Antonio Pierri's Budapest Run in 1893 and How Wrestling Got Banned in the City

Three notable pro wrestlers wrestle in Budapest and ultimately get pro wrestling banned in the city.

The story begins from 10 June 1893 when Greco-Roman bouts started being put on at the Orpheum in Budapest. That lasted until the end of June. The main headliners were Auguste Robinetti (better known as Auguste Robinet), Max Bambula (a black wrestler) and Pierre Masson. There was a masked wrestler as well. Robinetti and Masson had wrestled in Budapest the previous year as well and Robinetti in particular was a favorite of the local audience.

Then on 22 June Circus Salamonski came into town and started promoting Greco-Roman bouts every day as part of its line-up. Thus for a short while there were two Greco-Roman circuits going on at the same time in Budapest. The headliner of the shows at Circus Salamonski was the "The Terrible Greek"Antonio Pierri. Pierri was billed as an undefeated World champion who had defeated William Muldoon, Tom Cannon, Duncan C. Ross and others in America and that's how he got his title claim. From 22 June until 17 July Pierri wrestled almost daily at the circus and faced a number of lower level names: Jakob Simson, Manuel Pascalo, Ferdinand Osman, A. Podhajska, Niedermann, Ferenc Mussil, Kreindl, Anzelm Hintz, Karl Pahler and Heinmann. There were a few draws, but Pierri won most of his matches and had no defeats. Each of Pierri's matches was for a prize of 500 Hungarian forint. His final one, on 17 July, was for 1,000 forint. At first it was mentioned Pierri's matches were not attracting as many fans as the previous year's wrestling matches in Budapest, but then a few days into Pierri's run the reports started saying Pierri's matches were now drawing good crowds for the circus. It's also worth mentioning that the line-up at Circus Salamonski also featured horseback wrestling for a while, which is kind of interesting.

From the very beginning Pierri had been challenging Robinetti to a match with 2,000 forint at stake. Pierri and Robinetti went back and forth in the press and finally the match was seemingly arranged for late July, but Robinetti got ill and so the match was postponed.

The big bout between Pierri and Robinetti finally took place on 27 August at the Hippodrome á la  Parisienne (also referred to as the Circus Salamonski Hippodrome) and was promoted by Eugen Salamonski of Circus Salamonski. It was advertised as a match for the World Championship and the winner was to receive 1,000 forint. It ended in a 30-minute draw. Despite the rainy weather the press reported that the match was attended by a big crowd. One report said that at the beginning of the show that night there were about 3,000 people waiting outside, but it's not clear how many ended up being there in the end.

There was a rematch on 30 August at the Hippodrome. The stipulation was that if there was no winner within half an hour neither wrestler would get the 1,000 forint. The match lasted either 12 or 20 minutes (there are conflicting reports) and was won by Pierri. It was reported this was another big audience. One newspaper estimated the crowd at 2,000 fans.

After their second match Robinetti claimed he had been defeated with an illegal hold so there was a third match on 3 September at the Hippodrome. Again, the winner was to get 1,000 forint. According to several reports the match drew a huge crowd. "Budapest has rarely seen such a large crowd", reported one newspaper. Another newspaper estimated the crowd at 10,000 fans. The finish saw Robinetti defeating Pierri. However, some of the jury members (amateur athletes and journalists) did not think Robinetti had actually won so the result ended up being a disputed one.

And so they wrestled yet again this time at the Circus Salamonski tent on 7 September. After about 50 minutes of wrestling there was no clear winner and that was the end of the Pierri vs. Robinetti rivalry in Budapest.

Left to right: Auguste Robinetti, Antonio Pierri, Wladyslaw Pytlasinski

While all of this was going on, Wladyslaw Pytlasinski had been challenging both guys to wrestle him. Pytlasinski wasn't a big name yet, but he had wrestled at Circus Salamonski since late June alongside Pierri and therefore had become a familiar face to the Budapest audience. Pytlasinski finally wrestled Pierri on 8 September at the Hippodrome. The finish is hard to figure out. As best as I can tell it was something along the following lines. At one point in the match Pytlasinski seemed to have Pierri defeated so Pierri responded by choking him and twisting his nose, which caused Pytlasinski's nose to start bleeding. The jury got involved and stopped the match. Pytlasinski was mad at Pierri and may have punched him or at least tried to. Pytlasinski wanted to continue to wrestle, but Pierri ran away so Pytlasinski went after him in the dressing room. The crowd got riled up and broke some of the benches and chairs. The police had to intervene.

The following day it was announced Pierri has been banned from wrestling in Budapest by the police chief. That lasted about 6 years - on 15 September 1899 Pierri wrestled again in Budapest. His opponent was the Turk Kara Osman.

Then on 10 September at the Hippodrome Pytlasinski wrestled and defeated Robinetti.

There was a rematch afterwards on 14 September. According to one report it drew around 1,500 fans. The match was very short - two minutes or so. They were wrestling on the mat and then Robinetti jumped up and started celebrating as if he had won. The crowd protested and the jury declared that Pytlasinski had not been defeated (both shoulders did not touch the ground) and ordered the match to continue, but Robinetti refused and went back to the dressing room. He was then escorted out by the police, while the crowd was heavily booing him and throwing stuff at him. This whole time Pytlasinski had remained in the middle of the mat. Pierri and Manuel Pascalo, who were in the crowd, were throwing insults and challenges at Pytlasinski. The already hostile crowd was about to attack them so the police escorted them out as well.

On 16 September, after all of these controversies, the Budapest police chief put a stop to the wrestling and banned it for a while from the city.