The Pro Wrestling Career of the Olympic Gold Medalist Robert Roth

A detailed look at the pro wrestling career of the 1920 Olympic freestyle gold medalist Robert Roth.

In this article we will go through the pro wrestling career of the Olympic gold medalist Robert Roth. While it wasn't a long one or a very active one, I think his run in professional wrestling was interesting so I'll share details of his pro career, but I'll also use his story to shine some spotlight on the European wrestling scene of the early to mid 1920s as that is a period, which is very rarely talked about. 

Robert Roth was the seventh Olympic gold medalist to do pro wrestling, but the other six before him didn't do a lot of notable things while Roth crossed paths with some big names, wrestled professionally in several countries, had only one professional defeat and was one of the leading World Championship claimants in Europe at the time.

Robert Roth

Robert Roth was born on 5 July 1898 in Bern, Switzerland. He was one of six children. When he was 12 the family moved to Pierrefontaine-les-Blamont, France, where they lived and worked on a big cattle farm. When WWI started they had to leave everything behind and ended up spending about three months in an internment camp on a small island near Marseille. Once the war was over they moved back to Bern, Switzerland. In Bern Roth started working in an arms factory, eventually moving up to being a money counter in the finance department of the factory. This is when Roth first took up an interest in wrestling, specifically schwingen (the traditional Swiss folk style of wrestling), and began training in that style. He won his first schwingen tournament in 1917. By the end of 1921 he had won 28 tournaments altogether, including two national schwingen championships (1919 and 1921). In the meantime he also took up Olympic freestyle wrestling and at the 1920 Summer Olympics in Antwerp, Belgium, he became the first Swiss wrestler to win an Olympic gold medal. In the heavyweight freestyle final (or catch-as-catch-can as freestyle was referred to at that Olympics) Roth was given the decision over the American Nat Pendleton. Then in late 1921 is when Roth decided to make the transition to professional wrestling. But before we talk about his pro career let's talk about the European pro wrestling scene at the time.

Professional wrestling in Europe, or particularly Greco-Roman pro wrestling, was very popular on the continent during the first decade of the twentieth century. Then naturally World War I put a stop to everything, but even before the war wrestling's popularity had gone down in most European countries. In 1921 pro wrestling really wasn't all that popular in Europe. Germany had the strongest wrestling scene at the time and some countries had a decent scene going, but in most European countries wrestling was not doing well. The Greco-Roman style was still the main style, and the catch-as-can-can style (also referred to as freestyle) was around as well in several countries. That said, outside of the UK and to an extent Switzerland, the catch style had never really caught on anywhere else in Europe in a significant way. That was the scene that Robert Roth, the freestyle Olympic champion, entered into. Now let's talk about him, but instead of doing it chronologically, let's examine his career country by country.

Switzerland

As of 1921 there were several notable Swiss pro wrestlers who had practiced the catch style, both domestically and internationally - the Cherpillod brothers (Armand and Andre), the Deriaz brothers (Maurice and Emile) and John Lemm. And even though in late 1921 most of these Swiss catch stars were still around, they were all nearing the end of their careers. Switzerland still had a pro wrestling scene at the time, but it wasn't what it used to be in the past. And then on 11 November 1921 it was announced that the Olympic champion Robert Roth would be turning professional, giving the local scene a potential new star.

Robert Roth turned pro under the management of the Swiss wrestler-turned-promoter Henri Chevalley. Chevalley had managed the Cherpillod brothers in the past so he was no stranger to managing top names and straight away he started hyping up his new protege in the Swiss newspapers. Roth being a Swiss and Olympic champion gave him instant credibility, but he was not a well-known name to the general Swiss public. To start things off Roth's manager Chevalley issued an open challenge to any freestyle wrestler in the world to face Roth and specifically challenged the top Swiss pro names (Lemm, Cherpillod, Deriaz). In hyping up his new protege Chevalley also announced that the plan was for Roth to eventually go to Paris, London, Madrid and, if all went well, to the United States as well.

Roth made his pro debut on 4 December 1921 in Lausanne. At the time he was 23 years old, 1.85m tall (about 6'11") and weighed about 98kg (216 lbs). His opponent was the Italian Giuseppe Massetti. Roth won in two straight falls. The news of his debut made the press in France, Austria, Spain, Belgium and probably elsewhere too. A new Swiss pro wrestling star was born.

What followed was some controversy. Roth's second pro match was supposed to be against John Lemm on December 6 in Geneva, but Lemm sent word to the press to say that he knew nothing about this match. Eventually it was revealed that Roth's manager, Chevallay, had a habit of using wrestlers under fake names and trying to deceive the public by having them believe they were watching, for example, the real John Lemm or the real Maurice Deriaz, when in fact they were watching a fake. There was also another incident where Roth was advertised to wrestle someone called Otto Senn, but Roth knew nothing about this and in fact he couldn't compete anyway due to having boils. Chevallay was aware of this, but kept advertising the Roth vs. Senn match. And indeed after he wrestled his second pro match, on December 8 against a German called Necker (but in reality the Dutchman Fritz van der Heyd), Roth had to step away from the ring for a while due to having two boils on his arm that got infected. That did not stop Chevallay from advertising Roth for matches in December 1921 against Senn, Emile Vervet and Fritz van der Heyd, despite knowing Roth would not be able to compete in those. Publicly Roth denounced the practices of his manager, but Chevallay kept being Roth's manager for a while longer. In short, between the shady tactics of his manager and having to step away to recover from an infection, Roth's pro career was off to a rocky start.

