[1932-06-09-Long Island, NY] Dick Shikat vs Strangler Lewis

[Loss]

[peachchaos]

Wow. I had no idea there is footage of Ed Lewis available.

 

I've been meaning to take a pilgrimage to see the historical marker dedicated to him in his home town, which is only a few hours away from me.

[fxnj]

Good slow building match. The cool thing with these guys is that they treated basic moves headlock or leg scissors as finishers when applied properly, so there's a nice tension in the opening moments when they do those otherwise mundane holds. They do a nice job getting mileage out of other holds, too, such as toeholds and arm locks. It's really not too different from 70's stuff with Inoki and Brisco. We only get 20 minutes but I also think it's pretty impressive Lewis worked an hour long match like this in his 40's. Good stuff towards the finish too with it looking like Shikat has his older opponent's number but Lewis finding just the right opportunity to pull out his strangle hold

[paul sosnowski]

Dick Shikat vs Ed "Strangler" Lewis

This match is a #1 Contenders Match for the New York State Athletic Commission World Heavyweight Championship, which existed from 1929-1934.   

It is from the Madison Square Garden Bowl, which was the name of an outdoor arena in the New York City borough of Queens. Built in 1932, the arena hosted circuses and boxing matches. Its seating capacity was 72,000 spectators on wood bleachers

[TravJ1979]

This was not for the New York State Athletic Commission World Title because Jim Londos was the champion on 6/9/32.  However, Londos was stripped of the title In September after he refused to defend it against the winner of this match between Lewis and Shikat.

[paul sosnowski]

Yes, that is correct...

[Embrodak]

You know it’s interesting how you can watch something as old as this and see things that, if you were wrestling, you might try to bring back for at least some matches. Drama over keeping both shoulders from touching the mat would be nice to see sometimes, if only to break up the monotony of the 2.9 count. Plus you could get a lot of fuck finishes out of that.