The Pro Wrestling Career of Andreas Lambrakis (1935-1966)

A detailed look at the career of one of the major European pro wrestling stars.

Andreas Lambrakis was one of the major stars in European professional wrestling back in the 1940s-1960s. In his native Greece he was the second biggest pro wrestling star in the history of the country and drew many big crowds there over the course of his career. He helped establish the Greek pro wrestling scene in the 1930s and was also the leading star when Greek pro wrestling entered its golden age in the 1960s. On top of that he traveled the world, wrestling on six continents. However, with pro wrestling eventually losing its popularity in Greece, the name Andreas Lambrakis has largely been forgotten. The detailed account of his career posted below aims to shine some spotlight on this forgotten Greek star.

Andreas Lambrakis in 1937, 1948, 1951, 1955, 1962, and 1964

The Pro Wrestling Career of Andreas Lambrakis

Andreas Lambrakis started his career as a professional wrestler at some point in 1935 in his home town of Athens, Greece. The earliest match of his that I was able to find a record of took place on 10 November 1935. I don’t have his exact age confirmed as there is conflicting information about it, but he started very young - he was about 16 or so years old when he made his pro wrestling debut. At the time the pro wrestling scene in Greece was still in its infancy and had existed for just a few years. The Greek capital Athens (the biggest city in the country) and the nearby port city Piraeus (which is less than 10 km/6 miles from Athens) were the two main pro wrestling hubs at the time. Between those two cities there were several shows every week, but the crowds weren’t all that big for the most part. Generally speaking, at this stage the local stars were drawing crowds no larger than a couple of thousand spectators. Of course, on the very rare occasions when the US-based Greek megastar Jim Londos would come back to Athens he would attract huge stadium crowds for his matches. Those were only a handful of shows though and something that had no direct connection to the local scene. Still, the local scene was pretty active and was growing. An article from a year later (December 1936) estimated that between the guys already wrestling on shows and the young guys training in hopes of becoming the next Jim Londos, there were well over 150 wrestlers in the Athens region alone.

Lambrakis spent the first year and a half of his career wrestling lesser-known opponents in the Athens region. And very early into his career he established himself as a headline star in Athens, most notably at the main wrestling venue in the city at the time - Ring Plakas - where, for example, in May 1936 he headlined three of their four weekly shows for the month.

Then in October 1936 and again in January/February 1937 Lambrakis did tours of Crete (the most populous Greek island) where he wrestled as a headliner in the city of Heraklion. In September 1937 he also toured the island of Chios.

1937: Andreas Lambrakis with his manager Nikolaos Vassios (who was also the Ring Plakas promoter)

In May 1937, at Ring Plakas in Athens, Lambrakis had his first (known) match with the man who would end up becoming his arch-rival - Haralambos Karpozilos (or Harry Karpozilos for short). Karpozilos was an ex-football player who entered pro wrestling in November 1933 after he got suspended from football for 3 years for knocking out a referee. He then very quickly became one of the premier Greek stars. As of May 1937 both Karpozilos and Lambrakis were middleweights, and within a couple of years young Lambrakis would grow into being a heavyweight while Karpozilos, who was significantly shorter than Lambrakis, remained a middleweight for over a decade before eventually becoming a light heavyweight. Over the next 25 years the two of them wrestled all over Greece on many occasions and there is no question that Lambrakis vs. Karpozilos was the biggest rivalry in the history of Greek pro wrestling and one of the top ones in the history of Europe. One of their early notable matches took place in August 1937 in Piraeus in front of about 1,000 fans. The match ended when Lambrakis was disqualified for throwing Karpozilos over the top rope. That led to them brawling afterward and police having to separate them. This is an early example of the heated matches they would continue having for years and years. 

In the summer of 1937 Lambrakis wrestled in Thessaloniki for the first time. Thessaloniki, the biggest city in the north of Greece and the second biggest Greek city overall after Athens down in the south, was another important city for pro wrestling in Greece. The local wrestling scene in Thessaloniki was nowhere near as active as the scenes in Athens and Piraeus. However, from 1934 onward every summer the local stadium of the football club PAOK would host pro wrestling events, making it the first Greek stadium for over 10,000 people to host pro wrestling events on a regular basis. It was the first major venue where Lambrakis wrestled and the first one that he headlined at, most notably in July 1937 when he defeated the top local star Mihail Vasileiadis, albeit in a disputed finish.

Another important name that Lambrakis faced for the first time in 1937 was Paraschos Boras. Boras was the first breakout star of the Greek scene and was the most popular local Greek wrestler at the time. The first (known) match between Lambrakis and Boras was in Piraeus in August 1937 and Boras won the match by countout*. They had another match in October 1937, again in Piraeus, and this time Boras put his Greek Championship of All Categories on the line. That was the top championship in Greek pro wrestling back then and Boras was the main claimant. In that October match Boras and Lambrakis wrestled for 2 hours and 12 minutes. The match ended, without a winner, when the two got into a scuffle and the police stopped the match. 

*Sidenote: There will be several countout finishes mentioned forward. Today the countout may be considered a very disappointing finish, but as best as I can tell based on the Greek reports, back then in Greece such finishes were not looked at as a negative thing and were a perfectly acceptable way to win a match. They seem to have been viewed as a “one guy beat up the other guy so bad that the other guy couldn’t get back into the ring before the count of ten” type of deal. In fact, most of the time the Greek press wouldn’t even technically call them countout victories - instead of saying that the guy won by countout, they would typically report it as a victory by knockout.

As early as December 1936 Lambrakis was already being talked about as one of the top Greek wrestlers and this was later further evidenced by two different Greek newspaper rankings from early 1938 that both ranked him at number 4 overall.

The top Greek wrestlers of 1937 (ranking published in January 1938):
1. Kleitomachos*
2. Boras
3. Galatis
4. Lambrakis
5. Karydas
6. Panagos
7. Karpozilos
8. Balasis
9. Kyrilenko
10. Iliopoulos

*Sidenote: Georgios Kleitomachos was ranked first, mostly because he was the first local Greek pro wrestler to start wrestling abroad (in France) so that increased his rank back home. Later on in 1938 he defeated Boras for the All-Categories Championship.

Throughout 1938 and 1939 Lambrakis continued headlining shows in Athens, Piraeus, Thessaloniki, the island of Crete, etc. One higher-profile match of his during this period was in August 1938 in Piraeus when he defeated Elias Panagos in the semi-main event of one of the bigger Greek shows of the 1930s, which was headlined by Boras vs. Kleitomachos and drew 5,000 fans. The following month Lambrakis defeated another top star, the number three ranked Maxis Galatis, in a match that drew 2,000 fans.

It’s not clear exactly when or how Lambrakis picked up the claim, but by early September 1938 he was claiming the Greek Heavyweight Championship and would defend his title against various opponents. One notable title defense was in April 1939 when Lambrakis successfully defended his title against Georgios Papadakis in Thessaloniki at PAOK stadium.

In November 1939 and again in early 1940 Lambrakis wrestled outside of Greece for the first time when he toured Cyprus (a UK colony at the time). He wrestled in a few different cities, won all of his matches, and got to headline at stadiums such as GSP Stadium in Nicosia (seating capacity: 12,000) and GSE Stadium in Famagusta (seating capacity: 5,000). Attendance information is, sadly, not known at this time.

In February 1940 Lambrakis embarked on his first overseas tour and headed to Lebanon, where he stayed for a couple of months. He won most, if not all, of his matches in Beirut. His most notable victories were over one of the top Lebanese wrestlers at the time Ali Moussa and over the globe-trotting US-based wrestler Charles Manoogian (a.k.a. Ali Adali).

In 1941-1944 while I do believe there were some wrestling shows, overall there wasn’t much wrestling going on in Greece (for obvious reasons). Athens in particular was under German occupation in that time frame. Newspaper coverage of the period is extremely limited, but even so one important Lambrakis result can be confirmed. In March 1944 Lambrakis defeated the aforementioned Paraschos Boras in Athens. It’s also worth noting that since 1941 Lambrakis was claiming the Greek Championship of All Categories, further solidifying his claim with the 1944 victory over Boras. Outside of the ring, during the years of the occupation Lambrakis was making his living as the manager of a tavern in Athens.

1945 is when things picked up again, particularly in Thessaloniki where in the summer there were a series of big wrestling events at PAOK stadium. It was a very notable run of shows, drawing a couple of the biggest non-Londos crowds in the history of Greek pro wrestling up to that point and Andreas Lambrakis was the key guy for the run. The initial storyline was that Harry Karpozilos was disputing Lambrakis’ claim to the Greek Championship of All Categories, because Karpozilos had defeated Lambrakis back in October 1943. To settle the dispute the two wrestled in July. 6,000 fans attended the big championship match and what they saw was a controversial outcome. Karpozilos hit Lambrakis with his signature move (a Jim Londos style airplane spin and slam) and had Lambrakis pinned, but for whatever reason the referee did not make the count. Karpozilos began arguing with the referee and as he was doing so out of nowhere Lambrakis hit him with his signature move (a flying tackle which was more of headbutt than a shoulder block) and knocked him out. The referee declared Lambrakis the winner and Lambrakis remained the champion. On the following day, however, the result of the match was annulled, because of how things had gone down with the referee. Exactly a week later Lambrakis defeated another popular Greek star in Christos Melissovas (later known as Chris Averoff in the United States). The local press did not provide an attendance estimate, but described the crowd as “many thousands”. Then the Lambrakis/Karpozilos rematch took place and it had a special stipulation - two out of three falls. 8,000 fans were in attendance. Each man won a fall and then in the third fall Lambrakis threw Karpozilos over the top rope and Karpozilos couldn’t come back into the ring. The referee Melissovas, however, disqualified Lambrakis for throwing Karpozilos out.

