Review Fix chats with David L. Chapman about his newest book, The Kings of Wrestling: Anecdotes and Stories of Wrestling from the Distant Past to Our Times.
Review Fix: How did you get interested in Pro Wrestling?
David L. Chapman: My interest in the history of professional wrestling kind of sneaked up on me. In 2023 I published my translation of Edmond Desbonnet’s book, The Kings of Strength. The book is a biographical history of famous professional strongmen; it was written in French and originally published in 1911. I had been working on that book for around three decades (off and on), and it was eventually published by McFarland. That book was sufficiently successful so that I decided to translate the companion volume, The Kings of Wrestling, which was originally published in 1910. Although I have published around 20 books on the history of bodybuilding, weightlifting and physical culture, Kings of Wrestling was really my first serious look at wrestling and its very colorful cast of characters.
Pro wrestling began as a carnival or fairground activity. Wrestling managers in France would organize a baraque or wrestling troupe and travel around the countryside visiting various seasonal fairs where they would set up temporary booths or arenas. It was here, starting around 1848 that wrestling as an organized, professional sport was first brought to the people. That is the story that Desbonnet wanted to tell; he also wanted to tell about the lives of some of the men who grappled for pay in these carnival stalls. Later, after wrestling became more popular, it graduated to fancier venues like circuses and music-hall stages. Much of this activity took place at a very volatile period in French history. Wrestlers had to avoid riots, revolutions, and wars, but somehow they and their sport survived.
French wrestlers devised the rules for Greco-Roman fighting, and this style of wrestling spread all over the European continent. Wrestling was the first real international sport, and until the freestyle or catch-as-catch-can took over as the principal style of pro wrestling, fighters from all over the could meet in the squared circle. Tournaments were organized that brought in competitors from Constantinople to Buenos Aires, and they all mixed in with the local men. It really was an international activity in those days.
Rather than just do a simple translation from French to English, I wanted the book to have some historical and sociological background, so I wrote an extensive introduction in which I gave a brief biography of the author Edmond Desbonnet, a talented writer and gym owner in turn-of-the-century Paris. I also annotated the text quite liberally.
Review Fix: What was the research process like?
Chapman: Publishing a book that first appeared in 1910 means that a great deal of the material will be unfamiliar to contemporary, English-speaking audiences. That means that I had to do a lot of research on the people, places, and events mentioned in the book. So if the text says “so-and-so was born in X just before the war,” I had to let modern readers know where “X” is and which “war” Desbonnet referred to. Fortunately, most major French newspapers have been digitized by the French National Library, so it was relatively easy to find things without having to turn a thousand dusty, brittle pages while looking for additional material on the people and events in the book. And, believe me, there are a thousand rabbit holes to fall down during a process like this. It was sometimes hard to stay focused on the task at hand because the side stories were so seductive.
In order to give the book more context, I also included newspaper accounts, magazine articles, and excerpts from other books. These were from sources in three different languages: mostly French, but I also included extensive sections from works in Italian and German. This is where my linguistic abilities came in handy—my high school French teacher, Miss Clingenpeel, would be so proud of me. These additional works were all more or less contemporary with the book. This is the first time that these works have ever been translated, so I hope they will help readers get a better idea of what was going on at the time.
One of the things that I’m proudest of is going back to primary sources—the original magazines and newspapers of the day—and presenting material that has never been available before in English. This means that I can help preserve the memory of many of the men in the book since there is little or nothing in most sources that tells of these forgotten pioneers of pro wrestling.
What I was doing was actually uncovering the archeology of the sport. Desbonnet’s book recounts the earliest days of pro wrestling from the mid-19th century up to the first decade of the 20th century. This is tremendously important to sport historians and those who enjoy going back to the origins of the activity.
Review Fix: What did you learn that you weren’t expecting?
Chapman: When I was trying to research the book, I found that there are many so-called histories of wrestling in English, but even the better ones start with the ancient Greeks and then skip almost immediately to Gorgeous George and the postwar period of the 1940s and 50s. They completely ignore the bits that I consider most interesting: the European development of the sport. If a source was not written in English, it was ignored. This book changes all that.
Review Fix: What’s your favorite story in the book?
Chapman: There are lots of great anecdotes in the book because the author, Edmond Desbonnet had a talent for seeking out the best stories of the old days. Desbonnet delighted in describing the various (and nefarious) methods that the old time wrestling impresarios used to get the ticket-buying public into the arenas. My favorite stunt in this line involved a strongman and wrestler named Dubois. He was director of a troupe of wrestlers, and he was also a master of shenanigans. He contracted with a dock worker named Villier to pretend to be an amateur who would volunteer to wrestle with Dubois. Here is the rest of the story in Desbonnet’s words:
Villier’s job was to mix in with the crowd and to act like an amateur who wanted to try his skills against those of the men in the booth. The discussion between Dubois and Villier very quickly degenerated into an argument. The latter bounded tumultuously up the staircase to the stage and threw himself onto Dubois as if he wanted (according to his own expression) to “grind him into sausage meat.” This travesty was played to perfection, and the crowd rushed inside, never doubting for an instant that they were going to see an amateur pin the mighty wrestler’s shoulders to the sawdust-covered floor.