Roth returned to the ring on 31 January 1922 in Basel where he took on the German veteran Willy Urbach. There was no winner within the time limit, but Roth won via decision. By that point Roth was being advertised as the World Freestyle/Catch champion in Switzerland, and this was based on his 1920 Olympic win. He followed up the Urbach win with a victory over the Swiss veteran Emile Deriaz on 26 February in Bern (Roth's first match in his home town). Same as in the Urbach match, Roth won via decision after there was no winner within the time limit. He then had pinfall victories over the German Peter Küpper, Willy Urbach again, and Rudolf Grüneisen (another notable Swiss wrestler). This takes us to 18 May in Bern where Roth defeated Paul Favre (a Swiss wrestler who had been wrestling professionally for a few years already). What's notable about Favre is that he became Roth's manager for the rest of Roth's pro career. It's not clear exactly when the switch happened - in late February 1922 Henri Chevalley was still Roth's manager and in June 1922 it was Paul Favre, so somewhere in this time frame is when Favre began managing Roth and to a point turned his career around.

Over the next few months, with Favre as his manager, Roth continued racking up victories in Switzerland over the likes of Paul de Villiers, Paul Favre, Maurice Vance and William Thompson. Late 1922 is when he started venturing out more to other countries, but on and off he continued wrestling in his native Switzerland. For example in 1923 on February 18 he defeated top Austrian star Josef Steinbach, on March 18 he had a successful World Heavyweight Title defense against one of the top French stars Salvador Chevalier (we'll discuss that World Heavyweight championship lineage below in the France section), on 27 March he defeated the French veteran Emile Vervet, etc. Then on 27 August 1924 Roth defended his World Title against one of the top Belgian Greco-Roman stars Alphonse Steurs in Basel. Roth kept the title when Steurs was disqualified for using prohibited holds. Finally, in October 1924 Roth won an 11-man tournament, promoted by his manager Paul Favre. Some sources claimed this was a European Freestyle Championship tournament, but it doesn’t look like it was. The tournament featured the popular Turk Yussiff Mahmout (the Frank Gotch opponent and then policeman), the Dutch veteran Marinus van Riel, the Italian Giulio Travaglini, Paul Favre himself and a few others.


Overall, there is a strong case to be made that Robert Roth was the top wrestling star in his native Switzerland in 1922-1924, but on the flip side he was never really a big superstar in Switzerland and wrestling's popularity as a whole was down in Switzerland during this time so there wasn't a whole lot of pro wrestling going on there. The show reports suggest that the venues for Roth's matches in Switzerland were often full, but these were smaller venues for anywhere from a few hundred to a few thousand.

France

France was the birthplace of Greco-Roman pro wrestling and one of the major territories for that style during the first decade of the 20th century. As early as 1912 there had been attempts to popularize the catch style in France and that worked to a point, but as a whole the catch style didn't catch on in a big way in France until 1933 when Raoul Paoli's promotion started his promotion. Even the Greco-Roman style declined greatly in popularity by the time World War I came around. The French newspapers of the 1920s attribute the decline in wrestling's popularity, which started happening a few years prior to WWI, to a few factors. On the one hand they point the finger of blame at how the sport evolved. Initially the Greco-Roman tournaments were on an open contract basis where anyone could sign up and compete to see who the best wrestler truly was. The wrestlers were paid per night and therefore the more they won, the more money they made so everyone was in it to win and they wrestled like it. Later, however, the music hall directors saw a business opportunity to make a lot of money through wrestling and the way the tournaments were run changed. The system of open contracts and per night payment was dropped. Now there were touring troupes of wrestlers, usually managed by the top wrestler of the troupe. Wrestlers were now on bi-weekly or monthly contracts and the troupe managers controlled who won and who lost, which changed the nature of the sport. It became less of a sport, and more of a business and a show. The troupe managers and music hall directors wanted to make as much money as possible by prolonging the tournaments as much as possible so time limit draws and rematches became very common. Instead of offensively like in the past, now a lot of wrestlers were wrestling defensively and were just coasting until the time limit of the bout was reached. As a result the matches became less exciting to watch. Plus, the tournaments became predictable, because the troupe managers (Paul Pons, Jess Pedersen, etc.) always ended up as the final winners. And on top of that the quality of the wrestlers went down too as some got older, others were out of shape, some of the new ones were just there as an attraction and weren't all that good at wrestling, etc. For all of these reasons wrestling's popularity in France dropped off greatly. Or least that was the take I managed to find in the 1920s French press and to me this sounds plausible, for the most part.