Sidenote: While both Lambrakis and Karpozilos were babyfaces in Greece, sometimes in their matches together Lambrakis would lean into being more aggressive and sort of heelish, surely because it made sense to go in that direction due to Karpozilos being much smaller physically.

In August Paraschos Boras arrived on the scene too and challenged Lambrakis, saying that in fact he was the undisputed Greek champion and not Lambrakis (and Lambrakis was quick to point out his March 1944 victory over Boras in Athens to build up the match further). After defeating a couple of lesser known opponents in matches that drew 5,000 and 4,000 fans respectively, in September Boras finally faced Lambrakis for the Greek Championship of All Categories. A reported audience of 12,000 fans packed the stadium to see the match. The match ended without a winner - the two wrestled for 1 hour and 18 minutes and, because it was getting dark, the match was stopped. Lambrakis wrapped up his run in Thessaloniki in October with a victory over another popular Greek star, Alekos Meidanis, in front of 10,000 fans.

1945: Paraschos Boras and Andreas Lambrakis (right) posing at the start of their match in Thessaloniki

In late 1945 Lambrakis’ career had a big setback, because he got himself into legal trouble. The first incident occurred in November 1945 in Athens. Upset with something that had been written about him in one of the top Greek sports newspapers, Lambrakis stormed the offices of the newspaper and beat up the editor-in-chief and another editor who tried to intervene. Obviously, the journalists pressed charges, but I’m not sure what the result of those was. There was something more important going on with Lambrakis over in Thessaloniki anyway. In December 1945 he was arrested by the authorities there on the charge of embezzling 130 gold British sovereign. It’s a long story, but it basically went down like this. Back in 1942 an owner of a tavern in Athens moved to Patras (the third biggest Greek city) to work for some Germans there. He left Lambrakis, who he was friends with, in charge of his tavern while he was away. Fast forward two years to Greece's liberation from German occupation. Eventually, at some point after the liberation, the tavern owner was accused by the British of collaborating with the Nazis and went into hiding under a false identity in Thessaloniki. When the guy’s wife came to see him in Thessaloniki she found out he had just been arrested and, fearing the authorities might take it, she gave all of the money she had saved up to Lambrakis for safekeeping. On the following day Lambrakis ran off with the money. This was the version of events as told by the tavern owner's wife. Lambrakis’ side of the story was different. He said after one of his matches in Thessaloniki in 1945 he received a card to meet the tavern owner, which he did. The tavern owner wanted to sell Lambrakis his car, fearing it might be seized by the authorities. Lambrakis agreed, paid him 50 French francs and left for Athens to get the car officially transferred into his name (the car was in the wife’s name). Lambrakis’ claim was that the whole story of him stealing money was a fabrication by the wife and he never stole anything - all he did was buy the car. He claimed that once the wife found out her husband had been arrested, she wanted Lambrakis to leave his own wife and family and run off with her and the money (sidenote: This wasn't too clear in the reports, but they may have been having an affair). When Lambrakis refused to leave his family, that's when she made up the story of him stealing the money. Or that was his side of the story anyway. Ultimately, the court sided with the version of events as told by the tavern owner's wife and Lambrakis was sent to prison for six months.

After serving his 6-month sentence, Lambrakis resumed his wrestling career in the summer of 1946 and picked up right where he left off. That summer he headlined stadium shows in the cities of Thessaloniki, Drama, Komotini, and probably elsewhere. He wrestled the likes of Christos Melissovas, Christos Kadas, the Turk Kara Memet, and others. His most important match for the year took place in October in Thessaloniki - Lambrakis vs. Karpozilos for the Greek Championship of All Categories. In front of a packed stadium, Karpozilos won and was declared the champion. Afterward Lambrakis got into it with the referee, arguing Karpozilos had beat him with an illegal hold, and police had to intervene to restrain him.

Lambrakis finished the year with matches in Athens and Piraeus. In November 1946 he and Melissovas wrestled for 2 hours and 15 minutes before their match was stopped and declared a draw. While rare, such long matches were still happening on occasion in Greece at the time. Then there was a several-week tournament held simultaneously in Athens and Piraeus, which was billed as being for the 1946-1947 Gold Belt of All Categories. As part of the tournament Lambrakis defeated Karpozilos to advance to the next round and in the end Lambrakis lost to Melissovas in the final.

Between March 1946 and August 1949 there was a Greek Civil War going on, pitting the Communist Party of Greece and its military branch the Democratic Army of Greece against the pro-Western Greek royalist government. Back in those days there was mandatory conscription in Greece so in the spring of 1947 Lambrakis enlisted in the army (the royalist side) and went straight into the action, fighting communists on the front lines. He spent the next 14 months or so in the army. In between his military duties, he would continue to wrestle.

The rivalry between Lambrakis and Karpozilos continued on in 1947. That year they had three stadium matches in Thessaloniki - the first two in August had no winner and the result of their October match is currently not known.

Meanwhile over in Athens, something important happened in 1947. Since the birth of the Greek pro wrestling scene in the early 1930s it had always existed largely isolated from the outside world. It was very rare for foreign wrestlers, especially wrestlers from the West, to come to Greece to face the locals. In October 1947 a pair of wrestlers from France, Paul Leteurtrois and Nicko Mexis (who was of Greek descent), were brought in for a stadium show, headlined by Karpozilos vs. Leteurtrois. This was a landmark show in Greek pro wrestling history, because it was the first instance of Westerners being brought in to wrestle the local Greek stars. The show took place at the stadium of the football club Panathinaikos - a stadium that would host many other wrestling shows in the decades that followed. That first show was a big success, because it drew either 10,000 or 12,000 fans (conflicting estimates in the press), which was the biggest non-Londos pro wrestling crowd in Athens to date. Lambrakis was supposed to be in one of the three top matches on the show, but his opponent (Rino Deon) couldn’t get there in time so Lambrakis didn’t wrestle on the card (despite his match still being advertised the day of). After said show, Leteurtrois and Mexis stuck around for a few smaller theater shows and Lambrakis picked up victories over Leteurtrois in both Athens and Thessaloniki. Greeks vs. foreigners would eventually become the theme that Greek pro wrestling was largely built on. Karpozilos and Lambrakis were the key stars in that transition.

The arch-rivals: Andreas Lambrakis and Harry Karpozilos

With his military commitments keeping him busy, 1948 was a relatively quiet year for Lambrakis and it doesn’t seem like he wrestled much. Still, he did have two noteworthy matches. The exact lineages are murky but, as mentioned previously, at the end of the 1930s Lambrakis was claiming the Greek Heavyweight Championship, but so was another popular Greek wrestler by the name of Elias Panagos. Panagos’ claim, reportedly, started in 1939 and was still ongoing in 1948. In March 1948 Panagos defended his title against Lambrakis in Piraeus. The match ended in a draw so Panagos retained. Like in 1947, in 1948 there was once again a big stadium show with foreigners in Athens and this time Lambrakis was the one in the headline spot. He won against ”The Turk” Kasim Aslan. The attendance was either 5,000 or 6,000 people. It should be noted that in the weeks that followed Aslan faced Karpozilos in other Greek cities and those shows drew better, indicating that at this time Karpozilos was perhaps ahead of Lambrakis in popularity. That said, earlier in the year in June Lambrakis did defeat Karpozilos in a match in Athens so booking-wise Karpozilos was definitely not positioned over Lambrakis in the Greek wrestler hierarchy.

In the second half of 1949 Andreas Lambrakis left Greece for a long international tour that kept him out of the country until the start of 1955. Right before that though, in May and June 1949 he once again headlined a few stadium shows in Thessaloniki. He first defeated Panagos by countout, his match with Karpozilos was stopped when supposedly Karpozilos got injured, and finally 6,000 fans saw him defeat Theodoros Nikolarakos in his send-off match.

The majority of Lambrakis' time from the second half of 1949 when he left Greece to the start of 1955 when he returned, was spent in South America, where he worked mostly as a heel. From December 1949 through September 1950 Lambrakis wrestled in Argentina in the 15th annual World Championship tournament at Luna Park Stadium in Buenos Aires. These tournaments, which were promoted by Ismael Pace and Jose Lectoure, would go on for months and were a big deal that would attract a lot of fans. By the looks of it Lambrakis placed outside of the top four and wasn’t an important player in the tournament. Hombre Montaña (Vanka Zelesniak) won the tournament and Martin Karadagian placed second. Lambrakis returned for the 16th tournament too and wrestled in Buenos Aires from February 1951 through July 1951. The winners were the same as the previous year and he once again didn’t make the top placements. In the meantime, from late March through late April 1951 Lambrakis also wrestled in a tournament in Santiago de Chile. The final placements of that tournament are not known, but he seems to have been one of the top names in it. That year he also wrestled in a tournament in Rosario, Argentina, placing outside of the top spots. In 1952 he once again wrestled in the annual World Championship tournament in Buenos Aires. He was there from May through July. As before, he wasn’t among the top placers. Martin Karadagian won the tournament.

Sidenote: I have not been able to confirm it at this stage, but in later interviews Lambrakis claimed that while on this tour he also wrestled in Venezuela, Colombia, Peru, Paraguay, Uruguay, and Panama. I’ve also seen a separate claim that he was in Nicaragua as well. My gut feeling is that most of those claimed countries are probably true.

1950: Andreas Lambrakis in South America

In February 1953 Lambrakis made his debut for the top Mexican wrestling promotion EMLL (CMLL), losing a midcard match to Manuel Muñiz at Arena Coliseo in Mexico City. There's a record of only a handful of Lambrakis matches in Mexico through February 1954, and he seems to have been a midcard guy there. His most notable match took place in December 1953 at Arena Coliseo. He was part of a 7-man battle royal along with, among others, the legendary El Santo and Cavernario Galindo. El Santo won it.

