Ed "Strangler" Lewis HQ

[Bernkastel]

Have you seen the International region? It's stacked as all fuck isn't it? Most recognizable are Ric Flair and the Rock. And behind them are titans such as Rikidozan, Antonio Inoki, Verne Gagne, Mistuharu Misawa, Jack Brisco, Antonino Rocca, and Frank Gotch.

But among them one name remains a cut above all the others. And that man is Ed Lewis. Who is Ed Lewis? You may ask. He is the man that deserves to win this tournament more than anyone else. Not Austin, not Thesz, not Santo, not Hogan. Ed Lewis is the man to defeat.

Let me tell you why...


- Lewis is a 10 time world champion. Including 6 reigns under the original world championship belt that was given the undisputed best in the world [cry me a river CM Punk.]

- Lewis invented pro wrestling as we know it today. Feuds? cards? story lines? Rivalry's with fellow promotions? He was the founding father of kayfabe.

- Lewis drew an audience of approx. 40,000 with a revenue gate of approx. $100,000. In the 30's. This was before there were any well known regional promotions and advertising was purely word of mouth only. Meaning people reaaaaaaaaaaallly wanted to watch Ed Lewis.

- That record gate stood until 1952.

- Lewis wrestled approx. 6200 matches and lost approx. 33 times. He only lost in kayfabe when he damn well wanted to lose.

- Lewis wrestled the longest wrestling match in recorded history. 5 and a half hours long. Literally longer than an entire Wrestlemania. That match should have been called "Stranglermania."

- The French were afraid of Ed Lewis.

- Lou Thesz has named Ed Lewis the greatest professional wrestler ever.

- Ed Lewis was the biggest star of his era and had a prime lasting for several decades of dominance.

- Ed Lewis popularized the sleeper hold. A move so overly modified that basically everyone has used it at some point.

So vote for Ed Lewis this year, because he has the accolades, the legacy, the drawing power, and the kayfabe dominance to be crowned the greatest wrestler of all time.

Not voting for Ed Lewis will surely invoke the wrath of Gelgarin. Who will break into your house and regale you with holier than thou lectures on how you should have fucking voted for Ed Lewis.

So vote Ed Lewis, the real best of all time.

 

[Dan Severn's Moustache]

I'm not really backing anyone in the International bracket apart from Mark Henry, who I want to beat Benoit, but I might support this. I don't The Strangler should go over The Rock, but that's about it.

Inoki and Gagne will be tough draws though for Round 2 and 3. And there's the nincompoops who will vote Piper because they have only heard of Piper.

 

[Bernkastel]

I'm not really backing anyone in the International bracket apart from Mark Henry, who I want to beat Benoit, but I might support this. I don't The Strangler should go over The Rock, but that's about it.

Inoki and Gagne will be tough draws though for Round 2 and 3. And there's the nincompoops who will vote Piper because they have only heard of Piper.

Is the Rock a former 10 time world champion? No, he's not.
Did the Rock hold the record for the largest gate for over a decade? No, he didn't.
Did the Rock wrestle the longest match in recorded history? No he didn't.
Did the Rock only lose 30 times while wrestling thousands of matches? No, he didn't.
Were the French scared of the Rock? No, they weren't.
Did the Rock invent modern pro wrestling practices and kayfabe? No, he didn't.

Welp, I'm not seeing a whole lot of reasons to vote Rock over Ed Lewis.

So vote Ed Lewis.

 

[Dan Severn's Moustache]

Is the Rock a former 10 time world champion? No, he's not.

He's an 8 time WWF/E champion, and 7 of those titles were won in a 3 and a half year space. I know you might be thinking that must mean the title was hopping around too much, but The Rock had some formidable competition from Stone Cold Steve Austin, Mick Foley, Kane, Undertaker, Triple H among others during that time period, all of which had held the strap less times than he had (HHH did go on to surpass him however). I know very little about Ed Lewis's run at the top, but I do know his fourth title was in 1922, so there's that.

Did the Rock hold the record for the largest gate for over a decade? No, he didn't.

The Rock has main-evented five separate Wrestlemanias, which drew more than a quarter of a million spectators, and that's not counting his big matches that he didn't main event. Focusing on Wrestlemania 17 in particular, he set a record for the Astrodome, drawing 67,925 people along with Austin. Also, of the three highest attended Wrestlemanias, The Rock has main-evented two of them. I know that wrestling is MUCH more of a bigger deal these days than it was back in the 20's, but remember this is before Thesz, who went onto smash this record without the advent of television.

