Matty Matsuda (b. 1887 Yatsushiro City, Japan, d. August 15, 1929, Battle Creek, Michigan) [1] was the ring name of judoka Manjiro Matsuda 松田万次郎 (Matsuda Manjirō), who became a noted professional wrestler in the early 20th century.[2] Matsuda moved to America as a teenager, giving judo exhibitions on athletic cards in British Columbia. He took up training in pro wrestling after being inspired by a wrestling match between Frank Gotch and Dan McLeod in Vancouver.[3] After wrestling professionally around the Northwest, Matsuda moved to Minneapolis, wrestling around the Midwest and into the Southeast through the 1910s. He wrestled a four-hour continuous match with rival Johnny Billeter in April, 1912 in Toledo that ended in a draw. A rematch with Billeter that June gave Matsuda a claim to the lightweight wrestling championship.[4] In the 1920s, he moved to Texas mainly wrestled there and Kansas. In 1920, he laid claim to the welterweight title by defeating rival Jack Reynolds in El Paso.[3] Matsuda died after a brief illness in 1929.[3]
References
edit- ^ "Wrestlingdata.com - The World's Largest Wrestling Database". www.wrestlingdata.com.
- ^ "The Immigrant Experience: Asian Martial Arts in the United States and Canada, by Joseph R. Svinth". November 29, 2019.
- ^ a b c Long, Trish. "El Paso wrestler Matty Matsuda was undefeated at Liberty Hall in 1920s". El Paso Times.
- ^ Green, Thomas A. (June 9, 2010). Martial Arts of the World: An Encyclopedia of History and Innovation. ABC-CLIO. ISBN 9781598842432 – via Google Books.