Mad Dogs, Midgets and Screw Jobs

The Untold Story of How Montreal Shaped the World of Wrestling

By Pat Laprade, Bertrand Hébert

ECW PRESS

Copyright © 2013 Bertrand Hébert and Pat Laprade
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-77041-094-7
CHAPTER 1

THE ORIGINS OF WRESTLING IN THE TERRITORY

Although wrestling's glory years occurred during the second part of the 20th century, the history of pro wrestling in Montreal goes back to the 19th century. Given that the province has a rich history, spanning more than 400 years, let's leave aside the sport's traditional history, with its Cro-Magnons, Greeks and Romans, and consider its North American roots.

Native Americans had an array of different wrestling styles, probably influenced over the years by contact with other cultures, including the Vikings and other Europeans. Combat has always been an integral part of the Viking mentality; so much so that, in Nordic mythology, Thor is the god of wrestling. Of course wrestling was also very popular in England and France, two countries that would play such a large role in developing North America.

Spanish explorers of the 1500s noted that Native Americans held wrestling contests, very often in the form of tournaments. Later colonizers also said that wrestling was very popular among Native Americans. Focusing on parts of the body, many styles of wrestling were identified, namely Indian Leg, Indian Thumb, Indian Back and Indian Arm wrestling.

The 18th century and the early 1800s witnessed spectacular growth rates for the territory. The population, which numbered just 3,000 in 1666, was 20 times larger by the mid-18th century. The mid-1700s saw the Battle of the Plains of Abraham, probably the most famous battle between Francophones and Anglophones in Quebec history. This battle would pave the way for numerous other linguistic and cultural wars that would be waged in different fields, including professional wrestling.

As the 19th century came along, professional wrestling in North America started not in a stadium or an arena, but in fairgrounds and festivals, carnivals and circuses. A man would challenge all comers. The aspirant had to pay an amount of money, and if he managed to beat the "champion" he would win the jackpot. If he lost, however, he would lose the money he paid. Sometimes the "champion" was facing a plant, someone who was working for the organization and who would beat the champion just to prove to the crowd that he could be beaten. Obviously this is one of the early forms of a worked match. But we are still far away from what pro wrestling is nowadays.

Thanks to Confederation in 1867, Quebec officially became a province of Canada. That was also the year in which the first champion was crowned using a professional wrestling style that would serve as a precursor to what we now know as the collar-and-elbow style. This first style was a mixture of wrestling, judo and gouren, and would be the dominant style of the 1870s. The American collar-and-elbow championship was actually the first official championship of its kind. Its stars were James H. McLaughlin, John McMahon (not related to Vince) and Henry Moses Dufur. Although he was not Canadian, the latter came from Richford, a town in Vermont two miles south of the Quebec border.

THOMAS A. COPELAND AND JOHN MCMAHON, TWO PIONEERS

It's not surprising that the first wrestlers to stand out were Anglophones. After the American Revolution many Anglophone Loyalists sought refuge in what is now the province of Quebec (and, more precisely, in the Eastern Townships), given its proximity to such northeast American states as Vermont.

A man named Thomas A. Copeland took part in a very important wrestling match on July 22, 1873. He lost to John McMahon in Troy, New York. As it was announced, the match saw the U.S. champion facing the Canadian champion, although no title histories exist to prove they had been the champions they were announced to be. Historical records suggest various places of origin for Copeland. While many hold that he came from Peterborough, Ontario, others contend that he came from Montreal. Perhaps it's a mixture of the two, as he may have been born in one town and then lived in another. This was the case of his former opponent, McMahon, who lived in Montreal for the latter part of his life. Although communication technologies were nowhere near as advanced as today, news still travelled throughout North America. The Boston Globe, the Chicago Tribune and even the Indianapolis Sentinel announced the results of wrestling matches held in Montreal or any other city where wrestlers from the territory performed.

In the 1880s wrestling underwent some changes in the way it was performed and, as a result, a new wrestling style emerged, namely catch-as-catch can.

This wrestling style comes closest to what would become modern wrestling. Catch-as-catch can means catch a hold anywhere you can. This distinguishes the catch-as-catch can style from the Greco-Roman wrestling style. The latter allows wrestlers to catch a hold only on the upper part of the opponent's body.

There was also the arrival of William Muldoon, one of the all-time greats, who would become the Greco-Roman wrestling champion during this decade and beyond. This decade was equally marked by the end of the collar-and-elbow title on one hand and the emergence of two other titles on the other hand: catch-as-catch can and the mixed titles. In fact mixed matches, in which two wrestling styles are pitted one against the other, also began to appear. Among the other stars, aside from Muldoon, were Joe Acton, Edwin Bibby, Tom Cannon, Carl Abs, Evan "Strangler" Lewis (not to be confused with Ed Lewis) and the first Quebec-born wrestler to really make a name for himself.

GUS LAMBERT

Born Esdras Lambert in Saint-Guillaume in 1855, Gustave, or Gus, as Americans called him, wrestled principally in the city of New York, but also all over the world. Dan Anderson, wrestling historian, has a list of Lambert matches. Some of the latter matches were held in Cleveland and San Francisco, sometimes even on the same cards as Muldoon, and every one of them happened between 1881 and 1890. Moreover John McMahon, the last collar-and-elbow champion, wrestled Lambert on December 28, 1882, in New York. Almost 20 years after the publication of the first wrestling match results in a Quebec newspaper, La Patrie, a newspaper that was published in Montreal between 1879 and 1978 and that used to cover pro wrestling in an assiduous fashion, announced the results of a match opposing David Michaud and Gustave Lambert in its edition of August 26, 1884. In a double competition Michaud won the feat of strength contest, and Lambert that of wrestling.

LOUIS CYR AND WRESTLING

Gustave Lambert wasn't just a wrestler; he played a key role in the career of the strongest man in the province, none other than Louis Cyr. According to Cyr's historian and biographer, Paul Ohl, Cyr participated in a number of wrestling matches in Saint-Henri, his own neighborhood, in the mid-1880s. It was not as a wrestler that Cyr made his legendary reputation, but, rather, as someone performing feats of strength. Among the most famous of these are his holding four horses for about a minute, the many weightlifting records performed with only one finger, as well as the back lift, without forgetting the fact that he was the only man to have lifted the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia. Lambert was Louis Cyr's mentor, as well as his first promoter. Louis Cyr influenced many strongmen who, like him, wanted to practise wrestling and have...