Frank Gotch

Frank Gotch was an American professional wrestler, born in 1877, who was the first American to win the World Heavyweight Championship in catch wrestling and is credited with popularizing professional wrestling in the United States. He competed at a time when championship-level contests were largely legitimate catch wrestling, and his reign as World Heavyweight Wrestling Champion from 1908 to 1913 is one of the ten longest in the history of the sport. He became one of the most popular athletes in the United States from the 1900s to the 1910s, and Pro Wrestling Illustrated has called him arguably the best North American professional wrestler of the twentieth century. He died in 1917.