Lou Thesz

Title History

• AWA (Boston) world heavyweight title Awarded (December 29, 1937);
• NWA (Texas) world heavyweight title defeating Everett Marshall (March 9, 1939);
• MAC (Montreal) International heavyweight title defeating Leo Numa (June 12, 1940);
• MAC (Montreal) International heavyweight title defeating Yvon Robert (July 16, 1941);
• NWA Texas heavyweight title defeating Hans Schnabel (May 12, 1944);
• NWA Texas heavyweight title defeating Ernie Dusek (August 18, 1944);
• NWA Texas heavyweight title defeating Buddy Rogers (May 3, 1946);
• MAC (Montreal) International heavyweight title defeating Bobby Managoff (September 11, 1946);
• MAC (Montreal) International heavyweight title defeating Bobby Managoff (April 16, 1947);
• NWA (Texas) world heavyweight title defeating Billy Watson (April 25, 1947);
• NWA (Texas) world heavyweight title defeating Bill Longson (July 20, 1948);
• NWA world heavyweight title defeating Orville Brown (November 27, 1949);
• (Los Angeles) world heavyweight title defeating Baron Michele Leone (May 21, 1952);
• NWA world heavyweight title defeating Billy Watson (November 9, 1956);
• NWA (Texas) International heavyweight title Awarded (November 1957);
• NWA (Vancouver) Pacific Coast Tag Team titles w/The Outlaw (1961);
• NWA world heavyweight title defeating Buddy Rogers (January 24, 1963);
• AWA (Ohio) world heavyweight title defeating Karl Krauser (September 7, 1964);
• WWA (Los Angeles) world heavyweight title defeating Buddy Austin (October 14, 1966);
• TWWA (Trans World Wrestling Alliance) world heavyweight title Awarded (1967);
• NWA (Mid America) Southern Tag Team titles w/Jackie Fargo defeating Red Shadow & Don Carson (August 13, 1968);
• NWA (Tennessee) Southern Junior heavyweight title defeating Tommy Gilbert (1973);
• NWA (Tennessee) Southern Junior heavyweight title defeating Tommy Gilbert (March 18, 1974);
• UWA (Mexico) world heavyweight title Awarded (August 15, 1977);
• OnlineWorldofWrestling.com Hall of Fame Inductee (2002);

Career Highlights

• Lou Thesz started wrestling as a professional at age 17 in and around his hometown of St. Louis, Missouri.
• Lou Thesz was Undisputed World Heavyweight Champion on six different occassions.
• Lou Thesz won the prestigious World title as recognized in Montreal.
• Lou Thesz held a variety of “International” championships that he defended from Europe to Japan.
• Lou Thesz remained UNDEFEATED AS CHAMPION for nearly eight years! (July/1948 – March/1956).
• Lou Thesz, even with an artificial hip replacement, was able to take part in a match in Hamamatsu Japan.
• December 26, 1990: Lou Thesz (age 74) lost his final match to Masahiro Chono by Submission with the STF.
• Lou Thesz is the only wrestler EVER to compete in 7 different decades (BESIDES Mae Young).
• Lou Thesz’s biography, “Hooker,” crafted in association with Kit Bauman, is available in a 260 page manuscript form.
• Lou Thesz, with his wife Charlie, resides in Norfolk, Virginia, on the shores of Chesapeake Bay.
• Lou Thesz remained active in a handful of charities, is president of the influential oldtimers’ Cauliflower Alley Club.
• Lou Thesz made appearances at serious projects and/or promotions with regard to what he prefers to call “the truer forms of wrestling.”
• Lou Thesz religiously found time to visit the gymnasium several times a week to keep the physical edge.
• April 9, 2002 – Lou Thesz had triple bypass surgery and an aoertic valve replacement.
• April 28, 2002 – Lou Thesz passes away — The greatest professional wrestler of all time will be sorely missed.
• Upon death, Lou Thesz’s body was cremated and ashes spread on a riverbank in Missouri.