Ultimate History of Pro Wrestling - A Time Line of Every Major Event in Pro Wrestling History - 1911
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.
1911
The Long Form History of Pro Wrestling Podcast covers the years 1907-1911 on this episode - Click Here.
01-03-1911: Fred Beell defeats Robert Friedrich (AKA: Ed “Strangler” Lewis) in Grand Rapids, MI. After the match, Beell praises the young Friedrich as an up and comer.
01-11-1911: Frank Gotch marries Gladys Oesrich in Humboldt, IA.
01-16-1911: Frank Gotch wrestles his first match since June 1910 defeating Fred Erler in Chicago, IL.
01-29-1911: St. John’s, Newfoundland, Canada: CLB Armory: Attendance: 4,000: Otto Oppelt defeated Young Olson in a match that went 200 minutes... Andrew O’Keefe defeated E.J. Goodland.
02-09-1911: At Madison Square Garden in New York City, NY: Stanislaus Zbyszko defeated George Hackenschmidt when Hackenschmidt failed to throw Zbyszko in 90 minutes. In a battle over semantics, Hackenschmidt actually sued a wrestling magazine 40 years later for calling this match a loss. He won the court case in England and was awarded 300 pounds. Technically, Hackenschmidt failed to throw Zbyszko as had been agreed to and generally that is considered a loss, however, Hackenschmidt argued successfully that it should be a draw.
02-1911: A wrestler known as McRay dies in Texas following a match with Charley Olsen. He was reportedly the second person to die wrestling Olsen.
03-03-1911: Frank Gotch defeated G. Perelli in Toronto, Canada.
03-11-1911: Frank Gotch defeats Fred Beell in Duluth, MN
03-17-1911: Frank Gotch defeats Charlie Cutler in Lincoln, NE.
03-02-1911: Frank Gotch defeats Paul Schmidt in Buffalo, NY.
03-20-1911: Frank Gotch defeats Fred Beell in Wichita, KS.
03-25-1911: Frank Gotch defeats Tom Jenkins in Denver, CO.
04-03-1911: Wrestling pioneer John McMahon dies age 69.
04-18-1911: Frank Gotch begins a tour of the Southwest which stretches until April 26 passing through Phoenix, Tucson, Bisbie, El Paso, San Antonio, Waco, Dallas, and Kansas City.
05-05-1911: Frank Gotch defeats Fred Beell in Knoxville, TN.
09-03-1911: St. John’s, Newfoundland, Canada: CLB Armory: Young Olson defeated Sam Anderson to win the World middleweight title.
09-04-1911: Frank Gotch again defeats George Hackenschmidt in their rematch from 1908. Gotch wins two straight falls with a live gate of over $87,000 in front of a reported crowd of 25,000 in White Sox Park (Comiskey, whom the park was later named after was President of the ball field at the time). Hackenschmidt badly injures his knee prior to the match, allegedly at the hands of Ad Santel. Supposedly, and this is one of pro wrestling’s great unsolved mysteries, Santel was paid a sum of money to hook Hackenschmidt in training. Lou Thesz alleged in the 1998 A&E television special The Unreal Story of Professional Wrestling, that Santel was paid to injure Hackenschmidt. Historian Mark Hewitt stated on the old DragonKing Wrestling Pioneers of Wrestling message board, “I tend to think that Ad Santel aka Adolph Ernst did the deed. We’ve proven that Ernst was in Hack’s training camp before the bout and had previously been on Gotch’s training team. He was certainly capable of doing it. Gotch hated Hack and didn’t want to give him a rematch, mostly because he didn’t want the “Greaseball” (Gotch’s words) to make any money. The rumors flew from the start that Doc Roller took out Hack’s knee. I wouldn’t put it past Gotch or his backers to hurt Hack even before the bout. Ad Santel explained to Thesz that’s just the way it was back then.” Gotch was paid $21,000 for the match and Hackenschmidt $9,000.
10-14-1911: Frank Gotch defeated Fred Beell in St. Joseph, MO.
12-06-1911: At Madison Square Garden in New York City, NY: Attendance: 3,000: Giovanni Raicevich won $1,000 by defeating six men: Harry Petofsky, August Faust, George Sendelle, Paul Scmidt, Hans Lehner, and Fritz Mohl.
12-25-1911: At Madison Square Garden in New York City, NY: Attendance: 4,000: Stanislaus Zbyszko defeated Giovanni Raicevich by decision. Special referee: Tom Jenkins… Nicola Montagno defeated Ignace Galewski… John McLaughlin defeated Victor PIerce… Jim Galvin battled Neil Olsen to a draw.
12-27-1911: Frank Gotch defeated “British champion” Alex Monroe in Kansas City. Gotch again announces his retirement. Gotch stated that the only American he wished to face was Dr. Benjamin F. Roller and stated that he would pin Roller “six times in an hour”.
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