Ed Lewis

Ed "Strangler" Lewis , actually Robert Hermann Julius Friedrich , (born June 30, 1891 in Sheboygan Falls , Wisconsin , † August 8, 1966 in Muskogee , Oklahoma ) was an American wrestler and multiple world champion of professional wrestlers in free style.

Life

Robert Friedrich came from German parents who had emigrated to the United States. He grew up in the place of his birth. When he was 13 years old, his parents moved him to Rapid Falls . There he attended a high school, where he first came into contact with wrestling. He also played baseball at the time . At the age of 14, however, he concentrated on wrestling without stopping completely with baseball. As a 16-year-old he then won several regional championships among the amateur wrestlers. A little later he got a job as Assistant Athletic Director at the University of Kentucky . There he had the opportunity to study human anatomy and to draw conclusions about strength and training effects.

At the age of 18 he had matured into a young man weighing just under 110 kg with a very athletic figure. So he decided to try his luck as a professional wrestler. He took the American wrestler Evan Lewis , who was very successful in the 1890s, as a model and named himself after this Ed "Strangler" Lewis.

Ed "Strangler" Lewis started a career that made him the most successful professional wrestler in the free style of his era. He became an unrestricted world champion four times and won a few other world championship titles in which he was not recognized by all associations that existed at the time. Although he had since resigned a few times, that career lasted until 1948. Ed "Strangler" Lewis was immensely popular and well known in the United States during his prime in the 1920s. At the time, as unlikely as it sounds today, he was put on a par with famous athletes of those years like Babe Ruth , Jack Dempsey , Bobby Jones , Gene Tunney and Bill Tilden .

Lewis slowly began to go blind in the late 1940s. At that time he trained and managed the future world champion Lou Thesz , with whom he had a close friendship. He also acted as an organizer of professional events. Eventually he went completely blind and withdrew from everyday business. Although he had earned several million dollars in his prime (the figures vary between 3 million and 15 million), he finally died penniless in a retirement home in Muskogee on June 30, 1966.

Athletic career

1910 to 1919

After his initial success as a professional wrestler, he found his first professional supervisor in Jerry Walls, who took care of his financial affairs. Later on, Billy Sandow, who was an expert in the field, became his manager. In 1910 Ed "Strangler" Lewis got the first opportunity to fight against one of the leading professional wrestlers of those years, namely against the Pole Stanislaus Zbyszko . Zbyszko, who was much richer in experience, won this fight in a superior style and showed the nineteen year old his limits.

"Strangler" Lewis now had to fight the hard way of a professional newcomer and slowly fight his way up. In the next five years he came to many victories. But at first he hardly got any prominent opponents. In 1913, however, he managed to make himself known in the freestyle wrestling scene (catch as catch can) with two victories. He defeated on September 18, 1913 in Lexington Ben Roller and on December 15, 1913, again in Lexington, the ex-world champion Tom Jenkins .

On 20 October 1915 he was given the opportunity in Evansville (Indiana) against Joe Stecher fight, which was already one of the best freestyle wrestler in the world at that time. After 2 hours and 3 minutes of fighting time he fell out of the ring during an action and landed so unhappy on a chair that he could not continue wrestling with a shoulder injury. Up until this accident he had given Joe Stecher an even fight. In the next few years this should become one of his toughest competitors in the fight for the world heavyweight championship.

Hardly restored, Lewis took part in a Greco-Roman style tournament in New York in December 1915 . He fought against the reigning heavyweight world champion in this style, the Russian Alexander Aberg in a draw and lost against him in another fight after a fight time of 1 hour and 4 minutes. At this tournament he also fought against Stanilaus Zbyszko's brother, Wladek Zbyszko , an excellent wrestler in the Greco-Roman style, in a draw.

On December 20 and December 22, 1915 he won against a famous freestyle wrestler with the stage name " The Masked Marvel " twice in a row. But lost on December 29, 1915 in New York in a fight in the Greco-Roman. Style again against Alexander Aberg.

On January 15, 1916 Lewis won again against Ben Roller. On July 4, 1916, he fought again against Joe Stecher in Omaha . This fight went down in wrestling history because it lasted four hours and 52 minutes (some publications even speak of five hours and 30 minutes) and ended in a draw. On December 22, 1926, Lewis suffered a defeat from Wladek Zbyszko in New York.

Lewis was now fully established in the top group of the best professional wrestlers in both styles, but fought in the future only in free style. On May 2, 1917, he was then the first time professional world champion in free style with a victory over the Finn Johan Olin . However, he was not recognized by all states as a world champion, since Olin's title win against Joe Stecher was controversial. Nevertheless, he successfully defended this title on June 21, 1918 in Des Moines with a victory over Earl Caddock . On March 3, 1919, after a fighting time of 2 hours, 12 minutes and 37 seconds , he succeeded in Chicago his first victory over Joe Stecher and on June 11, 1919 he celebrated a victory in Omaha after 1 hour, 34 minutes and 45 seconds the aspiring Greek Jim Londos .

