Akitaro Ono Loses a Shoot Match and the Ramifications of That (1908, Russia)

Champion wrestler loses a shoot match to a preliminary wrestler in St. Petersburg and how that exposed the business of pro wrestling.

Akitaro Ono of Japan was a judoka/jiu-jitsu practitioner, who traveled the world doing bouts in his style, teaching his style and also participating in matches with pro wrestlers. By the time 1908 came around he had been to the the UK, Germany, USA (where he had an infamous match with Charles Olsen) and probably other places. Then in March 1908 he entered the Greco-Roman pro wrestling scene for the first time.

In March/April 1908 there were two Greco-Roman tournaments in St. Petersburg happening at the same time (starting a day apart and ending on the same day). This sort of thing was a regular occurrence at the time, because pro wrestling was very popular in Russia and St. Petersburg in particular was the main hub for pro wrestling in Russia and the place where the most high-profile tournaments took place. This was largely because the St. Petersburg Athletic Society was based there and it had been a main driving force behind wrestling (amateur and pro) in Russia. One of the 1908 St. Petersburg tournaments that I mentioned above was promoted by them. It was held at Circus Ciniselli.

With roots dating back to the 1880s, the St. Petersburg Athletic Society was a key organization in developing and pushing Russian sports forward. Amateur wrestling and weightlifting especially. It was the Society who had been organizing the annual Championship of Russia amateur wrestling tournaments and it was the Society where Greco-Roman wrestling was first taught (originally by Wladyslaw Pytlasinski in the 1890s and then by Eugene de Paris and others). It was also at the Athletic Society where George Hackenschmidt got a lot of his training in weightlifting and Greco-Roman wrestling. He would then go on to become the Russian amateur champion in both sports. From 1897 onward the Society got involved in pro wrestling as well by booking pro wrestling matches as special attractions during the amateur competitions. Then in 1899 they promoted their first pro wrestling tournaments, featuring guys like Wladyslaw Pytlasinski and Nicolai Petroff as the key names. When Hackenschmidt turned pro in 1899 the Society was the major force behind his push in Russia and they promoted a pair of big tournaments, won by Hackenschmidt, in Moscow and St. Petersburg. After Hackenschmidt was no longer part of the Russian picture, because his career took off elsewhere, the Society selected the up-and-comer Ivan Poddubny as their next big Russian star and began backing him. From 1904 through 1908 the Society promoted several high-profile tournaments that were won by Poddubny.

The other March/April 1908 St. Petersburg tournament was promoted by Ivan Lebedev at Mikhailovsky Manege. Lebedev was originally a member of the Athletic Society and was quite a good athlete himself. He then got involved in pro wrestling as a referee and promoter, promoting his first tournament in St. Petersburg in 1904. That tournament was the first major tournament in St. Petersburg to be won by Poddubny (with a victory over the French great Paul Pons in the final - their one and only meeting). At that point Lebedev was still affiliated with the Society and in fact the following year he even served as referee for one of their tournaments. Later on in 1905 though he began focusing more on pro wrestling and was doing his own thing, including eventually having a wrestling school of his own. He developed a working relationship with Georg Lurich and Alexander Aberg (two of the major stars of the Russian scene) and typically the tournaments Lebedev was involved with were with wrestlers from the Lurich/Aberg troupe. He also worked with Stanislaus Zbyszko and later on with Peter Kryloff for a bit too (Kryloff was another popular Russian star who had a troupe of his own). After 1905 Lebedev didn't work much, if at all, with Poddubny for a number of years. In those years Poddubny was affiliated with the Society, and later on with other promoters. The Society wasn't on good terms with Lurich and his protege Aberg, especially with Lurich.

This gets us to the 1908 tournaments, which in my opinion were a pivotal moment in Russian pro wrestling history and below I will explain why I believe that. All previous tournaments promoted by the Society were based around well-known stars (Pytlasinski, Hackenschmidt, Poddubny) and the plan for the March/April 1908 tournament was for it to be based around Poddubny and he had already accepted the offer to wrestle in St. Petersburg. However, Poddubny changed his mind and took an offer, for more money, to wrestle in Berlin instead so that left the Society without a headline star for their upcoming tournament. By the point the Frenchman Leon Dumont had become the manager (or booker if you will) of the majority of the Poddubny tournaments (taking over from Nicolai Petroff, who was the manager during Poddubny's initial rise to national fame in Russia). Dumont was the manager of the Society's March/April 1908 tournament. The wrestlers he decided to anchor the tournament around ended up being three stars from the Poddubny troupe and a newcomer. They were Ivari Tuomisto (a Finn who had become the 1907 Russian amateur wrestling champion and immediately after that had turned pro by joining the Poddubny troupe), Aimable de la Calmette (a popular French star), Redjeb Pengal (a Turk who was one of the very few guys to have a victory over Poddubny in this era - a victory he picked up during a tournament in Italy) and... Akitaro Ono. Ono was obviously the interesting pick here. The others Dumont had worked with previously, but this was Ono's first foray into the Greco-Roman tournament scene. Ono was positioned as the headline star of the tournament and won most of his matches in a dominant fashion. Here's his whole record from the tournament:

