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Toots Mondt pro wrestling pioneer
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Toots Mondt will forever be remembered as a revolutionary in professional wrestling. He, along with Vince McMahon Sr. separated from the NWA to form the WWWF and rule the northeast wrestling scene for many a year.
Toots began his career at age 16 doing carny wrestling in Colorado and the surrounding areas and doing the carnival circuit. In 1916 Toots was "discovered" by pro wrestler Farmer Burns and joined Burns camp to train and wrestle. Up until about 1919 most wrestling matches were "shoots" that went to a 60 minute broadway and attendance began to dwindle as fans became bored.
Toots would join with Ed "Strangler" Lewis and with manager and promoter Billy Sandow, formed their own promotion getting many of the carny workers to join them. Toots and his group, known collectively as "The Gold Dust Trio" began the early stages of modern wrestling by making time limit matches, predetermined outcomes and pushing who would be the stars. They also helped move wrestling from the carny circuit and speak easies to major venues in many cities across North America.
Toots would later move on to form a partnership with Ray Fabiani after a falling out with Billy Sandow and his brother that would dissolve the Gold Dust Trio. Mondt and Fabiani had a champion in Jim Londos and were running successfully in the northeast but could not get into New York because it was tightly controlled by promoter Jack Curley and then world champion Lou Thesz who had a major dislike for Mondt.
When Curley fell ill and would not recover, Mondt and Fabiani saw an opportunity to take over New York and with Jack Pfeffer and Jess McMahon, among others, put a plan into action to grab New York and eventually get wrestling back into Madison Square Garden. Mondt hooked up with wrestler turned millionaire Bernarr McFadden and received financial backing as well as leverage to get back into MSG.
Gorgeous George was in the main event on the first card in MSG in over nine years and defeated Ernie Dusek. Mondt and Fabiani needed a champion who would appeal to a different kind of fan and another financial backer so Antonino Rocca was made champion to appeal to the Latino crowd and Vince McMahon Sr. was brought on board.
Mondt was the booker for then NWA champion Buddy Rogers but would rarely let him out of the northeast to defend the belt, much to the chagrin of the NWA. The decision was made to separate from the NWA so Mondt and McMahon in 1963 would form Capital Sports and the WWWF and made Rogers the WWWF champion in a phantom tourney. When Rogers fell ill with heart issues Mondt was instrumental in convincing McMahon Sr. that Bruno Sammartino would be the future of the WWWF so Bruno was made champion in 47 seconds.
Even though Mondt was a visionary in wrestling he could not grasp the growing concept of television wrestling and he had an ever increasing gambling habit that eventually forced him to sell his portion of Capital Sports to McMahon Sr. Mondt would remain an employee of Capital Sports, more out of loyalty from McMahon Sr. than anything else but Toots gambling would get the best of him and he died nearly destitute after a long illness.
Toots Mondt was a pioneer in professional wrestling, he was a wrestler, a promoter, a shyster, he had an eye for talent and knack for selling people on ideas. Toots Mondt, if remember for nothing else, needs to be and should be remembered for making wrestling what it is today, even though he did it over 90 years ago.
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