While Lambrakis was away on his tour, something interesting would happen on occasion back home in Greece. Every once in a while the Greek press would have reports of his matches in South America. That’s not the interesting part. The interesting part is that often these reports would either be greatly exaggerated or a straight up fabrication. Here are some examples to illustrate this. A report in 1950 claimed that Lambrakis had defeated Martin Karadagian in Buenos Aires in front of 45,000 fans and Captain Jack in front of 25,000. A report in 1953 claimed he had defeated Vincent Lopez (the former World Heavyweight champion, Los Angeles version) in Lima, Peru, in front of 20,000 fans. Another report later on in 1953 claimed that Lambrakis had also defeated Lopez in Caracas, Venezuela, in front of 45,000 to become the World Middleweight champion, and there was even a photo published of Lambrakis holding the belt (well, a belt, which the publication was claiming to be the World Middleweight Championship). I don’t think any of those claims were true. This sort of exaggerated reporting of Lambrakis’ matches abroad continued later on in his career too, which makes me wonder if it was him who was feeding the Greek press these reports to make himself into a bigger deal in Greece. Whoever it was, it worked. Back then only a handful of Greek guys who started their career in Greece got to wrestle in South and North America so that in itself was an important thing, and if you were to believe those reports Lambrakis was coming off as a world-class wrestling star. Those made-up reports definitely look to have elevated Lambrakis in the eyes of the Greek public. As soon as he returned to Greece he was viewed as a major deal. Bigger than he had been before, and it’s not like he wasn’t popular before.

1955: Andreas Lambrakis returning to Greece after being away for more than five years

Lambrakis’ five-year international tour ultimately concluded in Lebanon, where he was in late 1954, and from Lebanon Lambrakis arrived back in Athens in January 1955. The following week he wrestled his first match in Greece since June 1949 when he headlined against Ali Chapraz (a.k.a. Ali Ahmet - the top Turkish pro wrestling star at the time) in Thessaloniki. Lambrakis won by countout in front of 6,000 or 8,000 fans. There was a rematch a week later, which drew an even bigger audience - 12,000 fans watched Lambrakis defeat the Turk again, this time by knockout (Lambrakis hit him with his trademark tackle/headbutt and Chapraz couldn’t get up before the referee's ten count). Lambrakis continued main eventing stadium shows in Thessaloniki over the next few months. In March he first defeated Kasim Aslan via disqualification in front of 5,000 and then they had a rematch, with two referees, but the result of that match is currently unknown. In April Lambrakis defeated the Hungarian Josef Kamaras in front of 4,000 fans (the lower turnout was attributed to the bad weather) and beat him again in a rematch. In May he first lost to Elias Panagos via countout (10,000 in attendance), then lost to him again via disqualification (8,000 in attendance), and wrapped up the month by defeating the up-and-coming Greek star Kostas Nathanail.

1955: Andreas Lambrakis vs. Ali Chapraz in Thessaloniki

This gets us to the summer of 1955 when Greek pro wrestling was probably at its highest popularity to date. With Lambrakis and Karpozilos leading the way, that summer the wrestlers were bouncing between Athens, Thessaloniki, Patras and Piraeus and attracting a lot of interest. As had become tradition by now, several international wrestlers were brought in for the summer season to take on the Greek stars. That year the foreigners were Nicola Selenkowitch, Fritz Müller, Negro Badu, Pablo Bernaus and Giovanni Carmelo. In Athens Lambrakis defeated the Cuban Badu (in front of 8,000 or 10,000), defeated the German Müller (5, 8 or 10 thousand fans in attendance, depending on which newspaper estimate you want to believe), defeated the Yugoslavian Selenkowitsch (10,000), defeated the Spaniard Bernaus (5,000), lost to the Italian Carmelo via countout (5,000) and then beat him in the rematch (7,000).

Lambrakis with a headlock on Badu, Lambrakis on top of Müller
Selenkowitsch trying to push Lambrakis over the top rope, Lambrakis stretching Bernaus' face

In listing Lambrakis’ Athens headline matches above I skipped over the most important one on purpose. When Andreas Lambrakis left Greece in 1949 he and Harry Karpozilos were neck and neck for the spot of top Greek wrestling star. In Lambrakis’ absence, Karpozilos became unquestionably the most popular Greek wrestler as he continued to face both domestic and foreign opponents in Greece. Actually, in the summer of 1951 one of the top Greek sports newspapers did a reader poll asking its readers to rank the most popular Greek wrestlers (professional and amateur) and Karpozilos won the vote by a landslide, amounting twice as many votes as Lambrakis, who finished second (2031 votes to 1080 votes). In 1954 Karpozilos left for the United States where he wrestled for about a year. By the summer of 1955 both Lambrakis and Karpozilos were back in Greece and, fresh off their overseas tours, both were more popular than ever. Everything aligned perfectly. A new clash between them, their first one in six years, was inevitable.

To build to the match, apart from both guys beating various foreign opponents to get momentum behind them, they also did an angle where after one of Lambrakis’ matches Karpozilos came out to the ring in his street clothes and demanded that Lambrakis sign the contract for a match between them. Lambrakis agreed and both guys signed the contract in the middle of the ring (right on the mat). Afterward Lambrakis got into some sort of a quarrel with the referee, some fans jumped the ring, and police intervened to calm things down. The big match happened two weeks later. “The greatest wrestling match of all time” and "The biggest match to take place in Athens since the war" is what the adverts called it. And it was definitely a major match, for sure the biggest wrestling match in the history of Greece, excluding Jim Londos’ stadium matches. 18, 20 or 21 thousand fans in attendance were the crowd estimates provided in the press. It was a very dynamic match that lasted 60 minutes (i.e. the time limit) and at the end the victory was awarded to Lambrakis on points. In Greece, like in some other European countries, when a pro wrestling match went to a time limit draw a winner could then be chosen based on points, similar to how it’s done in amateur wrestling. The following month Lambrakis and Karpozilos wrestled again, this time in Thessaloniki, where Karpozilos airplane spinned and slammed his way to victory before 10,000 fans. As for Athens, there they did a story where after Lambrakis lost to the Italian Carmelo via countout Lambrakis wanted a rematch with him. Carmelo already had a scheduled match with Karpozilos, which Karpozilos offered to give up in favor of Lambrakis on the condition that Lambrakis sign a contract to wrestle Karpozilos again, but this time in a two out of three falls match. Lambrakis accepted the offer and this led to their third match where Lambrakis defeated Karpozilos via countout in front of 10,000 fans.

1955: Andreas Lambrakis and Harry Karpozilos signing the contract for their big match in the ring

1955: The big Andreas Lambrakis vs. Harry Karpozilos match in Athens

From mid September to mid November 1955 Lambrakis wrestled as a heel headliner in Barcelona, Spain, which at the time was one of the top cities for wrestling in Europe. He started the run with a win over the reigning World Light Heavyweight champion (Spanish version) Eduardo Castillo at the 4,500-seat Sala Gran Price, which was the main weekly venue in Barcelona. Two days later Lambrakis vs. the reigning European Light Heavyweight champion (Spanish version) Pedro Bengoechea headlined a show at the 19,582-seat La Monumental bullring. Lambrakis won. After the big Bengoechea match, Lambrakis continued wrestling at Gran Price either in main events or semi-main events and worked only with top Spanish stars such as Jose Tarres (a DQ loss), Jim Oliver (a draw and a loss), Pedro Bengoechea (a draw and a win) and Felix Lamban (a loss). Lambrakis finished his Barcelona run by losing to up-and-coming Spanish wrestler Antonio Peral in the first ever wrestling match at the newly-built Palacio de los Deportes arena.

1955: Spanish headline advertising Andreas Lambrakis' debut in Barcelona/Spain

Then in late November through early December 1955 Lambrakis had a few matches for the Raoul Paoli and Alex Goldstein promotion in France under the name El Lambrakis. His most notable match was losing to Eddy Wiecz (the future Edouard Carpentier) by countout in his debut match, which was a main event at the famous Cirque d’Hiver in Paris. Three days later he was defeated by the Brit Vic Hessle in a midcard match at the 18,000-capacity Palais des Sports.

1955: French newspaper advert for Eddy Wiecz vs. Andreas Lambrakis in Paris

The success of the 1955 summer season in Athens led to the number of stadium shows in the city pretty much doubling the following year. From 11 stadium shows in 1955 the number went up to 21 in 1956, and the shows started in February as opposed to June. Lambrakis was in the main event of 12 of those 21 shows (while Karpozilos was in 9 main events), and Lambrakis was also in the semi-main of another three shows. His first opponent in February/March was Jimmy Dula, who he defeated twice. It’s not known what the first match drew, and the rematch did 5,000. In May he defeated Willi Hofstetter in front of 6,000.

Up next was the key foreign star for the season - Abel Cestac from Argentina. Cestac was a boxer-turned-wrestler, who used to be managed by boxing greats Jack Dempsey and Luis Angel Firpo. They had high hopes of him becoming a World champion, but his boxing career didn’t work out as well as his management had hoped so he switched to wrestling and eventually moved to the island of Crete, where he married a local woman. He wrestled in Athens for the first time in May 1956 and got a big push. It all started with him defeating Karpozilos and then the following week he faced Lambrakis. At one point in the match Lambrakis tried to hit Cestac with his trademark flying tackle/headbutt, but Cestac moved, Lambrakis hit the ring post instead and started bleeding. Cestac then went on to beat Lambrakis. The attendance was 10,000. In the rematch the following week, which drew 12,000 people, they wrestled for 1 hour and 14 minutes until finally falling out of the ring at the same time. Both were knocked out and stretchered out of the stadium. Cestac then had a rematch with Karpozilos, which Karpozilos won by disqualification. With both Lambrakis and Karpozilos gunning for Cestac and wanting another match with him, the two top Greek stars wrestled again. 10,000 fans saw Lambrakis defeating Karpozilos after a headbutt out of nowhere. Then it was time for the third Lambrakis/Cestac match, which Lambrakis won cleanly, knocking out Cestac in 59 minutes. An attendance number was sadly not reported in the press, beyond a general description of “many thousands”.

