Sandor Szabo
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Name: Sandor Szabo Year Inducted: 2013 By Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame |
Hungarian World Champion Sandor Szabo PWHF Class of 2013 Inductee Pioneer Era...
By The Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame 2013
Part wrestler, part businessman, part humanitarian and part ham, Sandor Szabo represented the fusion of serious wrestling and show business. More than any other pro, he popularized suplexes and throws from Greco-Roman wrestling, where below-the-waist holds are barred. His halch hold, a quick double-arm suplex, was a devastating finisher in a match. He laid claim to being the longest-running wrestling hero based on the West Coast, where his career there, always as a headliner, extended for three decades. “My association with him was just great, and to me, he was just a first-class guy. He was synonymous with wrestling in Southern California,” said Gene Kiniski, a regular opponent in the 1950s, who said Szabo’s charisma reached beyond his Hungarian fans. “He had a good amateur background, and the guy was a technician in the ring.”
By The Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame 2013
Part wrestler, part businessman, part humanitarian and part ham, Sandor Szabo represented the fusion of serious wrestling and show business. More than any other pro, he popularized suplexes and throws from Greco-Roman wrestling, where below-the-waist holds are barred. His halch hold, a quick double-arm suplex, was a devastating finisher in a match. He laid claim to being the longest-running wrestling hero based on the West Coast, where his career there, always as a headliner, extended for three decades. “My association with him was just great, and to me, he was just a first-class guy. He was synonymous with wrestling in Southern California,” said Gene Kiniski, a regular opponent in the 1950s, who said Szabo’s charisma reached beyond his Hungarian fans. “He had a good amateur background, and the guy was a technician in the ring.”
Part wrestler, part businessman, part humanitarian and part ham, Sandor Szabo represented the fusion of serious wrestling and show business. More than any other pro, he popularized suplexes and throws from Greco-Roman wrestling, where below-the-waist holds are barred. His halch hold, a quick double-arm suplex, was a devastating finisher in a match. He laid claim to being the longest-running wrestling hero based on the West Coast, where his career there, always as a headliner, extended for three decades. “My association with him was just great, and to me, he was just a first-class guy. He was synonymous with wrestling in Southern California,” said Gene Kiniski, a regular opponent in the 1950s, who said Szabo’s charisma reached beyond his Hungarian fans. “He had a good amateur background, and the guy was a technician in the ring.”

He was a top-flight Greco-Roman wrestler, winning a bronze medal at 82 kilograms (about 180 pounds) at the European championships in 1926 and a gold medal a year later. Szabo came to the United States as a member of the 1929 Hungarian Greco-Roman national team and saw enough to make it his permanent home.


When Hungarian dissidents rose up against Soviet bloc control in 1956, Szabo, who became an American citizen in August 1938, helped many of them escape persecution and enter the United States. His sponsorship of some of the estimated 200,000 refugees who fled Hungary earned him a letter of commendation from President Dwight Eisenhower.

Szabo would wrestle, off and on, until 1963. On October 13, 1966, he suffered a fatal heart attack at his home.
http://pwhf.org/halloffamers/bios/sandor_szabo.asp