Primo Carnera's World Title Claim in Europe (1951-1964)

Primo Carnera's claim to the World (Super) Heavyweight Championship in Europe.

To me the Italian Primo Carnera has always been a very interesting figure in pro wrestling history and one that tends to be overlooked. He was a big star in both pro boxing and pro wrestling, which only a handful of people in history have managed to achieve. In this article I would like to take a closer look at something that distinguishes him from all the rest - Primo Carnera was the only man in history to have been World Heavyweight champion in professional boxing (albeit a controversial champion) and also World Heavyweight champion in professional wrestling (to a certain extent). Below we'll unpack the latter part of that in greater detail and examine his World Title claim in pro wrestling.

Before we go any further, however, we should clarify something. We're talking about professional wrestling after all and in pro wrestling World Championships have always been subjective to a large degree. What makes a title a World Title? After all, any random wrestler could claim to be a World champion and any random promoter could promote a match as a World Championship match. It has been that way for over a century. You're always going to have claimants and then it's up to the public to decide whether they buy into the idea of that claimant being a World champion or not. And of course factors such as which organization is backing the title, where exactly and in how many places the wrestler is wrestling and what crowds he's drawing all play a big part in it. So with that said, below we'll trace Primo Carnera's World Title claim and see whether there was any validity to it.

Primo Carnera

Primo Carnera's World Title Claim in Europe (1949-1964)

First, let's do a quick summary of Primo's connection to pro wrestling. Primo Carnera's first exposure to pro wrestling was before he became a boxing star. When he was younger he worked as a professional strongman and fairground wrestler in France. Then he got into boxing and won the World Heavyweight Championship in 1933 (and lost it in 1934). He retired from boxing in 1937 and in 1942-1944 wrestled professionally in his homeland of Italy, even winning the Italian Championship in freestyle professional wrestling, before going back to boxing for a brief final run. 1946 is when he left boxing for good and became a full-time professional wrestler in America. This is when he truly became a big star in wrestling, obviously in large part due to his fame from boxing.

Austria

It was in September 1951 when Primo Carnera returned to Europe and embarked on his first, of several, tours of the Old Continent. In September and October he headlined a number of shows in his native Italy. The shows featured other prominent European stars such as the Belgian Karel Istaz (a.k.a. Karl Gotch), the top Austrian stars Adi Berber and Georg Blemenschütz, the Bulgarian giant Assen Georgieff, and some others. You can read all about that tour here. I have seen a couple of Italian articles from September 1951 referring to Carnera as the World champion, having supposedly won the title in America, but I don't think it was any sort of official claim or a case of Primo himself claiming to be the champion. It was just a matter of the newspaper coming up with something on their own and running with it, I believe.

However, it was indeed that same month where we can find the first real instance of Primo Carnera being presented to the public as a World champion pro wrestler. On 8 September 1951 Primo Carnera wrestled Adi Berber (the biggest Austrian wrestling star at the time). The match took place at the famous Heumarkt in Vienna. It was a big deal and it drew a reported audience of about 10,000 people. Heading into the match, Carnera was billed as the World champion and his championship was on the line in the match. The match ended in a controversial countout finish so there was a rematch on 18 September. In front of another 10,000 house, the rematch also ended in controversy when Berber was disqualified and a riot broke out. These two matches were Carnera's first World Title defenses and where his claim to be being a World champion pro wrestler began, although it would be a few years later when the claim would become more serious. At this point it was just a short-term thing to make his matches with Berber into a bigger deal.

Primo Carnera and Adi Berber

It's also worth noting that in October 1951 Carnera wrestled in France for promoter Raoul Paoli for the first time and there he was not presented as World champion. At the time in France there were two official governing bodies for pro wrestling in the country, FFL and FFCP, and they sanctioned all the championships. The American Frank Sexton was the one officially recognized as the World Heavyweight champion in France (by FFL), even though he was no longer World champion in the United States like he had been when he first got the recognition in France at the start of 1950.

Spain

1957 is when Primo Carnera's claim to being a World Heavyweight champion truly materialized. That year he wrestled in a bunch of places, claiming to be World champion, and successfully defended his title on multiple occasions. It all started with Spain and in my eyes Spain was the place that gave his World Title claim the most validity. At the time wrestling in Spain, both amateur and professional, was governed by the Spanish amateur wrestling federation (Federación Española de Lucha). All wrestlers, all promoters and all titles in Spain were under its jurisdiction. A wrestler could not claim to be World champion and a promoter could not promote a World Championship match without the Federation giving its stamp of approval. Think of it as the National Wrestling Alliance in America mixed in with all the local state athletic commissions, except that the Federation technically wasn't a pro wrestling organization, it just happened to have authority over pro wrestling too. Around the world very rarely have there been legitimate governing bodies for pro wrestling and Federación Española de Lucha was a rare instance of one. At the end of the day, it's still pro wrestling we're talking about so the legitimacy of the title claims remains subjective, but in my eyes having a national organization like that recognize someone as a champion makes him more credible as a title claimant than someone being recognized by a single wrestling promotion.

