Strangler Lewis

This column ends the third year and begins the fourth year I have been spinning stories of old. Thanks for giving me the friendship and the opportunity to do so. I certainly hope that I can continue to give you and the fans memories that can be saved for generations to come. Thank you, Rob Moore.--Percival A. Friend

These men became household names long before the advent of television. Each, in his own way, held audiences in awe of their talents. They made front-page headlines in every major newspaper in the world. None of these giants held the spotlight as long as Lewis.

Ed Lewis earned his name by the trademark "Strangler" headlock he applied to win many of his 6200 matches. He was a huge, barrel-chested man that headlined main events wherever he went. His heyday period was from 1916 to 1934, during which he won and lost the World Championship four times.

He first won the belt by beating Joe Stecher in 1921. In 1922, he lost the belt to Stanislaus Zbyszko, but later regained it in a vicious return match. In 1925, Wayne "Biggie" Munn beat Lewis and held the title until 1928, when he lost it to Joe Stecher. Lewis again faced Stecher and regained the title, much to the dismay of many Stecher fans in attendance in St. Louis.

Gus Sonnenberg of Dartmouth football fame beat Lewis in a hotly contested battle in Boston in 1929. Two years later, in 1931 in Los Angeles, Lewis beat Ed Don George for the title he had lost to George just a few months before. Just two months later, he would lose in Montreal to Henri DeGlane, who would succumb to Dick Shikat in New York's Madison Square Garden.

Lewis would also battle such greats as the Duseks in Omaha and Jim Londos in Chicago during the Great Depression. These men drew 30,000 fans into the gate with a $96,000 receipt. This was a fantastic amount of money to pull into the turnstiles during the height of the times when most men were looking for some type of work and some were begging for theirs.

It was during that Great Depression that wrestling took a change in the style of combat in the ring. It changed from the "pure" wrestling to an "exhibition" between the men involved. More action was being involved in matches that had seen men locked in a hold for seemingly hours on end.

To give you an idea of those struggles, it was during the first match in 1920 between Joe Stecher and Lewis that these two men entered the ring in mid-afternoon and didn't leave the ring until the chill of the evening. That match lasted for five-and-a-half hours and resulted in a draw. Not one fan was reported leaving the event.

Ed Lewis was married three times and was deeply religious in his later years. He spent a lot of time after he had retired from the ring working with young athletes. He was blinded by Trachoma and was without sight for some twenty years. Darkness fell upon him again, and he was hospitalized in a Veterans Administration Hospital in Muskogee, Oklahoma.

He was born Robert H. Friedrich in a small farming town in Wisconsin. He was actively involved in the sport of wrestling for over 40 years. When he died on August 7, 1966, a large chapter of stirring and colorful history of wrestling closed forever.

Percival A. Friend, Retired
The Epitome of Wrestling Managers