muscleman

In the news in January, 1913: Jess Westergaard (also known as Jess Reimer) defeated Henry Ordemann in Minneapolis on January 7, 1913, and claimed the world's heavyweight wrestling title. A week later, he announced that he would become a boxer and defeat Jack Johnson for the heavyweight championship in that sport. (But of course, he never did.)

Wystan: Thanks for the additional information on Mr. Westergaard. We will add to the record when we update.

Another Bain/LOC photo shows Westergaard from the rear:

If this is with the horse show photographs, he was most likely Walter Miller, a jockey.

Walter Miller was the middleweight wrestling champion

"Championship Wrestling Match on Card for Thursday. This wrestling bird, who will light into Walter Miller for the middleweight title at the Los Angeles Athletic Club Thursday night, reached the city at 11:30 ... " Source: Los Angeles Times; May 6, 1919

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Miller_(wrestler)
"Walter Miller is still the middleweight wrestling champion of the world. Last night at the Los Angeles Athletic Club the peerless mat expert and grappling ... " Source: Los Angeles Times; May 9, 1919

Hi, I'm an admin for a group called Anything to do with "Walter", and we'd love to have this added to the group!

See this picture in the Bismarck Daily Tribune. November 02, 1915, page 8 when he was a welterweight.
- chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn85042242/1915-11-02/ed-...

In 1908, "Ogden's Pugilists and Wrestlers (series 1) (England)" featured a Jim Esson on card #49. A card from the series was included as a premium with each packet of Ogden's Cigarettes. It's probably the same Jim Esson in this photo by London photographer Percy Luton. Edit, quoting an article by Willie Baxter titled "The Greatest Wrestler of the Century" (referring to Donald Dinnie, not to Esson), from the March, 2000 issue of the magazine Highland Gathering:

"Jimmy Esson from Aberdeen, was acclaimed as World Heavyweight Champion when he won the Lonsdale Challenge Cup and the National Sporting Club’s tournament in the Alhambra in London in 1908."

(You can find the article on the web with a Google search using terms- highland gathering baxter. For some reason it won't link here.) This 1908 event was "...the first legitimate international championship tournament in Catch-as-catch-can....", according to the author of this page at the website of the Commonwealth Amateur Wrestling Association.

Great picture and history