20 Pro Wrestling Firsts You Need To Know

16. First Wrestling World Champion

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George Hackenschmidt became the first professional wrestling World Heavyweight Champion way back in 1905. Hackenschmidt won a number of tournaments in France, Germany, England, and Russia, before going on to beat American Heavyweight Champion Tom Jenkins in New York on May 4th. In doing so, he became the first recognised World Champion in professional wrestling.

Just short of three years later, Hackenschmidt lost his title to one of the first true legends of professional wrestling. Frank Gotch was that man, and he held the title of World Champion all the way up until his retirement in 1913. Gotch was far more prepared for his championship match than Hackenschmidt, and the story goes that Frank used a variety of tactics to defeat the Estonian brute.

Moving into the future, Buddy Rogers would become the first WWE (then WWWF) champion in 1963, when that company decided to leave the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA).

Contributor
Contributor

Born in the middle of Wales in the middle of the 1980's, John can't quite remember when he started watching wrestling but he has a terrible feeling that Dino Bravo was involved. Now living in Prague, John spends most of his time trying to work out how Tomohiro Ishii still stands upright. His favourite wrestler of all time is Dean Malenko, but really it is Repo Man. He is the author of 'An Illustrated History of Slavic Misery', the best book about the Slavic people that you haven't yet read. You can get that and others from www.poshlostbooks.com.