1948 in professional wrestling

1948 in professional wrestling describes the year's events in the world of professional wrestling.

Gallery

Video footage of professional wrestling in 1948

• A professional wrestling match between 'Killer' Leteur vs 'Hairy' Hessle in Paris, France in 1948
• Footage of a tag-team match between two of the Dusek brothers against "Moquin and Watson of Canada" in Montreal in 1948
• Highlight reel of Gorgeous George - first demonstrating his character before transitioning to footage of him performing in the ring. (No Sound)

List of notable promotions

Only one promotion held notable shows in 1948.

Promotion Name	Abbreviation
Empresa Mexicana de Lucha Libre	EMLL

Supercards and tournaments

Date	Promotion(s)	Event	Location	Main Event
September 22	EMLL	15th Anniversary Show (1)	Mexico City, Mexico	Ciclón Veloz defeated Blue Demon by disqualification in a best two-out-of-three falls match [1]
September 24		15th Anniversary Show (2)		Tarzán López (c) defeated Harry Fields in a best two-out-of-three falls match for the NWA World Middleweight Championship [2]
(c) – denotes defending champion(s)

Notable events

• July 18 – professional wrestling promotors Pinkie George, Orville Brown, Al Haft, Harry Light, Sam Muchnick, Don Owen, and Tony Stecher form the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA), a governing body who would be the primary influence on professional wrestling in North America until the mid-1980s. ^[3]
• September – Alejandro Muñoz Moreno debuts the Blue Demon wrestling persona in Mexico City. He would go on to become one of the most famous professional wrestlers in lucha libre as well as act in 26 lucha films. ^[4]
• Stu Hart and Al Oeming created Klondike Wrestling (later known as Stampede Wrestling).

Title changes

EMLL

NWA World Middleweight Championship
Incoming champion – Gory Guerrero
Date	Winner	Event/Show	Note(s)
April 12	Mike Kelly	EMLL Show	[2]

Mexican National Lightweight Championship
Incoming champion – Emilio Charles
Date	Winner	Event/Show	Note(s)
Uncertain	Vacated	N/A	The championship was vacated for undocumented reasons [5]
July	Joe Marin	EMLL Show	[5]
October 18	Black Shadow	EMLL Show	[5]

Mexican National Heavyweight Championship
Incoming champion – Firpo Segura
Date	Winner	Event/Show	Note(s)
Uncertain	Daniel Aldana	EMLL Show	[6]

NWA

NWA Worlds Heavyweight Championship
New [7]
Date	Winner	Event/Show	Note(s)
July 14	Orville Brown	NWA show	The NWA voted to recognize Brown as the Worlds Champion. Defeated Sonny Myers to solidify the claim. [7]

Awards and honors

• Luchador of the Year
  • Tarzán López (Mexico)

Arts and entertainment

• Angelo Poffo's world record for most consecutive sit-ups (6,033) is featured on the March 3 edition of Ripley's Believe It or Not! comic strip. ^[8]

Debuts

• March 31 – Blue Demon ^[9]
• November 24 – Tiny Mills ^[10]
• Date uncertain

• Bronco Lubich ^[10]
• The Fabulous Moolah ^[10]
• George Scott ^[10]
• Johnny Barend ^[10]
• Lord Athol Layton ^[10]
• Nelson Royal ^[10]
• Ray Gunkel ^[10]

