Hack and Gotch

Hack and Gotch

If there was a point in time that you could point to and say, "that's where pro wrestling was birthed," there would be no better place than April 3, 1908. On that day a match took place that would forever set the tempo for how the sport would play out up to and beyond this writing. Georg Hackenschmidt, the first world champion in pro wrestling history, was in Chicago to take on American grappler Frank A. Gotch in what can be best described as the first, "dream match." However the feud on display between the two men was more opera than sport, filled with real life matches, real life animosity, and real life injured bodies and relationships. In short, it was pro wrestling at its finest and it would change both men's lives irrevocably. Wrestling historian and writer Mike Chapman noted, to illustrate the epic nature of this battle, "In all of athletic history, there are a mere handful of rivalries between individual stars that have become almost as large as the sport itself. In boxing, such matchups as Sullivan-Corbet, Dempsey-Tunney, Louis-Conn, and Ali-Frazier are a part of boxing folklore. In wrestling, there is only one: Gotch–Hackenschmidt." This is where wrestling begins and ends.


As background, Gotch was the American darling and champion, Hackenscmidt was the World Champion in England; so this match was the equivalent of Goldberg-Austin type match. Both were real shooters, trained in deadly grappling arts; both known as cantankerous champions who could decide a match by their strength of will alone, and had. This was the true feud of the century, and their actual matches would live up to the hype; while at the same time cementing that legacy that wrestling clings to even today. To top it all off, these were fixed shoot matches; at least depending who you ask. Some writers (contemporaries and historians) swear that the bout was fixed; but most contend that, seeing as neither man was really willing to put over the other man, it was a real match.

To start things off, Hack had been offered (and refused) public training sessions in Chicago; instead choosing to go for long walks along Lake Michagan and spending solitary nights alone in his hotel room. Arrangements had been made especially by the club, and because of his no show, he was barred. This was also a major show of disdain towards his opponent and American Wrestling as a whole; and is a precursor to the inflated ego heels that would come later. And of course in true to heel fashion, this blunder would come back to haunt him in the match. There are further connotations from this rebuking of the Americans, from the actions of the referee to the continuous eye gouges Gotch would employ; to the very idea of weather or not it was a staged bout. The punishment that Gotch would deal out seems to indicate he wanted to take Hack out

Gotch was in the best shape of his life at this point; and was ready to teach the pompous heel a lesson in American Wrestling. Aside from his superior conditioning, his speed and size, his rough and often nefarious tactics, and his devastating toehold; Gotch had another advantage in his bag of dirty tricks. That was an American referee that took particular exception to Hack's superior attitude, and cut him absolutely no slack throughout the match. Gotch went to work early, wearing down the champ and working towards his back. This being an old school, real Rasslin affair; the combatants stood up on their feet for about two whole hours before Gotch finally got behind Hack and dropped him to the mat. Gotch roughed Hack around the ring in that time, leaning on him, throwing thumbs in his eyes, and head butting him until the champ was wearing pro wrestling's first Crimson Mask. Hack called for clemency from the ref a number of times, to no avail. At one point he even asked that Gotch go take a shower to wash off the literally buckets of oil he had drenched himself with before the bout; only to be famously told, "he should have noticed the oil before the match began." Then Gotch punched him in the nose. This is where the veil between work and shoot seems to lift. In contemporary descriptions of the bout Hack, though often portrayed as the villain, is described as being legitimately confused by the whole affair; showing similar body language to Bret Hart in Montreal. As an outside observer, it is easy to make the assumption that Hack had been promised a victory, or at least a valiant loss; but Gotch wasn't going to make it valiant at all. He was going to embarrass Hack and show him up.

Around two hours into the match is when it all changed. Hack was thrown into the ropes, slammed down onto the mat, and throughly stretched as Gotch went for his toehold; which Hack had specifically trained to escape, and did. However that exertion had left him psychically drained and... Well to be honest at this point it gets a little hazy. What we know to be true is that Hack did surrender that first fall (matches at this time we're best 2 out of 3 falls) to Gotch; saying, "I surrender the championship of the world to Mr. Gotch," and shaking his hand. But then, after returning to the dressing room to prepare for the second fall of the match; Hack apparently decided to not to return to the ring, essentially giving up his belt willingly. Again the divide between work and shoot deepens; fact and fiction are one in the same when it comes to these legendary stories. Again it leads credence to my theory that Hack had been promised a very different kind of match; and his comments later would further indicate this.

