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:

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

Apparently this is Polish wrestler Stanislaus Zbyszko (1879?-1967), who is the subject of this page at the Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame website.

whyaduck: Thanks for helping us track down the correct name of man depicted in this photo. We'll change the source data and reload the description.

After seeing this recently added photo, I'm wondering if maybe the photo above is not Stanislaus Zybszko, but his younger brother, Wladek. On the Internet, many photos identified as Stanislaus Zybszko show him wearing a moustache, while photos of Wladek invariably show him without facial hair.

whyaduck: We believe the photo is of Stanislaus Zbyszko. Check the other picture of him at this link: www.wrestling-titles.com/personalities/zbyszko_stanislaus/