Just been discovered on a New Zealand site: https://www.ngataonga.org.nz/search-use-collection/search/F18094/ It's thought to be the oldest match on video that's near complete rather than just clips. It's Hackenschmidt vs Joe Rogers on 30 January 1908 in London. The venue isn't certain but appears to be a theatre stage (with the camera pointing towards the stage). Rather confusingly, there's another match (participants unknown) shown between the falls, possibly from the same venue but a different occasion. The film was then taken to New Zealand and shown to the audience before a live Hackenschmidt match in 1910.
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Some of the tickets for Wrestlemania in Las Vagas next Easter are over a thousand dollars(£800 pounds).This seems inexpensive in comparison
At £2 2s the most expensive seats were over £200 in 2024 values
What a fascinating find. Thanks John. Struck me how familiar it all looked. Well, apart from the gentlemen watching who seemed to take it all very seriously.
Great find John.
Cheers
Great find, thanks for sharing, John.
Frankly, the action was dull enough and sufficiently repetitive to make it all look legit. But it clearly wasn't.
What a product they managed to create to attract such crowds.
I had always imagined they performed in a ring; the mat is so limiting.
There was some suggestion in the papers that Hackenschmidt had to slow down and wait for a signal from the ref to finish the two scores , to give value for money.
I see a lot of "deadliest and most vicious submissions" on this video. Lol. our beloved so called wrestling historians should hang up their boots...and maybe hang up themselves too. hahahahaha.
Yes John , Phil Lyons is right , Gotz looked hurt after trying to throw Carroll backwards , ending up with his own shoulders going to the mat and what looked like a knock to the sternum. Sporting of Jack Carroll to see that he was ok. Two years later Gotz dropped to lightweight to win at the Alhambra.
Having done some small bio's on Heritage about some of the wrestlers from this age , it's wonderful to actually see the wrestling that they did.
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Thanks John. This is a gem.
Thanks John , great contribution. The venue was The Oxford Music Hall.
Filmed by Charles Urban who can be found on the web , famous American film Producer who did an Urbanora series.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Urban