Pre-1930s

Eugen Sandow vs John Grenier 1895 Ringkampfer Related

Ernest Roeber vs August Faust Roeber Wrestling 1901 Footage of this Greco-Roman wrestling match was included in WWE's opening montage for all of their television shows and other commercial footage releases from the mid to late 2000s. The match was originally released as part of the 1901 film Roeber Wrestling Match. It is the second oldest known pro wrestling footage in existence. Related

Fat And Lean Wrestling Match 1901 "Fat And Lean Wrestling Match" Related ----------------------------- 115 years before the Hardys thought to combine wrestling with campy action movies, there was this. I don't want to spoil it, but there's some really creative usage of film here in the context of a comedy wrestling match. At just 2 minutes long, I would recommend it to see a very interesting piece of both film and wrestling history.

Men's Wrestling Exhibition 1905 "Wrestling Act" Related

Women's Wrestling Exhibition 1905 "1932 Aka Women Wrestlers" Related

Giovanni Carpini vs Raoul Le Bordelais Raoul Le Boucher vs Simon Antonitsch December 28, 1906 Paris, France Ringkampfrekord Related

Josef Steinbach vs Bruno Hackenschmidt September 17, 1911 Vienna, Austria Footage Farm 220503 Related

Chambers Zipps vs Luka Kopyev 1912 Moscow, Russia (Show Unknown) Related

Gustav Fristensky vs Josef Smejkal 1913 Prague, Czech Republic (Show Unknown) Related ------------------- So, this is still a bit older than that Stecher vs. Caddoc match. This is coming from Prague, and very unlike anything we know. I'm not really sure if this is pro wrestling atall or amateur, to be honest, the missing ropes leave me somewhat puzzled here. But the fact that Fristensky has travelled to the US and fought such names as Frank Gotch has me guessing he's a pro. Not much to say about the match, it really is only grapplnig, basically. But the fact that such old footage exists and is freely available for everybody…

Jack Johnson vs Fred Marcussen January 22, 1914 Berlin, Germany Scene from the documentary Jack Johnson The Galveston Giant Related Newspaper article: https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/PBH19140204.2.87

Earl Caddock (c) vs Joe Stetcher World Heavyweight Championship January 30, 1920 New York, NY The World's Championship Wrestling Match Between Joe Stetcher And Earl Caddock Related

Virginia Mercereau vs Unknown Male Opponent February 9, 1927 "Woman wrestler" http://mirc.sc.edu/islandora/object/usc%3A40250 Related

Ed Strangler Lewis (c) vs Gus Sonnenberg World Heavyweight Championship January 4, 1929 "1928 Ed Strangler Lewis and Gus Sonnenberg Wrestling Championship" Related

Gus Sonnenberg vs Howard Cantonwine February 3, 1929 New York, NY "Gus Sonnenberg versus Howard Cantonwine" https://mirc.sc.edu/islandora/object/usc%3A19660 Related

Gus Sonnenberg (c) vs Joe Malcewicz AWA World Heavyweight Championship March 15, 1929 "Sonnenberg versus Malcewicz" http://mirc.sc.edu/islandora/object/usc%3A19666 Related ---------- Great to see these guys actually working holds instead of just the all-action highlights you usually get with matches from this era. I remember reading the thing that spurred on the creation of the modern working style wasn't the slow mat-work but audiences not liking the standing Greco-Roman stuff. If that's true, this match gives a nice call back to those days with them putting a lot more time and struggle in the collar-and-elbow tie-ups than we're used to seeing,…

Gus Sonnenberg (c) vs Marin Plestina AWA World Heavyweight Title May 28, 1929 Boston, MA "Wrestling Champion" Related

Dick Shikat (c) vs George Calza NYSAC World Heavyweight Championship November 25, 1929 New York, NY "Heavyweight Wrestling Championship" Related ------ Much more accessible than Caddock/Stetcher. I say this mainly because it's one of the earliest big matches we have a significant amount of from after the modern working style was developed, but it's also in surprisingly good quality for how old it is and it's much easier to tell the guys apart. It's still too clipped up to judge it as an overall match and the finish seems to be misplaced at the start of the video file, but what we see is some very interesting insight …

Dick Shikat vs ?? 1929 New York, NY "Wrestling Title Match" https://mirc.sc.edu/islandora/object/usc%3A39989 Related

Jimmy Esson vs Pete Brannon Mid-1910s http://www.britishpathe.com/video/british-champion-v-canadian-champion-c-s-m-jim Related