Most of the early Indiana newspapers from 1930 list him as "Joe Dilman" with a single 'l'. So far, I've been unable to place him in any U.S. Census returns. Other early mentions include Delmas, Dalmas, Dalman, as well as "Joe Hassen/Hasson" and later in southern Georgia as "Yousseff Hassan". Thanks to Kasper at WrestlingData, who discovered Dillman working in Florida out of Al Ritchie's Miami office as Serge Kotsonaras in 1939.
Nicknames: "Dynamite" Joe Dillman, "What-A-Man" Joe Dillman
Hometown: Akron, Ohio (?)
The 1930 results in multiple Indiana newspapers from August and September list him as being from Akron, OH. By December, the Indianapolis and Louisville, Kentucky, newspapers were listing him as being from Duluth, Minnesota. From 1932-1938, he was fairly consistently listed as hailing from Indianapolis or Birmingham, Alabama.
Birth date: 1895-1905?
A mention in the Palladium-Item from Richmond, Indiana, says the following:
"Dilman will be making his first appearance in this part of the country. He is a veteran of the mat game, but has confined his activities to the eastern cities."The image to the right is from a 1934 issue of the Tuscaloosa News, but the same photo had been used in Decatur and Gadsden in 1933. None of the mentions of Dillman in the newspapers ever refer to him being young, or a rookie, but his limited appearances in 1930-1931 seem to indicate that was when his professional career started. Unless he really did start somewhere in the eastern part of the country and under a completely different name.
Death date: after 1966
Earliest appearance (so far): 01 September 1930. Tomlinson Hall, Indianapolis, Indiana. Joe lost to "Silent Olsen" in the second preliminary of a four match card. [02 September 1930, The Indianapolis Star, p11]
Latest appearance (so far): 15 March 1967. Fairgrounds Coliseum, Nashville, Tennessee. Joe refereed an NWA World Tag Team title match between Jackie Fargo & Len Rossi vs. Gene Kiniski & Tojo Yamamoto. [16 March 1967, The Tennessean, p72]
Throughout his active wrestling career, Joe Dillman mostly worked in the role of a heel, who was highly skilled but wouldn't hesitate to break the rules to win a match. In more modern times, he would probably be considered something of a tweener, or someone who walked the line between babyface and heel. Despite his "traditional" role as a rough working heel, he was apparently a good enough technical wrestler that wherever he worked, he won over the fans with his skill and ultimately even his cocky attitude. In more than one town, after he'd worked there a few times, he went from being billed as his usual "Dynamite" Joe Dillman to "What-A-Man" Joe Dillman.
The latest match result I've located has him wrestling into at least February 1948 in Hopkinsville, Kentucky (where he'd been a favorite years earlier), Nashville and Blytheville, Arkansas.
In the 4 July 1954 Montgomery Advertiser, the usual article announcing the upcoming card says this:
"The Montgomery American Legion Post and Nick Goulas [sic], promoter from Nashville announced jointly last night that Joe "Dynamite" Dillman, who wrestled for years and thrilled thousands in this section years go, has been named matchmaker for Montgomery.
Dillman is slated to arrive in Montgomery Monday and will begin preparations for wrestling here. Dillman said yesterday that he was happy to return to Montgomery. "I have wrestled in Montgomery many times in the past and I've always found Alabama's Capital City a good wrestling town."
Later in the month he is reported as the referee in match results. He pops up later that year, refereeing in Anniston, Alabama.
On January 31, 1955, an article in the Courier News of Blytheville, hyping an upcoming NWA Southern Heavyweight Championship bout between Freddie Blassie (c) and Tarzan Hewitt said the NWA had appointed Joe Dillman as special referee for the title match. From then until I lose track of him, all of the mentions of him I find are working as a referee.
So far, the last mention I find of Joe Dillman in the online newspaper archives at my disposal is the above mentioned 15 March 1967 show in Nashville, where he worked the NWA World Tag Title match between the champions Jackie Fargo & Len Rossi against Gene Kiniski & Tojo Yamamoto. To date, I have yet to uncover his true home town or his final resting place. For that matter, I still don't even have a good idea at birth year. Currently, I suspect it to be somewhere between 1895-1905, but that is purely speculation based on the publicity photos in the newspapers and his never being mentioned as a young man, but always a mat veteran. I am curious whether he used a different name prior to 1930, or if my lack of success is due not having access to the papers where he worked.
Below is a rough detailing of Joe's travels over the course of his career. For more details on the actual shows, consult Joe Dillman's record at WrestlingData.com. Currently the data at WD is very incomplete, but I am adding shows and results several times a week for the cities where Dillman worked. Based on the gap between mid-1942 and 1945, I would suspect military service during World War II. If that is the case, I hope to find a service record.
(cities listed generally in the order he first worked)
1930: Indiana (Indianapolis); Kentucky (Louisville)
1931: Indiana (Indianapolis, Kokomo, Terra Haute), Kentucky (Louisville), Ohio (Cincinnati)
1932: Indiana (Indianapolis, Kokomo), Alabama (Fairfield, Anniston, Bessemer, Homewood, Leeds, Tuscaloosa, Mobile, Sheffield), Kentucky (Louisville, Hopkinsville, Cadiz), Tennessee (Nashville, Johnson City)
1933: Alabama (Sheffield, Decatur, Gadsden, Dothan, Huntsville), Mississippi (Jackson), Texas (Dallas), Arkansas (Little Rock), Tennessee (Kingsport)
1934: Alabama (Decatur, Huntsville, Sheffield, Tuscaloosa, Anniston, Dothan), Arkansas (Little Rock), Tennessee (Nashville), Oklahoma (Oklahoma City), South Carolina (Columbia), Florida (Tallahasee)
1935: Alabama (Sheffield, Anniston, Huntsville, Tuscaloosa), Kentucky (Louisville), Tennessee (Nashville), Georgia (Albany), Arkansas (Little Rock)
1936: Tennesee (Nashville), Alabama (Anniston, Tuscaloosa, Huntsville), South Carolina (Columbia, Charleston), Missouri (Sikeston), Indiana (Evansville)
1937: Kentucky (Louisville), Alabama (Huntsville, Anniston, Mobile), Arkansas (Blytheville, Little Rock), Indiana (Evansville), Tennessee (Nashville), Louisiana (Baton Rouge, Monroe, New Orleans), Mississippi (Jackson)
1938: Tennessee (Nashville), Indiana (Evansville), Kentucky (Hopkinsville), Alabama (Tuscaloosa), Louisiana (New Orleans), Arkansas (Blytheville)
1939: Indiana (Evansville), Louisiana (New Orleans), Alabama (Huntsville, Tuscaloosa), Tennessee (Nashville), Kentucky (Hopkinsville, Paducah), Georgia (Atlanta), Florida (Lake Worth, Miami)
1940: Arkansas (Blytheville, Little Rock), Alabama (Tuscaloosa), Tennessee (Nashville), Louisiana (New Orleans), Illinois (Springfield, Chatham, Alton)
1941: Illinois (Alton), Tennessee (Nashville), Arkansas (Blytheville, Little Rock), Missouri (St. Louis)
1942: Tennessee (Knoxville, Nashville), Arkansas (Blytheville)
1943:
1944:
1945: Tennessee (Nashville)
1946: Florida (Tampa)
1947: Florida (Tampa), Tennessee (Nashville, Knoxville)
1948: Arkansas (Blytheville), Kentucky (Hopkinsville), Tennessee (Nashville)
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