The biggest reason though as to why in 1922 pro wrestling was almost non-existent in France was something else. I'm not sure exactly when this happened, but at some point after WWI the French government imposed a very high 33% to 40% tax on pro wrestling, which almost killed pro wrestling in France. Most promoters simply couldn't afford to run shows because of this high tax.

On November 16, 1922, Fédération Française Professionnelle de Lutte (French Professional Wrestling Federation), or FFPL for short, was formed. This FFPL wasn't a wrestling promotion - it was a governing body intent on ruling over professional wrestling in France. It registered with the French authorities as a sports federation. The idea was that if someone wanted to wrestle professionally in France they would need a license through FFPL. The rules of the matches in France would also be based on the FFPL guidelines. FFPL would also sanction the championship titles in France. In short, FFPL was very much a legit governing organization for pro wrestling, which to me lends credibility to all champions recognized by them, but we'll talk more about championships below.

FFPL had two main objectives. First and foremost, for pro wrestling to be treated as and accepted as a legitimate sport. They very much wanted to distance pro wrestling away from its past perception of being fake. Therefore they banned the old-style tournaments with matches day after day for weeks on end and introduced multiple weight classes like in amateur wrestling (weight classes weren’t much of a thing in the past outside of a basic distinction between heavyweights and non-heavyweights). Secondly, and this was their biggest hurdle, they wanted to get the high tax on pro wrestling reduced. They tried, but ultimately couldn’t get it done.

On 5 December 1922 at Cirque de Paris in Paris the first ever pro wrestling matches sanctioned by FFPL took place. On a card which also featured three boxing fights, there was a match to determine the official French Greco-Roman champion (ended up being Maurice Vance), and a match for the World Mixed Wrestling Championship (mixed as in Greco-Roman and freestyle/catch). Heading into the World Title match FFPL recognized the Belgian Constant le Marin as the official champion, and indeed le Marin was probably the most logical option possible. He was one of the biggest European stars back then and in the past he had won World Greco-Roman, catch and mixed wrestling tournaments in Paris to back his status as World champion. FFPL recognizing le Marin as the champion was a no-brainer, but his chosen opponent was the more interesting choice. Robert Roth, who had never wrestled a pro bout outside of his native Switzerland and who had had less than 20 bouts in his pro career so far, ended up being le Marin's challenger. It's interesting to note that in the months prior to this match Roth had trained jiu-jitsu under Adolf Tobler in Switzerland (Tobler was one of the pioneers of jiu-jitsu in Germany) so this was the latest addition to his arsenal of schwingen, Olympic freestyle and catch pro style. The Roth vs. le Marin match was billed as Olympic champion vs. World champion. Being 14 years younger, Roth had the youth advantage while le Marin had the experience edge with his 17 years of pro experience to Roth's one year. In the match Roth won the first fall, which was under freestyle rules, in 35:56 minutes, and in the second fall (Greco-Roman rules) after about 20 minutes of wrestling le Marin said he had injured his wrist and couldn't continue. Robert Roth was declared the new World Mixed Wrestling champion. A week later FFPL dropped the Greco-Roman aspect and banned mixed wrestling going forward so Roth was now just the World Freestyle/Catch champion. You could make a case that the Roth/le Marin match was the first officially sanctioned World Championship match in the history of French pro wrestling and one of the most high-profile matches in 1920s France. As for the match itself some reports described it as a genuine match (as in not fake), but not a very exciting one as both wrestlers were wrestling passively and were trying not to get beat more so than trying to actually win. Whether it really was a shoot match or not, I don’t know, but that’s how it was presented and some reports thought it was. Personally, given the cop-out finish, I doubt it, but anything’s possible.

Robert Roth vs. Constant le Marin newspaper advert (Paris, 1922)

The news of Roth winning the World Championship made the press in a lot of European countries and effectively elevated the relatively unknown Roth to being one of the leading World champion claimants in Europe. So why Robert Roth, you may ask? Why would the newly-established FFPL go with a relative unknown with very little pro wrestling experience, and someone who wasn't even French, as their World champion? The answer to this question lies in examining who the founding members of FFPL were. One of the board members of FFPL was none other than Paul Favre, Roth's manager. That explains how Roth got the spot. Plus, you can tell FFPL really liked the idea of an Olympic gold medalist such as Roth being their World champion and they clearly felt he would help with pro wrestling being perceived as more credible.

Robert Roth with members of FFPL (Paris, 1922)

While Roth was now effectively the new face of French pro wrestling, ultimately he wasn't able to do much in France. The high pro wrestling tax was still in place and therefore pro wrestling events were very few and far between. In fact, Roth wrestled only two other times in Paris. In 1924 on January 25 he had an exhibition bout with the Frenchman Francois Berthod (who was one of Roth's pro wrestling trainers), and in July he faced off against a very interesting opponent.