1956: Andreas Lambrakis vs. Abel Cestac

Lambrakis’ next opponent in Athens was his countryman Elias Panagos. Their first match, which ended in a double disqualification, attracted only 3,000 fans. The rematch did better, drawing 6,000. Lambrakis won a heated match that saw Panagos being busted open. Lambrakis then had a string of victories over the up-and-coming Greek star Kostas Papalazarou, the Egyptian Suleyman (twice), Negro Badu, and finally over his eternal rival Karpozilos. The legendary Jim Londos was in attendance for the Lambrakis/Karpozilos match and shook hands with both men. In the midst of that string of victories, however, Lambrakis also lost a match. The one to beat him was the young Spaniard Pepe Cortes (later known as Hercules Cortez), who won by weakening Lambrakis with his powerful torture rack move.

1956: Andreas Lambrakis shaking hands with Jim Londos as Harry Karpozilos looks on

The summer of 1956 also saw the usual run of stadium shows in Thessaloniki. Lambrakis was one of the central figures there as well. In Thessaloniki he defeated fellow Greek star Kostas Nathanail, lost to Cortes (in front of 5,000), defeated Suleyman (in front of 6,000), and finally became the one to end Cortes’ winning streak in Greece when he beat him with 9,000 fans in attendance.

In December 1956 Lambrakis, Karpozilos and several other Greek stars went to Milan, Italy, for a Team Greece vs. Team Italy show. Lambrakis drew Raffaele Venisti in the main event. Team Greece won the overall competition.

Then in January 1957 the Greek crew went to Spain where they stayed for about a month and a half, working mostly in Barcelona. Unlike his previous run in the city when he was a main eventer, this time Lambrakis worked in a midcard to semi-main event position. He wrestled three popular stars in Jose Tarres, Eduardo Castillo and Tupac Amaru, losing all of his matches (some by disqualification). He also had a couple of matches in Madrid, where he worked with another popular star in Jesus Chausson.

The European tour of the Greeks then headed to France where they worked some shows in Paris and elsewhere. They then wrestled on some shows in Belgium and in mid March the group headed back to Greece.

Back home in Greece Lambrakis toured the country in the spring of 1957. His main opponent during this time was Kostas Papalazarou, who was also part of the Greek group that toured Europe earlier in the year. Notably, in April Lambrakis won a 3-day tournament in Patras. 

Then in May 1957 Lambrakis got into some legal trouble. Fellow wrestler Petrakis came to Lambrakis’ house to demand that Lambrakis return the 1,000 Greek drachma that he owed him, Lambrakis refused, the two got into a fight and Lambrakis ended up hitting Petrakis over the head with a hammer. Petrakis was taken to the hospital and Lambrakis was arrested. I don’t know what happened in terms of charges, but Petrakis was back wrestling a couple of months later and eventually he and Lambrakis worked on the same shows so the issues between the two seem to have been settled.

Compared to the previous year, the 1957 summer season in Athens wasn’t as busy - there were less stadium shows and the crowds were smaller. Karl von Kramer was brought in as the big foreign attraction for the season to take on the Greek stars and his matches are a perfect illustration of the star hierarchy in Greek pro wrestling at the time. In his debut match von Kramer defeated Karpozilos in front of only 3,000 fans. An earlier Karpozilos vs. Thanasis Kabaflis match (Kabaflis being Greek pro wrestling’s newest headline star, who we’ll talk about below) had also drawn only 3,000. In his second match von Kramer lost to Lambrakis in front of 10,000 fans - a great increase over the Karpozilos’ crowd with the same opponent. And then von Kramer lost to Kabaflis in a match that drew 8,000. The von Kramer match was Lambrakis’ only stadium match in Athens that summer, but he did later also beat Kramer in Patras and in Nea Smyrni (a suburb of Athens). The Nea Smyrni match drew only 2,500, which is a disappointing crowd for a 12,000-capacity stadium in what was essentially Athens.

1957: Andreas Lambrakis vs. Karl von Kramer in Athens

The biggest Greek pro wrestling story of 1957 was by far the Lambrakis vs. Kabaflis feud. It was a long and multi-faceted story so I’ll try to keep it somewhat brief and summarize the main points. Athanasios (Thanasis) Kabaflis was one of the most prominent Greek athletes of the 1930s-1950s. He started competing as an amateur Greco-Roman wrestler in the 1930s and while he did wrestle at several World Championships, the 1948 Olympics and did win a Balkan Championship, overall he didn’t have much international success as an amateur wrestler. In Greece, however, it was another story. By 1957 he was a 21-time Greek amateur wrestling champion (his last Greek championship being the year prior), 3-time hammer throwing champion, 5-time stone throwing champion, 1-time 10-kilometer walk champion, a football player, one of the pioneers of jiu-jitsu in Greece (which he was teaching to police and gendarmerie), and on top of it all he was also a popular Greek folk music singer. So needless to say Kabaflis was a very well-known name in Greece. He had dabbled in it a bit in the past too, but it was in 1957 when Kabaflis made the official switch to pro wrestling. At the time he was in his early 40s. Kabaflis getting into pro wrestling was seen as a big deal and he was immediately positioned as Greek pro wrestling’s newest headline star and a challenger to Lambrakis’ status as the top Greek star.

The talk of Lambrakis vs. Kabaflis started in mid 1957 when Kabaflis proclaimed that he was getting into pro wrestling to humiliate all the pros who called themselves champions. Lambrakis took public offence to that and the two engaged in a back-and-forth battle of words in the press. There was a lot to it, but the main point that came out of it was a claim that back in the early 1940s they had, supposedly, wrestled in a private match [i.e. a shoot] in an Athens gymnasium. Kabaflis was claiming he won, and Lambrakis was saying that was a lie and it was him [Lambrakis] who had won on points. Kabaflis issued a challenge for another gymnasium match to take place in July and Lambrakis accepted. However, the Greek Freestyle Wrestling Federation, which governed amateur freestyle wrestling and pro wrestling in Greece at the time, blocked the match from happening.

The talk of them wrestling then quieted down for a few months until early October when the two finally agreed to wrestle - not in a private match, but in a stadium match in Athens. “The biggest wrestling match in recent years” is how the Greek press kept referring to it. There was an official contract signing for the match at the offices of one of the top Greek newspapers where Lambrakis and Kabaflis wouldn’t shake each other’s hand, nor look each other in the eye. The animosity, in storyline, between the two was strong. The match took place in October and drew a reported audience of 10,000. The reports make it sound like a very dramatic match. At one point Lambrakis charged Kabaflis with his trademark flying tackle/headbutt, missed, fell out of the ring, hit his head, and was busted open. Lambrakis continued wrestling and Kabaflis kept knocking him down, with the bloody Lambrakis dramatically getting up each time before the referee’s ten count. Ultimately, Lambrakis’ cornerman had seen enough and threw in the white towel for Lambrakis. Kabaflis was declared the winner while the semi-conscious Lambrakis had to be helped to the back.

1957: The first Andreas Lambrakis vs. Thanasis Kabaflis match

In the days that followed the story continued intensifying. A bedridden and bandaged up Lambrakis’ gave an interview to the press in which he began pleading his case for a rematch. Eventually the story became Lambrakis saying that he will never wrestle again until he gets his rematch with Kabaflis. That then morphed into Lambrakis saying that if Kabaflis did not accept the match he would be forced to confront Kabaflis on the streets and break his ribs in public as his only measure of settling the score. Posters then appeared around town advertising the rematch for November, but Kabaflis claimed he had not yet accepted the match and this was a case of Lambrakis’ trying to damage his reputation. Ultimately, the rematch did take place and 15,000 people turned out to see it - the biggest crowd in Athens since Lambrakis vs. Karpozilos match back in June 1955. This time Kabaflis won fair and square, well sort of, via pinfall. I say sort of, because earlier in the match Lambrakis seemingly had Kabaflis pinned for the win on a couple of occasions, but the referee was slow to count, giving Lambrakis storyline justification to request a third match.

1957: After their first match, the bedridden Andreas Lambrakis pleading his case for a rematch with Thanasis Kabaflis

Lambrakis started campaigning for a third match, but in the meantime his arch-rival Karpozilos once again emerged in his path. The two wrestled and Lambrakis defeated Karpozilos in front of only 1,000 fans in a stadium that could hold 20,000 (the match having been postponed twice already due to bad weather and it being very cold that day were cited as the likely reasons for the very low attendance). Lambrakis did finally get his third match with Kabaflis, in December. The Greek press sadly did not provide an attendance estimate beyond the vague “thousands were in attendance”. Lambrakis seemingly won the match, but the referee then disqualified him for using a punch to knock out Kabaflis.

1957: The third Andreas Lambrakis vs. Thanasis Kabaflis match

At the start of 1958 Lambrakis began another international tour. His first stop was Singapore where he stayed for about a month and wrestled as a heel in main event matches at Happy World Stadium against the likes of King Kong Czaja (who he lost to) and Sheik Wadi Ayoub (who he drew with), among others.

1958: Singaporean newspaper advert for Andreas Lambrakis vs. Sheik Ali Ben Youssef (Wadi Ayoub)

After Singapore Lambrakis headed to Australia and wrestled there for half a year, mostly for promoter George Gardiner. Australia had/has a big Greek population and a history of pushing Greek stars as main event attractions to bring in the Greek fanbase. Such was the case with Lambrakis. In Australia he worked on top as a babyface taking on names such as Gene Stanlee, King Kong Czaja, “Tiger” Ray Holden, and others. There was a particularly notable match with Stanlee in March in Adelaide where after Stanlee was declared the winner the Greek fans in attendance rioted and burnt down part of the theater’s stage. Another notable match of Lambrakis’ Australian tour took place in August in Hobart, Tasmania, where Lambrakis and Emil Koroschenko defeated Charlie Gammage and Ray Holden to become Australian Tag Team champions. This title was just a one-off thing for the local market though and not something that extended beyond that.

