DragonKingKarl: The return of Col. James H. McLaughlin
The DragonKingKarl Show returns with his Sunday look at the pioneer era of wrestling.
The year is 1884 and the first national pro wrestling star — Col. James H. McLaughlin — has been semi-retired for quite a while working as a train engineer. He had been the American heavyweight champion and won pro wrestling’s first major tournament in Detroit, MI in 1870, setting the course for pro wrestling going forward.
Then, he suddenly returned and wins the World Mixed-Styles championship but his return to glory wouldn’t last for long.
Plus, the sponsor of this episode, Wrestling With the Dawg Podcast, had a question: What is the strangest or most inexplicable thing to happen during the pioneer era of wrestling? Well, the answer is strange indeed.
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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.