But how exactly did he beat Hack?
They wrestled twice, 1908 and 1911. Details below.
1908. Lift and Body-slam, typical pro-wrestling way, and thus knocked out Hack's desire to continue. It could have been a counted as a fair back-fall if they accepted flying falls (like in Owd Lankishire), but they didn't, it had to be a 3 count pin (American fashion), still it was a finishing move, a knock-out which decided the match.
1911. Hack loses two falls, typical freestyle way, 2 pinfalls.
Hi Ruslan, There are a couple of videos floating around Youtube about George Hackenschmidt taken from a couple of series about strongmen. Some of the contributors stated that Gotch cheated to defeat Hack. In so much that Gotch covered himself in oil prior to both contests which obviously meant Hack could not easily place a hold or grip upon Gotch. It was also stated that Gotch fouled Hack continuously during their 2 contests which was ignored by biased referees.
According to the show the second contest should have been postponed as Hack was not 100% but he went along with it as one of the events investors (a friend of Hack) would have been ruined if Hack had pulled out. All in all George Hackenschmidt appeared to be a true gentleman who just accepted his losses.