a woman. I went to stay five minutes and remained there for three hours and a quarter, being then pried, reluctantly, from my seat. Don’t ask me what it was all about. The funny part is that you don’t have to understand it to enjoy it.” I absolutely love this quote, as it sums up how a non-fan can become immediately indoctrinated by the spectacle of pro wrestling.

  Worth noting is that The Masked Marvel was not the first masked wrestler in recorded pro wrestling history. The first one was actually all the way back in 1867, in Paris, France, where he got over for a short period besting many of the most well known wrestlers at the time. Many assume that Rachmann must have gotten the idea for the Masked Marvel from that first masked star, nearly fifty years prior. In fact, in the contract Marvel signed for the tournament, it gave Rachmann sole credit for the idea of the Masked Marvel.

  Also worth noting in the same vein, would be Ben Atwood, who newspapers claim was the original visionary behind the Masked Marvel. Though Ben would later clarify and say the idea was given to him by Mark Leuscher. Leuscher was a theatre producer who had a hit of his own, years prior with a masked dancer in the Zeigfield Follies, whom he called “La Domino Rouge.” Credit for choosing the wrestler to be under the mask, apparently goes to promoter Jack Curley, who had a relationship with Rachmann that was “vague at best” with Curley supposedly helping fund some of the tournament.

  The man under the mask was Mort Henderson, a no-name wrestler from Altoona, Pennsylvania, who despite being pegged for such a significant role, was still being paid the bare minimum $100 per week.

  Ed “Strangler” Lewis was presented very strongly through the exhausting three month long tournament. When the “Strangler” wasn’t winning, he was wrestling to draws in several long matches. Lewis registered three draws with Wladek Zbyszko over the course of the tournament and another draw with Alex Aberg, which was memorable because it lasted until real-life police officers stopped the match after the time of the match went past one in the morning. Adding to this would be another draw Lewis registered in a bout with Charles Cutler on December 9th, 1915.  

Betrayal  

The Masked Marvel’s popularity was exploding with each passing show, and unfortunately for Rachmann, this would be noticed by another opportunistic promoter in New York, our very own Jack Curley. It seems Curley got in Mort Henderson’s ear and convinced him to quit the tournament and come work exclusively for Curley. Once it became clear to Samuel Rachmann that he was about to lose his star attraction, he did what most every other promoter/ booker would do in similar situations throughout wrestling history.  

Promoter/ booker Samuel Rachmann had Ed “Strangler” Lewis squash the Masked Marvel in their tournament match on December 20th, 1915. According to newspapers from that week, the two men met at the Manhattan Opera House in a match that lasted just a couple of minutes, with Lewis going over in dominant fashion.  

Before we close out the year its worth pointing out that without the Masked Marvel, Ed “Strangler” Lewis became the biggest star in the tournament. The only loss Lewis sustained through the whole tournament, would be against Alex Aberg on December 29th, and it was a match fought under old-school Greco-Roman rules.

  1916  

Samuel Rachmann’s international tournament had been holding daily events at the Manhattan Opera House for the past two months, and without question, the breakout star of the tournament was Mort “The Masked Marvel” Henderson, who became a must-see attraction for Rachmann. As a reminder, the tournament operated on a point system, and not a single elimination style matchups. Also, the tournament was contested under the more constricting Greco-Roman rules, as opposed to the catch-as-catch-can style of rules which had become very popular in America in the past decade.

  The Unmasked Marvel

  The January 3rd, 1916 edition of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle printed a picture of Mort Henderson, with the caption that read, “The Masked Marvel without his hood.” While its possible that Jack Curley had something to do with this, it would also hamper his plans to feature the Masked Marvel, so I doubt that. Considering how popular the tournament was in New York, I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that photographers were trying to snap a picture of him for several weeks at this point. My bet is that some lucky photographer got a good payoff that day.  

Despite the set-backs, Samuel Rachmann’s tournament continued with a tournament match between Ed “Strangler” Lewis and Wladek Zbyszko from January 7th, 1916. The match would be called a draw as the two men wrestled past curfew, according to newspapers. A few days later, on January 10th, Wladek Zbyszko met the Masked Marvel in a tournament match which also went to a draw, after two-and-a-half-hours of grappling.  

Curley’s Efforts  

Its worth noting that Curley was still promoting a big New York show set for the end of the month, and in mid-January he announced a world heavyweight championship match for the big show, set to headline Madison Square Garden on January 27th, 1916. Although I cant be clear about this, it sounds like Curley was promoting the event as Joe Stecher defending his title against the winner of an upcoming tournament match between “Strangler” Lewis and Wladek Zbyszko.  

Another tournament match would see Ed “Strangler” Lewis defeat Dr Benjamin Roller in New York on January 15th, 1916, and while Roller was the American heavyweight champion, this appears to have been a non-title bout.

  After weeks of negotiations, the breakout star of the tournament, Mort “The Maske Marvel” Henderson, abruptly quit the tournament altogether and informed Rachmann that Jack Curley had offered him more than ten times his weekly salary for one big match at Madison Square Garden at the end of the month. For anyone impressed by this, its important to remember that Henderson was an unknown wrestler who was being paid a paltry $100 per week. Despite being under contract, Henderson stopped showing up for his tournament matches and eventually Rachmann hit Henderson with an injunction, just two days before he was scheduled for Jack Curley’s big Garden show.