At the 1920 Olympics in Antwerp Roth won his gold medal by defeating the American Nat Pendleton in the final, but not without controversy. There was no winner in the actual match and then Roth awarded the decision by the judges on points, overruling the referee who gave the decision to Pendleton. The American camp protested this, claiming the judges were biased and that Pendleton was the easy winner on points as he had had Roth on the defensive for most of the match, but the decision stood. Fast forward to July 1924. Pendleton, who was one of the coaches for the U.S. amateur wrestling team at the time, was in Paris for the Olympics. Even before he arrived in France the talk in the French newspapers was how Pendleton was keen on wrestling some of the top European pro wrestling stars like Javier Ochoa, Laurent Gerstmans and especially Robert Roth since he had a score to settle with him. In fact, there had been some talk of Roth and Pendleton wrestling each other in a pro bout as early as December 1922. A couple of weeks after Pendleton arrived in Paris Roth accepted the challenge and a few weeks after that the match was officially booked for 25 July at Salle Wagram. Roth's World Championship was on the line. Much like in their Olympic bout, neither man could score a fall on the other and the match reached its time limit (60 minutes). There were four judges - two ruled the match for Pendleton, one ruled it for Roth, and one said it was a draw so Pendleton was declared the winner and new World champion. However, shortly thereafter one of the judges changed their mind, the decision was reversed and the match was declared a draw. Therefore Roth remained the champion, and for a second time a bout of his with Pendleton ended in controversial fashion. This was Roth's last match in France.

Robert Roth vs. Nat Pendleton newspaper adverts (Paris, 1924)

In the 1922-1924 period there was talk of Roth possibly facing several other notable names in Paris (Constant le Marin again, the multi-time World Greco-Roman champion Jaan Jaago, top Belgian star Laurent Gerstmans, the Danish great Jess Pedersen, etc.), but the most interesting name was without question Ed "Strangler" Lewis. In the summer of 1923 the reigning U.S. World Heavyweight champion Ed Lewis and his manager Billy Sandow were traveling through Europe. It was mostly a vacation, but they were open to listening to offers of matches. The talk of Lewis vs. Roth picked up around mid July when Sandow and Lewis came to Paris (sidenote: they were still in London on 17 July, but come 21 July they were in Paris and met with Paul Favre in person). At the time Salvador Chevalier, a French wrestler who had previously wrestled Lewis in the States, was also throwing challenges at Lewis and asking for a rematch. After some back and forth talk, at one point in August it was announced that Lewis would indeed wrestle Chevalier at the 18,000-capacity Velodrome d'Hiver (a.k.a. Palais des Sports) in Paris in September (sidenote: on 18 August it was reported that Lewis and Sandow were in Prague, the Czech Republic, and Sandow sent in a statement from there). The talk was that the winner of the Lewis/Chevalier match was going to wrestle Roth either in London or Paris, but ultimately neither match took place and Lewis and Sandow went back to the States.

Ed "Strangler" Lewis article (Paris, 1923)

England

Shortly after the talk of Lewis vs. Roth died down, Roth's career took an interesting turn. He stepped away from professional wrestling for a while and decided to try his hand at pro boxing. On 1 October 1923 at the Olympia in London there was a major boxing card headlined by Georges Carpentier taking on Joe Beckett. The event drew a reported attendance of 18,000 fans. In the third match from the top Robert Roth made his boxing debut against former Australian Heavyweight champion Albert Lloyd. Roth had been planning to do boxing since at least May 1923. He then trained under Arthur Abplanalp. In the days leading up to the fight it was announced the Olympic champion Roth was getting into boxing with the intention of challenging Jack Dempsey. Things did not go well for Roth, however. He was so badly beaten by the much more experienced Lloyd that in the third round Roth's cornerman threw in the towel to stop the fight. That loss more or less ended Roth's chances of making it as a big time boxer.

Roth did have another pro boxing fight on 29 February 1924 in his home town of Bern, Switzerland. He defeated the Frenchman Eugene Stuber with a knock out in the fourth round. However, something must've been fishy around this fight, because a few weeks later the International Boxing Union fined the two boxers and their manager (Paul Favre) and suspended them for a year. The reason for the suspension wasn't announced. Roth never boxed again.

On and off over the years there had been some talk of Roth wrestling in England, but he never did. As a whole, pro wrestling in the UK at the time was in a big slump. It would pick up again in the 1930s with the introduction of all-in wrestling.

Spain

In the early to mid 1920s pro wrestling in Spain, particularly Greco-Roman pro wrestling, was doing better popularity-wise than in most other European countries. Certainly better than France and Switzerland, for example. The biggest deal in Spanish pro wrestling at the time was the annual Gold Belt of Madrid Greco-Roman tournament, which had been held since 1919 at the 2,142-seat Circo de Parish venue in Madrid (also known as Circo de Price). Constant le Marin had won a couple of the tournaments, and much like in France, he was the top foreign star in Spain. The biggest Spanish star was Javier Ochoa, who had won one of the Gold Belt tournaments.

