Joe Louis The Wrestler

[granberry]

Robert,

See pm.

[Jaclem]

...when joe louis wrestled he sometimes lost by disqualification.... most unusual for one of the cleanest fighjters ever. Ay, but here's the explanation...his opponent was the villain and he played dirty all through the "match" but the referee didn't see the fouls, so the crowd went crazy yelling at him. finally, when joe had enough, he'd hold up his right hand, keeping the punch back until the crowd screamed for him to sock the guy, which he did and knocked him cold.. ....as hitting with an open fist i wrestling is a foul, he was therefore dq'd.

i think this was not uncommon in these mixed matches, but joe was a legend and legendary hard puncher, so it got some coverage.

[Jaclem]

..delisa..i just checked back and read your great post for the first time. sorry i can't come up with the places and times as i was going by my memory of reading two of joe's matches that ended that way...i think his opponent might have been the same guy, but in different towns.

..also he wrestled in cincinnati, as i posted earlier, which is where rod serling saw him and was so saddened he wrote "requiem for a heavyweight" ....

[Brutu]

Hey people,I am reading the very interesting book,THE BROWN BOMBER
by Barney Nagler (published in 1972)and in its a chapter about Joe Louis as a wrestler.
Joe Louis made his debut as a wrestler March.16.1956
in front of a crowd of 4,100 people at the Uline arena in Washington D.C
It was in a match in Columbus Ohio that Cowboy Rocky Lee(wt. 320 or 340)injured Joe Louis,The schtick was Rocky Lee put Louis in a headlock most of the time standing up turning around for the crowd to see,Joe Louis breaks free and delivers a right forearm to Lee's jaw "knocking him out"Expect for one performance in Columbus Ohio,when someone forgot the script,Joe Louis fell to the canvas expecting a head lock there instead Rocky Lee "stepped" on Joe Louis left side with his foot crushing several ribs ,one which damaged his heart muscle.
I might add here that in his 1978 autobiography,Joe Louis
said it was an"accident"
Ray Tabani was the wrestling promoter.

[Brutu]

Jack Johnson also wrestled while he was in Europe.
Later on when he was released from Leavenworth,
he wrestled some due to the fact prizefighting was illegal in a number of states including Illinois.

[Brutu]

Yeah,after that injury they wouldnt give Joe Louis a license to wrestle anymore.He became a "wrestling referee",touring across the country
up to the late 1960's.

[Brutu]

No idea. In truth, I try to avoid thinking about ANY former heavyweight champion who may have been forced, by financial circumstances, to engage in pro wrestling.[/quote]
Yeah,Ray Tabani had gaurenteed Joe Louis 100 thousand dollars
in March 1956,that was before the injury of course.

[Brutu]

You want see Primo Carnera wrestle?
Check out the movie
A KID FOR TWO FARTHINGS.
Carnera plays a wrestler and there is a wrestling match towards the end of the movie.
They showed this movie on A&E a few times about 10 years ago.
See Carnera look really massive in a nice taylored suit.

[Diamond WEAPON]

Hate to break this news to all you fans of Pro Wrasslin. Pro Wrasslin is not a competitive sport. Pro wrasslin is a scripted entertainment like a play or tv show, and should no more be included in a fighter's record than his guest appearances on a tv sitcom.

You mean a 5'8'' 145 pound Mayweather didn't beat up a 7'2'' 440 pound Big Show in a legit no holds barred match...

I'm devastated...

Floyd officially weighed 159 lbs. for the Big Show...

[Diamond WEAPON]

Hey people,I am reading the very interesting book,THE BROWN BOMBER
by Barney Nagler (published in 1972)and in its a chapter about Joe Louis as a wrestler.
Joe Louis made his debut as a wrestler March.16.1956
in front of a crowd of 4,100 people at the Uline arena in Washington D.C
It was in a match in Columbus Ohio that Cowboy Rocky Lee(wt. 320 or 340)injured Joe Louis,The schtick was Rocky Lee put Louis in a headlock most of the time standing up turning around for the crowd to see,Joe Louis breaks free and delivers a right forearm to Lee's jaw "knocking him out"Expect for one performance in Columbus Ohio,when someone forgot the script,Joe Louis fell to the canvas expecting a head lock there instead Rocky Lee "stepped" on Joe Louis left side with his foot crushing several ribs ,one which damaged his heart muscle.
I might add here that in his 1978 autobiography,Joe Louis
said it was an"accident"
Ray Tabani was the wrestling promoter.

Holy shit, no wonder some people were actually worried about Big Show making some kind of mistake and possibly injuring Mayweather.

[Brutu]

Yeah IMOP a lot of those wrestlers even back in the 1950's and 1960's
were border-line nut jobs if not totaL nut Jobs even years before roid rage.Joe Louis was a good guy who would give someone the benifit of the doubt,but how much force do you use to stomp on someone lying down by accident?