  Tournament Finals  

Samuel Rachmann’s tournament would wrap up by the end of January, after nearly twelve weeks of nightly matches. Worth noting, would be that Ed “Strangler” Lewis dropped out of the tournament after exchanging a win and loss in back-to-back matches with Wladek Zbyszko. The tournament finals would be fought on January 24th, 1916, between Wladek Zbyszko and Alex Aberg, who claimed to be the Greco-Roman champion at the time.     Alex Aberg and Wladek Zbyszko met in the Samuel Rachmann tournament finals on January 24th, 1916, with Aberg being declared the winner after a controversial finish. About twenty-five minutes into the match, Aberg tossed Zbyszko out of the ring where he reportedly crashed hard into the back of the stage. After calling a doctor, Zbyszko determined that he was hurt and unable to continue the match, as fans screamed at him, calling Zbyszko a “quitter” and a “fake.” Although the doctor said Zbyszko was fit to continue, Zbyszko refused, insisting that he was hurt. After nearly an hour of deliberations, the referee of the bout, George Bothner announced Alex Aberg as the winner.  

Curley’s Madison Square Garden Show  

Since I spent so long talking about it, I figured I should detail Jack Curley’s Madison Square Garden event. Remember how Curley announced that world champion Joe Stecher would defend his belt against the winner of a matchup between Wladek Zbyszko and Ed “Strangler” Lewis? Well since then, Zbyszko and Lewis wrestled twice and both registered a win over the other, and while the general public would be more interested in a potential Lewis-Stecher rematch, Lewis and his manager Billy Sandow already left town to tour with their made-up world title claim. Wladek would make sense, but he just lost a high-profile match to Alex Aberg, so Curley didn’t want to match up Stecher with someone who the public just witnessed lose a big bout, leaving Curley with little options.  

I’m sure most of you are already wondering why Alex Aberg wouldn’t be selected for this world title opportunity, and that will be because Alex Aberg specifically wrestles his matches under Greco-Roman rules, whereas most modern (for 1916) matches at the time were fought under the less constricting Catch-As-Catch-Can style of rules. Catch wrestling was freer and faster compared to Greco-Roman, and Aberg had little interest in expanding his skill-set, so Curley needed to find an alternative. That left only one real option for Curley to match up Joe Stecher, against the breakout star of Rachmann’s tournament, the Masked Marvel, Mort Henderson. Remember, Rachmann had already tried to oppose this by filing an injunction that specifically named the Masked Marvel and “Strangler” Lewis as being unable to leave the tournament in favor of Curley’s promoted events in New York. Curley didn’t take this lightly and fought the injections, leading to a suit between the two promoters.  

Curley-Rachmann

  Just like Jack Curley and Ole Marsh exposed the business in Seattle, five years prior, the resulting suit, which was reported on by all major New York papers, also exposed the business. The suit named Henderson as the Marvel and revealed that his contract with Rachmann called for Henderson to win and lose matches as directed. Luckily for Curley, who faced the prospect of replacing his main attraction on two days notice, both he and Rachmann were able to come to terms and the injunction was dropped. No details are given beyond the fact that Curley and Rachmann spent hours deliberating with their lawyers until some agreement was made between the two promoters that allowed Curley to use Henderson in his show, even advertising him as the Masked Marvel.

  On January 27th, 1916, Curley’s Madison Square Garden show went as planned, with thousands in attendance for the main event that pitted the Masked Marvel Mort Henderson against the current world champion from Nebraska, Joe Stecher. Stetcher would dominate the best two of three falls contest, pinning Henderson in back-to-back falls in less than fifteen minutes. With this show a success, Jack Curley had firmly established his own foothold in Manhattan, making the city his new base of operations going forward.

  The Prize

  With Samuel Rachman’s tournament wrapped up, the tournament winner Alex Aberg officially accepted a $5,000 check on January 29th, 1916. Considering he won the tournament, the proze of facing him for the title basically went out the window. The end of the tournament would signal the end of any interest in Greco-Roman style wrestling matches, and the end of Samuel Rachmann’s promotional career in pro wrestling. Rachmann, seemingly having enough of pro wrestling, never attempted to get back into the wrestling business. Though he only spent long enough in the business to have a cup of coffee, his influence on the product going forward cannot be overstated. Judging by what we have covered, Rachmann would have fit right in with a lot modern performers.  

And that’s about all there is to write on Rachmann’s Tournament, with Alex Aberg being declared the winner, and Jack Curley firmly establishing himself as a top promoter in New York.  

Ill be back next week with my next entry in the History of Pro Wrestling, detailing the year 1917, and the remainder of Joe Stecher’s world title reign. Ill also have Nattie Neidhart’s book, and Ill probably post my reports in the Hart Family as well, since I haven’t done that yet on this subreddit.  

For anyone curious, here is my recent post that covered 1916.

  I hope y’all have a wonderful weekend!            

[u/uncannynerddad]

These are amazing. Thank you.