The 1923 edition of the Gold Belt of Madrid tournament featured both Ochoa and le Marin as well as Jan Leskinowitsch (another notable European star), but the most interesting thing that year was that for the first time since its inception the tournament faced competition in the form of another tournament happening at the same time. While the Greco-Roman Gold Belt of Madrid tournament was taking place at Circo de Parish, a freestyle/catch tournament billed as the Championship of Madrid took place at Circo Americano. That tournament was built around Robert Roth and was managed by the former multi-time World Greco-Roman champion Jess Pedersen. As early as February 1922 there had been talk of Roth wrestling in Spain, but this was his official debut there.

When Roth first arrived in Madrid the adverts billed as the only official and undisputed World champion and as someone who had defeated le Marin. Initially the gimmick in Madrid was that Roth was offering to give 5,000 Spanish pesetas to any wrestler who lasted more than 2 minutes against him, but that open challenge did not last long. As for the tournament itself, Roth won the Championship of Madrid with a win over the popular Alphonse Steurs (behind le Marin, the most successful Belgian wrestler on the international scene at the time) in the final match. Roth's most interesting match in Madrid, however, was yet to come.

Robert Roth pinning Henri Kohler in an exhibition bout (26 June 1923 in Madrid)

There had been various challenges and counter-challenges between the wrestlers from both Madrid tournaments, particularly between le Marin and Roth. The owners of the two rival venues, Leonard Parish (of Circo de Parish) and Mariano Sanchez Rexach (of Circo Americano), got involved as well. At one point le Marin even suggested a match with a 5,000 Spanish pesetas side bet with all proceeds from the match going to the Red Cross. Le Marin's challenge was directed at both Roth and Jess Pedersen, but Pedersen stated he was retired (which he indeed was) and that in the past he had already beaten le Marin 30 times anyway so he had no interest in facing him again. Roth did accept the challenge and, reportedly, he even deposited 10,000 pesetas (about $2,000) as a guarantee in a local bank.

Even so, it seemed like the match may still not happen and then, fresh off his tournament win, on 24 June Roth made an unannounced appearance at the rival tournament at Circo de Parish and challenged le Marin to wrestle him on the spot. The reason given for Roth showing up unannounced and the match not being announced in advance was that Roth had to leave for Switzerland soon so he couldn't wait around for the match to be officially signed. The gate from that night was still, reportedly, given to charity, but there was a little bit of criticism in the Spanish press, because had the match been advertised in advance a lot more money would have been drawn, especially since the talk was to hold the match either at Plaza de Toros Las Ventas (capacity 23,798) or at the newly built Estadio Metropolitano (capacity about 25,000).

Sidenote: There still ended up being a big match at Estadio Metropolitano between wrestlers from the rival tournaments when on 29 July Javier Ochoa (the winner of the 1923 Gold Belt of Madrid) defeated Alphonse Steurs (second place in the Championship of Madrid) in the first ever pro wrestling match at that stadium.

The 24 June match between Roth and le Marin caused quite a sensation and the result of the match received press in a number of European countries. The match, which was wrestled under freestyle/catch rules, had two wrestlers serving as referees, one from each camp - Henri Stroobants (a good friend of le Marin's) and Henri Kohler (a training partner of Roth's). The crowd was split, both wrestlers being applauded. After 22:53 minutes of wrestling Roth was finally able to pin le Marin. Now this is just speculation on my part, but I think it's possible this match may have been a shoot. The reports from the match aren't detailed enough to give us a better idea of the match, but there was some punching involved at one point, which wasn't typical for the European matches back then. Plus, and more importantly, I don't see a reason for le Marin to be losing to a wrestler from a rival tournament and the match not being promoted in advance unless this was a shoot. We'll never know for sure, but I think it's certainly possible.

Robert Roth returned to Madrid in 1924 as well. He once again wrestled at Circo Americano, but this time around there was no rival tournament at the same time (the Gold Belt of Madrid tournament had already taken place a few months prior and was won by Constant le Marin). The 1924 tournament with Roth in Madrid was billed as a World Freestyle Championship (Campeonato Mundial de Lucha Libre). It featured only 10 wrestlers, the most notable one being the Turkish veteran Yussiff Mahmout. At this time Mahmout (who at one point was considered one of the top catch-as-catch-can wrestlers in North America) was in his 40s, past his prime, was nearing the end of his career and was doing his final European tour. And to no one's surprise it was indeed Roth and Mahmout who met in the final of the tournament, Roth winning after 1 hour and 25 minutes of wrestling.

It's interesting to note that before the tournament began and throughout it, there were back and forth challenges between Roth (via his manager Favre) and the top Spanish star Javier Ochoa. The Roth camp was saying Roth was willing to wrestle Ochoa in either Greco-Roman or freestyle, while Ochoa was only willing to wrestle Greco-Roman. Ochoa's ultimate response was that if Roth wanted to wrestle him then he should sign up for the following year's Gold Belt of Madrid tournament and things ended there. The match never happened.

