Well, as the resident grumpy historian of The Wrestling Mania I’ve decided to take Matthew’s concept of the ‘Favorite Five…’ and turn it into a look at the pioneers of the business. I’ll start as close to the beginning as we can get in the 1860’s (As information on wrestlers gets scarce before that) and work our way up through the decades until we get too modern for me to handle.
The 1860’s weren’t the dawn of professional wrestling, that had come at least 30 years prior (Quite possibly even longer in places such as Ireland and England) in several forms, although, obviously wrestling itself is one of the oldest sports in the world, possibly even the oldest. What was happening in the 1860’s was a movement that captured all of North America (Collar & Elbow style), Europe (Greco-Roman style) and England and Ireland (Several different styles). For the first time genuine nationally recognized championships were starting to appear.
Not only that though, the first major wrestling scandals were reported, confirming what many people had already began to suspect that these men who mainly learned and applied their trade at carnivals or in notorious bars were more about putting on an entertaining, yet very physical show, rather than genuine competition, not that genuine competition didn’t exist at all.
5 – Uzile Prickett
He was born on August 5, 1840 in Cold Run, Burlington County, New Jersey. Discovered in his home town by a man named Andy Hikes, Uzile moved to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to continue his wrestling aspirations. His most famous match was probably the one against Harry Hill in 1864, we’ll look at him later.
Whilst Uzile was a well respected wrestler in his time, he was not one of the ones who had legends passed down about his skill set. Rather the opposite after his death in 1868, he was quickly forgotten. It’s easy to imagine his name was an unwanted blemish that got erased from other wrestlers vocabularies. After all this was meant to be a legitimate sport and what happened with Prickett was pretty much sacrilege.
On January 12, 1868 in Hamilton, Ohio, Prickett was murdered by John Griffin following a contest against a local wrestler, Tim Walker. Often scamming the locals was a very simple process. Whoever had more money bet on them to win would take the fall. Prickett being a well respected Collar and Elbow wrestler was as near to a ‘sure thing’ as you could get against the only locally known kid. Prickett lost. It was reported that he had been easily thrown by Walker.
What happened next was never clear. When you go through the court reports it becomes strikingly clear that although John Griffin was executed for shooting Prickett through the skull, he may not actually have been the one who pulled the trigger and two other men also in the saloon likely also played a part but were never served justice. Either way wrestling lost a solid wrestler. His name was pretty much forgotten and the scandal rocked the foundations of pro-wrestling in America.
4 – Homer Lane
Here is a perfect example why I chose to start from 1860. Very little is known about Homer, let alone people before him. He was born sometime between 1834 – 1836 and weighed around 160lbs in the late 1860’s. Homer is a name that comes up a fair bit when looking at records of this time. Then all of a sudden he disappears and his name is not seen again after about 1870. Whether he passed at a young age or just gave up the business I truly do not know.
What I do know though is he went up against some of the top names in the business and came out on top the majority of times. On September 1, 1868 in Utica, New York Homer became the second ever American Heavyweight Collar and Elbow Champion. It was on that night he undoubtedly reached the peak of his career that we know of.
Homer had taken on and defeated a man who is coming up on this list, James H. McLaughlin. For the next 18 months Homer reigned supreme over North America in Collar and Elbow wrestling. That date is an estimate though, it is not clear exactly when Homer lost the championship, just that a new champion was crowned in March 1870 via winning a tournament.
3 – The Masked Wrestler
It’s thought that this masked man was actually a notable wrestler in the 1870’s, however, I’ll reveal his identity in the next article. After all it’s not known for definite if they are the same person anyway. It can not even be established if they are definitely even from the same country, or continent. People in attendance did note that the masked man was around 6’0” tall and 200lbs.
Anyway, this particular Masked Wrestler holds the distinction of being the first wrestler to ever wear a mask within professional wrestling. He tore onto the scene in 1867, not 1873 like reported on some websites. His debut appearance was heralded in newspapers from Europe to America and everywhere in between, as well as up and coming fashion and arts magazines that were establishing themselves in Paris at the time.
In September of that aforementioned year in a tournament held in Paris, France, the unknown entity entered himself. The story goes even the management of the event did not know who the man under the mask was, it is often said the mask was more of a hood and cowl.
In what was probably the most hyped and highly anticipated match up until that point in history, the Masked Wrestler won the tournament defeating a 6’3”, 230lb (approx) man by the name of Monsieur Fouet in the final.
