Lou Thesz

Lajos Tiza
Data
Ring name	Lou Thesz
height	188 cm
Fighting weight	103 kg
birth	April 24, 1916 Banat , Michigan
death	April 28, 2002 Orlando , Florida
Announced from	St. Louis , Missouri
Trained by	George Tragos Ad Santel Ed Lewis
debut	1932
retirement	December 26, 1990

Lou Thesz (born April 24, 1916 in Banat , Michigan as Lajos Tiza , † April 28, 2002 in Orlando , Florida ) was an American wrestler . Thesz was the first holder of the combined NWA World Heavyweight title and one of the last true representatives of the Hooker wrestling style. He was the only male wrestler to have appeared actively in the ring in seven different decades and has been accepted in numerous halls of fame to this day.

Life

Thesz, who was originally called Lajos Tiza , was born to parents of Hungarian origin who changed his name to Aloysius Martin Thesz when they moved to St. Louis . Since his father was a wrestler, Lou learned a number of handholds as a child. Through his father, he also got into the high school wrestling team without attending it. Finally, at the age of 16, he was discovered by wrestler John Zastro and hired as a sparring partner. Thesz met promoter Joe Sanderson through him and played his first match in early 1933. At that time there were already agreed matches, but the events in the ring were still largely real, so Thesz had to take a lot in the first few years. But he learned a lot from successful men like Ad Santel , Ray Steele and Ed "Strangler" Lewis, who dominated everything at the time . Eventually he was trained to be a hooker by George Tragos .

Since in addition to wrestling skills, appearance and physique were right, nothing stood in the way of a great career, and so Thesz was able to secure the Midwest Wrestling Association World Heavyweight Title on December 29, 1937 when he was able to defeat Everett Marshall. This makes him the youngest wrestler ever to secure World Heavyweight Gold.

Over the next few years, a few titles were added and when the National Wrestling Alliance was founded in 1947 , Thesz was to compete with his National Wrestling Association title against their champion Orville Brown in a title association match . After Brown was seriously injured in a car accident shortly before, however, he received the title without a fight. After defeating the American Wrestling Association champion Georgeous George in 1950 and winning the World Heavyweight Title ( Los Angeles version) in 1952 , he was considered the first true world wrestling champion since Frank Gotch .

Thesz was a hard working champion and defended his title about 250 times a year. This of course took its toll and so he lost the title on March 15, 1956 to "Whipper Billy" Watson . But Thesz was champion again in November. The following year he defended the title in Japan against Rikidozan , which laid the foundation for Japanese wrestling. He also competed in Australia and Singapore . But that year came the end for the united wrestling world championship after he lost the title to Edouard Carpentier on June 14th . He won the title back a month later, but Carpentier continued to be recognized as a champion in Los Angeles , Boston and Omaha . When he finally refused to lose the title to the wrestlingly limited but on the east coast very popular Bruno Sammartino because he did not consider him worthy, he had to lose the title for good. Since he also refused to lose to the "Nature Boy" Buddy Rogers , he finally gave the title to former Olympian Dick Hutton .

When Rogers refused to defend the title outside of the Capitol Wrestling Federation in 1963 , Thesz once again showed all his hook talent and defeated the "Nature Boy" at the age of 48 against his will. Incidentally, this also laid the foundation stone for World Wrestling Entertainment , because the Capitol Wrestling Federation around Vincent J. McMahon broke away from the NWA and renamed itself the Worldwide Wrestling Federation.

In his fourth title reign, Thesz managed to once again integrate the AWA World Championship title (Ohio version) into the NWA title, but the unity of the wrestling world championship title was never achieved again. However, as in his first title reign, Thesz defended the title almost every day against people like Dick the Bruiser , Fritz von Erich , Pat O'Connor (wrestler) or Johnny Valentine . Finally, at the age of 50, he finally lost the title to Gene Kiniski on January 7, 1966 . He got into the ring regularly for another thirteen years and won several regional titles.

Lou Thesz played his last match on December 26, 1990, when he faced Masahiro Chono in Tokyo . At this point he was already 74 years old. This makes Lou Thesz the only male wrestler who has been active in the ring in seven decades.

