Unfortunately, the overwhelming majority of pro-wrestling fans have extremely short memories and no knowledge of the history of the sport.
A baseball fan’s eyes would light up if you threw out a list of names like Christy Mathewson, Lou Gherig, Ty Cobb, Ted Williams, Hank Aaron, Brooks Robinson, Frank Robinson, Harmon Killebrew, and other “legends” from various eras of the game.
Throw out a list of names of wrestling “legends” from before 1980 to an average pro-wrestling fan and all you will get is the “deer in the headlights” look. Farmer Burns, George Hackenschmidt, Frank Gotch, Billy Sandow, Joe Stecher, Lou Thesz, Buddy Rogers, George Wagner, Antonino Rocca from the various eras of wrestling will bring a shrug of the shoulders, if not a yawn, from your average wrestling fan of today.
Despite its good intentions, this thread has the potential to devolve into a disguised GOAT thread with all the pitfalls that go with it.
Since the list of potential legends by the OP is in a VERY narrow time frame, I’ll go back to the beginning and briefly mention a true legend –
FARMER BURNS!
Burns wrestled in the era when all matches were shoots except for the carny shows. He started wrestling in
1880 and fought in around
6,000 matches – losing only
7 (SEVEN!). He defeated great opponents of the time like the original “strangler” - Evan “Strangler” Lewis (
NOT Ed “Strangler” Lewis who had not been born yet) and the first international professional Japanese wrestler, Sorakichi Matsuda, who was a top challenger to the championship.
Burns trained
Frank Gotch and prepared him to take the World Championship from
George Hackenschmidt.
He also trained greats like
Toots Mondt,
Rudy Dusek, and
Joe Malcewicz (who was just inducted in the PWHF fame last week). His writings on training methods were followed by many, many wrestlers.
What I find most interesting about Burns is the fact that despite being only 165 lbs. he developed a
20 inch neck! The story goes that after being defeated by Evan “Strangler” Lewis’ infamous “strangle hold” Burns was so pissed off that he worked out his neck until it became impervious to any hold or trauma. Then he defeated Lewis in their rematch. Except for guys who came up from the amateurs like
Kurt Angle, you rarely see pro-wrestlers with overly developed neck muscles nowadays.
Farmer Burns was a true wrestling legend and pioneer who not only defeated them all in the square circle, but trained myriad up and coming wrestling greats.
- Mike