1958: Australian article about the crowd riot at the Andreas Lambrakis vs. Gene Stanlee match in Adelaide

Sidenote: In an October 1958 interview Lambrakis claimed he also wrestled in Pakistan during that international tour, but I haven’t been able to confirm that at this stage. In the same interview he mentioned that in the past he had also wrestled in Germany, Portugal, Iraq, Cuba and Texas. In later stories I've also seen a claim that he wrestled in Türkiye too. As it stands right now, I have no confirmation of Lambrakis working in any of those places prior to October 1958. My gut feeling is that probably some, but not all, of those claimed countries are true.

Lambrakis returned to Greece in August 1958 and a week and a half later he joined the ongoing summer season of stadium shows in Athens. While there were a good number of stadium shows that summer, interest was down in general. The shows were built around Karpozilos, Kabaflis and Papalazarou as the top stars, and most of the shows were drawing around 2,000 fans. The biggest known crowd up to Lambrakis’ arrival was 6,000 for Kabaflis vs. the Austrian Adi Berber Jr. One factor that likely affected the crowds that summer to a certain extent was the fact that Greece was hit with a record heatwave, the temperature in Athens in particular peaking at 43.6°C (110.5°F). Even the return of Lambrakis could not increase business in a significant way. The crowd for Lambrakis’ first match back, a semi-main event victory over his countryman Giannis Dourvetakis, brought in only 3,000 fans. A few days later Lambrakis defeated Tony Kosic and that did either 3,000 or 5,000. Lambrakis then beat Karpozilos yet again before 4,000 fans and scored a countout win over Panagos. Then it was time for the biggest Greek match of the year - Lambrakis vs. Kabaflis IV. That took place in October and drew 8,000 fans. Lambrakis and Kabaflis (who was still undefeated as a pro wrestler) wrestled for an hour, and for some of that time rain was pouring down on them, until finally the match ended as a time limit draw. The following week Lambrakis defeated Jack Allen in front of 3,000 fans.
 

1958: Andreas Lambrakis with his three daughters, his wife, his mother and a journalist at the family's home in Nea Smyrni

1958: The fourth Andreas Lambrakis vs. Thanasis Kabaflis match

1958: Andreas Lambrakis hitting Jack Allen with his signature move (flying tackle/headbutt)

Lambrakis had a few more minor matches and then in early 1959 he helped elevate two of Greek pro wrestling’s newest headline stars up a notch. First, he lost by knockout to Kostas Nathanail. The week after that was the start of the Panhellenic Catch Championship - a multi-week tournament at Panathinaikos stadium to determine new Greek champions in the heavyweight, light heavyweight and middleweight divisions. The tournament featured pretty much every important Greek star, although some dropped out eventually. In the tournament Lambrakis first defeated Jim Alex, then defeated Nathanail, then lost to Papalazarou on points and finally Nathanail beat Lambrakis on points to eliminate him from the tournament. A number of years down the road Papalazarou and Nathanail would become the top Greek wrestling stars and their victories over Lambrakis in early 1959 were their first stadium victories over a big name in Athens. Although, it should be said that not many fans saw those victories. The weather was quite cold during the Panhellenic Catch Championship and it doesn’t seem like the tournament was well-attended. The only known crowd is 2,000 for the Lambrakis/Papalazarou match, but in general the reports noted that the crowds were small.

1959: Andreas Lambrakis vs. Kostas Nathanail

From mid February through the end of June 1959 Lambrakis wrestled in South Africa as a main event heel for promoter Bull Hefer. He feuded with top local stars such as Willie Liebenberg, Gerrie de Jager and the masked man Wildeman van die Kalahari (Martiens Jacobs).

1959: South African newspaper advert for Andreas Lambrakis vs. Wildeman van die Kalahari in Johannesburg

Lambakis’ first match back in Greece was a victory over Tupac Amaru in July in Piraeus. He then wrestled his arch-nemesis Karpozilos in Athens and defeated him in front of 5,000 fans. It was a disputed victory, however. Karpozilos pinned Lambrakis and the referee made the three count, but the jury annulled the pin, because Lambrakis was touching the ropes. Later in the match Lambrakis pinned Karpozilos and his pin was ruled legal, even though it was also very near the ropes. Karpozilos protested and petitioned for a rematch. After three weeks of back and forth comments, a rematch took place. It was billed as the final match to settle the score and determine who the top Greek wrestler really was. 10,000 fans saw them going to a time limit draw. Lambrakis finished off his Athens stadium run for the year with a pair of matches with Panagos - the first one ending in double disqualification when the two wouldn’t stop fighting outside of the ring and the second one Lambrakis lost by disqualification for hitting Panagos with an illegal move. In November Lambrakis lost yet another match to Kabaflis, this time in the city of Lamia.

In March and April 1960 Lambrakis wrestled in the United Kingdom for Joint Promotions, mainly working for Dale Martin Promotions specifically. He wrestled mostly as a headliner and faced a number of top names such as Mike Marino, Tibor Szakacs, George Gordienko, Al Hayes, Ray Hunter, Geoff Portz, and others.

Back home in Greece from mid May to early July 1960 Lambrakis, as usual, headlined several stadium shows in Athens before setting out on another tour abroad. The most notable match was him actually losing to Karpozilos. Based on the available information, and granted my information covers mostly the biggest Greek cities, that was Karpizilos’ first victory over Lambrakis in 14 years. They had a rematch a month later, but the result is not available.

Lambrakis then wrestled in the annual tournament held at the famous Heumarkt in Vienna, Austria, by promoter/top Austrian star Georg Blemenschütz. At the time attendance-wise those were some of the biggest tournaments in European pro wrestling. Lambrakis was a midcard guy in the tournament though and didn’t have much of an impact.

After wrestling in Vienna, from August through December 1960, Lambrakis once again toured Australia as a main event babyface star. This time around he got to headline in famous venues such as Festival Hall in Melbourne and Leichardt Stadium in Sydney, most notably against the American star Gorgeous George, who was also touring Australia at the time. While in Australia Lambrakis was also teaming with his fellow Greek Kostas Papalazarou.

1960: Australian newspaper advert for Andreas Lambrakis vs. Gorgeous George in Melbourne

Since Greek pro wrestling was a live event business only, there is no footage of Lambrakis wrestling in Greece. The only Andreas Lambrakis wrestling footage that still exists is from Australia - Andreas Lambrakis vs. Gorgeous George (8 November 1960 in Brisbane):

 

Lambrakis and Papalazarou then worked in France and Belgium for a while before returning to Greece in May 1961. While they were away, tag team matches finally arrived in Greece toward the end of 1960. So far tag team wrestling had only been featured on smaller indoor shows and now it was about to headline stadium shows in Athens for the first time. And naturally the most experienced Greek tag team, Lambrakis and Papalazarou, became the focal point of those stadium shows. Two stars from the French territory, Yvar Martinson and Felix Miquet, were brought in as their main foreign rivals. The former World Heavyweight champions (French version) Martinson and Miquet, who used to be two of the biggest European wrestling stars at the start of the 1950s, were now in the final stage of their careers, but their names still carried weight. The two teams faced off and the French team won. 10,000 fans turned out for the match and tag team wrestling was off to a hot start in Athens that summer. Martinson and Miquet then picked up another two victories - over Papalazarou and Nathaniel and over Lambrakis and Karystinos (in front of 6,000). Then the two original teams had a rematch, once again drawing 10,000 fans, except this time the victory went to the Greek team of Lambrakis and Papalazarou.

1961: Andreas Lambrakis & Kostas Papalazarou vs. Yvar Martinson & Felix Miquet

Up next the Bulgarian wildman Nikolai Zigulinoff was brought for a short run. In his first match Zigulinoff teamed up with Abel Cestac taking on Lambrakis and Papalazarou. The Greek team won to the delight of the 15,000 fans who were in the stands of the stadium. Lambrakis then teamed up with Nathanail to defeat Zigulinoff and Ali Charpaz followed by Lambrakis teaming with Karystinos to defeat Zigulinoff and Guy Robin.

The stadium shows in Athens that year concluded with several stars from the German territory being brought in along with the returning Martinson and Miquet. First, the team of Lambrakis and Karystinos defeated Axel Dieter and Achim Chall. Then Lambrakis was one of the 12 men in a battle royal that lasted close to an hour and was won by Martinson. Not only was this the first battle royal in the history of Greece, but it was most likely also the first battle royal in the history of Europe. The concept had been around American wrestling since the 1930s, but Europe was slow to adopt it and I’m not aware of any earlier battle royals in Europe prior to this September 1961 one in Athens. The final stadium show of the year in Athens saw Lambrakis teaming up with a new Greek star in Theodoros Megaritis to defeat Martinson and Miquet. Afterward Lambrakis, Martison, Miquet and some other Greek stars toured around Greece for a bit. Lambrakis and Karpozilos also traveled to Nicosia, Cyprus, where they wrestled against each other at the local stadium.

In 1962 Andreas Lambrakis made his debut as an actor. He had small roles in two Greek movies that year and was also part of an additional movie the following year.

