Views From The Turnbuckle: Wrestling's Greatest Comet
It's the summer of 1935, and traffic has been brought to a standstill in Boston. Entering the city has become a nightmare, a rather strange occurrence since this appeared to be a typical Thursday night in the Hub. What did end up being unique about June 27th, 1935, was the ascendance of Boston's favorite Irishman, Danno O'Mahoney, to the top of professional wrestling. O'Mahoney was slated to face the kingpin of wrestling in the 1930s, the "Golden Greek" Jim Londos, for the National Wrestling Association and New York State World Championships.
The match was perhaps the first wrestling event to really attract a national audience to its location, making it the predecessor to events like Wrestlemania, where fans from around the world gather to celebrate wrestling. Both Londo's and Danno trained in the city in the week leading up to the match, and attended banquets and luncheons thrown throughout the city, outdating events such as Axxess by nearly 75 years. Fans flocked to historic Fenway Park from all over the area. Promoter Roy Fabiani from Philadelphia brought a train load of fans from Philly to the event, and trains arrived into Atlantic Avenue from all over the East Coast carrying fans to see the historic encounter.
Over 25,000 fans filed into the ballpark to see the match. After 1 hour 17 minutes of rough and tumble fighting, Danno caught the champion off the ropes with a flying body scissors and secured the pinfall. It was Londo's first clean loss in over six years, and the last one of his career. The Irish rookie had become the world champion.
The Irish in Boston have been by the far the largest and most influential ethnic group in the city since the 1850s. Today, about one in every five citizens identifies themselves as Irish. Naturally, the citizens of the city look to their fellow Irish to inspire them, from the fields of sport, to the stage of acting. Athletes, particularly in baseball and boxing, had already achieved a great amount of success in Boston, most notably the bare-knuckled boxing champion, John L. Sullivan.
Since wrestling (even back then) was decided upon fixed outcomes, it seemed natural that an Irish champion would do well in the city, and should have been relatively easy to manufacture. However, no Irish champion had come along since William Muldoon, and that was when the professional ranks were still in its infancy. To tap into the large Irish population, the industry would need someone special.
Paul Boswer was a successful middleweight in the 1910s and 20s, but he eventually turned to promoting. Operating out of Boston, he found great success in 1928, when he recruited football star Gus Sonnenberg to come work for him. Despite his inexperience, Sonnenberg was an instant success, introducing the flying tackle into wrestling and winning the world title from the legendary Ed "Strangler" Lewis less than a year after his debut.
Throughout the next several years, Bowser clashed with rival promoters, most notably Jack Curley in New York. By 1933, everyone had tired of the promotional fighting, and the major powers agreed on a peace treaty. The seven most powerful promoters in the country, Bowser (Boston), Toots Mondt and Curley (New York), Tom Packs (St. Louis), Ed White and Lou Daro (Los Angeles), Fabiani (Philly) and Rudy Dusek (the South) all agreed to share talent and to not run shows in opposition of each other. With the iconic Londos as their universal champion, 1934 ended up being one of the greatest years in the history of the business. However, trouble was brewing because as the universal champion, Londos ended up having more authority over the organization than any of the promoters. Quietly, the promoters began to scheme for Londos to be replaced by a new champion, someone they could more easily control. Of course, Londos was the greatest draw in the history of the sport, so not just anyone could replace him.
The dynamic Bowser connected the dots between the need for an Irish star, and the need for a popular new champion. Bowser sent his close friend and frontman, Jack McGrath, directly to the Emerald Isle to find a new prospect. After being turned down by two-time Olympic gold medalist Patrick O'Callaghan, McGrath was directed to an army base, with a private by the name of Danno O'Mahoney (spelled in Ireland as O'Mahony). McGrath watched the private work out and was immediately impressed by the young man's strength and image. As Bowser had proven with Sonnenberg, actual wrestling ability didn't matter that much when it came to drawing money. He told Bowser that he had found his man.
After several weeks of training in England, Danno was brought over to America, where he signed a five year deal worth $100,000 with Bowser, an unheard of deal for a rookie. Danno was then brought to Bowser's chief trainer, where he was given a signature move the Irish Whip, although it more closely resembled a modern day arm drag.
After a tremendous advertising campaign, Danno was scheduled to have his first match in America on January 4th, 1935, in the Boston Garden. His opponent would be the well-respected and capable veteran Ernie Dusek, one of the first great heels and was managed by his brother, Rudy. Bowser's faith in an Irish star was redeemed, as 14,000 Irishmen came out to cheer on their countryman.
