Posted on by bdamage1
Brian Damage
Grappling with Tragedy is a series of articles that deal with unfortunate, tragic incidents that have occurred throughout the history of professional wrestling. It is unlike the ‘Wrestling with Sin’ series that deals more with the seedier side of wrestling like arrests, murders and suicides. Grappling looks more at particular tragic incidents that have in some instances altered pro wrestling in some way.
Ray Steele
Born Peter Sauer in Russia in 1900, he and his family emigrated to the United States when he was six years old. His family settled in Lincoln, Nebraska and started amateur wrestling in his school years. From there, Sauer started wrestling across the country on the carnival circuit. He caught the eye of grappler Ad Santel, who moved the young Sauer to California for further training.
Sauer made his debut in the 1920’s and changed his name to ‘Ray Steele.’ Ray competed in a number of 60 plus minute matches against the likes of Joe Malcewicz, Jim Londos, George Zaharias and Everette Marshall. Steele would defeat Bronko Nagurski to capture the NWA (National Wrestling Association) world title. He held the title for over a year, before being injured in a car crash and forced to relinquish the belt.
Steele was widely considered to compete in the first MMA style match when he defeated boxer Kingfish Levinsky in 35 seconds. Steele was also known as ‘The Clown Prince of Wrestling’ for his sense of humor and desire to pull pranks or “ribs” on others whether mean spirited or otherwise. Steele trained several future wrestlers including future NWA champion Lou Thesz. Thesz cited Steele as one of the greatest wrestlers of all time. Ray Steele would dabble in promoting wrestling shows, but his passion was always to compete in a ring.
After a couple of years in retirement, Steele had the calling to make a wrestling comeback and began training for his in ring return. He began his intense training schedule in Warm Lake, Idaho. On September 11, 1949….Steele suffered a heart attack while training for his comeback and died. He was just 49 years old at the time of his death.