Did the Rock wrestle the longest match in recorded history? No he didn't.

I don't see how that fact makes Ed Lewis better than The Rock. You're implying that that match was an excellent match throughout, and whilst it's a feat, it doesn't mean it was a good match. In fact, according to Wikipedia (yeah, I need better sources), a 20 minute match against Ray Steele consisted of nothing but them circling one another, causing the audience to get bored. That's not what a wrestler is supposed to do. And yeah, I know The Rock has had his bad moments too, but as The Rock, he ALWAYS kept the audience's interest in what he was doing.

I can easily spout out facts about the Rock too, but I'm going to refrain.

Did the Rock only lose 30 times while wrestling thousands of matches? No, he didn't.

Wrestling has adapted a huge amount since the idea of "This guy is undefeated, he's against a tough opponent. Give us money." with the advent of television. John Cena is unfortunate proof of this, as his undefeated streaks have done nothing to shift PPV buys. That's not a rub at Cena or Strangler, (I like Cena a lot) but it's not fair to critique The Rock for that, especially considering he was around during the Stone Cold years.

Were the French scared of the Rock? No, they weren't.

[YOUTUBE]yZUKEVU-TwM[/YOUTUBE]

Did the Rock invent modern pro wrestling practices and kayfabe? No, he didn't.

I'll give you that, but again, that's not The Rock's fault because of his time period.

Keep in mind, I want Lewis to do well in the tournament, but I just don't think he can defeat The Rock. There's absolutely no shame whatsoever in that.

 

[Bernkastel]

He's an 8 time WWF/E champion, and 7 of those titles were won in a 3 and a half year space. I know you might be thinking that must mean the title was hopping around too much, but The Rock had some formidable competition from Stone Cold Steve Austin, Mick Foley, Kane, Undertaker, Triple H among others during that time period, all of which had held the strap less times than he had (HHH did go on to surpass him however). I know very little about Ed Lewis's run at the top, but I do know his fourth title was in 1922, so there's that.

So because Rock was second to Austin, and he feuded with a bunch of other names that weren't even on his level to begin with he was somehow better than Ed Lewis? Sorry, not buying it.

The Rock has main-evented five separate Wrestlemanias, which drew more than a quarter of a million spectators, and that's not counting his big matches that he didn't main event. Focusing on Wrestlemania 17 in particular, he set a record for the Astrodome, drawing 67,925 people along with Austin. Also, of the three highest attended Wrestlemanias, The Rock has main-evented two of them.

Even by today's standards the only time 2014 WWE draws more than 40,000 will be Summerslam and Wrestlemania. The average RAW struggles to pull 15,000 out of an city that easily has 10 times the population that it did in the 1930's.

Lewis's accomplishment can't be downplayed to "Rock had better marketing so he wins." If anything that shows why Rock would lose. When has Rock ever drawn 40,000 when the marketing was purely word of mouth only? Never. He had WWE's backing. Lewis was his own backing.

I know that wrestling is MUCH more of a bigger deal these days than it was back in the 20's, but remember this is before Thesz, who went onto smash this record without the advent of television.

Completely false. Even in the 90's you'd be hard pressed to place those workers over the old guys who were household names that everybody in big cities knew. It's debatable that Rock only became a true household name when he left and went to Hollywood. He's certainly no Hogan.

I don't see how that fact makes Ed Lewis better than The Rock. You're implying that that match was an excellent match throughout, and whilst it's a feat, it doesn't mean it was a good match. In fact, according to Wikipedia (yeah, I need better sources), a 20 minute match against Ray Steele consisted of nothing but them circling one another, causing the audience to get bored. That's not what a wrestler is supposed to do. And yeah, I know The Rock has had his bad moments too, but as The Rock, he ALWAYS kept the audience's interest in what he was doing.

The audience got bored because nothing happened. They wanted action. But if you look in further that was an early form of "working the crowd." Isn't that was a wrestler is supposed to do? Work the crowd. Get money. That's what Lewis did.

He and the rest of the Golden Trio must have been geniuses.

Wrestling has adapted a huge amount since the idea of "This guy is undefeated, he's against a tough opponent. Give us money." with the advent of television. John Cena is unfortunate proof of this, as his undefeated streaks have done nothing to shift PPV buys. That's not a rub at Cena or Strangler, (I like Cena a lot) but it's not fair to critique The Rock for that, especially considering he was around during the Stone Cold years.

