The Washington herald., 1918-01-28
PRO MAT GAME
COMING BACK
Wrestling Tourney in New
York Should Draw
Big Crowd.

New York. Jan. H.-Professional
wrestling. which suffered q knockout
blow because Of the sins Of unscrup-
uIous promoters and performers many
years ago. appears to have come back
almost to its pristS0e glory OF popu-
Iarity. In New York. which always
has been a show ne" town. the mat
game never was more popular than
at present. The credit for this fact
Is largely due TO the clean manner in
which was conducted the recent In
ternational tournament for heavy
weight honors OF the catch-as-catch-
can style.
In many respects this recent tour
nament at the Lexington Theater was
all that could be desired Certainly
IL was above the slightest reproach.
Its sincerity was reflected in many
packed houses when the principal
stars happened to be hooked up IN
the eliminations. In two respects IL
was disappointing. First Of al. II
failed to determine beyond reason
able question OF debate even the best
man that participated. Furthermore.
IL was impossible at the time to have
on hand all the top-notchers Of the
profession who are now In this coun-
try.
Though wladek ZbysZxo. the mighty
son OF Poland. by throwing Stranger
CEd) Lewis on the concluding even
ing OF the tourney was awarded the
gold belt. emblematic Of the heavy
weight championship. he did not es-
cape the three weeks carnival with
unsullied colors. In the opinion OF
mat followers, Zbyszko was entitled
by this victory to- no more than an
even break with Lewis.
For earlier in the tournament
Lewis, with his deadly deadlock.
forced Zbyszko to quit In a finish
match. 1t was the sportsmanshlp
Of Lewis. who agreed to give his
fallen foe another chance with the
deadlock barred, that enabled the
Pole to climb back onto his pedestal
Lewis, with his deadlock, may or
may not be the master Of Zbyszko.
The fact remains that the deadlock
may never again figure in cham
pionship calculations The wrest-
ling fraternity, IL Is said. has de-
cided to bar the hold in future. just
as the "strangle hold" was ostra-
cized by common agreement among
the profession
But even granting Zbyszko su-
periority over Lewis. deprived of
his chief stock in trade. 10 does not
follow that the Pole has fortified
the thEone he is usurping against
immediate challenge. There were
three great wrestlers-undoubte
Of greater strength and skill than
any except Zbyszko and Lewis, who,
for one reason or another. took no
part IN the recent tournament
These were Earl Caddock, Joe
Stecher and John Olin. Stecher de-
clined the issue. Olin had not re-
turned from Europe. Caddock was
in the army and unable to secure
furlough that would enable him
to remain through the championship
eliminations. though he did come
East for a couple OF matches dur
ing the tournament
Caddock, Stecher and Olin, there
fore. share at the present moment
with Lewis and Zbyszko the spot
light Of the wrestling stage Just
how good two OF these young gen
uemen are in the present reckon
ing will be pretty well determined
Tuesday night at Madison Square
Garden. 0lin meets the mighty
Zbyszko in a bout to a finish. Stech-
er hooks up with Yusif Hussane.
the terrible Turk, in another finish
AFFAIR.
By w T. MacRFTH