List of years in professional wrestling

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1948 in professional wrestling describes the year's events in the world of professional wrestling.

List of notable promotions

Only one promotion held notable shows in 1948.

Promotion Name	Abbreviation
Empresa Mexicana de Lucha Libre	EMLL

Supercards and tournaments

Date	Promotion(s)	Event	Location	Main Event
September 22	EMLL	15th Anniversary Show (1)	Mexico City, Mexico	Ciclón Veloz defeated Blue Demon by disqualification in a best two-out-of-three falls match^[1]
September 24	EMLL	15th Anniversary Show (2)	Mexico City, Mexico	Tarzán López (c) defeated Harry Fields in a best two-out-of-three falls match for the NWA World Middleweight Championship^[2]
(c) – denotes defending champion(s)

Notable events

July 18 – professional wrestling promotors Pinkie George, Orville Brown, Al Haft, Harry Light, Sam Muchnick, Don Owen, and Tony Stecher form the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA), a governing body who would be the primary influence on professional wrestling in North America until the mid-1980s.^[3]
September – Alejandro Muñoz Moreno debuts the Blue Demon wrestling persona in Mexico City. He would go on to become one of the most famous professional wrestlers in lucha libre as well as act in 26 lucha films.^[4]
Stu Hart and Al Oeming created Klondike Wrestling (later known as Stampede Wrestling).

Title changes

EMLL

Date	Winner	Event/Show	Note(s)
NWA World Middleweight Championship
Incoming champion – Gory Guerrero
April 12	Mike Kelly	EMLL Show	^[2]

Date	Winner	Event/Show	Note(s)
Mexican National Lightweight Championship
Incoming champion – Emilio Charles
Uncertain	Vacated	N/A	The championship was vacarted for undocumented reasons^[5]
July	Joe Marin	EMLL Show	^[5]
October 18	Black Shadow	EMLL Show	^[5]

Date	Winner	Event/Show	Note(s)
Mexican National Heavyweight Championship
Incoming champion – Firpo Segura
Uncertain	Daniel Aldana	EMLL Show	^[6]

NWA

Date	Winner	Event/Show	Note(s)
NWA Worlds Heavyweight Championship
New^[7]
July 14	Orville Brown	NWA show	The NWA voted to recognize Brown as the Worlds Champion. Defeated Sonny Myers to solidify the claim.^[7]

Awards and honors

Luchador of the Year
- Tarzán López (Mexico)

Arts and entertainment

Angelo Poffo's world record for most consecutive sit-ups (6,033) is featured on the March 3 edition of Ripley's Believe It or Not! comic strip.^[8]

Debuts

March 31 – Blue Demon^[9]
November 24 – Tiny Mills^[10]
Date uncertain

Births

Date of birth uncertain:
- Eduardo Miguel Perez, Mexican professional wrestler
January 8 – Bobby Jaggers, American professional wrestler (d. 2012)
January 11 – Wajima Hiroshi, Japanese professional wrestler (d. 2018)
January 30 – Black Bart^[11]
February 7 – Kim Duk, Japanese professional wrestler
February 19 – Big John Studd,^[12]^[13] American professional wrestler (d. 1995)
March 3 - Ron Fuller
May 15 – Coloso Colosetti, Argentinian professional wrestler
June 2 – Cynthia Peretti, American professional wrestler (d. 2009)
June 23 – Earl Oliver, American wrestling columnist and historian
June 29 – Leo Burke, Canadian professional wrestler
July 11 - Ernie Holmes, American professional wrestler and footballer (died in 2008)
July 18 – Carlos Colón Sr., Puerto Rican professional wrestler and wrestling promoter
July 27 – Greg Gagne, American professional wrestler
July 28 – Bobby Bold Eagle, American wrestler
August 6 – Dino Bravo, Canadian professional wrestler (d. 1993)
August 8 - Dee Booher, American professional wrestler (d. 2022)
August 27 – Sgt. Slaughter,^[14] American professional wrestler
September 3 - Butcher Brannigan, American professional wrestler (d. 2009)
September 8 – Great Kabuki, Japanese professional wrestler
September 12:
- Rocky Hata (d. 1991)
- Roberto Soto
September 21 – Mitsuo Momota, Japanese professional wrestler
September 26 – Kazuo Sakurada, Japanese professional wrestler (d. 2020)
September 29 – Jaque Mate, Mexican luchador
October 4 – Linda McMahon, wrestling executive^[15]
October 15 – Savannah Jack (died in 2012)
November 4 - Buzz Tyler (died in 2021)
November 12 - Goro Tsurumi (died in 2022)
November 28 – Smith Hart, Canadian professional wrestler (d. 2017)
December 21 – Ron Bass, American professional wrestler (d. 2017)
December 28 - Izzy Slapawitz, American professional wrestler (d. 2019)

