What got us here:
It’s Still Real to Me – Part 1
Ed Lewis and the Gold Dust Trio – Part 2
The Height of the Gold Dust Trio – Part 3
The Great Depression 1928-1935 – Part 4
On July 29, 1980, Mrs. 4Life was in the hospital pushing out little baby LWO, and on July 30th Mr. 4Life bought baby LWO his first lucha mask. July 30, 1980 was also the 45th anniversary of when all the rival promoters came together to crown an undisputed champion. Unlike boxing, wrestling is a work, titles are created all the time. Eventually though, as the Great Depression hit its depths, everyone came together and finally realized that they could all make more money having one champion. This person would have to be charismatic, and have the ability to draw great crowds. The person who they thought could be that great champion… Introducing…
The Master of the Irish Whip, Danno O’Mahoney
In late 1934, Paul Bowser was looking for that next big draw. He already had Jim Londos, who looked like a Greek God, but due to Jack Pfefer’s testimony, Londos was suffering as an attraction. Traveling to Ireland, Bowser was looking for an Irish star, as Irish wrestlers and boxers were huge draws in the northeast region. He found Danno O’Mahoney, inventor of the Irish Whip. After offering him $100,000 a year, Boswer claimed that Danno was the strongest man in the world. Immediately he caught the attention of the public. Bowser wasted no time in pulling the trigger on Danno’s push, as in June of 1935 O’Mahoney faced Jim Londos for the NWA (National Wresting Association) World title.
Working with Jack Curley and “Toots” Mondt, Bowser was realizing his vision of wrestling as a sport with chiseled bodies capturing the imagination of the crowds during the depression era. Londos had negotiated a $50,000 payout for losing the title with Curley and Mondt, which Bowser happily paid. In a match that many called one of the most scientific matches of the era, Londos did the honors and put over O’Mahoney. Londos performed his best match in losing the title.
Following the match Londos grabbed the microphone and gave a touching speech about being beaten by the better man. Londos went home with $50,000 extra dollars and a renewed popularity. A comparable moment in modern wrestling to this moment would be when Hulk Hogan lost to the Ultimate Warrior, handed him the title and gave him a huge. That did more to put over Hulk Hogan than the Ultimate Warrior. Londos himself may have really wanted to put Danno over, he basically did everything right, but the end result wouldn’t show that to be true.
A Star is Born
As Danno’s push through North America grew, he would unifying the AWA and NWA titles. He would have to face Ed Don George, who was a legit wrestler. Also, Boswer had negotiated with Ed Lewis to vacant his disputed part of the world title, which would be decided in this match. Lewis happily gave up his liner title andjust continued traveling the country, wrestling everyone else’s local champion. The match was all set up as the ultimate unification match. The undefeated strongest man in the world, Danno O’Mahoney would now face against the experienced Ed Don George. Added to the match was the new special guest referee, newly crowded World boxing champion, Cinderella Man himself James Braddock.
It was a match that drew 40,000 people to Braves Field in Boston. Danno had been traveling around the country defending his title, collecting 70 wins since arriving to the United States. George was an established draw, and to see him finally unify the world title excited the fans. Boxing champion James Braddock was there to really bring the Irish fans out, and add legitimacy to the match. But you see, today you’d never see a boxing champion as the main referee, and this match sets the blueprint as to why.
The Most Confusing Night in Wrestling
We may never know who was actually scheduled to win this match. But the results may have done more to hurt wrestling than any other event at the time. It was bad enough that the Boston Globe ran stories from James C. Leary that predicted the results of wrestling cards correctly, and he even predicted the rise of O’Mahoney as the next great champion. (Rumor was my favorite guy, Jack Pfefer, gave away the results.) So on the night O’Mahoney would finally battle George, all of his writings would come true. But it is how it happened that really gave people pause
Written as a great wrestling match by “smart” reporters as they didn’t judge a match by who won or who lost, but the story told in the ring. So many writers had great things to say about O’Mahoney vs. George. But the inclusion of boxing champion James Braddock made things messy. For 30 minutes the match was ground based, then it built to a faster pace. After one hour, the match would become only one fall, and George won that fall as he knocked O’Mahoney out of the ring and Braddock counted the master of the Irish Whip out.
But Braddock didn’t call the match over. Instead he let O’Mahoney back into the ring. Thinking that he had won, George was celebrating with the crowd, but O’Mahoney threw George out of the ring. George just thought that O’Mahoney was playing poor sport and stayed out of the ring for the count out. It was then that Braddrock called O’Mahoney the winner and undisputed champion. The crowd was legit angry.
Things Start to Turn
O’Mahoney won the match, but we don’t know if he was supposed to win the title. My guess is he was going over by screwy finish and set up a rematch. Even the paper writers who covered wrestling thought the match was amazing, and it set up a rematch perfectly. Still, it was the aftermath of this match that made the crowd turn on O’Mahoney. The now joint promoters didn’t take one of the titles off O’Mahoney, instead they let the match stand as called and O’Mahoney was now the first Undisputed champion since 1928.