= 17 March: Ono def. Stolzman (1:50)
= 20 March: Ono def. Cillis (1:20)
= 22 March: Ono def. Paganini (1:05)
= 24 March: Ono def. Bach (1:16)
= 26 March: Ono def. Galman (1:20)
= 28 March: Ono def. Woldt (3:40)
= 30 March: Ono def. Ovtanov (5:55)
= 1 April: Ono def. Dumont
= 4 April: Ono def. Moldt (1:42)
= 5 April: Ono def. Raasim (13:30)
= 6 April: Ono drew Reiber (30:00)
= 7 April: Ono def. Miller (6:29)
= 10 April: Ono def. Reiber (5:03)
= 11 April: Ono drew Tuomisto (30:00)
= 13 April: Ono drew Apollon (30:00)
= 15 April: Ono def. Apollon (4:51)
= 16 April: Ono def. Tuomisto (35:08)
= 18 April: Ono def. Calmette (31:12)
= 19 April: Ono def. Pengal (47:08) - tournament final

Left to right: Akitaro Ono, Redjeb Pengal, Ivan Lebedev, Leon Dumont

As for Lededev's tournament, that didn't go as originally planned either. Initially Georg Lurich, Alexander Aberg and Stanislaus Zbyszko were all advertised as wrestlers who were expected to wrestle in Lebedev's tournament. Lurich and Aberg not being in Lebedev's tournament was announced before the start of the tournament. Zbyszko kept being advertising as arriving soon, even after the tournament had began, but he never came as he was in the UK at the time. This left Ledebev without headline stars for his tournament. So, for the first time in his career as a promoter/manager he was forced to have a big tournament without relying on assistance from already established troupes and he had to put together a troupe of his own. It appears he had already done this on a few occasions in the prior months but for tournaments outside of the big cities like St. Petersburg and Moscow. This was now a higher-profile situation. The best stars he could get initially were Buzovac Mourzouck (a black wrestler who had worked with Lurich and Aberg in St. Petersberg, and elsewhere, and built up a reputation as a very durable wrestler by wrestling a number of hour-long matches) and Clement le Terrassier (a well-established Frenchman). Lebedev also brought in the popular giant Urban Christoph, but, for reasons unknown to me, Christoph left the tournament after only one match. In short, Lebedev's line-up was looking weak. He had a few popular names, but no big stars. Then midway through the tournament Lebedev managed to secure his ultimate headliner for this tournament and a guy who would go on to be one of Lebedev's key stars for the next few years - the 6'6" Russian powerhouse Ivan Shemyakin. By that point Shemyakin had been active for a few years in a number of different troupes (Paul Pons', Jakob Koch's, John Pohl's and even Ivan Poddubny's on one occasion). He wasn't quite a top star yet, but I would say he was on the level below the top stars or getting close to it. Naturally, Shemyakin won Lebedev's St. Peterburg tournament. Over time with Shemyakin and some other stars in his stable, Lebedev grew to be more independent, operated his own troupe and didn't rely as much on Lurich, Aberg, Zbyszko, etc. You could say that this 1908 St. Petersburg tournament was the start of Lebedev's independence or at least his first high-profile foray into independence. He would go on to be remembered as the best and most influential Russian pro wrestling promoter of all time.

And now we get to the main topic of this article. On the final day of his tournament Ivan Lebedev issued a challenge in front of the audience for Patrick and Mayevski (two of the low-level wrestlers from his tournament or in other words two jobbers, if you want to use a more modern term) to wrestle Akitaro Ono and Redjeb Pengal (the top two wrestlers from the Athletic Society's tournament). Lebedev put up a stake of 100 Russian rubles and said he wasn’t requiring Ono and Pengal to put up any stakes of their own. Word was quickly sent to the vice-president of the Athletic Society who, before Lebedev’s show was over, responded that he wanted Ono and Pengal to wrestle Shemyakin and Mourzouck instead (Lebedev’s top two stars). On the next day though the Athletic Society accepted Lebedev’s original offer. It was agreed that Pengal would wrestle Mayevski and Ono would wrestle Patrick. Patrick, whose real surname was Putring, was a Latvian from Riga and his pro wrestling career was pretty short.