Dusek started the match with classic heel tactics, drawing heat from the crowd. After about ten minutes of being beaten, Danno came to life thanks to the raucous crowd and made a fiery comeback, felling Dusek with the Irish Whip and taking the first fall. During the second fall, Dusek again took control, and once again Danno made a comeback. Danno's spirited comebacks after taking tons of punishment would go on to be called an "Irish Comeback." This time however, halted the comeback with a flying tackle. The Boston fans, after seeing the wild success of Gus Sonnenberg, had been trained to believe that the flying tackle was the end-all-be-all of a match. However, Danno quickly got back to his feet, something nobody had ever really done. Shocked, Dusek went for a second tackle, but was laid out on the rebound by a stiff right hand. Another Irish Whip, and Dusek was toast.
After the final bell, Rudy Dusek jumped Danno from behind and soon his brother joined in. Heroically, Danno fought them both off to the delirium of the crowd. Standing bloodied in the ring, Danno laid into the two treacherous siblings, eventually pushing down the referee who tried to interfere and even socking a few Boston cops who came into to break up the fight. The Boston Garden was burning down to the ground. Two weeks later, a return match between Danno and Rudy Dusek drew 16,000 fans to the Garden to see Danno win in two straight falls.
O'Mahoney would continue to train in Boston and most experts agreed that he was showing solid improvement in the ring with each passing match. He continued to build up a reputation, traveling around the northeast. His biggest win to date came on February 18th, when he defeated noted shooter and perennial opponent of Jim Londos, Ray Steele at Madison Square Garden.
While O'Mahoney was becoming a great success, trouble was soon afoot. On April 1st, Danno faced off against Dick Shikat at MSG. Shikat was noted to be a tremendous shooter, and also for being difficult to work with. Shikat had felt swindled and lied to by the members of the trust, most notably New York promoter Toots Mondt. It was also clear that Shikat resented the big push given to this new rookie O'Mahoney. Shikat took advantage of the inexperienced O'Mahoney and began to shoot on the rookie. Obviously in over his head in the ring, O'Mahoney was lost and the crowd was confused by what was taking place. Frustrated, Danno threw a vicious right hand that broke Shikat's nose. Shikat responded with a shoot kick to O'Mahoney's ribs that doubled him over. The referee disqualified Shikat, and the match ended with pretty much everyone involved confused.
Despite the troubles in New York, Danno was set up for his biggest match yet, taking on the famed shooter Lewis is heavily promoted match on April 26th. 20,000 fans filled the Boston Garden to see the rookie take on the legend. After 20 minutes, O'Mahoney secured the first fall with an Irish Whip. Frustrated at being pinned, Lewis tossed Danno out of the ring before the second fall began. With his Irish temper flaring, O'Mahoney shoved cops aside and got back into the ring, where he unloaded on Lewis, "knocking" him out. Because Lewis was unconscious, he was unable to compete in the second fall, so the bout was awarded to Lewis. Again, the Garden became unglued.
With his momentum back on the upswing, O'Mahoney continued to represent the trust, traveling to California and making his mark on the Golden State. His most important victory came on May 8th, against Los Angeles stalwart Man Mountain Dean, in a match that drew over 10,000 to the Olympic Auditorium. O'Mahoney would later secure big wins in St. Louis against George Zaharias, and back in Boston against Sonnenberg.
The time had arrived for Londos to lose his championship. While he was still wrestling's top draw, the power he had gained was too much for the ego's of the promoters, and due to terrible business practices, Londos was no longer a big draw in New York, the country's largest market. While Bowser was behind Danno, the other promoters in the trust had their own golden boys who they wanted to become the new champion, including a very young Lou Thesz, and football great Bronko Nagurski. However, Danno's marketability and Bowser's creativity were enough to convince the other promoters that he was the right guy to take the strap from Londos.
Getting Londos to drop the title was a simple enough, if not very expensive, endeavor. Bowser offered Londos $70,000 to drop the world title to Danno at Fenway Park. Londos had talked about retirement, and Bowser's Godfather offer was too much to turn down. He ended up doing a clean job and, forever the professional, put over Danno in the newspapers, saying " "I knew after the first five minutes I would have to be lucky to win. The kid is green, but with his strength, I believe he can beat any man in the world. And when I took the bout, the New York people told me I had nothing to fear! I wish I knew as much before I signed... and this bout would have never taken place."
With Londos out of his way, Danno had only one final foe to conquer. In 1930, Bowser had created his own wrestling promotion, the American Wrestling Association (not to be confused by the company by the same name run by Verne Gagne) and recruited amateur wrestling star Ed Don George to be his big star. George quickly defeated Sonnenberg to become the promotions new champion. George would continue to hold the title for several years, and was recognized in Boston as the "real" world champion. Naturally, a showdown between George and O'Mahoney was sure to happen.
