Jim Crockett Promotions, was, for all intents and purposes, the heart and soul of the NWA in the 1970s and 1980s. JCP made the most money and had the best, high profile matches during that period. They took over NWA after Fred Kohler Promotions in Chicago either went bankrupt, or was sold or broken up. All of the other territories within the NWA were not large enough to make a real difference or to fill the void with the loss of Kohler and Crockett in the 1970s and 1980s, respectively.
I'm betting the match lasted thirty minutes to an hour, at least. Matches going that long were often released to the public in filmstrips displaying only select excerpts of the bout. Also, this being 1933, Lewis was approximately five years past his prime. His propensity to overeat caused him to gain weight rapidly when not in training, which he seldom did during this phase of his career.
Nice to see a clip of one of the all time greats. The styles really aren't all that distanced from what you'd see today. It's missing Jim Ross commentary though.
What now exists as the NWA are a handful of very small territories spread out across the United States, and none of them are large enough to draw enough interest by any national cable TV networks to broadcast their programming. The growth of Jim Crockett Promotions was fed by the growth of regional superstations like Superstation TBS and WOR New York in the 1970s.
If I'm not mistaken, the precise date of this match was February 20th, 1933. Browning defeated Lewis for the New York version of the world title. The entire match clocked in at 57:50. It was "the Strangler's" final world championship. Browning had been mired in the lower mid-card not six months prior, and this was considered a colossal upset in spite of Lewis' age.
Shane said, "Because, I am not the man who accepts a torch to be handed down to me from an organization that died, RIP, seven years ago," which is odd because the NWA still existed in 1987, although there were only a few offices left, as Crockett had closed down Florida, Georgia, Central States and St. Louis. PNW (Portland) was still around and lasted into 1992, with distance and promoter Don Owens' refusal to play politics contributing to the promotion's ability to last as long as it did.
@JKTube Back then, it was known as the National Wrestling Association, a division of the National Boxing Association. I would have to say that the first world champion was crowned on May 5, 1904. On that day, George Hackenschmidt defeated American Champion Tom Jenkins in NYC to be recognized as such. He had won tournaments in Italy, Germany, and England.
@mkl62: The NWA traces its beginnings to the year 1948. The WCW World Heavyweight Title was created in 1991. It did NOT go back to the original World Heavyweight Title, and it most definitely did NOT go back to Abraham Lincoln, no matter what Tony Shitvone would tell you. The World Heavyweight Title Daniel Bryan has on WWE Smackdown is NOT a continuation of the lineage of the WCW World Heavyweight Title, though it is the same physical belt.
@bumblebeemoi I saw a pin for three seconds. The referee doesn't slap the mat, but the count is what matters. A lot of things we take for granted in wrestling were unheard of 80 years ago. Even 15 years ago, nobody slapped the mat to submit.
There have been several claims by certain promotions as to the lineage of the NWA (The National Wrestling Association, prior to the forming of the National Wrestling Alliance in 1948) dating back to Frank Gotch and George Hackenschmidt. It was that dispute that led "The Franchise", Shane Douglas, to throw down the NWA World Heavyweight Title after winning it in a tournament, leading to the breakaway of Eastern Championship Wrestling fromthe NWA, andbecoming Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW).
@Inediblehulk I'm going to have to disagree about the slapping the mat. I was watching a match Lou Thesz won in 1957 by hammerlock as a submission where his opponent was tapping away. THEN AGAIN I could be wrong and it just resembles a tap out.
The truth is that it was very difficult, if not impossible, to defeat Strangler Lewis in a legitimate wrestling match. Ed Lewis can only be defeated if he wanted to be defeated if it'll save the wrestling business.
Newsreel footage of early Thesz matches has not shown up in the various databases I'm using for research. Newsreel short-segments of a Thesz NWAlliance title-change match has been verified to exist, but remains unseen by any wrestling historian I know of. The earliest Thesz TV footage I've located is in several Kinescopes, but it is not online or easily accessible. It has been transferred to professional video tape, and we wrestling-film-history fans hope to obtain copies, over time.
A simple question: What in the world happened that ended this match? Did you see a pin? No. Was there a submission? Not that I could see. Did the Ref stop the match because of injury? He stopped it in seconds. A very strange ending. Also, though Thesz often said Lewis was the best, his certainly does not have many moves. Of course, he looks old too.
When the Syndex Act was passed into law around 1980 or so, it made it illegal for local TV stations to appear on cable TV channel lineups outside of their home states, but Superstation TBS and Superstation WGN were exempted from the law by being grandfathered in by the law. If the Syndex Act was repealed, regional wrestling could flourish and grow outside of their local markets, if the product is accepted by the viewing masses. Before Syndex, I could watch WWE Wrestling at MSG and Mets games.
@amichanmizuno A lot of the time, wrestlers would slap or pound the mat while in a hold to sell the "pain" to the crowd, or to "fire themselves up" to break loose. So a wrestler about to submit would often happen to be doing that, but just coincidentally. Tapouts only became rule in 1997, after Ken Shamrock. But maybe I'm wrong. Who was Thesz's opponent? On RU-vid?
This match was pre-determined. You'd have to go back to "Strangler" Lewis' early wrestling years (1910-1920) or back to Frank Gotch's wrestling years to watch real matches where wrestlers legitimately grappled and, sometimes, crippled each other.
I think you're referring to Stanislaus Zbyszko. To my knowledge, he faced the Great Gama twice and lost each time. I don't think Strangler Lewis ever met The Great Gama in the ring.
@@grawakendream8980 From Steve Yohe's book about Ed Strangler Lewis: "Looking fitter than ever, Ed "Strangler" Lewis, professional wrestling's ambassador of good will, landed in Paris after a very disappointing trip to India. Here, in the land of turbans, Lewis had made plans to meet Gama, the Ganges giant, who has defied the march of time. The contest was scrapped when the wary Hindu demanded a three month training period. Disgusted that the "dream-match" of his long career had fallen through, barrel chested Ed sailed for France." So Gama basically refused to fight The Strangler without preparation, knowing that he could easily be put in a headlock with no chance to escape.