1920 to 1929

On December 13, 1920, Ed Lewis scored another victory over Joe Stecher in New York after a fight time of 1 hour, 41 minutes and 56 seconds and has now been recognized by all associations as the unrestricted world champion of professional wrestlers in free style. He lost this title to Stanislaus Zbyszko in New York on May 6, 1921 , but got it back from him on March 3, 1922 in Wichita .

After winning the title on December 13, 1920, Lewis founded the so-called "Golden Trust Trio" together with his manager Billy Sandow and the cunning manager and promoter Joseph "Toots" Mundt . This group dominated the wrestling giveaway in the United States for the next 10 years, fought hard by the Joe Stecher / Tony Stecher group and another major promoter Jack Curley.

After the audience response at the major professional wrestling events had declined in the following years, the "Golden Trust Trio" decided to bring new life to the sport of wrestling with new people. She also sponsored the American football star Wayne Munn as a heavyweight wrestler. This succeeded on January 8, 1925 in Kansas City , world champion by a victory over his protege Ed "Strangler" Lewis to be, whereby the outcome of the fight was of course agreed.

Wayne Munn defended his title on April 15, 1925 in Philadelphia against Stanislaus Zbyszko , who should voluntarily "lie down" according to the agreement. Zbyszko, influenced by Jack Curley, did not keep to this agreement, defeated Wayne Munn and had to be proclaimed the new world champion .

Joe Stecher and Ed “Strangler” Lewis then ended their differences. As a result, Jos Stecher soon won the world championship title from Stanislaus Zbyszko and Wayne Munn no longer played a role in the “Gold Trust Trio”. Ed "Strangler" Lewis then defeated Munn on May 12, 1927 in Louisville and showed him his limits again. On February 28, 1928, Ed "Strangler" Lewis won back the world champion title at Wrigley Field in Chicago with a three-course win over Joe Stecher , two of which he won .

He defended this title on March 12, 1928 in Chicago with a victory over the Ukrainian Alexander Garkawienko and on May 28, 1928 in Minneapolis and on July 9, 1928 again in Minneapolis successfully against Marin Plestina . On January 4, 1929, however, he lost his title to the new American star Gus Sonnenberg .

1930 to 1948

Ed "Strangler" Lewis attempts to get the title back from Gus Sonnenberg failed on May 20, 1930 in Kansas City and on June 18, 1930 in Milwaukee . Gus Sonnenberg won both fights.

But he couldn't be brought down. On May 13, 1931, he won the fully recognized heavyweight world championship title for the fourth time on the "Wrigley Field" in Chicago with a victory over Ed Don George , who had dethroned Gus Sonnenberg. Soon afterwards there were again disagreements in the award of the World Cup title. Ed Lewis met the French Henri Deglane , Olympic champion of 1924 in Paris in Montreal on May 4, 1931 , and lost this fight controversially. As a result, some associations continued to recognize Ed "Strangler" Lewis as world champion, but some others, including the powerful New York Commission, recognized Henri Deglane as world champion.

On June 6, 1932 Lewis defeated the NWA world champion Richard Schikat from Germany in New York . He then fought on February 20, 1933 in Madison Square Garden in New York against Jim Browning for the world title according to the NYSAC version, but lost this fight. In 1933 he fought a legendary fight in Madison Square Garden with the German-Russian Pete Sauer ( Ray Steele ). Both wrestlers faced each other more or less idly for twenty minutes. The annoyed Pete Sauer responded to the angry whistling of the audience with a targeted punch on the chin of Lewis, who then went KO. Sauer was disqualified.

On September 20, 1934, Ed Lewis fought reigning world champion Jim Londos in New York and lost that fight, which was attended by 35,265 paying spectators, which provided a record income of $ 96,302. This revenue record lasted until 1950.

In 1937 Ed "Strangler" Lewis started several times in New Zealand , where an interesting professional wrestling scene had developed. He won there over Floyd Marshall, John Spellman , Glen Wade and Earl McCready , the Canadian champions.

Even after that, when he returned to the United States, he was in the ring several times until 1948. But didn't have any major opponents. In 1948 he finally resigned. He is said to have fought a total of 6,200 fights in his career, of which he lost only 33.

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personal data
SURNAME	Lewis, Ed
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Strangler (nickname); Friedrich, Robert Hermann Julius (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	American wrestler
DATE OF BIRTH	June 30, 1891
PLACE OF BIRTH	Sheboygan Falls , Wisconsin
DATE OF DEATH	August 8, 1966
Place of death	Muskogee , Oklahoma