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- Fred Kohler Enterprises, Inc. was a company established by businessman Frederick Koch (1903–1969) – known professionally as Fred Kohler – to promote professional wrestling in Chicago, Illinois in the United States. Kohler began promoting in 1925, and by 1942 he dominated professional wrestling in Chicago. He joined the recently founded National Wrestling Alliance in 1949, with his promotion sometimes thereafter referred to as NWA Chicago. From 1949 to 1955, Fred Kohler Enterprises was one of the most profitable and high-profile promotions in the United States due to the success of Wrestling from Marigold, a program airing on the DuMont national television network. A slump in business in the late-1950s was reversed by a partnership with the Capitol Wrestling Corporation, and in 1961 Fred Kohler Enterprises drew the then-largest crowd in professional wrestling history to watch a World Heavyweight Championship bout between Buddy Rogers and Pat O'Connor at Chicago's Comiskey Park. Kohler's often-fractious relationship with the NWA came to an end in 1963 when he withdrew to form the International Wrestling Association, a would-be competitor. The company was dissolved in 1965, marking the end of Fred Kohler Enterprises after 40 years. (en)
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