Ultimate History of Pro Wrestling - A Time Line of Every Major Event in Pro Wrestling History - 1909
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.
1909
The Long Form History of Pro Wrestling Podcast covers the years 1907-1911 on this episode - Click Here.
01-28-1909: At Madison Square Garden in New York City, NY: Ernest Siegfried defeated R.H. Schwartz and Frank Pascol and Butch Miller in a handicap match… Jim Galvin battled Neil Olsen to a draw.
03-05-1909: Pro wrestling historian Phil Lions posted this story of a tournament scandal on the Wrestling Historian Salon group on Facebook: In March 1909 there were two rival tournaments happening at the same time in St. Petersburg, Russia. One at Mikhailovsky Manege, which was managed by the legendary Russian promoter Ivan Lebedev, and featured Stanislaus Zbyszko as the top star. The other tournament was at New Circus and Ivan Zaikin was the top star there (with Ivan Poddubny also appearing in non-tournament matches).
On March 5, 1909, Zaikin (who was Ivan Poddubny's top student and one of the biggest Russian pro wrestling stars) challenged Stanislaus Zbyszko. There were some back and forth comments and ultimately the match was booked for March 25 at Mikhailovsky Manege (i.e. Zbyszko's turf). The stipulation was that Zaikin was to receive 500 Russian rubles if Zbyszko couldn’t beat him in 30 minutes.
03-25-1909: Stanislaus Zbyszko and Ivan Zaikin wrestled to a 30-minute draw and then Zaikin demanded that he be given the money previously agreed on for lasting the 30 minutes. Zbyszko and the crowd wanted the match to continue, but Zaikin refused and left. The jury then took a vote and declared Ivan Zaikin the loser. The crowd was angry. Another match (Razumov vs. Gabur) started, but the crowd wouldn’t settle down. The match was stopped at midnight. A large crowd gathered outside the venue and were talking trash about Zaikin. A rematch was booked for March 28, 1909 but Lebedev came out and said the rematch would not be taking place, because the previous night Zaikin had informed them of his conditions for the match. The crowd demanded an explanation and Lebedev wasn’t willing to give one, but the policemen in attendance made him explain and Lebedev explained that Zaikin had asked for 2,000 rubles if he was to lose to Zbyszko.
04-06-1909: Promoter Johnny Doyle (John James Doyle) is born in LaSalle, IL.
04-14-1909: Frank Gotch defeated Youssef Mahmout in Chicago, IL.
04-27-1909: Max Luttberg defeats Albert Wassem in a Chicago tournament to be recognized as American lightweight champion.
Frank Gotch defeated Dr. Benjamin F. Roller in Kansas City.
05-06-1909: Frank Gotch defeated Fred Beell in Denver, CO.
06-08-1909: Baron Michele Leone is born.
06-14-1909: Frank Gotch defeated Tom Jenkins in Des Moines, IA.
07-01-1909: Frank Gotch defeated Dr. Benjamin F. Roller in Seattle, WA.
07-14-1909: In Mexico City, Mexico at Virginia Fabregas Theater: Debut of Count Koma (E. Maeda aka Conde Koma). Koma grappled with a workout partner. Koma will begin appearing at the Principal Theater taking on all comers. 100 pesos to anyone he cannot throw and 500 pesos to anyone who can defeat him.
07-22-1909: In Mexico City, Mexico: Principal Theater: Count Koma defeated The Terrible Turk (not one of the famous Terrible Turks touring America).
07-24-1909: In Mexico City, Mexico: Principal Theater: Count Koma defeated Gerald Brandon, an amateur catch-as-catch-can wrestler.
08-08-1909: In Mexico City, Mexico: Principal Theater: Count Koma battled Alexander “Kid” Mitchell, a boxer, to a draw. The match was held under catch wrestling rules, three rounds. The newspapers said the bout was the “most exciting ever seen in Mexico”.
08-11-1909: In Mexico City, Mexico: Principal Theater: Count Koma defeated Peterson, of England.
08-20-1909: Fred Beall, in Monterey, Mexico, challenges to wrestle the winner of the Kid Mitchell verses G. Brandon match and also challenges Mitchell to 20 rounds of boxing. Beall has been appearing in San Antonio, Texas. This is not the well-known Fred Beell of Wisconsin. The papers report that Beall was run out of San Antonio. Word later reached the mid-west that an imposter Fred Beell had been wrestling in Mexico.