Deaths

August 16 - Babe Ruth, 53

References

General

Stern, Karl, ed. (2005). "The Time Line of Wrestling Part II" (PDF). DragonKing Wrestling. No. 83. Haleyville, Alabama: DragonKing Press. Archived from the original (PDF) on March 26, 2017.

Specific

^ "15th Anniversary Show". Pro Wrestling History. September 24, 1948. Retrieved September 27, 2012.
^ ^a ^b Royal Duncan & Gary Will (2006). "Mexico: EMLL NWA World Middlweight Title". Wrestling Title Histories (4th ed.). Archeus Communications. pp. 389–390. ISBN 0-9698161-5-4.
^ Shaun Assael and Mike Mooneyham (2002). Sex, Lies, and Headlocks: The Real Story of Vince McMahon and World Wrestling Entertainment. Crown. p. 8. ISBN 1-4000-5143-6.
^ Madigan, Dan (2007). "Los Enmascarados (the masked men): El Demonio Azul (the Blue Demon)". Mondo Lucha a Go Go: the bizarre& honorable world of wild Mexican wrestling. HarperCollins Publishers. pp. 79–90. ISBN 978-0-06-085583-3.
^ ^a ^b ^c Royal Duncan and Gary Will (2000). "Mexico: National Lightweight Title". Wrestling Title Histories. Pennsylvania: Archeus Communications. p. 393. ISBN 0-9698161-5-4.
^ Royal Duncan and Gary Will (2000). "Mexico: National Heavyweight Title". Wrestling Title Histories. Archeus Communications. pp. 390–391. ISBN 0-9698161-5-4.
^ ^a ^b Duncan, Royal; Will, Gary (2000). ""United States: 19th century & widely defended titles – NWA, WWF, AWA, IWA, ECW, NWA: NWA World Heavyweight Title"". Wrestling title histories: professional wrestling champions around the world from the 19th century to the present. Waterloo, ON: Archeus Communications. p. 15. ISBN 0-9698161-5-4.
^ Hornbaker, Tim (2012). "Poffo, Angelo". Legends of Pro Wrestling: 150 Years of Headlocks, Body Slams, and Piledrivers. Skyhorse Publishing, Inc. ISBN 978-1613213148.
^ Harris M. Lentz III (21 October 2003). Biographical Dictionary of Professional Wrestling, 2d ed. McFarland. p. 42. ISBN 978-1-4766-0505-0.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h "Wrestlers debuted in 1948: 1 - 24 of 24". Retrieved December 26, 2018.
^ "Wrestlers born in 1955: 1 - 50 of 54". Wrestling Data. Retrieved February 1, 2020.
^ "Big John Studd profile". Online World of Wrestling. Retrieved 2011-03-24.
^ Krugman, Michael (2009). André the Giant: A Legendary Life. Pocket Books. p. 71. ISBN 978-1-4165-4112-7.
^ "Sgt. Slaughter Profile". Online World Of Wrestling. Retrieved 2009-10-19.
^ Dempsey, Bobbi (October 11, 2008). "Wrestling the Details". New York Times. Retrieved August 21, 2009.

v t e Years in professional wrestling
1933 1934 1935 1936 1937 1938 1939
1940 1941 1942 1943 1944 1945 1946 1947 1948 1949
1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959
1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969
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1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989
1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999
2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009
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