1962: Andreas Lambrakis in the movie "Μην Ερωτεύεσαι το Σάββατο" (Don't Fall in Love on Saturday)

1962 was a pivotal year and the start of a new era in Greek pro wrestling, specifically in the capital Athens. Since 1947 it had become the norm to bring in foreign stars, typically in the summer, to take on Greek stars in stadium shows in Athens (and elsewhere in the country). Some years there were more stadium shows than others and some years there were more foreign stars than usual brought in at the same time (the most being six at once in September 1961), and 1962 took things to a whole new level. In mid May it was announced that in June there was going to be a series of 12 shows at the stadium of the football club Panathinaikos featuring thirteen international stars and seven Greek stars. Not only had that many foreign stars never been brought to Greece at once, but there had also never been that many stadium shows in Athens in the same month. This was the most ambitious undertaking ever for the Greek market. Some adverts and articles referred to this run of stadium shows as a “catch festival” and going forward these types of "catch festivals" (many foreign stars being brought in at once to do two or three stadium shows per week in Athens) became the norm. Almost every summer from 1962 onward until the mid 1980s the Athens region would host a festival or two (and on a few occasions even three) at the same time. There had been some strong runs before too, but 1962 was the true start of the peak years of Greek pro wrestling. And who was the key guy in 1962 to kick off the new era of “catch festivals”? Andreas Lambrakis.

The advertised line-up of stars for the 1962 festival changed a bit and ultimately the foreign stars who wrestled in Athens as part of that run were Josef Kovacs, Rudi Saturski, Harry Wenzl, Alberto Amessa, Hans-Richard Behrens, and a few others. The top foreign attraction, however, was someone else, an unknown. At the start of 1959 masked wrestlers became all the rage in France with the emergence of L'Homme Masqué (Jacob Grobbe), L’Ange Blanc (Francisco Pino) and Le Bourreau de Béthune (Jacques Ducrez). Business in France went through the roof. Once that happened promoters in other European countries took notice and started introducing masked wrestlers of their own. As of 1962 Greece had never had a masked wrestler and now it was about to get its first one. The top foreign attraction on the stadium shows in 1962 was the mysterious Masked Man. The idea was that he was the same guy from France and in the press he was pushed as someone who hadn’t had a single loss in the 3 years since he first appeared. The gimmick with him in Greece was that he was going to unmask if he was ever defeated.

The run of stadium shows ended up being extended by an additional two days and instead of 12 there were 14 shows. Lambrakis was in the main event of 9 of those 14 shows. Tag team wrestling and The Masked Man were the focus of the shows. The first show, which was headlined by Lambrakis and Dimitris Karystinos defeating Kovacs and Amessa, drew a reported audience of 12,000. Lambrakis then had another four tag team matches, winning three and losing one, one of the victories being over Saturski and Wenzl and drawing 8,000. Then it was time for the big match everyone had been waiting for - Lambrakis vs. The Masked Man (who was undefeated in Athens so far). In front of what was reported to be a really big crowd, The Masked Man defeated the Greek hero. The crowd, believing the referee was biased in the masked villain’s favor, tried to storm the ring and were stopped by police. On the next few shows Lambrakis had another tag team victory and singles wins over Saturski and Kovacs. Finally, on the last show of the stadium run, Lambrakis vs. The Masked Man was to take place again. This time, there was a special stipulation: no referee, there must be a winner via knockout. 20,000 fans packed the stadium to watch the big showdown and what they saw was Lambrakis winning and unmasking The Masked Man. He was revealed to be the Belgian heavyweight Freddy Robert (Robert was the second man to be under the Le Bourreau de Béthune mask in France, replacing the original one while he was recovering from a serious injury).

1962: Greek newspaper adverts for Andreas Lambrakis vs. The Masked Man

As mentioned, the original advertised line-up for the 1962 run of stadium shows changed a bit and some of the guys who were initially advertised did not come to Greece in June and instead ended up coming over in July and August so there was a second run of stadium shows. That second run was either 15 or 16 shows (it’s not clear if one of the shows took place), Lambrakis headlining 9 or 10 of them. They were also doing shows in Patras at the same time, and possibly in other cities too. As part of the second run Lambrakis and Papalazarou faced off against various foreign teams, the biggest known crowd of the bunch being their win over Lou Marsallon and Elia Azria David, which drew 8,000. Lambrakis also accumulated a number of singles wins over the likes of Warnia de Zarzecki, Hektor van Mullem (the future Grand Vladimir) and Iska Khan, who Lambrakis defeated in a rematch after Khan beat him first.

That said, the match that got the most attention during the second run of stadium shows was the old reliable: Lambrakis vs. Karpozilos. They once again went back to that well and built a heated storyline leading to a match between the two eternal rivals. It all started with Karpozilos coming out to challenge Lambrakis before one of Lambrakis’ matches. Karpozilos wanted him to sign a contract for the match on the spot, the two argued and Lambrakis slapped him. Three days later, in their report of the next show, the press pushed the story that Lambrakis and Karpozilos had gotten into a backstage fight at the event over Lambrakis not wanting to sign the contract and the two had to be separated by several of their colleagues. On the next show after that Lambrakis got on the microphone in front of the fans and cut a promo on Karpozilos, who then came out to cut a promo on Lambrakis, the two argued back and forth until finally getting into a fight and having to be separated. Their main argument revolved around what type of match they were going to have - Lambrakis wanted a match with no referee (i.e. a no rules match) and Karpozilos was insisting on there being a referee. There was another promo battle on the next show too. Finally the match was booked - no time limit, there must be a winner, two referees. Lambrakis won the match. The final show of the stadium run was headlined by Lambrakis and Papalazarou defeating Karpozilos and Karystinos. Attendance for that show was described as being poor.

On 22 September 1962 Lambrakis defeated Karpozilos in Patras. Based on my records, that was the final time they ever wrestled each other. By my count, which is definitely not complete because it does not cover shows in smaller cities and towns (and there are some gaps for the bigger cities too), over the course of their 25-year rivalry Lambrakis and Karpozilos had for sure over 30 singles matches. When it was all said and done, Lambrakis was the one who had the overall edge in victories. There is no question that Lambrakis vs. Karpozilos was the top rivalry in Greek pro wrestling history. There were some other hot feuds that drew big crowds, but no other rivalry in Greece went on for as long and continued to draw in people for as many years as Lambrakis vs. Karpozilos did.

1962: Greek newspaper advert for the final (known) Andreas Lambrakis vs. Harry Karpozilos match

1963 turned out to be even bigger for Greek pro wrestling, because for the first time ever there were stadium shows in Athens by two competing groups. First of all, from 1 June onward for over a month there were over 20 shows at the Panathinaikos stadium (stadium capacity: 20,000 or more). These shows were billed as a World Championship tournament and featured international stars such as Michael Ujevic, Charlie Verhulst, Achim Chall, Jules Delmee, Adi Berber Jr., Hans-Richard Behrens, and others. The key Greek star was Thanasis Kabaflis (who won the tournament), and it also featured other popular Greek names like Harry Karpozilos, Elias Panagos, Georgios Alexiou and the debuting Tzim Atlas.

And then from 23 June onward their competition arrived in the form of a series of shows at the 40,000-capacity stadium of the football club AEK in Nea Smyrni (a town in the suburbs of Athens). While technically the AEK stadium wasn’t in Athens itself, the two stadiums were pretty close - only about 11.4 km (7 miles) in driving distance - so both stadiums were basically in Athens. The AEK stadium shows featured international stars such as Zando Zabo (Tony Olivas), Quasimodo (Victor Castilla), Conde Maximiliano, Carlos Rocha, Inca Peruano, Angel Grey and eventually L’Ange Blanc (not Francisco Pino under the mask), George Gordienko and George Bollas. In terms of Greek stars the top one was Andreas Lambrakis and right behind him was a brand new face coming out of Egypt - Spiros Arion (or rather Spyros Arion, which was the Greek spelling).

Not for every show, but the groups ran head-to-head on several occasions (shows on the same night, starting at the same time). Furthermore, a couple of the Greek stars (Alexiou and Atlas) were originally announced for the AEK shows, but no-showed them and joined the other group instead, which I would imagine did not go down well with the AEK group. The competition between the two groups was very much on. As luck would have it, the final of the Greek football league that year ended up being Panathinaikos vs. AEK. The final match was played at AEK stadium on 23 June and AEK won, dethroning Panathinaikos, who had been the champions the year prior. Right after the big football league final in the afternoon, in the evening the wrestling festival at AEK stadium kicked off with 15,000 fans flocking to see Lambrakis defeat Conde Maximiliano in the main event.

From 23 June through 8 September the group did a total of 30 shows at AEK stadium, and they were also running shows in Patras as well (possibly in other cities too). Most of the shows were built around Lambrakis taking on various foreign opponents and later on around Lambrakis and his young protégé Arion teaming up to take on various opponents. Lambrakis won singles matches against Maximiliano, Rocha, Grey, Quasimodo, etc. He did lose to Zabo in front of 7,000 to build up to a rematch where Lambrakis got his revenge and beat Zabo in front of 15,000.

1963: Andreas Lambrakis vs. Zando Zabo

The formidable Canadian George Gordienko arrived in mid July and was immediately positioned as the top heel. For his first match he defeated Lambrakis in front of a reported audience of 20,000. In the rematch Gordienko won again. Gordienko then teamed up with a couple of different partners to take on the team of Lambrakis and Arion, which then shifted the focus to Gordienko vs. Arion while Lambrakis took on other opponents (Maximiliano, Peruano and Warnia de Zarzecki).

1963: Andreas Lambrakis vs. George Gordienko (Gordienko dropkick / Lambrakis headbutt)

The biggest story of the AEK stadium run that summer was the Greek debut of the masked Zebra Kid George Bollas, which came in mid August. Bollas was billed as being 168 kg (370 lbs) and was the heaviest guy to wrestle in Greece up to that point. After defeating Gordienko and Megaritis first, Bollas then wrestled Arion in a couple of matches and Bollas was very aggressive toward Arion in them. There was a particularly important moment in one of the matches where while they were brawling on the football field Bollas slammed Arion’s head on the ring post, which turned the match around in Bollas' favor. That moment would come back into play as the storylines progressed. Bollas’ two brutality-infused victories over Arion set up a story where Lambrakis, as Arion’s mentor and tag team partner, set out to avenge Arion. “I will either die in the ring or defeat Bollas!”, proclaimed Lambrakis to the press. “I will end the legend of Lambrakis in minutes and end his career!”, said the villain Bollas. It was an emotionally charged build-up that led to a reported crowd of 20,000 fans coming to AEK stadium to watch Lambrakis vs. Bollas for the first time. Lambrakis won via countout. In typical heel fashion, Bollas then complained about Lambrakis brawling with him on the football field (after he himself had done the same in the Arion match), saying that athletes should fight only in the ring. This set up a rematch five days later, which was a two out of three falls match. This time it was Bollas who won by countout. Then the story pivoted back to Arion vs. Bollas as they wrestled in a mask vs. 10,000 Greek drachma match to wrap up Bollas’ stint in Athens.

