Contents

Introduction
1 The beginnings
Ancient Egypt
Assyria and Babylonia
Cretan bull dancers
Jewish legend
Ancient China
2 The Greeks
Adventures of Odysseus
Olympic wrestling
The palaestra
The pankration
Prodigious feats of Milo
Early professionals
3 The Roman arena
The Etruscans
Greco-Roman style
Tournaments and festivals
Commodus and Maximian, the wrestling Emperors
Abolition of the Olympic Games
4 Around the world
The Far East
Sumo and ju-jitsu
India and Pakistan
Turkey
Early tournaments and travelling shows in Europe
Sandow and the strongman cult
Growth of world tours
Amateur wrestlers
5 Regional styles in Britain
The Book of Leinster
Annual matches at Clerkenwell
Henry VIII v. Francis I
The Witsuntide Cotswold Games
Devonshire and Cornwall
Cumberland and Westmorland
Highland gatherings
Other regions
6 Early wrestling in America
Indians and early settlers
Abraham Lincoln
Carnivals and side-shows
J.H. McLaughlin and the collar-and-elbow style
Greco-Roman revival
William Muldoon
Yousouf the Terrible Turk
Early free-style champions
7 The Golden Age
Music-hall wrestllers in Britain
Georges Hackenschmidt and C.B. Cochran
Stanislaus Zbyszco, Tom Jenkins, Frank Gotch and the American boom
8 Between the wars
Newspapers stop reporting bouts
Adminsitrative chaos but great American champions emerge-strangler Lewis, Stecher, Londos and the young Thesz
Promoters woo the crowds with women wrestlers
Tag-teams and battle royals, midgets, cages and barbed-wire rings
Gama the Indian champion
Developments in Britain
9 American wresting since 1945
Thesz and Watson
'showmanship and acrobatics'
Demands of television
Boxers-turned-wrestlers
Popularity reaches a new peak
Great champions of the '50s and '60s
Villains and gimmicks
Women wrestlers
Midgets
10 British & European wrestling since 1945
British boxers-turned-wrestlers
The sport becomes organized
Tournaments and television
New stars of the small screen
Wrestling in Europe
Acknowledgments
Index