The title unification match took place on July 30th, 1935, at Braves Field in Boston. 40,000 fans came out to see it. Traffic was so atrocious that many fans just abandoned their cars in the middle of the road and walked to the stadium. It was reported in the Boston Globe the next day that, the traffic jam was not resolved until 2:30 am the following morning, with the assistance of over one hundred police officers.
The match ended up being a catastrophe. The special referee was boxing World Champion James J. Braddock (of the film "Cinderella Man" fame) and Mr. Braddock was not necessarily familiar with wrestling rules. After 90 minutes, George tossed Danno out of the ring. Braddock counted to 20, but did not call for the bell, as what should have taken place once Danno was counted out. However, Braddock ended up pretending to not know what was going on, and when George informed him of the count-out rule, O'Mahoney snuck back into the ring and dumped George to the outside. Thinking he had all day to enter the ring, George took his time getting up. By the time he got back in the ring, he had realized that he had in fact, been counted out, and Danno was the new, undisputed, world champion.
The crowd went ballistic. Riots ensued and all three men involved ended up fighting their way to the back. The decision to award Danno the title in such controversial fashion was the first major mistake in the booking of the youngster. George was a big hero in Boston, a likeable babyface champion in the mold of guys like Lou Thesz and Jack Brisco. While Danno was also a huge star, having him defeat a fan-favorite in what some would interpret as a sneaky fashion was not the wisest move. For the first time in his short career, some boos where thrown in O'Mahoney's direction. A return match between the two drew 25,000 to Fenway, with O'Mahoney going over clean and shaking hands with George in the ring, afterwards.
O'Mahoney continued to tour the country as the world champion, and while he had some strong successes at the gate, promoters had become tired of having only one world champion. Transportation in 1935 made it impossible for a single champion to represent every single promoter, and O'Mahoney was suspended by the Pennsylvania Athletic Commission for failing to show up for a title defense.
O'Mahoney continued to defend his title throughout the rest of 1935, but a second big blunder soon occurred. In late November, after a title defense in Toronto, O'Mahoney was prohibited from re-entering the United States due to a visa issue. Normally this would be a fairly simple problem, but it was now revealed that while in Boston, Danno had been married to a local girl. The fact that he was married to an American citizen drew ire, as his long term residency potential in the states was greatly increased. Eventually sensing a potential issue, Bowser made the decision to find a backup plan.
Bowser brought in a charismatic young babyface from Montreal named Yvon Robert. Robert was originally scheduled to be on the undercard of an event headlined by a Danno vs Steele match, and a number one contenders match between Leo Numa and Hans Steinke. Numa ended up being injured before the bout, so Robert was inserted into his spot and made quick work of Steinke, in theory becoming the new number one contender. However, after Danno defeated Steele in the main event, his manager Jack McGrath announced that since the agreement was originally that Danno would have to face either Numa or Steinke, he wasn't obligated to defend his title against Robert. O'Mahoney was supposed to be a great hero, yet he had chosen a cowards way out of defending his title.
A bigger mistake was perhaps made on January 8th, 1936. After a successful title defense at a show in Holyoke, Mass. O'Mahoney was confronted by Robert, who challenged him again for the title. O'Mahoney refused and Robert whipped him, unloading a flurry of offense and embarrassing the champion. Again, O'Mahoney looked like a wimp and a coward, despite the fact he was supposed to be a hero.
O'Mahoney's claim to the National Wrestling Associations world title came to an end after an incident in Galveston, Texas. O'Mahoney, McGrath and Paul Jones got wind that Danno's opponent for the evening, Juan Humberto, was planning on hooking O'Mahoney that night. Desperate to avoid another incident like the one with Shikat, they split and left the arena and the promoter hanging. After hearing this news, the NWA decided to strip O'Mahoney of his title.
On February 28th, the title match (now just the AWA title) was finally set for Danno and Robert. 19,000 were in attendance at the Boston Garden, with a new two hour time limit set for the two-out-of-three falls match. O'Mahoney secured the first fall just two minutes in with an underhanded move, using the referee as sort of a shield; he snuck an elbow in just under the heart of Robert. Robert spent the next hour and 55 minutes trying to secure a second fall, but to no avail. The crowd went ballistic, and it was clear that Bowser couldn't hide it anymore, Danno was a heel.