1963: Andreas Lambrakis vs. George Bollas

From the very first announcements of the AEK shows in the press back in May, it was clear that one of the main goals for the shows was to get the newcomer Spiros Arion over as a new major star. Lambrakis was the top star for the majority of the stadium run, but all the while he was giving Arion the rub by teaming with him and Arion also got to wrestle Gordienko and Bollas, the two top foreign stars, in important matches. This was all leading to the end of the stadium run where Lambrakis and Arion faced off in a pair of singles matches to see who the top man was. As mentioned earlier on in the article, Lambrakis was a babyface in Greece but in certain situations he would heel it up and this is exactly what happened in the Lambrakis/Arion story. Lambrakis won the first match when he, much like Bollas had done before, smashed Arion’s head on the ring post and won by countout because of it. For whatever reason though, the match didn’t draw particularly well as the report noted that attendance was poor compared to previous events. There was a rematch four days later, however, I don’t have the result of it as it stands right now.

1963: Greek newspaper adverts for the Andreas Lambrakis vs. Spiros Arion rematch

Lambrakis spent all of 1964 wrestling outside of Greece. From February through mid September he was wrestling mostly in the Toronto territory for promoter Frank Tunney, typically as an opening match or lowercard wrestler, including on a number of shows at the famous Maple Leaf Gardens where he wrestled the likes of Lee Henning, Firpo Zbyszko, Joe Christie, Martino Angelo, and others. He also got to have a few matches at the Memorial Auditorium in Buffalo, NY. In June 1964 the audience at a Maple Leaf Gardens show was introduced to a brand new face - Andrea' supposed son Arion Lambrakis. Based on some available footage, the Arion Lambrakis who wrestled in Toronto that summer does not appear to be Spiros Arion. However, in September Andreas Lambrakis headed to El Paso, where he was wrestling as a singles wrestler and also teamed with his "son" Arion Lambrakis. Based on a program from that time, the Arion Lambrakis in El Paso was indeed Spiros Arion. The duo stayed in El Paso for about a month. At this time Lambrakis also had a few matches in Arizona and New Mexico as well.

1964: Spiros Arion and Andreas Lambrakis

In late November 1964 Lambrakis and his protégé Arion headed out to France, where they worked until March 1965 for promoter Roger Delaporte. At the time Delaporte was probably the top promoter in France. Their run in France started with Arion (who was a babyface) defeating Lambrakis (who was a heel) in the opening match of a show at the new Palais des Sports in Paris. Of the two Arion was pushed more in France. That said, Lambrakis was also typically in a good position on the cards (semi-main or main event) at Delaporte’s main venue - Elysee Montmartre.

1965 once again saw two competing “catch festivals” in Athens - an “Official World Catch Festival” at the stadium of the football club Panathinaikos (capacity: 20,000 or more) and an “International Catch Festival” at the stadium of the football club Panionios (capacity: about 20,000) in Nea Smyrni only a few miles outside of Athens. The two festivals began one right after the other - one on Saturday (15 May), the other on Sunday (16 May) - and most of the shows ran head-to-head. The two groups were also doing shows in Patras as well - the former group at an indoor venue for several thousand spectators and the latter group at a stadium for 11,000. The “World Catch Festival” featured Spiros Arion (who interestingly enough was no longer under Lambrakis' wing), Thanasis Kabaflis, Kostas Papalazarou, George Bollas, George Gordienko, Ski Hi Lee, Billy Two Rivers, Prince Kumali, Kangaroo Kennedy, Rudi Saturski, etc. The “International Catch Festival” crew was headed by Andreas Lambrakis and featured a number of stars from the Delaporte promotion in France: Gaby Calderon, Pat O’Connor (not the World champion from New Zealand, but rather a Belgian guy by the name of Marius Servais), Warnia de Zarzecki, Luc Straub, Vassilios Mantopoulos, etc.

1965: Greek newspaper adverts for the two "catch festivals"

1965: Andreas Lambrakis (standing in the middle) with the other Greek wrestlers who were part of the "International Catch Festival" (Megaritis, Alexiou, Sideris, Bouranis, etc.)

The Lambrakis group was definitely in the weaker position in terms of overall star power, especially because two of their advertised key attractions ended up falling through for some reason - Hercules Cortez (who was World Heavyweight champion in both Spain and France at the time) and the Japanese Kiyomigawa. Still, the Lambrakis group seems to have held its own well. For their opening show Lambrakis defeated Calderon via countout in a match that drew a reported audience of 8,000 fans. After victories over Straub and O’Connor, Lambrakis faced a brand new opponent, who was making his debut and who was about to become the focus of the shows going forward. His name was simply Hunchback and he was a masked hunchback wrestler.

You see, the previous year’s run of stadium shows in Athens, which Lambrakis was not around for, had introduced the Greek audience to a pair of cartoony characters that seemed like something straight out of Argentina’s Titanes en el Ring - Monster (a tall heavyset guy in a full-body leopard-striped suit) and Blind Robot (another big heavyweight whose gimmick was that, well, he was a robot who was blind). And as over-the-top as these characters might sound, by all accounts they were a big hit with the Athens crowds, especially Monster. Hunchback was a new character in that same vein. He wasn’t really a man with a hunched back, but rather someone wearing a fake hunchback below his shirt. And keep in mind, this was not a comedy character. In fact, Hunchback was pushed as a vicious heel. In his debut he split Lambrakis open and defeated the Greek idol by knockout. After a victory over Zarzecki, Lambrakis faced the masked Hunchback again with 6,000 in attendance. Lambrakis was about to win when Pat O’Connor interfered, pushed Lambrakis and that led to the masked man winning again. Lambrakis then attacked O’Connor and police had to pull Lambrakis off of O'Connor. Three days later Lambrakis got a third match with Hunchback and that match drew a reported audience of 15,000 fans. At one point O’Connor tried to interfere in the match, but was stopped by the police. Ultimately, the match ended without a winner, because Lambrakis and Hunchback went out onto the football field and wouldn’t stop brawling. This ended up being Lambrakis’ final match in Greece (26 May 1965).

1965: Andreas Lambrakis vs. Hunchback

Lambrakis was supposed to wrestle O’Connor on 30 May in Athens and Hunchback on 31 May in Patras. However, it was announced that he was injured and couldn’t compete for ten days so those matches didn’t take place. The festival continued on without him for a few more days before it came to a close. The way one of the leading Greek sports newspapers described Lambrakis in the report for that show with the O’Connor match that didn’t happen was rather poetic and a perfect way to wrap up Lambrakis’ 30-year career in Greece: “Our popular wrestler Andreas Lambrakis, the ‘king of wrestling’, the successor of Jim Londos, is the idol of countless fans and no other Greek wrestler can come close to him or overshadow his gigantic personality”.

That was not the end of Lambrakis’ wrestling career, however. The following month he headed to Montreal and that was the final territory where he worked. His last known match took place in October 1966.

After his retirement from the ring Lambrakis remained in Montreal where he lived for many years after that. He made his living as a restaurant owner. Greek pro wrestling moved on without him as younger stars such as Papalazarou, Nathanail, Arion, Megaritis, etc. became the new beloved heroes of the Greek audience and wrestling continued to do well in Greece for a number of years.

In June 1974, after nine years of being gone, Lambrakis returned to Athens for the first time since 1965. He announced that he was back only for a short time and proclaimed to the press that he wanted to return to the ring to face some worthy international opponents. In the end though, he did not wrestle.

His final involvement in pro wrestling came in 1986. In June of that year Lambrakis left Canada and returned to Greece for good in order to be closer to his children and grandchildren. That summer there was the usual “World Catch Festival” in Athens, which was held at the Panathinaikos stadium. There were shows in Patras as well. The key headliner was one of the top two Greek pro wrestling stars at the time Giorgos Tromaras. Tromaras had a very similar look to Lambrakis and naturally the two were paired together, Lambrakis becoming Tromaras’ manager for his matches that summer. And as fate would have it, this ended up being the final ever “World Catch Festival” in Athens. Truly the end of an era, and Andreas Lambrakis was there for both the start and the end of that era. Greek pro wrestling continued on for several more years until completely disappearing eventually in the 1990s. With wrestling going out of style in Greece, sadly the name Andreas Lambrakis has largely been forgotten.

