DragonKingKarl: The con man William Muldoon
This week on Karl Stern’s 1000 Hours subseries on the DragonKingKarl Show where he focuses exclusively on the pre-Frank Gotch era of pro wrestling, we finish out the 1880s and enter the last decade of the pioneer era of pro wrestling.
Taken from his popular Pioneer Era Pro Wrestling Omnibus, we look at the final days of William Muldoon as a pro wrestler. He began losing interest in wrestling after the more entertainment based Greco-Roman style declined in popularity, replaced by the rougher and more vicious style of catch-as-catch-can and the rise of Evan “Strangler” Lewis.
Muldoon began casting his lot more and more with boxing, particularly with pioneer boxer John L. Sullivan and, well, let’s just say that didn’t go very well. They ended with each insulting the other in the newspapers and Sullivan accusing Muldoon of being (gasp) a GOVERNMENT RAT!
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Karl Stern is a pro wrestling historian specializing in the 1980s and pioneer era (pre-1900) of pro wrestling. He is an author who has written several books on wrestling and independently runs the When It Was Cool retro pop culture website.