Everything hit the fan two days later in New York. For some insane reason, Bowser and McGrath decided to put O'Mahoney back in the ring with Dick Shikat. Right from the get go, Shikat took the advantage, completely outclassing O'Mahoney and viciously shooting on him. Shikat locked in a hammerlock and O'Mahoney wailed in pain. He pleaded to stop, but the referee did not know how to handle the situation, since O'Mahoney was supposed to win the match. The referee asked again if he was sure and Danno said "Yes! He's killing me." With that, the match was stopped and Shikat was awarded the world champion. After the match, O'Mahoney tried to save face by saying that he never gave up, and referee just misunderstood his Irish brogue, but that was insulting to all of the fans who heard him screaming in pain.
Bowser decided to announce that O'Mahoney was still the champion, since the title could suddenly only change hands in a two-out-of-three-falls match. The AWA still recognized Danno as their champion, but the idea of the AWA being a national championship was long gone. Shikat ended up being the big winner, taking the title and then cashing out, agreeing to drop it to a group led by Mondt and Al Haft, for $50,000. Because the AWA didn't recognize Shikat's title as legitimate, a bunch of other pseudo-titles popped up. The idea of one world title was gone, and it wouldn't return until the formation of the National Wrestling Alliance a decade later.
The ensuing chaos resulted in a big court case held in Columbus, Ohio. The extremely complicated case ended up breaking kayfabe to the general public, and the newspapers ran with the "wrestling is fake" stories. It would be a while before the wrestling industry would recover.
Danno would eventually return to Boston later that year. He was announced to be going onto a tour of Ireland soon, so the Boston Globe figured that he would finally be dropping the AWA title. The night before his match against Robert, the headline read "Expect Danno to Lose His Crown at Garden Tonight!" Bowser, always thinking, fooled them and had Danno go over Robert clean, and the fans responded by loudly cheering their former hero for a surprise victory.
Danno ended up having one more match before his trip to Ireland. He and Robert traveled up to Montreal, Robert's hometown. In front of 10,000 Canadaians, the largest crowd in Montreal since 1910, Robert won the AWA world title, cleanly in a two out of three falls match.
O'Mahoney then traveled to Ireland where he was received as a national hero. The Irish were desperate for a sporting hero, and many of them were unfamiliar with American wrestling, but they loved Danno all the same. A poor boy from the army who ended up being a national hero in the United States.
However, when Danno returned to the United States, his drawing power was greatly diminished. He became a regional contender, someone who did the jobs for the bigger champions. Bowser had recruited Irish rowing champion Steve Casey to be his new big Irish draw, and Danno was more or less put out to pasture. He traveled to Ireland, with the hopes of starting a new wrestling company there, but a match between him and Casey flopped, so he headed back to America. Injuries hampered his in-ring work and by 1940, his career was in it's twilight. He wrestled a few big time opponents, such as Lou Thesz in his first ever title defense, and Wild Bill Longson, but his time as the hottest ticket in wrestling was long over.
Danno stayed in semi-retirement, enlisted in the army during WWII, and eventually went back to Ireland. In November of 1950, Danno was driving back from Dublin with friends and family, when his car struck the back of a truck that was broken down on the side of the road. Danno was placed in critical condition, with two broken legs and severe internal injuries. He passed away the following day. He was 38 years old.
Danno O'Mahoney had one of the most interesting careers in wrestling history, yet due to the lack of proper world championships, he is rarely talked about today. For a brief time, he was the greatest draw in wrestling, topping legends such as Jim Londos, Ed Lewis and Ray Steele. However, wrestling in the 1930s was a game much more different than today. The top wrestler was supposed to be a great worker, someone who could legitimately scrape with anybody. O'Mahoney, a novice wrestler but a man who possessed charisma and a great look, really was ahead of his time.
His rise and his demise is similar to many modern day wrestlers, especially Bill Goldberg. Like Danno, Goldberg was a tremendous athlete who was still new to wrestling. He got hot at a great time for wrestling, and became the world champion shortly after their debut. However, both of their careers were derailed by jealous wrestlers, and promoters who thought they were smarter than they really were. When both men faded in popularity, disastrous outcomes came about. WCW was eventually bought by WWE, and Danno's absence led to the lack of a real world champion. Both instances would lead to a depression in the wrestling industry. If everyone had stayed in their lanes, and cared about making money and creating a huge star, then everything probably would have worked out okay; but as is a reoccurring incident in professional wrestling, most people are only interested in themselves.
Danno was a comet, streaking across the landscape of the wrestling universe. Like all comets, they go just as fast as they arrived, swept away from the public by the ever shifting clouds of wrestling. Goldberg was one as well, as where The Ulitmate Warrior, Magnum TA and others throughout wrestling history. And like comets, when these wrestlers crashed, they left a major hole in the industry. Danno wasn't the first comet and he sure as hell wasn't the last. The only question that remains is: Who's Next?
Special thanks to Steve Yohe over at 1wrestlinglegends.com and whose information was invaluable. contributed to this article.