Catch Wrestling

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Catch Wrestling – History

In the days before television, video games, computers and many outside distractions miners and iron workers and local tough guys would wrestle as a recreation after a hard days work. Often these men would wrestle for fun or small side bets.

Catch-as-Catch-Can (or catch wrestling) although its true origins have been lost in history, is deeply rooted in Lancashire England and is considered the ancestor of modern professional wrestling and mixed martial arts competitions. In old Lancashire English catch-as-catch-can is translated to “catch me if you can.” The British Navy exposed the young men of their day to many forms of grappling from around the world. They brought these techniques back to England adding to the already dangerous arsenal of catch wrestling submissions.

In the late 1800’s and early to mid 1900’s as part of local carnivals, catch wrestlers would take on all challengers as part of the “athletic show” where locals could stand a chance to win cash if they could pin or submit the carnivals wrestler. The catch wrestler had to prepare for the worst case scenario with the unknown opponent stepping into the ring on a regular basis, so the need for quick and aggressive submissions were a necessity. Submission wins were preferred so there would be no chance for a challenger to argue if the match was stopped prematurely. Often a challenger would argue with a referee over weather or not he was pinned, but a submission was always clear and decisive. Conditioning was also a major weapon for a catch wrestler, who would sometimes have to wrestle for several hours before winning a match.

The rules of the early matches were determined by the players themselves and would usually change from city to city (just like mma matches do from various promoters), negotiations could take forever. Often times there were no time limits at all, with the winner having the best of 3 falls. Holds and locks could be taken anywhere on the body and brutal throws were completely legal in the Lancashire style of catch wrestling. There are no points for position in catch wrestling, the only ways to win a match are to pin or submit your opponent using one of the many fast and aggressive hooks (or submissions). Taping out, yelling “enough” or rolling to ones back were considered a sign of defeat. Generally chokes were not permitted unless the match was agreed upon as being an ”all in” contest or “no holds barred”.

The term no holds barred was originally used to describe the wrestling method prevalent in catch wrestling tournaments during the late 19th century wherein no wrestling holds were banned from the competition, regardless of how dangerous they might be. During that time, catch wrestling made its way to North America and spread like wild fire. The North Americans already had a brutal rough and tumble style of fighting often referred to as “brawling” or “gouging”, where grappling, strangling, limb twisting, head butting, punching, kicking, biting and even eye gouging were legal. Somehow as touring catch wrestlers passed through competing against the American brawlers the two styles merged giving birth to the more aggressive “North American Catch-As-Catch-Can Wrestling,” one of the most lethal fighting arts the world has ever known.

The Link Between Catch Wrestling, Judo & Brazilian Jiu Jitsu:

Catch wrestling is known for being a brutal and aggressive style based on physics, leverage, control, and athleticism, while Jujitsu translates to the gentile art, and Judo translates to the gentile way. Most people aren’t aware that BJJ was influenced by Judo and Catch Wrestling. A judo student of Jigoro Kano by the name of Mitsuyo Maeda taught Carlos Gracie (older brother of Helio Gracie) to fight. What most do not know is that Maeda perfected his system competing in Catch-As-Catch-Can tournaments (as “Count Koma”) at the turn of the 20th Century. Maeda is rumored to have fought over 2,000 matches in his career, only losing two matches, one of which was in the “catch-as-catch-can” world championships held in London. 

Another judoka, Masahiko Kimura,  learned legitimate Catch-As-Catch-Can while working as a Professional Wrestler the early 1950s. Later, Kimura would go on to beat Helio Gracie with the bread and butter hold of catch wrestling; the double wrist lock (AKA: Kimura, Ude Garami).

Modern Day Catch-As-Catch-Can:

Our Catch Wrestling program incorporates the traditional techniques with modern day rules and practices. All of our Catch-As-Catch-Can coaches are high ranking judo and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu practitioners as well.