Wichita Eagle – March 21, 1925
Ad Santel repeated his victory over Dick Daviscourt at the Forum last night, winning two falls out of three in about the fastest and hardest fought match seen here for several moons. Santel’s victory came after Daviscourt had won the first fall in 41 minutes with a toe hold. Santel then came back and won a sensational victory with a merry-go-round and crotch hold in 58 minutes and took the final and deciding fall in 23 minutes with a split.
By winning Santel fooled a lot of the wise ones who figured. It was Daviscourt’s turn to win. But Santel was simply too good for the more powerful Daviscourt, who nevertheless wrestled a great match and time and again wriggled out of Santel’s famous short arm scissors and grapevines. Time and again he had Santel dangerously near to a fall in the second and third falls, when a fall meant a match. Daviscourt tried his headlock repeatedly but never with any success.
The total wrestling time was over two hours and in that time there wasn’t a minute of stalling. Nor did there seem to be any circus stuff. Neither wrestler apparaently dared to allow the other to escape a hold. Both got out of some bad ones which were held sometimes for as much as 10 minutes at a stretch. Santel started the match by getting a short arm scissors which he held on Daviscourt for six minutes before Dick could squirm loose.
Then Dick got in his action and the men alternated in a series of holds, mostly toe holds for the next half hour. Daviscourt finally got a punishing toe hold on Santel which forced his lighter opponent to take the three counts.
Santel came back strong in the second fall and was the aggressor most of the way. Daviscourt wrestled a great defensive battle, however, breaking several holds by brute strength. It looked at several different periods as thought Santel were a sure winner but each time Daviscourt managed to roll out when it looked impossible.
The end of the second fall was a hummer and brought the crowd to its feet. Santel had had an arm scissors which was broken. Santel then slammed Daviscourt down, and pinned a crotch hold on him. Holding Daviscourt by the legs, Santel maneuvered his husky opponent until he had him just right, then started whirling him around, Daviscourt’s head downwards. After three whirls Santel let Daviscourt down with a jar and pounced on him. It was all over in a second. Daviscourt was down and stunned so badly he was an easy victim.
The third fall was Santel’s. Daviscourt rallied with an arm lock and another time with a hammerlock. But Santel rolled out and after 22 minutes of work pinned another peculiar hold on Daviscourt which brought him victory. This was a split, another variation of the crotch. This time Daviscourt had to give up without being pinned to save from being split in two.
Jim Browning won the preliminary in impressive fashion, toying with Jack Roller for 18 minutes and then winning with a scissors. Browning attempted to challenge Daviscourt between falls of the main event but was shoved back out of the ring by referee Ernie Lynn.
A crowd of about 800 watched the match.
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