Primo Carnera wrestled in Spain for the first time in May 1957. He was brought in by one of the top Spanish promoters Luis Bamala, who at the time was promoting big shows in Madrid, Barcelona, Zaragoza and Palma de Mallorca. It was at this time that Federación Española de Lucha officially recognized Primo Carnera as the World Heavyweight champion. The only other World Heavyweight champion they had ever recognized was Frank Sexton back in 1952-1954 when he was still the recognized champion in France too. Sexton even defended the title in Barcelona on one occasion in May 1952.

In 1957-1960, Primo Carnera wrestled a number of matches in Spain as the World champion and had several title defenses. His first notable World Heavyweight Title defense was on 15 June 1957 against the Frenchman Felix Miquet at the huge Estadio Metropolitano in front of a reported audience of 20,000 fans. Carnera was still defending his title in Spain as of July 1960.

Newspaper advert for a show in Palma de Mallorca in 1957: "The world champion Primo Carnera - the only athlete who has been a world champion in boxing and wrestling"

Despite being retired by that point, as of February 1964 Carnera was still the recognized World Heavyweight champion in Spain. That changed in June 1964 when the recognition was switched over to Lino Di Santo, a top star from the French territory, who shortly thereafter dropped the title to Hercules Cortez in Madrid.

Italy

We already discussed Primo Carnera's 1951 Italian tour. He was then away from Italy for a few years until 2 July 1957 when Carnera wrestled Felix Miquet at the 9,000-capacity Velodromo Vigorelli in Milan. The match was presented as a World Heavyweight Championship match - Carnera being the defending champion and Miquet his challenger. Carnera retained. This was where his claim to the World Title in Italy really began. The story in the Milan press was that Carnera had become World champion when he defeated Lou Thesz in St. Louis in September 1956. That, of course, wasn't true, but it is how they explained Carnera now being presented as the World champion. Later in the month, on 29 July, Carnera once again defended the title against Miquet, this time at Palazzo del Campioni in Rome. For what it's worth, one local article in Rome referred to the title as the World Super Heavyweight Title, which is a wording that would appear in several other places later too.

Felix Miquet is a name that you would see closely associated with Carnera from 1957 onward. Yvar Martinson was another such name. In the past both Miquet and Martinson had been two of the most popular wrestling stars in France, and they were also well-known in other European countries too. In the early 1950s both were World Heavyweight champions in France (and Switzerland), having briefly held the Frank Sexton version of the title. In 1956 Miquet once again became World Heavyweight champion, as part of a new title lineage in France which began with the Canadian Yvon Robert in 1955. In 1957 Carnera, Miquet and Martinson formed a partnership and started touring Europe together. And what is interesting about that partnership is that Miquet, who was still the recognized World champion in France as of the summer of 1957*, willfully took a back seat to Carnera. Despite having a claim to being a World champion himself, Miquet did not claim the title when working with Carnera. It was always Carnera who was presented as the World champion while Miquet would usually be presented as the European Heavyweight champion (a title he had indeed held in the past in France, but no longer held). A popular star such as Miquet agreeing to that speaks to Carnera's perceived star power compared to Miquet.

* Sidenote: Fresh off his NWA World Heavyweight Title loss to Dick Hutton, at the start of 1958 Lou Thesz wrestled in France and was recognized as the World Heavyweight champion by FILC (the governing body associated with the Paoli promotion at the time) so Miquet no longer had official backing in France at that point.

Back to Italy. Carnera toured across Italy in 1957-1959. He wrestled in a lot of different places and was consistently presented as the World champion. In addition to Miquet and Martinson, at times his touring crew in this period also included other popular European stars such as the Spaniard Hercules Cortez, the Belgian Bob Martin, the Spaniard Eugenio Gonzalez, the Yugoslavian Michael Ujevic, the German Rudi Saturski, the Frenchman King Kong Taverne, and others.

