The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1916-01-04
MANY ARE after
GOTCH'S TITLE
Revival Of Wrestling Game
Brings Forth ChalIengers.
STECHER is LATEST STAR.

pionshiP Honors-Abere Another.
A determined effort to rescue the
wrestling game from the formaldehyde
is again being made. Attempts to re-
viye the sport are becoming general,
the campaign extending from New
York to Kansas City on the one hand /
and from Minneapolis to the coast on i
the other.
The goal of the new wrestling drive
is of course Champion Frank Gotch
and his title. The forces arrayed
against the American, mentioned In
the order of their Importance, are sum
med up below Yussiff Mahmout is
! included because of the report that he |
is alive and in Paris:
| Alex Aberg Russian Finn, probably
best Greco-Roman wrestler in the
| world
Yussiff Mahmout, Bulgarian, consid-
cred next to- Gotch best catch-as-catch-
/ can stylist in the game.
William Demetral, Greek, a wonder
| fully improved American developed
star.
Stanislaus Cyganiewiscz (Zbysco), Ga
ician, 24O FOUNDER, adept, great, but
slow thinker
Wladek Cyganiewiscz, Galician, i'm
proved by two years work in this
country.
Joe Stecher, Nebraskan, pupil of
! Farmer Burns and a coming candidate
for honors.
Ordeman and Westegaard, who
might be mentioned, are not quite good
enough for the title class, although
both are fine wrestlers of near cham
ptonship ability. Both probably are
as good as Stecher now is, but the lat
ter has future.
The two interesting new factors in
the wrestling situation are Alex Aberg
and Joe Stecher, whose fame has be-
come of interest to Americans only
within the past year.
Stecher is an American born, ma
tive of Nebraska, some accounts have
it. He is in his middle twenties and is
considered very green by the cautious
veterans who follow the sport
Stechers chief claim to fame rests
on victories over second raters ike
Gus Schoenlein and Charles Cutler,
, UOlH VI "HOul, however, are SOOu
championship trial horses.
Stecher's great asset is his use of the
scissors hold, accounts of his matches
show. He appears either to lack YER
satility in the use of other beverages
or to be so exceptionally good at the
scissors that opponents cannot outwit
him or break it.
Aberg IS a foreigner. He has been
known to European capitals for the
last twelve years Aberg declares he
ii has 100000 to risk that he can defeat
4 any man in the world. And this goes
II for Frank Gotch.
II Nevertheless, Aberg would be handi
4 capped in a match with Gotch. While
Il be has been in this country a year, be
| La far from being an adept at the
II tricks of the catch-as-catch-ca game
II He is there with the Greco-Roma1
II stuff.
III But Alex, the DISADVANTAGES a ma
Il tive of Russian Finland-has different
/ ideas. To him Frank Gotch is one
II large cheese, full of holes. Blow
| holes we gather, for Gotch is an in
II 1ated champion, according to Aberg
II He says Gotch ran from all the for
II eigners when he was in Europe.
Il But other Greco stars have sough
/ to shine at Gotch's expense. Zbysco
Hackenschmidt and others have trieC
with negative results. Gotch hasn'
y control over as much beef as hi
: rivals, but his mind works about thirt,
A seconds ahead of his meat trust op
ponents.
III n q int n
styles and of furnishing tactics make
him terror to opponents. When the
feel Gotch's grip on their feet they ar
apt, like Hackenschmidt either t
"quit''-as Hack did the first time-o
cry, For Gods sake, Frank, don
break my legr' as he did the secon
time.
Aberg holds that Wladek ZbyscC
Zurich and Padoubny are the world
greatest wrestling lights, an Opinio
which makes us want to call in th
~e sanity commission. Padoubny we don
a.. know-except by long distance stuff
But on Zurich and Wladek we hav
the form sheets.
Wladek is Stanislaus Zbyscos brotl
err. He is not so good as Brother Star
who was not considered in Gotch
class by the wise boys of the gam
Gotch turned over the Zurich gentl
man so fast he had vertigo
However, the American champion
entering the period of the watermelo
waist line, when everything grows b,
the muscles, and when the soft, ST
voice tells us the wise act is to retil
for good without risking that 'or
more match which may spell the To-
. of the title.
Gotch is middle aged now, ev,
though he's still on the right side
forty. Probably he is the best pr