Births

• January 8 – Bobby Jaggers, American professional wrestler (d. 2012)
• January 11 – Wajima Hiroshi, Japanese professional wrestler (d. 2018)
• January 30 – Black Bart ^[11] (d. 2025)
• February 7 – Kim Duk, Japanese professional wrestler
• February 19 – Big John Studd, ^{[12] [13]} American professional wrestler (d. 1995)
• March 3 - Ron Fuller
• March 14 - King Cobra
• May 15 – Coloso Colosetti, Argentinian professional wrestler (d. 2024)
• June 2 – Cynthia Peretti, American professional wrestler (d. 2009)
• June 23 – Earl Oliver, American wrestling columnist and historian
• June 29 – Leo Burke, Canadian professional wrestler (died in 2024)
• July 11 - Ernie Holmes, American professional wrestler and footballer (died in 2008)
• July 18 – Carlos Colón Sr., Puerto Rican professional wrestler and wrestling promoter
• July 27 – Greg Gagne, American professional wrestler
• July 28 – Bobby Bold Eagle, American wrestler
• August 6 – Dino Bravo, Canadian professional wrestler (d. 1993)
• August 8 - Dee Booher, American professional wrestler (d. 2022)
• August 27 – Sgt. Slaughter, ^[14] American professional wrestler
• September 3 - Butcher Brannigan, American professional wrestler (d. 2009)
• September 8 – Great Kabuki, Japanese professional wrestler
• September 12:
  • Rocky Hata (d. 1991)
  • Roberto Soto
• September 21 – Mitsuo Momota, Japanese professional wrestler
• September 26 – Kazuo Sakurada, Japanese professional wrestler (d. 2020)
• September 29 – Jaque Mate, Mexican luchador
• October 4 – Linda McMahon, wrestling executive ^[15]
• October 15 – Savannah Jack (died in 2012)
• November 4 - Buzz Tyler (died in 2021)
• November 12 - Goro Tsurumi (died in 2022)
• November 28 – Smith Hart, Canadian professional wrestler (d. 2017)
• December 21 – Ron Bass, American professional wrestler (d. 2017)
• December 28 - Izzy Slapawitz, American professional wrestler (d. 2019)

Deaths

• August 16 - Babe Ruth, 53

References

General

• Stern, Karl, ed. (2005). "The Time Line of Wrestling Part II" (PDF). DragonKing Wrestling. No. 83. Haleyville, Alabama: DragonKing Press. Archived from the original (PDF) on March 26, 2017.

Specific

1. "15th Anniversary Show". Pro Wrestling History. September 24, 1948. Retrieved September 27, 2012.
2. Royal Duncan & Gary Will (2006). "Mexico: EMLL NWA World Middlweight Title". Wrestling Title Histories (4th ed.). Archeus Communications. pp. 389–390. ISBN   0-9698161-5-4.
3. Shaun Assael and Mike Mooneyham (2002). Sex, Lies, and Headlocks: The Real Story of Vince McMahon and World Wrestling Entertainment. Crown. p. 8. ISBN   1-4000-5143-6.
4. Madigan, Dan (2007). "Los Enmascarados (the masked men): El Demonio Azul (the Blue Demon)". Mondo Lucha a Go Go: the bizarre& honorable world of wild Mexican wrestling. HarperCollins Publishers. pp. 79–90. ISBN   978-0-06-085583-3.
5. Royal Duncan and Gary Will (2000). "Mexico: National Lightweight Title". Wrestling Title Histories. Pennsylvania: Archeus Communications. p. 393. ISBN   0-9698161-5-4.
6. Royal Duncan and Gary Will (2000). "Mexico: National Heavyweight Title". Wrestling Title Histories. Archeus Communications. pp. 390–391. ISBN   0-9698161-5-4.
7. Duncan, Royal; Will, Gary (2000). ""United States: 19th century & widely defended titles – NWA, WWF, AWA, IWA, ECW, NWA: NWA World Heavyweight Title"". Wrestling title histories: professional wrestling champions around the world from the 19th century to the present. Waterloo, ON: Archeus Communications. p. 15. ISBN   0-9698161-5-4.
8. Hornbaker, Tim (2012). "Poffo, Angelo". Legends of Pro Wrestling: 150 Years of Headlocks, Body Slams, and Piledrivers. Skyhorse Publishing, Inc. ISBN   978-1613213148.
9. Harris M. Lentz III (21 October 2003). Biographical Dictionary of Professional Wrestling, 2d ed. McFarland. p. 42. ISBN   978-1-4766-0505-0.
10. "Wrestlers debuted in 1948: 1 - 24 of 24" . Retrieved December 26, 2018.
11. "Wrestlers born in 1955: 1 - 50 of 54". Wrestling Data. Retrieved February 1, 2020.
12. "Big John Studd profile". Online World of Wrestling. Retrieved 2011-03-24.
13. Krugman, Michael (2009). André the Giant: A Legendary Life. Pocket Books. p. 71. ISBN   978-1-4165-4112-7.
14. "Sgt. Slaughter Profile". Online World Of Wrestling. Retrieved 2009-10-19.
15. Dempsey, Bobbi (October 11, 2008). "Wrestling the Details". New York Times. Retrieved August 21, 2009.