[Diamond WEAPON]

Yeah IMOP a lot of those wrestlers even back in the 1950's and 1960's
were border-line nut jobs if not totaL nut Jobs even years before roid rage.Joe Louis was a good guy who would give someone the benifit of the doubt,but how much force do you use to stomp on someone lying down by accident?

Seriously, though considering the guy was supposedly 320-340 that's a lot of weight for somebody's ribs to have atop them. I imagine the guy probably did do it without thinking. Shit, many wrestlers today and in the past decade have had all kinds of mental-emotional-chemical issues, so who knows how many were fucked up back then when they got paid even less and were less regulated.

[Brutu]

or maybe a few of Joe Louis's forearms ,he forgot to pull back?
maybe Rocky Lee was just jealous of Joe Louis's success in life?

[HomicideHenry]

I remember when I worked as apart of the ring set-up crew for an independant wrestling company called MCW (Midwest Championship Wrestling) and would often sit down and listen and discuss stories with some of the older veterans of the "sport". I recall one such story where wrestler "Psycho" Sam Cody, who been in the business over thirty years, said that when he was first starting out in the 1960's a promoter told him to go out and break his opponents jaw. Mind you, Sam was shocked by this and told the promoter he wouldn't do it, and eventually he came to his opponent before the match began [whose name I cant recall at the moment] and told him about the situation.

His opponent from what I remember had been a veteran for many years and was beyond the twilight of his career, and he simply said "Sam, thats apart of the business. Break my jaw." Needless to say Sam did in fact break the old wrestlers jaw. But that was the mindset then. Predetermined or not, that was their code.

[Diamond WEAPON]

I remember when I worked as apart of the ring set-up crew for an independant wrestling company called MCW (Midwest Championship Wrestling) and would often sit down and listen and discuss stories with some of the older veterans of the "sport". I recall one such story where wrestler "Psycho" Sam Cody, who been in the business over thirty years, said that when he was first starting out in the 1960's a promoter told him to go out and break his opponents jaw. Mind you, Sam was shocked by this and told the promoter he wouldn't do it, and eventually he came to his opponent before the match began [whose name I cant recall at the moment] and told him about the situation.

His opponent from what I remember had been a veteran for many years and was beyond the twilight of his career, and he simply said "Sam, thats apart of the business. Break my jaw." Needless to say Sam did in fact break the old wrestlers jaw. But that was the mindset then. Predetermined or not, that was their code.

Yeah, that's kinda how Hulk Hogan-Andre The Giant went, Andre was supposed to put Hogan over in a flashy and painful way...

WrestleMania III was the first time the public really saw the pain that André was going through. By this stage he weighed in at about 560 pounds, and the stress of that immense weight on his bones and joints resulted in constant pain. After recent back surgery, he was also wearing a brace underneath his wrestling singlet. Hogan won the match after dropping André with a body slam, followed by Hogan's running leg drop finisher. Years later, Hogan stated that André was so heavy, he felt more like 700 pounds, and that he actually tore his lateral muscle slamming him. Another famous story about the match is that no one knew if André would lose the match. WWE Owner Vince McMahon has stated in the past that he believed if Hogan had either purposely or accidentally disrespected André that night, there was no way André would have allowed Hogan to win the match, no matter what had been agreed to. Aside from that possibility, André had agreed to lose the match some time before, mostly for health reasons, though he almost pinned Hogan (albeit unintentionally) in the early goings of the match.

[HomicideHenry]

The whole Andre-Hogan thing is over done in my opinion. Andre was from an old school mentality of whatever was best for the business, was what he needed to do, whether that was for him to lose or not. Despite the claim that he was undefeated in 15 years, he had dropped losses to such men as Antonio Inoki and others who held just as "mythic" a status as himself...Hogan was who McMahon wanted to win, and the fact of business was, that though the boys backstage didnt agree with it, and even with Hogan holding fears that a man who wouldnt let him win before wouldnt let him win in the biggest wrestling event in history, wasnt going to change the facts. Andre was old school and did what his promoters asked him to do. Hogan was the future, Andre had been what wrestling used to be. End of story.

[ben geoghegan]

Sayin Dan Hodge lost in the later rounds on a KO is putting it mildly. Nino Valdez brutalised that man closing and cutting both eyes. His face was unrecognizeable. A true demostration of grit. But Valdez was the very best

[Brutu]

Primo Carnera was a 'all in" wrestler from around 1946 to 1947.
He wrestled other former boxers including Larry Gains(W) and Max Baer(draw).
At one point Primo Carnera(as wrestler)was supposed to take on Joe Louis(as boxer),
I think this was cancelled because of Joe Louis's injury in 1956.
Experts agreed that Carnera was technically a better wrestler then boxer.
Also the only athlete to hold both world boxing and Wrestling championships.