What was seven years in the making though would almost crush the wrestling business. O’Mahoney was now a hated champion. Fans booed him wherever he traveled. He was almost a heel. Over the fall of 1935, O’Mahoney won in his rematch of George, this time clean, and he even beat Ed Lewis in one hour. But the more O’Mahoney won, the more the crowd hated him. They could never forgive the way he won the title, even though he beat all the other champions, even cleanly. The unpopularity of O’Mahoney showed in December of 1935 as his third match with Ed Don George only drew 4,000 people to Madison Square Garden.
The Only Fitting Conclusion to O’Mahoney’s Reign
Paul Bowser had convinced everyone to join in on this unified World champion. So far, O’Mahoney was a disaster of a champion. The old system was working better than having one champion. To make matters worse, a French-Canadian wrestler, Yvon Robert wanted a chance to wrestle O’Mahoney. After replacing a wrestler in a number one contenders match, Roberts had won the match to get the rights to wrestler O’Mahoney. But O’Mahoney’s manager Jack McGrath refused to let Danno O’Mahoney wrestler Robert, because Robert wouldn’t do business. McGrath could not have been more right.
Robert would go into the crowds and taint O’Mahoney every chance he got. It all escalated when O’Mahoney finally answered back. This caused Robert to rush into the ring and both wrestlers were shoot wrestling in the ring. Robert had pinned O’Mahoney for a 30 count, then O’Mahoney finally got up and took down Robert twice. Robert then punched O’Mahoney, knocking him out cold. This caused many others to try and shoot on O’Mahoney, especially on his tour in the south. Only Bowser’s money could save the title. He switched O’Mahoney heel champion, portraying the first cowardly champion. After the fight with Robert, O’Mahoney was not taken seriously anymore.
All Over But the Crying
Bowser wanted Danno O’Mahoney’s title reign to work. He really did. He had Jim Londos, the most proven draw at the time, put him over, he had his AWA champion Ed Don George put him over, he even called in Ed “the Strangler” Lewis to put him over. But O’Mahoney was just not paying off. Finally, O’Mahoney’s reign ended, but not by Bowser’s chose. O’Mahoney was to win again against Dick Shikat. But little did anyone know, Shikat had been paid off by our old friend, Billy Sandow!
That’s right, the one member of the Gold Dust Trio we haven’t heard of for a while had been lying in the grass waiting to strike. And strike he did. O’Mahoney was the most valuable champion since Wayne Munn, who Sandow wanted to make into a huge star. And like an old rival chose to pay a wrestler to shoot on Munn, Sandow now paid Shikat to shoot on Bowser’s new star. There was no love lost between Sandow and Bowser. And this proved it. (I am referencing research from Steve Yohe, but this is where he and I disagree. I have come across lots of research that shows Sandow did pay Shikat, he claims Shikat acted alone and later Sandow came into the picture.)
Further Exposure of the Business
On March 3, 1936, the match between Danno O’Mahoney and Dick Shikat took place. And it was a shoot match by ever definition of the word. They legit wrestled for about 15 minutes, and if you noticed one thingabout legit shoot matches I’ve wrote on, they don’t last long at all. After a good amount of shoot chain wrestling, Shikat finally got O’Mahoney into a hammerlock. In the hammerlock, Shikat put it on real tight, causing the injured O’Mahoney to give up.
The referee George Bothner (this time a real referee who was also part of the New York Athletic Commission) would not call the match as he knew the finish was set to be O’Mahoney winning the match. Instead, he kept asking O’Mahoney if he wanted to quit, to which O’Mahoney kept saying “yes, yes, yes.” Eventually O’Mahoney said, “yes, he’s trying to kill me! Stop it, I tell you!” With that, Bothner called the match. Bowser tried to still claim O’Mahoney was still champion in the AWA. For those who doubted wrestling being a work before, this ended the debate. This restarted the talks of wrestling being “fake” again. The wrestling business had to pick up the pieces.
The Split Up of the Title… Again
O’Mahoney would keep the AWA title, but shortly lose that title to Yvon Robert. Robert himself would find a wrestler he would not go into the ring with for fear of that wrestler’s legit skills, Lou Thesz! Dick Shikat would hold the title NWA (Association, not Alliance) until he lost it to the legendary Ali Baba. Baba took Shikat to court for the right to win the title, which really made wrestling a joke. The idea of a world title being decided in court exposed the business more than the Young Bucks. Baba then lost the linear title to Dave Levin, then a few days later he lost the NWA title to Everett Marshall.
The NWA title history lost legitamcy, as almost every champion vacated the title after winning it. In 1947, the title would finally be unified with the “new” NWA (National Wrestling Alliance) World title. The AWA title would exist until 1950, when champion Don Eagle got injured and couldn’t defend the title. During the AWA’s title history, champion Steve Casey served the US Army during World War II. During his time in war, the AWA had a temporary champion, who then wrestled Casey after the war and lost. Casey would be the biggest draw in Boston during the World War II era.
As for the linear championship… well that’s for the next article….