1948 in professional wrestling

1948 in professional wrestling describes the year's events in the world of professional wrestling.

List of years in professional wrestling
… 1938 1939 1940 1941 1942 1943 1944 1945 1946 1947 1948 1949 1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 …
Art Archaeology Architecture Literature Music Philosophy Science +...

List of notable promotions

Only one promotion held notable shows in 1948.

Promotion Name	Abbreviation
Empresa Mexicana de Lucha Libre	EMLL

Supercards and tournaments

Date	Promotion(s)	Event	Location	Main Event
September 22	EMLL	15th Anniversary Show (1)	Mexico City, Mexico	Ciclón Veloz defeated Blue Demon by disqualification in a best two-out-of-three falls match[1]
September 24		15th Anniversary Show (2)		Tarzán López (c) defeated Harry Fields in a best two-out-of-three falls match for the NWA World Middleweight Championship[2]
(c) – denotes defending champion(s)

Notable events

• July 18 – professional wrestling promotors Pinkie George, Orville Brown, Al Haft, Harry Light, Sam Muchnick, Don Owen, and Tony Stecher form the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA), a governing body who would be the primary influence on professional wrestling in North America until the mid-1980s.[3]
• September – Alejandro Muñoz Moreno debuts the Blue Demon wrestling persona in Mexico City. He would go on to become one of the most famous professional wrestlers in lucha libre as well as act in 26 lucha films.[4]
• Stu Hart and Al Oeming created Klondike Wrestling (later known as Stampede Wrestling).

Title changes

EMLL

NWA World Middleweight Championship
Incoming champion – Gory Guerrero
Date	Winner	Event/Show	Note(s)
April 12	Mike Kelly	EMLL Show	[5]

Mexican National Lightweight Championship
Incoming champion – Emilio Charles
Date	Winner	Event/Show	Note(s)
Uncertain	Vacated	N/A	The championship was vacarted for undocumented reasons[6]
July	Joe Marin	EMLL Show	[6]
October 18	Black Shadow	EMLL Show	[6]

Mexican National Heavyweight Championship
Incoming champion – Firpo Segura
Date	Winner	Event/Show	Note(s)
Uncertain	Daniel Aldana	EMLL Show	[7]

NWA

NWA Worlds Heavyweight Championship
New[8]
Date	Winner	Event/Show	Note(s)
July 14	Orville Brown	NWA show	The NWA voted to recognize Brown as the Worlds Champion. Defeated Sonny Myers to solidify the claim.[8]

Awards and honors

• Luchador of the Year
  • Tarzán López (Mexico)

Arts and entertainment

• Angelo Poffo's world record for most consecutive sit-ups (6,033) is featured on the March 3 edition of Ripley's Believe It or Not! comic strip.[9]

Debuts

• March 31 – Blue Demon[10]
• November 24 – Tiny Mills[11]
• Date uncertain

• Bronco Lubich[11]
• The Fabulous Moolah[11]
• George Scott[11]
• Johnny Barend[11]
• Lord Athol Layton[11]
• Nelson Royal[11]
• Ray Gunkel[11]

Births

• January 8 – Bobby Jaggers, American professional wrestler (d. 2012)
• January 11 – Wajima Hiroshi, Japanese professional wrestler (d. 2018)
• February 7 – Kim Duk, Japanese professional wrestler
• February 19 – Big John Studd,[12][13] American professional wrestler (d. 1995)
• May 15 – Coloso Colosetti, Argentinian professional wrestler
• July 27 – Greg Gagne, American professional wrestler
• July 28 – Bobby Bold Eagle, American wrestler
• June 1 – Black Bart, American professional wrestler
• June 2 – Cynthia Peretti, American professional wrestler (d. 2009)
• June 23 – Earl Oliver, American wrestling columnist and historian
• June 29 – Leo Burke, Canadian professional wrestler
• July 18 – Carlos Colón Sr., Puerto Rican professional wrestler and wrestling promoter
• August 6 – Dino Bravo, Canadian professional wrestler (d. 1993)
• August 27 – Sgt. Slaughter,[14] American professional wrestler
• September 8 – Great Kabuki, Japanese professional wrestler
• September 21 – Mitsuo Momota, Japanese professional wrestler
• September 26 – Kazuo Sakurada, Japanese professional wrestler (d. 2020)
• September 29 – Jaque Mate, Mexican luchador
• October 4 – Linda McMahon, wrestling executive[15]
• November 28 – Smith Hart, Canadian professional wrestler (d. 2017)
• December 21 – Ron Bass, American professional wrestler (d. 2017)
• Unknown – Eduardo Miguel Perez, Mexican professional wrestler