Rumors were running rampant that the Masked Wrestler was actually a nobleman or some other distinguished gentleman who could not afford his real identity to be revealed, others assumed it to actually be a ploy to earn extra money by the promoters, the majority sided with the former though. Five matches later the Masked Wrestler claimed no-one was worthy of fighting him and retired forever more from active competition, or did he?
2 – Harry Hill
What a life this man had. He was born and grew up in Epsom, England in 1827. His uncle was a notable gambler on the horse races and Harry got a job as a jockey and later as a stable keeper. This led to him being sent over to America to manage stables over there. Major gangs in the area all knew Harry and he had his hand in promoting bare knuckle boxing and wrestling shows from venues locally and his own establishments.
Hill was noted as an excellent all round sportsman and tough man. Regularly fighting at his bar with anyone who disregarded his strict rules of conduct – With his knowledge of both wrestling and boxing it was surprising how often he had to show his abilities to ultimately keep the peace in his saloon that doubled up as both an event venue, a brothel known for young, healthy girls, and of course for gambling as well. As a wrestler it’s hard to say how good he truly was, he didn’t wrestle that frequently, but when he did his name was enough to draw a large audience to spectate.
What is known though that during the existence of his saloon (1854 – 1886) he trained there with all the wrestlers who came by. Harry was one of the most famous boxers, wrestlers and prize fight organizers in his many years and should not be forgotten. The Bare Knuckle Boxing Hall of Fame honored him in 2010. At the time he was alive he was considered very important in the evolution of promoting both boxing and wrestling.
It’s said by the 1880’s he had built up his empire to a value of nearly $1,000,000 that’s $23,432,758.66 in today’s money. It was in the 1860’s that he really laid the foundations for the future generations though. His club was settling in by then. Hill was winding down his own active career and focusing more on the promoting side of things and he wrestled many young up and coming stars, teaching them techniques and likely the behind the scenes stuff also to carry on in the future, it was in his best interest as a promoter after all, and there’s no better way to teach than actually get into the ring and show them.
1 – James Hiram McLaughlin
Born during 1844 in New York. For most of his childhood he wrestled, spending nearly all of the time he could afford to on training. His first contest would come at the tender age of 15, in 1959. McLaughlin won against a local logger by the name of Hiram McKee. After the match McKee was hospitalized from being involved in a fight, it is not stated if that was also with McLaughlin or not.
Shortly after the American Civil War started (Which is why not many records are held for 1860 – 1865). Whilst in the army McLaughlin quickly became the wrestling champion in his regiment and his reputation spread like a rash through-out the yankee ranks. When the war was all said and done McLaughlin left a Colonel and went back to carving a name for himself on the stage of Collar and Elbow wrestling.
Before we continue I feel I should point out that McLaughlin could be included in the 1870’s list also, however, I chose to include him in this one for a very specific reason, but as you’ll see his career had a lot of longevity. Wrestlers will only get mentioned once though, they will not be repeated in other decades.
Anyway, whilst there had been titles awarded to people in various regions said to represent the nation of America, it was in January 1867 that McLaughlin won the first widely recognized title. He met a wrestler by the name of Louis Ainsworth and the two faced off for the American Heavyweight Collar and Elbow Championship. McLaughlin won and held the award for a year until Homer Lane defeated him.
In early March McLaughlin beat Barney Smith in a tournament held at Detroit, Michigan to win a ‘diamond studded belt.’ James was also the man who won the tournament in 1870 to pick the North American Heavyweight Collar and Elbow title back up. From there he went on to win the title a further five times, the last in 1884. All the toughest competition squared off against James at some point over the course of his career, he was some what of a measuring stick in his era.
Unfortunately though, Collar and Elbow style wrestling would be going out of fashion by the mid-1870’s and other styles would be making the headlines. For that reason James is often forgotten about in the annuals of history even though he was immortalized in several lines of cigarette cards and provided a whole new generation of wrestlers with valuable knowledge through-out his career.
Without doubt though, his rank in the army, along with the reputation he brought out of the war all helped stabilize wrestling as a real sport in the eyes of the masses at a time when it was really trying to move away from the carnivals following the war. When you then add that he was the first widely accepted American champion, it’s hard to argue that any wrestler was more important to the business in the 1860’s than James Hiram McLaughlin.
Next time I’ll be back with 1870 – 1879. Before I go though, just to give some perspective on how I decided the order of this list, it is not based purely on level of skill that has been recorded through newspaper articles and books, but of overall importance and impact they had on the wrestling business. For example if we were doing 1980 – 1989, Hulk Hogan would obviously rank higher than Ric Flair.
– By Jimmy Wheeler