Patrick

These interpromotional matches took place on 21 April, two days after the tournaments were over, in front of a select audience at the premises of the St. Petersburg Athletic Society. The judges for the matches were A. Lange and Alexander Schmelling (for the Pengal/Ono camp), Alexander Trusov and Christensen (for the Mayevski/Patrick camp), and the journalist Georges Duperron (no affiliation). First, Pengal defeated Mayevski in 4:30 minutes. Then Ono and Patrick wrestled. I’ve seen conflicting reports about the length of their match - 1 hour 15 minutes, 1 hour 45 minutes, and 2 hours and 15 minutes. Basically, the two wrestled for a long time without a winner. Then there was a 10-minute break and then the judges decided to give them another 15 minutes. If there was still no winner, they’d call the match a draw. In those last 15 minutes, to everyone's surprise, Patrick managed to put Ono’s shoulders on the mat. This was a major upset. A preliminary Lebedev wrestler had just pinned the Society's champion. However, Lange pointed out the win had happened outside of the barrier for the match. Lebedev offered, on behalf of Patrick, for the match to continue, but the audience protested. Ultimately the match was declared a draw. However, the audience applauded Patrick, because they saw him as the winner.

On the next day and in the days that followed the Ono/Patrick match received a lot of press in St. Petersburg. Perhaps more than any other match up to that point in the history of St. Petersburg. At least that I’ve seen. And it was all negative press, all reports wondering how a supposed unbeatable top wrestler like Ono, the winner of the tournament organized by the St. Petersburg Athletic Society no less (the organization that was largely driving the amateur wrestling movement in Russia and therefore there was legitimacy attached to it), could struggle against and lose to such a low-level wrestler like Patrick. The press looked at this match as proof that the Athletic Society’s tournament was fake and predetermined, and some reports wondered how a legitimate organization like the Athletic Society could allow such a thing. This wasn't the first time the predetermined nature of pro wrestling had been discussed in the Russian press, far from it, but it was perhaps the most high-profile example up to this point and it put a really negative spotlight on the business. That said, it didn't do any lasting damage to the popularity of pro wrestling in St. Petersburg and pro wrestling grew to be even more popular in the years that followed, but it did kill off Ono's reputation in Russia. He never got that big of a push again.

My belief is that the Pengal/Mayevski and Ono/Patrick matches were legitimate shoots (while all the tournament matches were worked). The newspaper reports sure make it sound that way. There’s no way to know for sure, but it just makes no sense why one promoter would allow his top star and tournament winner (Ono) to fail like that against a much lower name in popularity and perceived ability. The only explanation that makes sense to me is that Lebedev and the Society decided to have their wrestlers go at it for real. The Society/Dumont figured their guys would wipe the mat with Lebedev's guys, but in the case of Ono that didn't happen and One's reputation in Russia was largely ruined because of this.

Russian newspaper illustration from the day after the Ono/Patrick match: "The behind the scenes secret of the athletic competitions" / how the managers command their wrestlers to lay on their backs

From there Lebedev's crew headed out to Samara for a new tournament (again, won by Lebedev's new star Shemyakin) while the Athletic Society promoted a new tournament in St. Petersburg, eight days after the conclusion of their previous tournament. The interesting thing about this new tournament is that Ono, Pengal and Calmette (the top three from the previous tournament) were all initially advertised for it, but after what happened with Ono the Society dropped all three as participants in the new tournament. They clearly wanted to distance themselves from what had happened. The headline star of the tournament ended up being Ivan Poddubny, who of course won the tournament. My guess is the original plan was for Ono to be Poddubny's big rival for the tournament. This tournament ended up being the St. Petersburg Athletic Society's last pro wrestling tournament. After it they completely dissociated themselves from pro wrestling. And I think the Ono situation probably had a lot to do with that. Meanwhile Lebedev's influence within the Russian pro wrestling scene continued to grow and he would soon thereafter become without question the top wrestling promoter in Russia.

As for Ono, after St. Petersburg he went to London and Manchester for tournaments there and then later in the year he rejoined the Poddubny troupe for their World Championship tournament in Paris and a couple of other tournaments after that. He did return to Russia in late 1909, again with the Poddubny troupe, and he was losing quite a lot more at that point, especially when compared to his unbeatable record in the 1908 St. Petersburg tournament.