Poster for a show in Bari with World champion Primo Carnera in 1958

Switzerland

Switzerland was another country where Primo Carnera had some level of recognition as World champion. Carnera first wrestled there in 1951, booked by Raoul Paoli. At that point Frank Sexton was the recognized World Heavyweight champion in Switzerland since France, and Paoli specifically, had strong influence on the Swiss scene. When Carnera returned in 1957, however, things were different. On 6 and 7 September 1957 he wrestled at Pavillon des Sports in Geneva in what was advertised as a World Pro Wrestling Tournament (Tournoi Mondial de Catch, in French). Heading in, Carnera was billed as the World champion. His main opponent was Felix Miquet (billed as European champion) and of course Yvar Martinson was also there as were Hercules Cortez, Bob Martin, Antonio Fusero, and some others. Carnera won. Carnera and Miquet had a rematch in Geneva on 6 December 1957, with Carnera's World Championship on the line again. Carnera won again.

Carnera's crew came back to Geneva for another two-day World Pro Wrestling Tournament, again won by Carnera, in May 1958 and they had also had shows there in September and November 1958. Primo was always billed as the World champion. In addition to Geneva, he also wrestled in some smaller Swiss cities - for example, La Chaux-de-Fonds in June 1958 where he defended his World Championship against Miquet.

Newspaper advert from 1958: Primo Carnera vs. Felix Miquet for the World Championship (in La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland)

Germany

Primo Carnera's World Championship recognition extended to Germany as well. On 18, 19 and 20 September 1957 there was a three-day 4-man tournament held at the 14,000-capacity Sportpalast in Berlin. Heading into the tournament, Carnera was billed as the World Super Heavyweight champion and this was him putting the title on the line in the tournament. The other three wrestlers were Felix Miquet, the Dutchman Zorro (the future Hans Mortier) and the German Richard Grupe. Carnera won. This was the first World Championship tournament in Germany in a few years and it would be the last one until 1970 when Rene Lasartesse won a World Championship tournament in Hanover. Granted, the Carnera tournament wasn't a fully fledged tournament over the course of several weeks like typically the World Championships in Germany were, but still it is notable.

The cover of the official program for the World Super Heavyweight Championship tournament in Berlin in 1957

Luxembourg

Luxembourg City was another place where Primo Carnera defended his World Heavyweight Championship/World Super Heavyweight Championship (both wordings were used in the press). First on 1 December 1957 he defeated Felix Miquet in front of a reported audience of 3,000 or 4,000 (conflicting estimates provided by the press). And then on 12 October 1958 he also defeated Eugenio Gonzalez with about 3,000 fans in attendance. Both matches were at Ausstellungshalle (a.k.a. Limpertsberger Halle). One report noted that three Télé-Luxembourg cameras were on site to broadcast the Carnera/Miquet event live on television, which I don't think was ever the case with any other wrestling match in Luxembourg City. For the Gonzalez match the storyline was that Gonzalez had won a tournament in Vienna to earn the right to challenge Carnera for the title (which wasn't true).

Newspaper headline from Luxembourg in 1958: Carnera vs. Gonzalez for the World Championship

France

While he was never the main World champion claimant in France, Primo Carnera did defend his title in France too. Mostly on smaller shows in the French provinces. By 1958 Felix Miquet had left the Raoul Paoli promotion and was running his own touring promotion. It featured a lot of the same names that would work the shows with Carnera in other places. In Miquet's promotion, Carnera was billed as the World champion and Miquet as the European champion.

Poster for a show with World champion Primo Carnera in Boulogne-sur-Mer in 1958

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It also needs to be said that in the 1950s Primo Carnera also wrestled in the United Kingdom, Belgium and Greece. I could be wrong, but I don't believe he was presented as World champion in either of those countries.

To make a long story short, in general Europe has never really had one official World Heavyweight champion so to speak. There were too many different countries, each with their own ideas on pro wrestling, for it to be any other way. It was always a bunch of different title claimants, some more credible than others. When looking at Europe in the 1950s specifically, two World Heavyweight champion claimants stand out as more universally recognized than the rest - Frank Sexton and Primo Carnera. Sexton gets the overall nod for credibility because he had official backing in both France and Spain (two of the major European wrestling territories). Plus, he was already World champion in the United States when he first came to Europe (although no longer champion in the United States for most of his European run). Primo Carnera on the other hand defended his title in more places in Europe than Sexton did. Yes, Carnera's claim started out of nowhere and had no legitimate ground to stand on at first, but when it was all said and done Primo Carnera defended his World Title claim in a bunch of countries (in fact, in more countries than the NWA World Heavyweight champion in that same time frame), defended it in both standalone matches and tournaments, had the backing of a legitimate governing body in one of the countries, and performed in front of some big audiences. That's as strong of a claim as you could have to being a World champion in that era in Europe. Not a perfect claim by any means, but definitely a claim with some merit to it.


Acknowledgements: Thank you to Gernot Freiberger, Il Drago and Ronald Großpietsch. Some of their research and photos were used for the Austria, Italy and Germany sections of this article.