Olin Line 1916-19

[kvasir]

Hi,

I'd like to suggest some changes within this website's history of the Original World Heavyweight Championship first held by Georg Hackenschmidt.

1. The title history should start with Hackenschmidt's win over Tom Jenkins in 1905, not his tournament wins from 1901. Earlier claims are simply other titles. Not only Hackenschmidt has been crowned World Champion in European Tournaments since 1901. There have been a lot of other champions in this time period.

2. Steve Yohe's research issueing the World Title picture from 1915 to 1920 (which can be found on http://crowbarpress.com/column/yohe-01.htm ) gives some other information. I think their should be corrections in the World Title Lineage from 1917 to 1920 regarding the events after John Olin's World Title victory over Joe Stecher in 1916.

To understand the Olin Line events easier, it is necessary to realize that there were indeed four different World Titles in this time period:

A: The Original Title created in 1905 has been held by Joe Stecher, when he faced Johan Olin from Finland on December 11th, 1916.

B: The Olin-Line Title: Johan Olin's Management claimed some time after the match the championship. Your Title History gives the exact dates of when Ed Lewis, Wladek Zbyszko and again Ed Lewis won this Championship. (Meanwhile Earl Caddock won the Original Championship of Joe Stecher)

C: The First Zbyszko-Line Title: Wladek Zbyszko won a tournament in New York to crown a new Heavyweight Champion of the world. Olin-Line Champion Ed Lewis lost in the finals to Zbyszko, but did not put his World Title on the line. So a new championship is established. There are now 3 World Champions: Caddock, Lewis and Zbyszko. The First Zbyszko Championship comes to an end, when Wladek loses a unification Match on February 8th, 1918 to Earl Caddock by decision. Also Olin-Line Champion Lewis lost a Match against Caddock, but there is no title mentioned (June 6th,1918), so the Olin-Line still exists.

D: The Second Zbyszko-Line Title: Promoter Jack Curley announces Wladek Zbyszko as the new World Champion, when it seems that Earl Caddock has retired. This title does not follow the First Zbyszko-Line Title but is established out of the Original World Title. Finally the Second Z-Line Title and the Olin-Line title are unified on April 21nd, 1919, when Wladek Zbysko defeats Ed Lewis. On May 9th, 1919 Joe Stecher wins the Unfied Olin/Zbyszko2-Championship. I think this title still is the Olin-Title because the Z2-Title has been made up, while the Olin-Title has been established in the ring in 1916.

On January 30th 1919 Joe Stecher finally unifies the Olin-Line-Title and the Original World Title by defeating Earl Caddock.

Your Title History should be changed to the following:

Joe Stecher 15/07/05 Omaha, NE
Defeats Cutler with Frank Gotch in attendance.
John Olin # 16/12/11 Springfield, MA
Defeats Stecher but does not initially claim title.
Ed "Strangler" Lewis # 17/05/02 Chicago, IL
Defeats Olin; billed as a title match with Frank Gotch as a special referee.
Wladek Zbyszko # 17/06/05 San Francisco, CA
Not billed as title match; Zbyszko claims title after winning the only fall in a 2/3-fall match.
Ed "Strangler" Lewis [2] # 17/07/04 Boston, MA
Described as a world title win in the paper. Wladek Zbysko wins a tournament in New York to crown a new champion by defeating Lewis in the finals on 17/12/22. Lewis still claims the Olin Line title.
Earl Caddock 17/04/09 Omaha, NE
Defeats Stecher; also defeats Wladek Zbyszko on 18/02/08 in Des Moines, IA to unify two of the three branches; On 19/03/05 New York Promoter Jack Curley announces Wladek Zbyszko as new World Heavyweight Champion after rumours of Caddock's retirement spread. Zbyszko defeats Ed Lewis on 19/03/21 in New York, NY to unify their claims. Joe Stecher defeats Wladek Zbyszko on 19/05/09 in Louisville, KC for this championship; Joe Malcewicz claims that he defeats Caddock around 19/12 in Utica, NY, but the match actually take place on 21/01/14 (after Caddock loses the title).

Greetings from Europe
Kvasir

[Hisaharu Tanabe]

Sorry, it took so long. I just found the same information on Tim Hornbaker's site and finally modified the listing.

I hope this looks better:
http://www.wrestling-titles.com/world/world-h.html

Thanks for the info!

[kvasir]

Thank you for answering.

Tim Hornbaker's Title History seems to correlate with Steve Yohe's Article. I'm missing the following in your title history now: I think Joe Stecher has to be acknowledged as the last Olin-Line-Champion (see my first posting), then he unified all claims by defeating Caddock. Hornbaker does back this on his site (Cutler-Lineage).

I also want to suggest to correct the name of the first World Champion. It's "GEORG Hackenschmidt", not "GEORGE Hackenschmidt". He was born to a swedish-german couple in estonia. Hackenschmidt is a german surname and the name Georg is pronounced "Gay-Org" in german. (Source: the estonian Wikipedia http://et.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georg_Hackenschmidt).

Another Suggestion: You should point out on your listings for the European Greco-Roman Heavyweight Title that Carl Abs never won the title from Cannon, I think he crowned himself the champion, so these are different titles. (Maybe the two Championships of Tom Cannon are the same?) And the name of the Danish you call "Bech Olsen" was "Magnus Bech-Olsen".

Greetings from Europe
kvasir