Earl Caddock vs Joe Stecher 1/30, 1920 Heavyweight Championship professional wrestling catch mma

On January 30, 1920 Joe Stecher faced Champion Earl Caddock in the pinnacle match of the catch-as-catch-can style of professional wrestling. After this match wrestling began evolving away from the catch style into the more slam bang style. Many look at this as the last shoot match, wanting a time when wrestling was "real". However, I honestly believe looking at the lead up, the match itself and the aftermath that this is just a well worked program in the catch style. Earl Caddock was a former AAU National Champion, a trainee of Farmer Burns and Frank Gotch, making him the perfect opponent for Stecher to drop his title. Unfortunately WWI intervened before any rematches could be worked. Stecher served in the US Navy and Caddock in the US Army. While stationed in Europe, Caddock was exposed to a gas attack and it was unsure if he would be able to recover enough to continue wrestling. Luckily after the war he was able to get back into shape and the dream match was a reality. Stecher would finally get his chance against the man he lost the title to. In front of a sell out crowd, Stecher was lead to the ring by a contingent from the Navy and Caddock was lead by the Army. The original film was badly damaged but enough is left to see one of the greatest matches of all time. Thank you all for your support, the ad revenue from Youtube helps me to purchase new films and continue with the transfers and uploads. Please continue to support the ads and DVD's You can visit my website http://wrestlingfilms.blogspot.com/ for more classic wrestling and DVD information.