Magnus Bech-Olsen and His Major Matches in Denmark (1896-1904)

Denmark's biggest wrestling star and his major matches with Pons, Hackenschmidt, Roeber, Pierri, and others.

I did some digging into Magnus Bech-Olsen' big open-air matches in his native country of Denmark. Bech-Olsen was a major Greco-Roman pro wrestling star there in the late 19th/early 20th century and by all accounts he was one of the biggest pro wrestling attendance draws in the world at the time when it came to attracting big crowds.

All of the matches below took place in the Danish capital Copenhagen or just outside of it in Ordrup and Charlottenlund. From 1896 until 1903 Bech-Olsen would wrestle a few big matches per year there. The earlier matches were organized by Dansk Brydeklub (Danish Wrestling Club). I'm not sure if this was the case for the later matches as well.

All of the attendance numbers below are from the Danish press. Take them for what they're worth. If you see more than one number that means they're from different newspapers.

Magnus Bech-Olsen with the Pierri belt

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19 July 1896
Copenhagen, Denmark
St. Thomas
4,000 / 5-6,000 fans
Magnus Bech-Olsen def. John Pohl (20 minutes)

27 September 1896
Copenhagen, Denmark
St. Thomas
4,000 / 10,000 fans
Magnus Bech-Olsen def. Memisch Effendi (about 1 hour)

22 August 1897
Ordrup, Denmark
Ordrup Velodrome
5-6,000 / 6-7,000 / 7-8,000 fans
Magnus Bech-Olsen def. Heinrich Niemann (26 minutes), Heinrich Niemann def. Postümer, Magnus Bech-Olsen def. Postümer (8 minutes)

26 September 1897
Ordrup, Denmark
Ordrup Velodrome
6,000 / 7,000 / 10,000 fans
Magnus Bech-Olsen def. Antonio Pierri

3 October 1897
Ordrup, Denmark
Ordrup Velodrome
10,000 / 10,000 fans
For Pierri's World Championship Belt: Magnus Bech-Olsen def. Antonio Pierri (c)
= For a number of years prior to this Pierri had a custom championship belt, which he traveled around with, claiming to be World Greco-Roman champion.

24 April 1898
Charlottenlund, Denmark
Charlottenlund Racetrack
8-9,000 / 10,000 / 10,000 fans
Magnus Bech-Olsen def. Tom Bradley

30 May 1898
Charlottenlund, Denmark
Charlottenlund Racetrack
5,000 / 6,000 fans
Magnus Bech-Olsen def. Tom Cannon

26 June 1898
Copenhagen, Denmark
Esbjerg Cycling Track
800-900 / 1,100-1,200 fans
Magnus Bech-Olsen def. Antonio Pierri

17 July 1898
Charlottenlund, Denmark
Charlottenlund Racetrack
10,000 fans
Magnus Bech-Olsen def. Leon Masson

24 August 1898
Charlottenlund, Denmark
Charlottenlund Racetrack
3,000 / 5,000 / 7-8,000 fans
Magnus Bech-Olsen def. Charles Green (30 minutes)

9 October 1898
Charlottenlund, Denmark
Charlottenlund Racetrack
4,500 fans
Magnus Bech-Olsen def. Heinrich Niemann, Magnus Bech-Olsen def. Camillus Ewertsen, and Camillus Ewertsen drew Heinrich Niemann
= The stipulation was that Ewertsen had to beat Niemann in order to wrestle Bech-Olsen, but the match ended in a draw so Bech-Olsen wrestled both of them.

1 October 1899
Charlottenlund, Denmark
Charlottenlund Racetrack
10,000 / 12,000 / 15-20,000 / 20,000 fans
World Championship: Magnus Bech-Olsen (c) def. Paul Pons
= This match was filmed and highlights of it were shown in cinemas in Denmark. You can find it online. It's the oldest footage from an actual pro wrestling match that still exists today.

8 October 1899
Charlottenlund, Denmark
Charlottenlund Racetrack
10,000 / 12,000 fans
Magnus Bech-Olsen def. Paul Pons

12 August 1900
Charlottenlund, Denmark
Charlottenlund Racetrack
8,000 / 10,000 fans
Magnus Bech-Olsen def. Paul Belling

16 September 1900
Charlottenlund, Denmark
Charlottenlund Racetrack
10,000 / 10-15,000 / 15,000 / 15,000 / 15,000 / 15-16,000 fans
Magnus Bech-Olsen drew Ernest Roeber (30 minutes)
= Roeber had to beat Bech-Olsen in 30 minutes or forfeit 500 Danish krones. There was no winner within the time limit so the match was declared a draw.
= Earlier in the year Bech-Olsen had traveled to the United States where he wrestled Roeber at Madison Square Garden in a match that was essentially the European World champion claimant vs. the American World champion claimant. Bech-Olsen won the match and the story was that now Roeber had come to Denmark to try to reclaim the honors.

23 September 1900
Charlottenlund, Denmark
Charlottenlund Racetrack
8,000 / 9,000 / 10-15,000 fans
World Championship: Magnus Bech-Olsen (c) def. Ernest Roeber (25 minutes)

22 September 1901
Charlottenlund, Denmark
Charlottenlund Racetrack
6,000 fans
Magnus Bech-Olsen def. Jakob Koch, and Dirk van den Berg def. two of Bech-Olsen's students (L. P. Jensen and Christian Andersen)

29 September 1901
Charlottenlund, Denmark
Charlottenlund Racetrack
10,000 / 10,000 / 10,000 fans
Magnus Bech-Olsen def. Dirk van den Berg, and Jess Pedersen drew Jakob Koch (60 minutes)
= The winners of the two matches were supposed to face each other, but since Pedersen/Koch ended in a draw there was no third match.

Bech-Olsen was inactive for all of 1902.

26 April 1903
Charlottenlund, Denmark
Charlottenlund Racetrack
10-12,000 / 15,000 fans
Nourlah def. Magnus Bech-Olsen (28 minutes)
= The match was supposed to take place on 19 April, but it got rescheduled due to a storm.
= Some newspapers said this was Bech-Olsen's first defeat in Denmark, which it most likely was. He got his win back over Nourlah a few days later at Circus-Variete.

20 September 1903
Charlottenlund, Denmark
Charlottenlund Racetrack
3,000 / 4-5,000 fans
Magnus Bech-Olsen def. George Hackenschmidt (32 minutes)
= Hack and Bech-Olsen wrestled for about 26 minutes and then Hack fell out of the platform and hurt his knee. He tried wrestling for another 6 minutes, but finally he declared himself unable to continue. Because of this most reports say Bech-Olsen was the winner, but some reports say the match ended without a result.

4 October 1903
Charlottenlund, Denmark
Charlottenlund Racetrack
3,000 fans
Jess Pedersen def. Magnus Bech-Olsen (5 minutes)
= Most reports say the match lasted only 5 minutes, but some reports say 6 or 8 minutes. Either way, it was a very short match.

2 October 1904
Copenhagen, Denmark
Østerbro Stadium
3-4,000 / 3-4,000 / 4,000 / 4-5,000 / 5,000 fans
Jess Pedersen def. Magnus Bech-Olsen (28 minutes)

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Illustrations from the Danish press:
- First row (left to right): Magnus Bech-Olsen, John Pohl, Antonio Pierri, Charles Green
- Second row: Camillus Ewertsen, Paul Pons, Ernest Roeber, Nourlah

Newspaper adverts for Magnus Bech-Olsen matches (1897-1903)