Canada

After a lengthy absence, on 24 April 1924 pro wrestling returned to Montreal, Canada, with a big international tournament at the Mount Royal Arena. Jack Curley was the promoter behind it, with Montreal's Lucien Riopel also assisting with the shows. Back in March 1924 the Belgian press had reported that Robert Roth had signed with Curley to wrestle in New York in September, but things didn't work out quite like that. Instead on 1 May Roth made his North American debut and joined the Montreal tournament. He was accompanied by his manager (Paul Favre) and training partner (Henri Kohler). In the tournament Roth picked up victories over the likes of Charles Leppanen, Nick Lutze (via decision), Frank Leavitt (the future Man Mountain Dean), local favorite George Deslongchamps, Renato Gardini (via decision after 1 hour 45 minutes, the longest match of Roth's pro career, with about 5,000 fans in attendance) and had a draw with Frank Judson (5,000 fans in attendance). This got him to the final of the tournament, where Roth was faced with Wladek Zbyszko. Zbyszko was 7 years older, much more experienced as a pro and had a significant weight advantage as well. In front of the biggest Canadian wrestling crowd of the year (about 7,000 fans), after 48:05 minutes of wrestling Wladek pinned Roth and gave him his first and only professional wrestling loss. After that Roth had one more match in Canada, a win over Mike Nestor in Ottawa, and then he returned to Europe. Given his strong showing in the tournament and how much of a push he got for being a complete unknown there, it's curious why he didn't wrestle more in North America or least in Canada. When they returned to Europe Favre was saying that Roth had agreed to do a six-month tour of North America later in the year, but that never happened.

Belgium

In the early to mid 1920s Belgium was one of the few European countries where pro wrestling was doing well, particularly the mixed style bouts. The two leading Belgian stars were Constant le Marin and the 1912 Olympian Laurent Gerstmans. Le Marin had been around for a long time, but Gerstmans was a relative newcomer to pro wrestling and he was climbing the ranks in Belgium fast. He had both lost to and defeated le Marin and had also won the freestyle fall in his mixed wrestling match with the Estonian Jaan Jaago (one of the biggest European stars of the era, winner of multiple World Greco-Roman Championship tournaments). The Belgian press covered Roth's career quite regularly and while there was some talk of Roth facing le Marin in Belgium too, the main topic was always Roth vs. Gerstmans, Olympian-turned-pro vs. Olympian-turned-pro.

Roth made his debut in Belgium on 23 November 1923 in Antwerp with a super quick victory over Charles Michaud (Roth winning the first fall, Greco-Roman, in 1 minute 20 seconds, and the second fall, freestyle, in just 5 seconds). And then it was time for Roth to finally face Gerstmans. That match took place on 14 December 1923, in Antwerp in front of about 3,000 fans. Roth's World Championship was on the line. The two wrestled to a 60-minute time limit draw. There was talk of a rematch, but it never happened.

Laurent Gerstmans vs. Robert Roth newspaper illustration (Antwerp, 1923)

Robert Roth had another match in Belgium on 16 December 1924, in Antwerp. In the main event Gerstmans defeated Yussiff Mahmout, and in the semi-main event Roth picked up a victory over the Romanian Petre Sonda (who was a protege of Mahmout's). It was a mixed wrestling match - Roth won the Greco-Roman fall in 17:47 minutes, and the freestyle one in 13:24 minutes. The audience was reported as being large.

Germany

As mentioned previously, in the early to mid 1920s Germany was the country with the strongest wrestling scene in Europe. The Greco-Roman style was the prevalent style in Germany and therefore a freestyle wrestler like Robert Roth wasn't a particularly good fit there. And yet in January 1925 Paul Favre stated in the French press that German promoters had been trying to arrange matches for Robert Roth against the up-and-coming German stars Richard Shikat and Hans Steinke. It doesn't seem like those matches happened, but both Roth and Favre did wrestle in Germany in 1925. From May 1 through May 31 they were part of a Gran Prix of Stuttgart freestyle tournament, managed by Karl Fürst. Also in the tournament were Salvador Chevalier, Albin Kutschke, Fritz Löwe, Fritz Stolzenwald, and others. Roth won the tournament. In July the French press reported that Favre and Roth were in Berlin where there was a big Greco-Roman tournament, but I haven't been able to find confirmation of that. For what it's worth, in an October 1925 interview with the French press Roth said that during his tour of Germany he had turned down the Greco-Roman matches that were offered to him, because the wrestlers in Germany, and this is a rough translation, "were more so performers than competitors" (take that however you will) and he's above all a freestyle wrestler.