As far as this part of the match is concerned (in wrestling, "reality") Hack conceded that he had lost to the better man (qualifying that with the excuse of injuries) allegedly calling Gotch, "the greatest man by far I ever met;" however this apparent respect for the new champ wouldn't last; and perhaps was never there as many quotes from his era were embellished or simply made up. I say this because later on Hack would change his tune, saying he had been tricked by the Americans and "fouled by Gotch," and called for a rematch in Europe; which would of course take place in America. Again, more credence to the overall theory that Hack was part of the first big time wrestling screw job.

The idea of two monster champions feuding was born. The heel was born. The technical baby face was born. The screw job was born. Pro wrestling was bubbling fervently to life now. Everything was set for the epic rematch.

1911 in the newly opened Comiskey Park (in Chicago again) the two men met for the highly anticipated sequel match; drawing a crowd of 30,000 and bringing in a whopping (for the time) gate of $87,000 dollars. This may be the most famous and infamous wrestling match of all time, and it is definitely the one with the most controversy. It was a shoot match, plain and simple; and the first truly great one in a promotion that was usually staged. This time, at least in my humble opinion, there was no room for argument; Hack got screwed. The first thing was Hack was injured in the weeks before the bout, but how exactly this happened (or if it even actually happened) remains in question. According to Hack, he sustained the injury in a training match with his long time training partner Dr. Roller. However there is also the old wrestling tale that grappler Al Santel bragged to Lou Thesz that he had been paid $5000 (by Gotch) to do the knee job in a match they had; a claim that has been attributed to and by other grapplers as well. Whatever really happened, and weather or not Hack was actually even injured, he went into the match quoted as saying he was, "fit to wrestle for my life" and was "satisfied with my condition and confident of the outcome."

He shouldn't have been. Gotch tore into him early, found the injury weakness was pliable, and set to work putting Hack into the toehold. This match was not by any means the tantric bout they had summoned into 1908; and Hack was defeated roundly in straight sets in just under 20 minutes. At the end, Hack gave up under the toehold and Gotch secured his title retainment; a classic squash match. It was the end of one era and the beginning of another; the first veteran to new guard belt drop in wrestling history. To give you an idea of how dominant Hack had been for all those years, in his entire career, Hackenschmidt engaged in about 3,000 matches; and lost only two. Yup, those two to Frank Gotch. Perhaps the greatest wrestler ever known was supplanted by the new Greatest of All Time; his name to be relegated to the pages of wrestling history.

Hack had three weaknesses which Gotch was able to exploit and use to ultimately defeat him. Firstly, when facing an opponent who was of his caliber, Hack had trouble adapting. Most of his opponents hadn't been up to his level, and in facing Gotch he was not prepared for the terrible onslaught that was to come. Gotch worked that knee so well, Hack was dead in the water. The second was that he could easily become depressed and irascible, leading him to shut himself off in his hotel room without properly training for his bout. Against a lesser man this would have not effected him so much, but against Gotch it would be his undoing. The final weakness was his lack of (as stated by the referee that may or may not have led the screw job) "gameness;" or his inability to convert in the biggest matches of his life. I mentioned his unbelievable (and probably embellished) streak of victories (which make The Streak look like a cup of coffee in the big time) so you take this anyway you like. Either Hack had beaten three thousand men before meeting with a, "proper opponent," like Gotch, or it was all an elaborate lie set up to push Hack further in superstardom. Sadly, the former is likely true; that a) Cochrane and other promoters who worked with Hack made damn sure he won every bout and b) that Hack was one of those superior physical specimens that only comes around once or twice in a lifetime. Gotch was the other one, but he had the, "gameness," or just the resolve, to do whatever it took to take his place in wrestling history.

Next time: The story of Frank Gotch continues.