So basically your argument is "if they weren't on television back before the television was invented, they sucked."

Keep in mind, I want Lewis to do well in the tournament, but I just don't think he can defeat The Rock. There's absolutely no shame whatsoever in that.

The point of the tournament is the crown the greatest wrestler of all time. Not "who I think is the greatest based on favoritism."

Lewis had a greater impact on the industry than the Rock, he drew more with less to work with than the Rock, he was relevant for longer in kayfabe than the Rock, he had a more important legacy than the Rock.

That's why Lewis should win this thing.

 

[Mr. Artistic guy]

I'm sure some guys wrestled a match for like 11 hours for charity or something not too long ago. That is all.

EDIT: Yeah, here it is. http://prowrestling.about.com/b/2011/07/28/the-longest-match-in-wrestling-history.htm

Just diminishing a legacy, one step at a time.

So his gate record was broken you say...

"- Lewis wrestled approx. 6200 matches and lost approx. 33 times. He only lost in kayfabe when he damn well wanted to lose. " Ooh, not very professional is he?

"- Lou Thesz has named Ed Lewis the greatest professional wrestler ever. " Jim Ross named Gordon Solie the best announcer ever whilst quite obviously being better. Similar situation.

"- Ed Lewis popularized the sleeper hold. A move so overly modified that basically everyone has used it at some point." Petey Williams invented the Canadian Destroyer. <

"- Ed Lewis was the biggest star of his era and had a prime lasting for several decades of dominance. " Oh wow, those raging pre-prohibition era wrestling days. I bet business was hot back then.

 

[Bernkastel]

I'm sure some guys wrestled a match for like 11 hours for charity or something not too long ago. That is all.

EDIT: Yeah, here it is. http://prowrestling.about.com/b/2011/07/28/the-longest-match-in-wrestling-history.htm

Just diminishing a legacy, one step at a time.

So his gate record was broken you say...

The tournament hasn't even started and people are already throwing out silly arguments.

"- Lewis wrestled approx. 6200 matches and lost approx. 33 times. He only lost in kayfabe when he damn well wanted to lose. " Ooh, not very professional is he?

It's not like there were any wrestling promotions around to market people so it's not like Ed Lewis had to stay the best in the world in order to put people over. Oh wait, that's exactly what had to happen.

And based on that logic Vince McMahon is unprofessional for firing people.

"- Lou Thesz has named Ed Lewis the greatest professional wrestler ever. " Jim Ross named Gordon Solie the best announcer ever whilst quite obviously being better. Similar situation.

Not really. That's only based on a subjective uninformed opinion. And comparing announcers to wrestlers is comparing apples to oranges. And clearly Booker T was the best announcer ever.

"- Ed Lewis popularized the sleeper hold. A move so overly modified that basically everyone has used it at some point." Petey Williams invented the Canadian Destroyer. <

The difference being that no one of note has ever used the Canadian Destroyer while plenty of big stars have used the sleeper hold regularly. Like Stone Cold Steve Austin. Point nullified.

"- Ed Lewis was the biggest star of his era and had a prime lasting for several decades of dominance. " Oh wow, those raging pre-prohibition era wrestling days. I bet business was hot back then.

So much so that Ed Lewis actually found a way to get people to pay to see scripted fights. Nowadays people bitch complain and moan about how shit the WWE is, and how they could run it better, and that the company's going under in about a year. Damn sure sounds like business was hotter.

Don't be stupid; vote Ed Lewis.

 

[Gelgarin]

Just to debunk a couple of minor stupidities.

a 20 minute match against Ray Steele consisted of nothing but them circling one another, causing the audience to get bored.

Which was one of the most successful wrestling programs of the decade from a money making perspective.

Oh wow, those raging pre-prohibition era wrestling days. I bet business was hot back then.

Yeah, it really fuckin' was. Clown.

 

[Dan Severn's Moustache]

Do you want me to respond to your arguments? I can, but I'd rather not because:

1: I'm supporting Lewis for quite some time in this tournament and it would be counter productive.

2: I'm not particularly keen on hijacking your thread with a paragraph war. A third of it is because I can't be bothered because my knowledge of this era is somewhat slim, a third is because I've got an RP to write, and a third is because I'm being a bit of a dick.

 

[Dirk]

Save it for the tourney, boys. Pacing is very important. Friends WILL become enemies for a few days.