10 Pro Wrestling Scandals You've Probably Never Heard Of

Back in the 1930s, Danno O’Mahony, an imposing physical specimen, was promoted as the world’s strongest man in true pro wrestling style. He’d been earmarked for the top because of his size and his look, not his talent… but he was no match for any of the old school hookers.

Nonetheless, Boston promoted Paul Bowser booked him to run a convincing winning streak angle while building to a title match with Jim Londos, who had a $70,000 bonus waiting for him as the primary incentive to finally drop the strap.

O’Mahony’s streak remained intact when he faced Londos for the heavyweight title in June 1935. Londos, eager for the money he’d been promised, put the inexperienced show pony over in the ring and in press interviews afterwards, telling the world that O’Mahony was strong enough to beat any man in the world.

That, of course, is the hyperbolic, carny language of pro wrestling as we know it today… but not everyone in the 1930s appreciated the art of the work, and every real wrestler knew that size and strength meant nothing at all in a real contest. To make matters worse, as the year wore on, the new champion wasn’t drawing as Bowser and his fellow promoters might have hoped. In point of fact, he was being mercilessly booed in many quarters, and to make matters worse, he was having trouble with his working visa.

With rival promoters looking to double-cross the champion and expose his lack of real skill, Bowser and O’Mahony began to simply leave arenas where they heard rumours that a shoot might take place, forfeiting the booked matches.

Believing that he could control the outcome with two of his boys in the ring, Bowser booked O’Mahony against new client Dick Shikat, and a title match was set for June 1936 at Madison Square Garden. However, Shikat went into business for himself, brutally punishing the champion to win the championship by submission. Within days of winning the heavyweight title, the calculating Shikat put the title up for auction, eventually selling it to Billy Sandow.

Shikat would be punished for his transgression by being booked into matches without his knowledge: failing to show up for fight after fight, he began to be suspended by regional regulatory commissions all over the country, limiting his ability to get work.

In the meantime, Danno O’Mahony simply carried on promoting himself as the champion for as long as he could get away with it, claiming that he’d been screwed out of the the title and was still the ‘legitimate’ champion.