Ultimate History of Pro Wrestling - A Time Line of Every Major Event in Pro Wrestling History - 1906
By: Karl Stern
Much of the text of this entry comes from issue 82 of the DragonKing Press Newsletter available as a downloadable .pdf in the digital downloads section.
1906
The Long Form History of Pro Wrestling covers 1904-1906 on this episode - Click Here.
01-25-1906: Frank Gotch defeats Farmer Burns in Kansas City.
01-29-1906: In Kansas City, MO at the Convention Hall: Frank Gotch defeated Charles Hackenschmidt in Greco-Roman style.
03-27-1906: Cowboy Luttrall (Clarence Preston Luttrall) is born in Jack County, Texas.
04-21-1906: A match between Frank Gotch and Emilio Pietro under Greco-Roman rules goes to a DQ in Montreal.
04-28-1906: George Hackenschmidt defeated Ahmed Madrali at Olympia Arena in London, England in front of 6,000 fans to retain the World championship.
04-30-1906: Frank Gotch fails to pin John “Apollo” Perelli under handicap rules in Kansas City.
05-14-1906: A match between Frank Gotch and Emilio Pietro is stopped by police in Montreal and ruled a no contest.
05-23-1906: Frank Gotch defeats Tom Jenkins in two straight falls to avenge his 1903 and 1905 losses in a match that lasted just over 30 minutes in Kansas City. Gotch wins the American heavyweight title.
06-09-1906: Frank Gotch defeats Farmer Burns in St. Louis.
07-18-1906: William Dematral secured a court injunction preventing stakeholder John Donovan of the Atlanta National Bank from paying Charles Olsen the $2220 purse from their recent match. Demetral disputed the referee’s call that he had strangled Olsen.
07-30-1906: In Atlanta, GA: Charles Olsen defeated William Demetral in two straight falls. 12 minutes and four minutes, thirty seconds, both with full Nelsons. Olsen won $4000 purse. The referee: George Baptiste.
08-28-1906: In Des Moines, IA: Frank Gotch defeated Hjalmar Lundin.
10-12-1906: Frank Gotch draws with Dr. Benjamin F. Roller with no falls in an hour in Seattle.
11-17-1906: Fred Beell defeats Bob Managoff in New Orleans in preparation for his title match against Gotch.
11-19-1906: Clarence Weber defeats Buttan Singh for the Australian title in Melbourne.
11-20-1906: Wild Red Berry is born.
11-26-1906: Frank Gotch defeated Leo Pardello. Pardello is said to have used rough tactics during the match, including trying to punch Gotch at one point. He enraged Gotch by pulling out a clump of his hair. Gotch then grabbed Pardello in the toe hold and seriously injured his leg.
12-01-1906: Fred Beell upsets Frank Gotch for the American title in New Orleans, LA using the toss still known today as the “Beell Throw” to throw Gotch from the ring. Charlie Olsen is the referee. The most often told version of the match ending has Gotch striking his head on the ring post which knocked him out. Newspaper accounts state only that both men “fell off the mat” and Gotch received a bump over his left eye. Gotch was knocked out and had to be revived. He returned to the ring and was quickly pinned by Beell. Beell, who was much smaller than Gotch, some reports even say he was as much as 50 pounds lighter, was still one of the best grapplers of the day. Gotch told an interviewer years later that he was out shape and thrown “into an orchestra pit”. Gotch never again lost to Beell during his career.
12-03-1906: Stanislaus Zbyszko wins the World Greco-Roman tournament in France.
12-17-1906: Frank Gotch regains the American title from Fred Beell in Kansas City. This is the Gotch’s third reign as champion.
12-28-1906: An early pro wrestling video exists. Ringkampfrekord is a short film with two exhibition matches from Paris, France. It features: Giovanni Carpini vs Raoul Le Bordelais and Raoul Le Boucher vs Simon Antonitsch. Be sure to subscribe to the When It Was Cool YouTube channel for future newly discovered old pro wrestling film footage.
Fred Beell
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DragonKingKarl (Karl Stern) is a long time pro wrestling historian who has been published in books, newsletters, and podcasts since the mid-1990s.
The Ultimate History of Pro Wrestling Zone is Karl Stern's attempt to chronicle the entire history of pro wrestling and is a work in progress with hundreds of pages of text added each month.
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Pro wrestling history. The history of professional wrestling. Timeline of pro wrestling history.