In conclusion

Around 8 October 1925 Robert Roth announced his retirement from professional wrestling. In an interview with the French press he stated that pro wrestling hadn't given him the satisfaction that he had expected. He didn't outright say it, but he did mention how the European tournaments lacked interest, so to me that kind of read like he couldn't make as much money from pro wrestling as he had hoped he would so he called it quits. Plus, he also talked about how much he missed wrestling in the schwingen style and how he wanted to become champion in that style again.

Upon his retirement from pro wrestling Robert Roth along with two of his two brothers Niklaus and Louis purchased some land and a pair of local businesses in Switzerland, which they then operated together. Robert was also re-classified as an amateur with the schwingen federation and resumed competing in that style. Eventually in 1928 he was reinstated as an amateur freestyle wrestler as well. In 1928 and 1930 he became the Swiss freestyle champion and in 1928 he was the Swiss Greco-Roman champion too. There was a lot of talk of him competing at the 1928 European Championship in Paris, but that didn't happen.

Sidenote: Roth's other two brothers Hans and Fritz were also Olympic wrestlers, having competed at the 1924 Olympics. Hans was also a two-time schwingen champion - in 1929 (Robert Roth placed third that year) and in 1931 (Robert Roth was second).

As for pro wrestling, for the next few years after his retirement Robert Roth's name would get brought up every once in a while. In December 1925 Jaan Jaago challenged Roth to a match either in France or Switzerland. In February 1926 Jaago was also challenging him in Madrid. In February 1927 there was talk of Roth wrestling Francois Berthod in Switzerland. In July 1928 Javier Ochoa issued a challenge to Roth for a match in Madrid. In January 1930 Roth was announced as a participant in a Madrid tournament. Throughout 1934 the French press reported on several occasions that Roth was coming out of retirement soon and was going to be wrestling in France. None of that happened, however. After his retirement in October 1925 Roth never wrestled professionally again.

Robert Roth passed away at the age of 61 on 17 November 1959 in Nidau, Switzerland.

His career wasn't a long one, but to me it's a notable one. He was the first Olympic medalist to have a somewhat successful career in pro wrestling. He won a World Championship in France and a World Championship tournament in Spain, and overall was the leading World champion claimant in several European countries. He either won or reached the final of every tournament he was ever a part of. Along the way he picked up victories over big names such as le Marin, Mahmout and Gardini and, based on my records, he had only one professional loss. While he was pushed as a headliner and as a big deal in all the countries he worked in, the biggest issue he faced is that he came along in an era where the wrestling business in Europe was way down. Had he been around in a different era perhaps he would've left a more lasting impact.