In April 2002 Lou Thesz had to undergo bypass surgery. This resulted in complications and Thesz died on April 28, 2002 at the age of 86. His body was cremated and scattered in the Missouri River . Thesz made up all of his finishing moves.

successes

title

Date of title win	title	won against ...	Date of loss of title	lost at
December 29, 1937	Midwest Wrestling Association World Heavyweight Title	Everett Marshall	???	???
December 29, 1937	AWA World Heavyweight Title (Boston Version)	got the title ( Yvon Robert refused to run against him)	February 11, 1938	Steve Casey
February 23, 1939	NWA (Association)	Everett Marshall	June 23, 1939	Bronko Nagurski
June 12, 1940	World Heavyweight Title (Montreal Version)	Leo Numa	October 23, 1940	Yvon Robert
July 16, 1941	World Heavyweight Title (Montreal Version)	Yvon Robert	September 17, 1941	Yvon Robert
May 12, 1944	Texas Heavyweight Title	Hans Schnabel	June 30, 1944	Ernie Dusek
August 18, 1944	Texas Heavyweight Title	Ernie Dusek	December 8, 1944	Olaf Olson
May 3, 1946	Texas Heavyweight Title	Buddy Rogers	May 10, 1944	Buddy Rogers
September 11, 1946	World Heavyweight Title (Montreal Version)	Bobby Managoff	February 20, 1947	Bobby Managoff
April 16, 1947	World Heavyweight Title (Montreal Version)	Bobby Managoff	November 26, 1947	Yvon Robert
April 25, 1947	NWA (Association) World Heavyweight Title	"Whipper Billy" Watson	November 21, 1947	Bill Longson
July 20, 1948	NWA (Association) World Heavyweight Title	Bill Longson	November 27, 1949	Has been incorporated into NWA World Heavyweight Title
November 27, 1949	NWA World Heavyweight Title	was awarded a title	March 15, 1956	"Whipper Billy" Watson
May 21, 1952	World Heavyweight Title (Los Angeles Version)	Baron Michele Leone	May 21, 1952	Title was incorporated into NWA World Heavyweight Title
November 9, 1956	NWA World Heavyweight Title	"Whipper Billy" Watson	June 14, 1957	Edouard Carpentier
July 24, 1957	NWA World Heavyweight Title	Edouard Carpentier	November 14, 1957	Dick Hutton
Early 1961	NWA Pacific Coast Tag Team Title (with The Outlaw )	New title introduced	February 1961	Title became vacant
January 24, 1963	NWA World Heavyweight Title	Buddy Rogers	7th January 1966	Gene Kiniski
September 7, 1964	AWA (Alliance) World Heavyweight Title	Karl Krauser	September 7, 1964	Title was incorporated into NWA World Heavyweight Title
October 14, 1966	WWA World Heavyweight Title	Buddy Austin	September 7, 1964	Mark Lewin
August 13, 1968	NWA Southern Tag Team Title (Mid America Version, with Jackie Fargo )	Don Carson & Red Shadow	20th August 1968	Don Carson & Red Shadow
1973	NWA Southern Jr. Heavyweight Title	Tommy Gilbert	1973	Tommy Gilbert
1973	United States Jr. Heavyweight Title	Don Greene	May 1973	Don Greene
March 27, 1974	NWA Southern Jr. Heavyweight Title	Tommy Gilbert	April 10, 1974	Tommy Gilbert
15th August 1977	UWA World Heavyweight Title	Title was newly introduced	August 27, 1978	Canek

Hall of Fame

Thesz is a member of:

• Stampede Wrestling Hall of Fame
• WCW Hall of Fame
• RSPW Hall of Fame
• Puroresu Hall of Fame
• Tragos & Thesz Hall of Fame
• Wrestling Museum Hall of Fame
• Slam Wrestling Canadian Hall of Fame
• Missouri Sports Hall of Fame

Others

Thesz was honored in 1997 by the World Wrestling Federation for being both the youngest and the oldest world champion (21 and 50 years old, respectively). Two years later, WWF owner Vince McMahon became champion at the age of 54.

After Lou Thesz, the Lou Thesz Press is also known, a move in which a wrestler jumps at his opponent head-on, so that the opponent falls to the ground and takes a series of blows. He is best known to younger audiences through Stone Cold Steve Austin , who used the Move as a trademark. He also invented the Powerbomb , through a banned Piledriver .

Fonts

• with Kit Bauman: Hooker: An Authentic Wrestler's Adventures Inside the Bizarre World of Professional Wrestling.

Web links

• List of NWA title matches