08-27-1909: In Mexico City, Mexico: Colon Theater: Count Koma battled James Black, British wrestler also known as Williams, to a draw. They wrestled an extra fourth round and Koma defeated Black with a chokehold.
09-01-1909: In Mexico City, Mexico: Principal Theater: Count Koma defeated Jim Smith, “the Black Diamond”, a boxer.
09-03-1909: In Mexico City, Mexico: Nobu Taka arrives in Mexico City and challenges Count Koma’s claim to the “world Jiu Jitsu championship”. Nobu Taka is said to have come from New York City and to have recently defeated several American wrestlers. Taka is actually Koma’s associate Nobushiro Satake and both were previously in Cuba together.
09-04-1909: In Mexico City, Mexico: Colon Theater: Nobu Taka defeated James Black.
09-07-1909: In Mexico City, Mexico: Virginia Fabregas Theater: Count Koma defeated Fokura in a Jiu Jitsu exhibition… Gerald Brandon defeated Francisco Cardona…Hernandez “Graeco-Roman champion of Mexico” defeated Mendizabel… Colin battled Spinner to a draw in boxing… Lucien Merignao “World fencing champion” defeated Rafael David, Jr. in fencing.
09-14-1909: In Mexico City, Mexico: Colon Theater: Nobu Taka defeated James Black.
09-25-1909: In Mexico City, Mexico: Colon Theater: Fokura defeated Henry Spencer.
09-27-1909: In Mexico City, Mexico: Nobu Taka defeated Jim Smith.
09-30-1909: In Mexico City, Mexico: Colon Theater: Count Koma defeated Yasso.
10-07-1909: In Mexico City, Mexico: Nobu Taka defeated Sutherland. Harada representing Nobu Taka accused Count Koma of not being “a real professor of the art of Jiu-Jitsu and Judo, but merely an imposter.” Koma’s partners Fokura and Mirando confronted Harada and declared that, “I am honorably certain that no Harada ever graduated from one of our schools” and challenged him to face one of Koma’s students in a private match.
10-21-1909: In Mexico City, Mexico: Nobu Taka defeated Kid Mitchell. Taka “did everything but bite off his ear.” Mitchell challenged for a rematch “with or without the jacket.”
10-26-1909: In Mexico City, Mexico: Colon Theater: Kokura defeated Jim Smith.
10-30-1909: Lucha libre pioneer El Murcielago (Jesus Velazquez Quintero) is born in Guanajuato, Mexico.
11-09-1909: Frank Gotch defeated Giovanni Ravevitch in Chicago, IL. Before entering the ring, Gotch is served with legal papers for a lawsuit brought by Addie Currie, who claimed Gotch has promised to marry her but fell through on his promise, thus she was suing him for $25,000.
11-16-1909: In Mexico City, Mexico: Colon Theater: Nobu Taka defeated Count Koma with a choke hold. Koma was suspected of being drunk during the bout and was taken into police custody after the match. This match was the 3rd in a series between Taka and Koma to decide “the Jiu Jitsu championship of the world”
11-18-1909: In Mexico City, Mexico: Colon Theater: Count Koma defeated Nobu Taka.
11-20-1909: In Mexico City, Mexico: Colon Theater: Count Koma defeated Nobu Taka by submission to a “scissors arm hold”.
11-25-1909: The first meeting between between Frank Gotch and Stanislaus Zbyszko takes place in Buffalo, NY with Gotch unable to pin Zbyszko after one hour under handicap rules.
12-01-1909: At Madison Square Garden in New York City, NY: Dr. Benjamin F. Roller defeated Frank Gotch when Gotch failed to throw Roller in 15 minutes… Jim Asbell defeated Jack McCormick.
12-12-1909: In Merida, Mexico: “The Bulldog”, from Jamaica defeated Aureliano Ortiz and Miguel Lazana. The Jamaican wrestler offered to face any two locals at the same time for a $100 side bet. Ortiz had to be hospitalized after the match.
12-19-1909: In Merida, Mexico: “The Bulldog” defeated “the Turk”.
From the old DragonKing Press Newsletter
Frank Gotch
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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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