[1] In 1881 Whistler's financial backers brought him into New York City to challenge William Muldoon, who had won his championship in Graeco-Roman wrestling from Theodore Bauer the year before.

After being injured against a ringer in Cincinnati who later turned out to be English wrestler Tom Cannon, Whistler stopped touring for a time and returned to Kansas City.

There he met his future wife Minnie and toyed with the idea of entering the prize ring to meet champion John L. Sullivan at the behest of friend Robert Ricketts.

He issued a challenge to his old foe to wrestle him at MSG which went unheeded by Muldoon, who was already headed West on tour with Madame Modjeska.

In the meantime, an old foe of Cannon who claimed the catch-as-catch-can championship of the world, Joe Acton, followed him to America and beat him.

The highly anticipated match went two hours to a draw but Whistler was roundly outclassed by the smaller man, losing his already-waning claim to that championship in the process, and a great deal of his public acclaim.

Whistler won a wrestling tournament in 1883 in St. Louis, Graeco-Roman style, and placed second (to Edwin Bibby) in the catch-as-catch-can category.

[7] When the question of who initiated the draw of their third match arose, the two men again split, as business partners, bitterly never to rejoin.

Whistler stayed West and languished in bouts that generated limited public interest.

Headlining at the old Wigwam Theater in January 1885 in San Francisco, Whistler was knocked out by a local pro in the first round.

Shortly after the boxing fiasco, "all round athlete" and longtime claimant to the Greco-Roman wrestling championship[6][8] "Professor" William Miller invited Whistler to tour Australia as an athlete and wrestler, and meet Miller at the end of the tour to settle the championship question between them.

After a string of victories Down Under, Whistler defeated Miller in September 1885 at the Theatre Royal on Bourke Street in Melbourne, for the Graeco-Roman championship.