References

General

• Stern, Karl, ed. (2005). "The Time Line of Wrestling Part II" (PDF). DragonKing Wrestling. No. 83. Haleyville, Alabama: DragonKing Press. Archived from the original (PDF) on March 26, 2017.

Specific

1. "15th Anniversary Show". Pro Wrestling History. September 24, 1948. Retrieved September 27, 2012.
2. Royal Duncan & Gary Will (2006). "Mexico: EMLL NWA World Middlweight Title". Wrestling Title Histories (4th ed.). Archeus Communications. pp. 389–390. ISBN 0-9698161-5-4.
3. Shaun Assael and Mike Mooneyham (2002). Sex, Lies, and Headlocks: The Real Story of Vince McMahon and World Wrestling Entertainment. Crown. p. 8. ISBN 1-4000-5143-6.
4. Madigan, Dan (2007). "Los Enmascarados (the masked men): El Demonio Azul (the Blue Demon)". Mondo Lucha a Go Go: the bizarre& honorable world of wild Mexican wrestling. HarperColins Publisher. pp. 79–90. ISBN 978-0-06-085583-3.
5. Royal Duncan & Gary Will (2006). "Mexico: EMLL NWA World Middlweight Title". Wrestling Title Histories (4th ed.). Archeus Communications. pp. 389–390. ISBN 0-9698161-5-4.
6. Royal Duncan and Gary Will (2000). "Mexico: National Lightweight Title". Wrestling Title Histories. Pennsylvania: Archeus Communications. p. 393. ISBN 0-9698161-5-4.
7. Royal Duncan and Gary Will (2000). "Mexico: National Heavyweight Title". Wrestling Title Histories. Archeus Communications. pp. 390–391. ISBN 0-9698161-5-4.
8. Duncan, Royal; Will, Gary (2000). ""United States: 19th century & widely defended titles – NWA, WWF, AWA, IWA, ECW, NWA: NWA World Heavyweight Title"". Wrestling title histories: professional wrestling champions around the world from the 19th century to the present. Waterloo, ON: Archeus Communications. p. 15. ISBN 0-9698161-5-4.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
9. Hornbaker, Tim (2012). "Poffo, Angelo". Legends of Pro Wrestling: 150 Years of Headlocks, Body Slams, and Piledrivers. Skyhorse Publishing, Inc. ISBN 161321314X.
10. Harris M. Lentz III (21 October 2003). Biographical Dictionary of Professional Wrestling, 2d ed. McFarland. p. 42. ISBN 978-1-4766-0505-0.
11. "Wrestlers debuted in 1948: 1 - 24 of 24". Retrieved December 26, 2018.
12. "Big John Studd profile". Online World of Wrestling. Retrieved 2011-03-24.
13. Krugman, Michael (2009). André the Giant: A Legendary Life. Pocket Books. p. 71. ISBN 978-1-4165-4112-7.
14. "Sgt. Slaughter Profile". Online World Of Wrestling. Retrieved 2009-10-19.
15. Dempsey, Bobbi (October 11, 2008). "Wrestling the Details". New York Times. Retrieved August 21, 2009.