After several uninteresting intervals, the crowd began calling for the main event, the match between Dubois and the “amateur.” The two actors took their places. They lunged and attacked one another with ferocious-looking energy. Suddenly, Dubois was grabbed in a hold and he rolled to the ground, nearly touching both shoulders on to the floor. But at the same time, he let out with a cry of pain and escaped from his adversary’s hold while screaming loudly. Villier had bitten Dubois on the shoulder, and he asked the audience in the front row who now roared with indignation to act as witnesses. Chaos ensued, and the other wrestlers had to step in to keep Villier from being torn to pieces by the crowd. It was decided to take the dishonorable amateur in front of the official in charge of the entire fair. But after a few moments, Dubois appeared and intervened in favor of the prisoner. “What can we do, your honor? This sort of thing is simply a calculated risk. In the heat of the wrestling match—when it is for real—we often forget our training. This would never have happened if, like so many others, the match had been faked.”
In short, the official was touched by this gesture of generosity, and he released Villier. As soon as Dubois and Villier left the judge’s post, they began to argue once more, much to the delight of the audience who stood at the door in order to see the climax of this incident. Seeing with satisfaction that the quarrel had picked up once more, the audience followed the two men back to the booth, but by this time the crowd of followers had naturally grown as passersby saw and understood the cause of this gathering. Everyone wanted to see the end of the piece.
Arriving at the foot of the arena, Dubois assured the audience of his courage: “Despite having been bitten by him,” the wrestler bawled, “I want to take him down. You can watch my revenge. Ladies and gentlemen, you will see how I deal with him.”
“I accept the challenge!” shouted Villier, and as he said so, he clambered up the stairway with terrible and aggressive intent. And the dupes in the audience had been taken in again. With that, the fierce, inexorable, but above all, well planned match began once more.
Thanks to an impressive hold, Villier was taken to the floor. He was about to have both shoulders pinned when the director suddenly burst forth with his awful scream of agony once more! Villier had bitten the wrestler again!
There were cries and insults thrown at the amateur and his duplicity, then a new procession to the official during which Dubois followed his unscrupulous adversary all the while heaping insults on him because of his injuries.
The judge was annoyed at being bothered once more but was about to give his decision when Dubois intervened as before and got his brutal opponent off the hook. The judge then had both men escorted to the door, and they went back to the booth during which Dubois shouted to Villier, “I will get you tomorrow! I’ll chew you up and spit out the pieces.”
This farce went on several days and the booth was never empty anymore. When Dubois and Villier transferred their props and devices to another town, the little scenario began all over again. Obviously, the bites were superficial and since the employer was able to throw many a gold coin into his cash box, he did not complain a bit. This little swindle lasted several years before it became too well known. Dubois thus made a good living practicing what he termed “honest wrestling.”
So if you thought that the notorious 1997 boxing match in which Mike Tyson bit off Evander Holyfield’s ear was unprecedented, think again.
Review Fix: How do you think today’s pro wrestling stacks up with other eras?
Chapman: The guys in The Kings of Wrestling were every bit as skilled, colorful, and entertaining as those of today. A lot of the stunts they pulled are being repeated today (see the anecdote above). Tossing an opponent out of the ring, roaring with indignation, or slamming a folding chair down on the adversary’s head were all pioneered in 19th century France. Desbonnet explains where the men’s colorful nicknames came from and who devised the various stunts. There really is nothing new that happens on the mat.
Like modern wrestlers, the old timers were not really participating in a competitive sport (at least in most of their bouts). The outcome of the matches was almost always predetermined, but they learned how to give the audience a good show. From the start, wrestling was really just a morality play for the working class. Good versus evil, heroes versus heels—these characters were present from the very start, but then as now it mattered little to the audiences whether the matches were “for real” or not. They wanted a good show, and they almost always got one.
Review Fix: What’s the tone of the book? Who will enjoy it the most?
Chapman: The book is meant to be an enjoyable read for those who are interested in the history of wrestling. Don’t expect a dry-as-dust academic work on a subject that is so full of fun and eccentric characters.
It was written for a general readership, but with sufficient citations and verifications to keep most academics happy. My philosophy is: it may not be true, but I didn’t make it up (and I’ll tell you where I found the information).
Review Fix: What’s next?
Chapman: I have finished translating a fascinating and now completely unknown novel published in 1905 called The Northern Hercules. It was written by Léon Ville, a journalist and wrestling trainer who knew the world of carnival wrestling inside out. He tells the story of a fictional wrestler who has tremendous natural talent. It describes the lives of the men and women who worked in the wrestling arenas in a way that non-fiction simply cannot do.
I am also working on a collection of essays called Amazons of the Arena which will focus on the history of women’s wrestling from the Renaissance to the present. As the book will show, women’s wrestling did not begin with the Fabulous Moolah and Mildred Burke. It has a long, interesting, and rather checkered pedigree.
Review Fix: Anything else you’d like to add?
Chapman: One of the best and most fascinating features of The Kings of Wrestling consists of the beautiful illustrations that are in the book. The quality of photographs in the original book is not very good, but fortunately I was able to track down original images of the men in the book. Thanks to the generosity of several collector friends, the photos and engravings in the book are vastly superior to the 1910 edition because I have used (for the most part) high-resolution scans of original 19th century photographs.
