| John Olin | |
|---|---|
 John Olin in Chicago, c. 1917. | |
| Born | March 15, 1886 Boston, Massachusetts |
| Died | October 8, 1920 (aged 34) Kansas City, Kansas |
| Professional wrestling career | |
| Ring name(s) | John Olin |
| Billed height | 6 ft 3 in (1.91 m) |
| Billed weight | 245 lb (111 kg) |
| Trained by | Tom Cannon |
| Debut | July 14, 1904 |
John Olin (March 15, 1886 - October 8, 1920) was an American professional wrestler. He was a one-time World Heavyweight Champion. [1]
Olin was born in 1886. He started wrestling in 1904 at the age of 18. He was trained by the former European Greco-Roman Heavyweight Champion Tom Cannon. He wrestled his first match on July 14, 1904, against Ernest Roeber.
Olin was one of the earliest wrestlers in professional wrestling history and he was also one of the earliest wrestlers in the 20th century. He defeated Joe Stecher on December 11, 1916, in Springfield, Massachusetts, to become the World Heavyweight Champion. He briefly held the World Heavyweight Championship. His reign ended on May 2, 1917, in Chicago, Illinois, when he lost the title to Ed "Strangler" Lewis.
Olin died on October 8, 1920, as a result of heart failure. He was aged 34 at the time of his death.
Buddy Rogers, better known by the ring name "Nature Boy" Buddy Rogers, was an American professional wrestler who was one of the biggest professional wrestling stars in the beginning of the television era. His performances influenced future professional wrestlers, including "Nature Boy" Ric Flair, who used Rogers's nickname, as well as his look, attitude and finishing hold, the figure-four leglock. He was also known for his rivalry with Lou Thesz, both in and out of the ring.
Heavyweight is a weight class in combat sports and professional wrestling.
The WCW World Heavyweight Championship was a professional wrestling world heavyweight championship originally used in World Championship Wrestling (WCW) and later, the World Wrestling Federation. It was the original world title of the World Championship Wrestling promotion, spun off from the NWA World Heavyweight Championship. It existed in WCW from 1991 to 2001.
Aloysius Martin Thesz, known by the ring name Lou Thesz, was an American professional wrestler. Considered to be one of the last true shooters in professional wrestling and described as the "quintessential athlete" and a "polished warrior who could break a man in two if pushed the wrong way", Thesz is widely regarded as one of the greatest wrestlers and wrestling world champions in history, and possibly the last globally accepted world champion.
The World Heavyweight Championship was a men's professional wrestling world heavyweight championship created and promoted by the American promotion WWE. It was the second world championship to be created by the company, after their original world title, the WWE Championship (1963). The title was one of two top championships in the company from 2002 to 2006 and from 2010 to 2013, complementing the WWE Championship, and one of three top championships from 2006 to 2010 with the addition of the ECW World Heavyweight Championship.
Laverne Clarence Gagne was an American amateur and professional wrestler, football player, wrestling trainer and wrestling promoter. He was the owner and promoter of the Minneapolis-based American Wrestling Association (AWA), the predominant promotion throughout the Midwest and Manitoba for many years. He remained in this position until 1991, when the company folded.
Harley Leland Race was an American professional wrestler, promoter, and trainer.
Edward George Farhat was an American professional wrestler, better known by his ring name The Sheik. In wrestling, Farhat is credited as one of the originators of the hardcore style. In addition to his in-ring career, he was also the promoter of Big Time Wrestling, which promoted shows at Cobo Hall in Detroit until the 1980s, and was the booker for Frank Tunney's shows at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto from 1971 to 1977.
Kerry Gene Adkisson, better known by his ring name Kerry Von Erich, was an American professional wrestler. He was part of the Von Erich family of professional wrestlers. He is best known for his time with his father's promotion World Class Championship Wrestling (WCCW), where he spent eleven years of his career, and his time in World Wrestling Federation (WWF), under the ring name the Texas Tornado. Adkisson held forty championships in various promotions during his career. Among other accolades, he was a one-time NWA Worlds Heavyweight Champion, four-time WCWA World Heavyweight Champion, making him an overall five-time world champion and one-time WWF Intercontinental Champion.
Robert Herman Julius Friedrich, better known by the ring name Ed "Strangler" Lewis, was an American professional wrestler and trainer. During his wrestling career, which spanned four decades, Lewis was a four-time World Heavyweight Wrestling Champion and overall recognized officially as a five-time world champion. Considered to be one of the most iconic and recognizable sports stars of the 1920s, often alongside boxer Jack Dempsey and baseball player Babe Ruth, Lewis notably wrestled in over 6,000 matches and lost only 32 of them.