1986: Andreas Lambrakis (left) and Giorgos Tromaras

In conclusion, we can sum up the accomplishments of Andreas Lambrakis like this:

• He was one of the top stars of Greek pro wrestling in the 1930s when the local scene was established. Not among the very first stars and not the very top guy, but in the top mix for sure in the second half of the 1930s.
• He was one of first local Greek wrestlers to start drawing big crowds in Greece and continued drawing big crowds over a period of 20 years (1945-1965).
• He was one of the two key stars in Greece when the focus of the business shifted to Greek stars vs. foreign stars as the core of it, which is what took the business to a higher level.
• He was the top Greek star in the early 1960s when "catch festivals" (i.e. two or three stadium shows per week over a number of weeks in one city) became the norm in the summer months and the Greek territory entered its peak years. He was there for the first few years of the peak, but not for the whole peak, because he retired. In those peak years Greece was one of the top territories in Europe for big crowds.
• Over the course of his 31-year career he headlined more than 150 shows at stadiums for 10,000+ in Greece. Based on the available information, which is far from complete, he drew 34 reported crowds of 8,000 or more fans (including nine crowds of 15,000 or more), plus an additional 22 crowds of 5,000 to 7,000 fans. There is no question that, after Jim Londos, he is the second biggest pro wrestling star in the history of Greece.
• To one extent or another, he helped elevate the next generation of Greek stars (Papalazarou, Nathanail, Arion, Megaritis) by either teaming with them or losing matches to them (or both).
• He traveled internationally more than any other pro wrestler who started his career in Greece. In addition to Greece, he wrestled in 16 other countries across six continents. 16 is the confirmed number, but the real number was likely more. In some places around the world he was a headline star while in others no more than a midcard talent.

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Andreas Lambrakis crowds in Greece*

* The numbers in the article and in the list below are from the Greek press. These are not exact numbers, but rather newspaper estimates. Take them for what they’re worth. For the shows where I’ve come across conflicting estimates I will list each estimate. The list below is far from complete - for the vast majority of the Greek shows there was no attendance estimate provided by the press (I would guesstimate that an attendance estimate was provided for less than 30% of the shows). Also, these are only shows where Lambrakis was in the main event.

= 15 Aug 1937 (Piraeus): Andreas Lambrakis vs. Harry Karpozilos (1,000)
= 29 Oct 1937 (Preveza): Andreas Lambrakis vs. I. Voultsakis (1,000)
= 4 Sep 1938 (Athens): Andreas Lambrakis vs. Maxis Galatis (2,000)
= 1 Jul 1945 (Thessaloniki): Andreas Lambrakis vs. Harry Karpozilos (6,000)
= 13 Jul 1945 (Thessaloniki): Andreas Lambrakis vs. Harry Karpozilos (8,000)
= 9 Sep 1945 (Thessaloniki): Andreas Lambrakis vs. Paraschos Boras (12,000)
= 7 Oct 1945 (Thessaloniki): Andreas Lambrakis vs. Alekos Meidanis (10,000)
= 6 Oct 1946 (Athens): Andreas Lambrakis vs. Harry Karpozilos (2,000)
= 11 Jan 1947 (Limni): Andreas Lambrakis vs. Christos Kadas (2,000)
= 22 Aug 1948 (Athens): Andreas Lambrakis vs. Kasim Aslan (5,000 or 6,000)
= 26 Jun 1949 (Thessaloniki): Andreas Lambrakis vs. Theodoros Nikolarakos (6,000)
= 12 Jan 1955 (Thessaloniki): Andreas Lambrakis vs. Ali Chapraz (6,000 or 8,000)
= 19 Jan 1955 (Thessaloniki): Andreas Lambrakis vs. Ali Chapraz (12,000)
= 7 Mar 1955 (Thessaloniki): Andreas Lambrakis vs. Kasim Aslan (5,000)
= 19 Apr 1955 (Thessaloniki): Andreas Lambrakis vs. Josef Kamaras (4,000)
= 4 May 1955 (Thessaloniki): Andreas Lambrakis vs. Elias Panagos (10,000)
= 15 May 1955 (Patras): Andreas Lambrakis vs. Josef Kamaras (4,000)
= 22 May 1955 (Thessaloniki): Andreas Lambrakis vs. Elias Panagos (8,000)
= 1 Jun 1955 (Athens): Andreas Lambrakis vs. Negro Badu (8,000 or 10,000)
= 15 Jun 1955 (Athens): Andreas Lambrakis vs. Fritz Müller (5,000 or 8,000 or 10,000)
= 22 Jun 19955 (Athens): Andreas Lambrakis vs. Nicola Selenkowitsch (10,000)
= 29 Jun 1955 (Athens): Andreas Lambrakis vs. Harry Karpozilos (18,000 or 20,000 or 21,000)
= 10 Jul 1955 (Thessaloniki) Andreas Lambrakis vs. Harry Karpozilos (10,000)
= 27 Jul 1955 (Athens): Andreas Lambrakis vs. Pablo Bernaus (5,000)
= 3 Aug 1955 (Athens): Andreas Lambrakis vs. Giovanni Carmelo (7,000)
= 10 Aug 1955 (Athens): Andreas Lambrakis vs. Giovanni Carmelo (5,000)
= 4 Sep 1955 (Athens): Andreas Lambrakis vs. Harry Karpozilos (10,000)
= 11 Mar 1956 (Athens): Andreas Lambrakis vs. Jimmy Dula (5,000)
= 7 May 1956 (Athens): Andreas Lambrakis vs. Willi Hofstetter (6,000)
= 16 May 1956 (Athens): Andreas Lambrakis vs. Abel Cestac (10,000)
= 24 May 1956 (Athens): Andreas Lambrakis vs. Abel Cestac (12,000)
= 20 Jun 1956 (Athens): Andreas Lambrakis vs. Harry Karpozilos (10,000)
= 11 Jul 1956 (Athens): Andreas Lambrakis vs. Elias Panagos (3,000)
= 17 Jul 1956 (Athens): Andreas Lambrakis vs. Elias Panagos (6,000)
= 25 Jul 1956 (Athens): Andreas Lambrakis vs. Kostas Papalazarou (5,000)
= 22 Aug 1956 (Thessaloniki): Andreas Lambrakis vs. Hercules Cortez (5,000)
= 2 Sep 1956 (Thessaloniki): Andreas Lambrakis vs. Suleyman (6,000)
= 9 Sep 1956 (Thessaloniki): Andreas Lambrakis vs. Hercules Cortez (9,000)
= 18 Jul 1957 (Athens): Andreas Lambrakis vs. Karl von Kramer (10,000)
= 11 Aug 1957 (Nea Smyrni): Andreas Lambrakis vs. Karl von Kramer (2,500)
= 23 Oct 1957 (Athens): Andreas Lambrakis vs. Thanasis Kabaflis (10,000)
= 10 Nov 1957 (Athens): Andreas Lambrakis vs. Thanasis Kabaflis (15,000)
= 24 Nov 1957 (Athens): Andreas Lambrakis vs. Harry Karpozilos (1,000)
= 3 Sep 1958 (Athens): Andreas Lambrakis vs. Tony Kosic (3,000 or 5,000)
= 3 Oct 1958 (Athens): Andreas Lambrakis vs. Harry Karpozilos (4,000)
= 19 Oct 1958 (Athens): Andreas Lambrakis vs. Thanasis Kabaflis (8,000)
= 26 Oct 1958 (Athens): Andreas Lambrakis vs. Jack Allen (3,000)
= 25 Jan 1959 (Athens): Andreas Lambrakis vs. Kostas Papalazarou (2,000)
= 22 Jul 1959 (Athens): Andreas Lambrakis vs. Harry Karpozilos (5,000)
= 9 Aug 1959 (Athens): Andreas Lambrakis vs. Harry Karpozilos (10,000)
= 6 Sep 1959 (Athens): Andreas Lambrakis vs. Elias Panagos (5,000)
= 2 Jun 1961 (Athens): Andreas Lambrakis & Kostas Papalazarou vs. Yvar Martinson & Felix Miquet (10,000)
= 15 Jun 1961 (Athens): Andreas Lambrakis & Dimitris Karystinos vs. Yvar Martinson & Felix Miquet (6,000)
= 22 Jun 1961 (Athens): Andreas Lambrakis & Kostas Papalazarou vs. Yvar Martinson & Felix Miquet (10,000)
= 1 Aug 1961 (Athens): Andreas Lambrakis & Kostas Papalazarou vs. Nikolai Zigulinoff & Abel Cestac (15,000)
= 1 Jun 1962 (Athens): Andreas Lambrakis & Dimitris Karystinos vs. Josef Kovacs & Alberto Amessa (12,000)
= 18 Jun 1962 (Athens): Andreas Lambrakis & Georgios Alexiou vs. Rudi Saturski & Harry Wenzl (8,000)
= 1 Jul 1962 (Athens): Andreas Lambrakis vs. The Masked Man (20,000)
= 12 Aug 1962 (Athens): Andreas Lambrakis & Kostas Papalazarou vs. Lou Marsallon & Ellie Azand David (8,000)
= 17 Aug 1962 (Athens): Andreas Lambrakis vs. Iska Khan (5,000)
= 24 Aug 1962 (Athens): Andreas Lambrakis & Kostas Papalazarou vs. Iska Khan & Ellie Azand David (5,000)
= 23 Jun 1963 (Nea Smyrni): Andreas Lambrakis vs. Conde Maximiliano (15,000)
= 26 Jun 1963 (Nea Smyrni): Andreas Lambrakis vs. Carlos Rocha (5,000)
= 4 Jul 1963 (Nea Smyrni): Andreas Lambrakis vs. Zando Zabo (7,000)
= 10 Jul 1963 (Nea Smyrni): Andreas Lambrakis vs. Zando Zabo (15,000)
= 17 Jul 1963 (Nea Smyrni): Andreas Lambrakis vs. George Gordienko (20,000)
= 25 Aug 1963 (Nea Smyrni): Andreas Lambrakis vs. George Bollas (20,000)
= 15 May 1965 (Nea Smyrni): Andreas Lambrakis vs. Gaby Calderon (8,000)
= 23 May 1965 (Nea Smyrni) Andreas Lambrakis vs. Hunchback (6,000)
= 26 May 1965 (Nea Smyrni) Andreas Lambrakis vs. Hunchback (15,000)


Acknowledgements: Thank you to Ronald Großpietsch, luchadb.com, Libnan Ayoub, Steve Ogilvie, Gernot Freiberger and Ethan Tyler. Their research on respectively South America, Mexico, Singapore/Australia, the United Kingdom, Austria and El Paso was used for this article.