Paul Bowser

Paul Forbes Bowser (May 28, 1886 – July 17, 1960) was a professional wrestling promoter who was active from the 1920s to the 1950s in the Boston area. Wrestler Bowser grew up on a farm in western Pennsylvania and attended Beaver College before becoming a professional wrestler and touring with the Pollock Brothers Circus. He moved to Newark, Ohio, in 1912 and began to promote wrestling shows, often working as a referee. In 1913 he married women's wrestling champion Cora Livingstone. That same year, he opened a wrestling school in Newark. On March 10, 1916, Bowser became world middleweight champion, defeating Joe Turner in Newark. In November 1919, he and a co-defendant were successfully sued by Kelton Mitchell, who claimed he had been conned out of $2,300 that was bet on a fixed wrestling match in 1917. Bowser moved to Boston in 1922, running shows against the area's established promoter, George V. Tuohey. Within a year, Bowser had won the promotional war and Tuohey filed for bankruptcy. In Boston, on January 3, 1922, Bowser again won the middleweight title from Joe Turner in a show promoted at the Boston Opera House. He retired as a wrestler the following year.