Martin Burns, nicknamed Farmer Burns, was an American catch wrestler, wrestling coach, and teacher. Born in Cedar County, Iowa, he started wrestling as a teenager and made money traveling around the Midwest wrestling in carnivals and fairs. As a professional wrestler, he claimed the American Heavyweight Championship by defeating Evan "Strangler" Lewis in 1895 and held the title for two years, during the time when contests were legitimate. At this time, Martin Burns himself claimed to have wrestled in more than 6,000 matches and is said to have lost only seven. After the end of his active wrestling career he started a successful wrestling school in Omaha and later coached Cedar Rapids' Washington high school to the first Iowa high school state wrestling tournament title. He died in Council Bluffs in 1937. In 2001 Martin "Farmer" Burns was inducted into the International Wrestling Institute and Museum Hall of Fame. He was also inducted into the Wrestling Observer Newsletter Hall of Fame in 2002. The Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame inducted Martin Burns in 2003 and Burns was inducted into the WWE Hall Of Fame in 2017. In 2024 he was inducted into the Nebraska Pro Wrestling Hall of Fame.
Freddie Joe "Jack" Brisco was an American amateur wrestler and professional wrestler. As an amateur for Oklahoma State, Brisco was two-time All-American and won the NCAA Division I national championship. He turned pro shortly after and performed for various territories of the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA), becoming a two-time NWA World Heavyweight Champion, and multi-time NWA World Tag Team Champion with his brother Gerald Brisco.
Earl Caddock was an American professional wrestler and World Heavyweight Champion who was active in the early portion of the twentieth century. As the first man to bill himself as "The Man of 1,000 Holds", Caddock was one of professional wrestling's biggest stars between the years of 1915 and 1922.
William Alfred Robinson was an English professional wrestler, amateur wrestler, and coach. Having trained at Riley's Gym, better known as "the Snake Pit", Robinson was one of the leading practitioners of catch wrestling, a national champion in freestyle wrestling, and a professional wrestling world champion. He had a successful career in Britain and internationally, especially in Japan. He was known for training professional wrestlers and mixed martial artists in the catch wrestling style, including Josh Barnett, Kazushi Sakuraba, Kiyoshi Tamura, and Shayna Baszler. His favourite saying as a coach was "do it again", which came from his trainer Billy Riley. Robinson acted in several movies including The Wrestler and inspired the fictional manga/anime character Robin Mask.
Juan Kachmanian was an Armenian-American professional wrestler, better known by his ring name, Pampero Firpo.
Ruben Cruz was a Puerto Rican professional wrestler, better known by his ring name Hercules Ayala. He competed in Canadian and international wrestling promotions including the eastern Canadian Grand Prix Wrestling, the Calgary-based Stampede Wrestling, New Japan Pro-Wrestling in Japan and World Wrestling Council in Puerto Rico.
Johan Fredrik "John" Olin was a Finnish wrestler who competed in the 1912 Summer Olympics. He won the silver medal in the heavyweight class.
Ihakara Te Tuku Rapana, commonly known as Ike Robin, was a New Zealand sportsman, businessman, orator and member for the Māori Anglican Church. A champion sheep shearer and professional wrestler, he was the first national heavyweight champion recognised by the National Wrestling Association and successfully defended the title against some of the top stars of the Gold Dust Trio-era, most notably, Stanislaus Zbyszko in 1926. Over 40 years after his death, he was ranked No. 7 in a top ten list of New Zealand's greatest wrestlers by Fight Times Magazine in 2009.
The World Heavyweight Wrestling Championship was the first recognized professional wrestling world heavyweight championship created in 1905 to identify the best catch as catch can wrestler in the world.
Bobby Eugene Nutt, better known by his ring name Ron Starr, was an American professional wrestler. Starr was a mainstay for numerous wrestling territories throughout the 1970s and 80s, capturing almost three dozen championships throughout his career including two reigns as NWA World Junior Heavyweight Champion and several reigns as NWA World Tag Team Champion. He was also notable for his involvement with Stampede Wrestling in Canada and his tenure with the World Wrestling Council (WWC) in Puerto Rico. Starr has been called "one of the unsung heroes of the territory days of professional wrestling" and "one of the most effective heels that territorial professional wrestling had ever seen.