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Ultimate History of Pro Wrestling - A Time Line of Every Major Event in Pro Wrestling History - 1852

The following is taken from Author and Pioneer Era Pro Wrestling Historian Karl Stern’s book DragonKingKarl’s Pioneer Era Pro Wrestling Omnibus.

1852:

03-08-1852: Joe Acton is born in England. Along with Edwin Bibby, Joe Acton is partly responsible for helping introduce Catch-as-Catch-Can wrestling to the United States. Catch-as-Catch-Can took many of its elements from Lancashire wrestling, of which Acton and Bibby were accomplished.

04-19-1852:  Tom Cannon was born in Manchester, England.

05-25-1852:  William Muldoon, one of the most influential grapplers in history, is born in Caneada, Allegany County, New York.  His parents were Irish immigrants who had arrived in America during the 1830’s. William Muldoon died at the age of 81 on June 3, 1933.

DragonKingKarl Note: Since the first edition of this book was released in 2024, author Scott Beekman wrote a comprehensive biography on the life of William Muldoon titled The Last Gladiator: William Muldoon and the Making of American Sports. According to Beekman’s fantastic work, you may see earlier birthdates given for Muldoon. That is because Muldoon himself often pushed his own birthdate back in time in order to bolster a nonexistent Civil War record. Most of the stories William Muldoon told about his Civil War service were embellishments of his brother John Muldoon’s actual war record. To firmly set the record straight, despite the fact he was honored as a veteran at his funeral in 1933, William Muldoon never served in the Civil War nor was he even a drummer boy as he also claimed. In fact, William Muldoon seemed to have never served in the military at all.

Pioneer Era Pro Wrestler William Muldoon