ROBERT ROTH PRO WRESTLING CAREER RECORD (59 wins, 1 loss, 9 draws)*:
= 4 Dec 1921 (Lausanne, Switzerland): Robert Roth def. Giuseppe Massetti [pro debut]
= 8 Dec 1921 (Geneva, Switzerland): Robert Roth def. Fritz van der Heyd
= 31 Jan 1922 (Basel, Switzerland): Robert Roth def. Willy Urbach via decision
= 26 Feb 1922 (Bern, Switzerland): Robert Roth def. Emile Deriaz via decision
= 28 Feb 1922 (Zurich, Switzerland): Robert Roth def. Peter Küpper
= 1 Mar 1922 (Bern, Switzerland): Robert Roth def. Willy Urbach
= 14 May 1922 (St. Gallen, Switzerland): Robert Roth def. Rudolf Gruneisen
= 18 May 1922 (Bern, Switzerland): Robert Roth def. Paul Favre
= 21 May 1922 (St. Gallen, Switzerland): Robert Roth def. Rudolf Grüneisen
= 12 Jun 1922 (Bern, Switzerland): Robert Roth def. Paul de Villiers
= 14 Jun 1922 (Bern, Switzerland): Robert Roth def. Paul Favre
= 24 Jun 1922 (Neuchatel, Switzerland): Robert Roth def. Maurice Vance
= 30 Jun 1922 (Bern, Switzerland): Robert Roth def. Paul de Villiers
= 6 Jul 1922 (Neuchatel, Switzerland): Robert Roth def. Maurice Vance
= 17 Aug 1922 (Basel, Switzerland): Robert Roth drew William Thompson
= 20 Aug 1922 (Fribourg, Switzerland): Robert Roth vs. Fritz van der Heyd
= 28 Aug 1922 (Basel, Switzerland): Robert Roth def. William Thompson
= 5 Dec 1922 (Paris, France): Robert Roth def. Constant le Marin [World Title win]
= 18 Feb 1923 (Bern, Switzerland): Robert Roth def. Josef Steinbach
= 18 Mar 1923 (Geneva, Switzerland): Robert Roth def. Salvador Chevalier [World Title defense]
= 27 Mar 1923 (Bern, Switzerland): Robert Roth def. Emile Vervet
= 8 Apr 1923 (St. Maurice, Switzerland): Robert Roth def. Paul Favre
= 23 May 1923 (Madrid, Spain): Robert Roth def. Francois Berthod
= 26 May 1923 (Madrid, Spain): Robert Roth def. Henri Kohler
= 28 May 1923 (Madrid, Spain): Robert Roth def. Paul Favre
= 31 May 1923 (Madrid, Spain): Robert Roth def. Paul le Nantais
= 2 Jun 1923 (Madrid, Spain): Robert Roth def. Jose Ardevol
= 6 Jun 1923 (Madrid, Spain): Robert Roth drew Emile Vervet
= 8 Jun 1923 (Madrid, Spain): Robert Roth def. El Secondo Hermani
= 11 Jun 1923 (Madrid, Spain): Robert Roth def. Emile Vervet via disqualification
= 13 Jun 1923 (Madrid, Spain): Robert Roth drew Raphael Grenna
= 16 Jun 1923 (Madrid, Spain): Robert Roth drew Alphonse Steurs
= 20 Jun 1923 (Madrid, Spain): Robert Roth def. Nino Darnoldi
= 21 Jun 1923 (Madrid, Spain): Robert Roth def. Alphonse Steurs [Championship of Madrid tournament final]
= 22 Jun 1923 (Madrid, Spain): Robert Roth def. Paul de Villiers
= 24 Jun 1923 (Madrid, Spain): Robert Roth def. Constant le Marin
= 26 Jun 1923 (Madrid, Spain): Robert Roth vs. Henri Kohler [exhibition match]
= 20 Nov 1923 (Antwerp, Belgium): Robert Roth def. Charles Michaud
= 14 Dec 1923 (Antwerp, Belgium): Robert Roth drew Laurent Gerstmans [World Title defense]
= 31 Dec 1923 (Basel, Switzerland): Robert Roth def. Henri Kohler
= 25 Jan 1924 (Paris, France): Robert Roth vs. Francois Berthod [exhibition match]
= 31 Jan 1924 (Basel, Switzerland): Robert Roth def. Paul Favre
= 28 Feb 1924 (Bern, Switzerland): Robert Roth def. Francois Fournier
= 1 May 1924 (Montreal, Canada): Robert Roth def. Charles Leppanen
= 2 May 1924 (Montreal, Canada): Robert Roth def. Nick Lutze via decision
= 3 May 1924 (Montreal, Canada): Robert Roth drew Frank Judson
= 7 May 1924 (Montreal, Canada): Robert Roth def. Frank Leavitt
= 9 May 1924 (Montreal, Canada): Robert Roth def. George Deslongchamps
= 10 May 1924 (Montreal, Canada): Robert Roth def. Renato Gardini via decision
= 12 May 1924 (Montreal, Canada): Wladek Zbyszko def. Robert Roth [tournament final]
= 17 May 1924 (Ottawa, Canada): Robert Roth def. Mike Nestor
= 25 Jul 1924 (Paris, France): Robert Roth drew Nat Pendleton [World Title defense]
= 27 Aug 1924 (Basel, Switzerland): Robert Roth def. Alphonse Steurs via disqualification [World Title defense]
= 11 Oct 1924 (Geneva, Switzerland): Robert Roth def. Francois Berthod
= 13 Oct 1924 (Geneva, Switzerland): Robert Roth def. Giulio Travaglini
= 15 Oct 1924 (Geneva, Switzerland): Robert Roth def. Petre Sonda
= 16 Oct 1924 (Geneva, Switzerland): Robert Roth def. Fritz Bellingrath
= 19 Oct 1924 (Geneva, Switzerland): Robert Roth def. Yussiff Mahmout [tournament final]
= 28 Oct 1924 (Madrid, Spain): Robert Roth def. Francois Berthod
= 30 Oct 1924 (Madrid, Spain): Robert Roth def. Jean Baud
= 1 Nov 1924 (Madrid, Spain): Robert Roth def. Fritz Bellingrath
= 3 Nov 1924 (Madrid, Spain): Robert Roth def. Paul de Villiers
= 5 Nov 1924 (Madrid, Spain): Robert Roth def. Fritz Bellingrath
= 7 Nov 1924 (Madrid, Spain): Robert Roth def. Petre Sonda
= 9 Nov 1924 (Madrid, Spain): Robert Roth def. Yussiff Mahmout [World Championship tournament final]
= 16 Dec 1924 (Antwerp, Belgium): Robert Roth def. Petre Sonda
= 10 May 1925 (Stuttgart, Germany): Robert Roth drew Paul Favre
= 18 May 1925 (Stuttgart, Germany): Robert Roth def. Paul Favre
= 25 May 1925 (Stuttgart, Germany): Robert Roth def. Salvador Chevalier
= 26 May 1925 (Stuttgart, Germany): Robert Roth drew Albin Kutschke
= 29 May 1925 (Stuttgart, Germany): Robert Roth def. Salvador Chevalier
= 31 May 1925 (Stuttgart, Germany): Robert Roth def. Albin Kutschke [Gran Prix of Stuttgart tournament final]

Acknowledgements: Thank you to Ronald Großpietsch for his research on Germany and Belgium, which was used for this article.