I first covered pioneer era wrestling special attraction Yusuf Ismael, aka The Terrible Turk, on an early episode of my 1000 Hours pioneer era-focused subseries here on the DragonKing Classic Wrestling Show, but the Terrible Turk deserves a follow up as requested by
On a new DragonKingKarl Classic Wrestling Show, I have a detailed look at the month of May 1984 in pro wrestling history. It was one of the most significant months ever: Kerry Von Erich wins the NWA World title from Ric Flair in
I have recently spent many hours digging through hundreds of pages of 1870 newspapers from Detroit, Chicago, Ontario, and beyond chronicling the real story of the biggest tournament in history of American pro wrestling in the pioneer era: the Detroit International tournament. On
I return to my roots on this edition of the DragonKingKarl Classic Wrestling Show by discussing 1980s Southeastern and Continental Wrestling. What made it so great? What are some of the myths about it? What did Ron Fuller get wrong recently on his
The latest entry into my 1000 Hours series on the DragonKingKarl Classic Wrestling Show looks at the pioneer era of wrestling in Australia of all places. Believe it or not, there was pro wrestling there in the 1800s, and one of America’s top
Karl is back with a look at the new WWE Network Bray Wyatt documentary which dives into his career, characters, and family which include classic era wrestlers Mike Rotundo, Blackjack Mulligan, and Barry and Kendal Windham. This was a very good documentary that
Pro wrestling historian and author Karl Stern (DragonKingKarl) returns with the 1000 Hours podcast series which looks at pre-1900 pro wrestling. On this episode, a listener has requested a look at the facts versus mythology about United States Presidents who have legitimately wrestled.
On this episode of the DragonKingKarl Classic Wrestling Show, host Karl Stern continues his look at wrestling history at Madison Square Garden in New York in the year 1931. He also continues his look back at Dave Meltzer’s epic biography on the life
On this edition of the DragonKingKarl Classic Wrestling Show, I take a look at a great retro article from a 1972 wrestling magazine asking whether Ed “Strangler” Lewis was the greatest wrestler of all time. I then continue taking a look at Dave
The pioneer era (pre-1900) of pro wrestling flourished in the Great Lakes area of the United States. While initially the Northeast, and especially New York and Vermont were early hotspots, cities like Detroit, Chicago, Cleveland, and the entire Great Lakes region became very
WWE Today, wrestling historian Karl Stern returns with another in-depth look at a month in pro wrestling history. Karl looks back at April 1984 — and a lot was going on. The WWF was accelerating its national expansion by stealing the AWA’s TV
AEW On this episode of the DragonKingKarl Classic Wrestling Show, we hit on several different topics and listener favorites. We take a look at the next match in the Greatest Kayfabe Tournament: Sting vs. The Rock. We begin a massive biography on the
On this episode of the DragonKingKarl Classic Wrestling Show, I continue my 1000 Hours research on the pioneer era of wrestling. A sponsor of the show requested some research on wrestling in Russia before George Hackenschmidt. Interestingly, wrestling in Russia came relatively late in
This week pro wrestling historian Karl Stern takes a look at more wrestling history from Madison Square Garden in New York with more on Jim Londos as the world champion, the remaining bracket for the Greatest Kayfabe Tournament (GKT) is discussed, a 1980’s
Strongmen and pro wrestling go hand in hand. Who can forget the muscled up 1980s? Yet, the more things change, the more they stay the same. In the pioneer era of wrestling, your prototypical strongmen and bodybuilders were also featured alongside and inside
Welcome to a revamped edition of the DragonKingKarl Classic Wrestling Show, perhaps version 2.0 or a reboot or whatever you might like to call it. On this episode, I present the next match in my Greatest Kayfabe Tournament (GKT): Antonio Inoki vs. Steve
I mean, Barney Smith was probably dead under the best of circumstances. He went to the finals of American pro wrestling’s first-ever major championship tournament in 1870. But, as we have been researching for a long time now, there seemed to be no
On this edition of the DragonKingKarl Classic Wrestling Show, I travel back to 2016 for Dave Meltzer’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter biography of Blackjack Mulligan. Mulligan was a big, tough cowboy heel and babyface who also booked around the country. He was a top
On a new DragonKingKarl Classic Wrestling Show, I present the 100th installment in my long-form history of pro wrestling series. This week, join me in looking back at March 1984 which had the fallout from the shocking death of David Von Erich in
On a new DragonKingKarl Classic Wrestling Show, I present hour 36 of 1000 Hours, my series all about the pioneer era of pro wrestling. On this episode, we do a lot of research including some new tidbits about Col. James H. McLaughlin (seen
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