This Day in Wrestling History (November 3) (The Strangler was from WI)

[TomM]

This Day in Wrestling History (November 3)
http://www.cagesideseats.com/2014/11/3/7150111/this-day-in-wrestling-history-november-3
By The Notorious Eddie Mac  @notoriouseddie  on Nov 3 2014, 11:45a

85 years ago today, Evan "The Strangler" Lewis died following a two-year battle with cancer in Dodgeville, Wisconsin. He was 59. Born May 24, 1860 in Ridgeway, Wisconsin, Lewis began wrestling professionally in May 1882. In his professional debut, he won a 64-man tournament. Less than a year after his debut, he became the Wisconsin Heavyweight Champion, and by 1885, he was defeating international sensations including Tom Cannon and Matsada Sorakichi, often with a stranglehold that is known today as the rear naked choke. He defeated Joe Action to win the American Catch-as-Catch-can Championship then unified them with the world Catch-as-Catch-can title after defeating Ernest Roeber in a best-of-five falls match in March 1893. With the rear naked choke declared largely illegal, in 1895, Lewis was defeated by "Farmer" Martin Burns.

Lewis retired soon after to his Ridgeway farm and served on the town board as a game warden. While Evan toiled mostly in anonymity, his namesake Ed "Strangler" Lewis (who lost the heavyweight championship on the day of the original Strangler's death-real name Robert Freidrich) went on to become one of the most famous and richest pro wrestlers in history more than a quarter century later. In another bit of cruel irony, the second Strangler is in the Wisconsin Athletic Hall of Fame, while the original, who actually spent the majority of his life in Wisconsin, is not.