In the long and far from simple annals of wrestling, few careers are more remarkable than that of a 224-lb. oddity from Ballydehob, County Cork, named Danno O'Mahoney. A wrestling scout in Dublin on other business last autumn discovered O'Mahoney serving as a soldier in the Free State Army, brought him to the U. S., enlisted him as a member of the famed troupe of professional wrestlers run by
Promoter Jack Curley. Aided by two enormous paws, a neck thicker than his head and a strange grip which he called the "Irish whip." Danno O'Mahoney promptly won 49 bouts in a row. For his 50th. he received the reward of a match with Jim Londos, principal claimant to the World's Heavyweight Championship.
When he defeated Londos last month (TIME, July 8), O'Mahoney had only one obstacle left between himself and the undisputed championship of the world. That was Wrestler Ed Don George, a 30-year-old, 220-lb. Buffalonian, recognized as champion in Canada and parts of the U. S.
Last week, in Boston, O'Mahoney and George climbed into a ring to put the matter to the test.
After an hour and a half of the kind of undemonstrative growling and groveling of which most wrestling addicts heartily disapprove although they know it signifies the sincerity of the bout they are watching, Wrestler O'Mahoney contrived to throw his opponent over the ropes. Rules specified that George had 20 seconds in which to climb back into the ring. When he failed to do so, Referee James J. Braddock, Heavyweight Boxing Champion of the World, raised O'Mahoney's right hand.
What followed the decision was disgraceful. One of George's seconds attacked Referee Braddock. Braddock promptly knocked him down. Twenty other handlers and camp-followers climbed into the ring, began scuffling among themselves. Pinned against the ring by spectators struggling to get into the fight was Massachusetts' Governor James M. Curley. one of the 45,000 (a record) who had seen the bout.
That last week's bout ended in a riot was much less remarkable than the fact that it occurred at all. For the past six years, ever since onetime Champion Ed ("Strangler") Lewis filed a protest after a match with Henri De Glane which was considered justified by some state athletic commissions but not by others, there have been two or more claimants for the wrestling championship. Far from being deleterious to the sport, this state of affairs has contributed largely to its renaissance since 1929 by making it possible for each of several different troupes of wrestlers, operating in different parts of the U. S., to have a "world's champion" of its own.
Two years ago, U. S. wrestling had boiled down to two major groups, comparable to the major leagues of baseball. One was Promoter Curley's, with Londos for champion. The other was run by Promoter Paul Bowser, with Ed Don George's predecessor, Henri De Glane, as chief attraction. A year ago, wrestling rumors said that a merger between the two groups was imminent. Last week's bout, however acrimoniously contested, was essentially an indication that the merger had been amicably completed and that Promoter Jack Curley, with simple O'Mahoney as his proxy, had finally become sole proprietor of the Heavyweight Wrestling Championship of the World.