Catch wrestling (also known as catch-as-catch-can) is an English wrestling style with fewer restrictions than other wrestling styles. It allows techniques using or targeting the legs (unlike Greco-Roman wrestling), it allows joint locks (unlike freestyle wrestling and Greco-Roman wrestling), and does not require a prescribed starting grip. Rules varied by period, promoter, and competition. It was spread by wrestlers of travelling funfairs who developed their own submission holds, referred to as "hooks" and "stretches", into their wrestling to increase their effectiveness against their opponents, as well as immigrants through Europe and the Anglosphere.
Catch-as-catch-can was included in the 1904 Olympic Games and continued through the 1936 Games; it had new rules and weight categories introduced similar to other amateur wrestling styles, and dangerous moves – including all submission holds – were banned. International and national amateur wrestling organizations increasingly standardized catch-as-catch-can rules, eliminating submissions and other dangerous techniques. The International Amateur Wrestling Federation (IAWF), founded in 1921, adopted a modified ruleset that became known as freestyle wrestling. Thus, catch declined as a distinct competitive style, while aspects of its techniques and traditions were preserved in professional wrestling, particularly in Japan, where it became associated with the development of strong-style and Shoot-style Puroresu. After a revival effort starting in the 1980s, competitive catch wrestling gradually made a return, leading to The Snake Pit's Catch Wrestling World Championships and notable competitions such as the Snake Pit British Championships and ACWA US Open.
Professional wrestling, although not today a legitimate combat sport, originated as competitive catch wrestling. The original and historic World Heavyweight Wrestling Championship was created in 1905 to identify the best catch-as-catch-can wrestler in the world, before the belt was retired in 1957 and unified with the NWA World Heavyweight Championship. Modern day professional wrestling has its origins in wrestling matches where predetermined ("worked") matches had elements of performing arts introduced (as well as striking and acrobatic manoeuvres), turning it into an entertainment spectacle. In a few countries, such as in France and Germany, "catch" is still the term used for professional wrestling, while in Brazil the term Telecatch (a portmanteau of television and catch) is occasionally used, borrowed from a popular professional wrestling television show from the 1970s.
In the UK, catch wrestling combines several British styles of wrestling (primarily Lancashire, as well as Cumberland, Westmorland, Devonshire and Cornish) along with influences from the Irish collar-and-elbow and Indian pehlwani styles of wrestling. The training of many modern submission wrestlers, professional wrestlers, and mixed martial artists is founded in catch wrestling through its various descendant styles. Martial arts that have roots in and/or was heavily influenced by catch wrestling include American folkstyle wrestling, Brazilian Luta Livre, and Japanese shoot-style wrestling and shootfighting. Catch wrestling has also directly or indirectly influenced the developments of Sambo and MMA.
History
Origins in Britain, spread and evolution
Catch wrestling in Britain was predominantly based on Lancashire wrestling, spreading across Britain and internationally. By 1840 the phrase "catch as catch can"Longstreet, Augustus Baldwin. Georgia Scenes. 1840, pp. 53-64. Quoted in Parramore's article, p. 61. was being used in America to describe their rough and tumble fighting found in the frontier which was characterized by its lack of strict rules and the use of any and all tactics to achieve victory.
The phrase "catch as catch can" reflected the improvisational nature of the style, where wrestlers utilized whatever holds they could "catch" on their opponent with the primary goal being to make the opponent verbally quit by using grappling techniques including holds and dirty moves associated with the American style at the time.
Various promoters of the exercise, notably J. Wannop, of New Cross, attempted to bring the new system prominently before the public, with the view of amalgamating the three English styles viz. the Cumberland and Westmorland, Cornwall and Devon, and Lancashire. The sudden development of the Cumberland and Westmorland Amateur Wrestling Society brought the new style prominently to the front, and special prizes were given for competition in that class at the society's first annual midsummer gathering at the Paddington Recreation Ground, which was attended by Lord Mayor Whitehead and sheriffs in state.
Wrestling on the "catch-as-catch-can" principle was new to many spectators, but it was generally approved of as a great step in advance of the loose-hold system, which includes struggling on the ground and sundry objectionable tactics, such as catching hold of the legs, twisting arms, dislocating fingers, and other items of attack and defence peculiar to Lancashire wrestling.
When catch wrestling reached the United States in the late 19th and early 20th centuries it became extremely popular with the wrestlers of the carnivals. The carnivals' wrestlers challenged the locals as part of the carnival's "athletic show" and the locals had their chance to win a cash reward if they could defeat the carnival's strongman by a pin or a submission. Eventually, the carnivals' wrestlers began preparing for the worst kind of unarmed assault and aiming to end the wrestling match with any tough local quickly and decisively via submission. A hook was a technical submission which could end a match within seconds. As carnival wrestlers travelled, they met with a variety of people, learning and using techniques from various other folk wrestling disciplines, especially Irish collar-and-elbow, many of which were accessible due to a huge influx of immigrants in the United States during this era.
This is also the origin of professional wrestling, which initially consisted of legitimate competitive wrestling rather than predetermined entertainment. During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, professional wrestlers competed against one another under various rulesets, with catch wrestling becoming particularly influential alongside established styles such as Greco-Roman wrestling, as well as local and folk styles of wrestling. Matches could be won by pinfall or submission, and wrestlers traveled between towns, carnivals, and sporting venues to compete against other professionals and local challengers. Successful wrestlers built reputations through their actual competitive abilities, with major contests attracting large audiences and significant financial rewards. The professionalization of these competitions was also reflected in the emergence of championship titles intended to recognize leading wrestlers in particular styles. These included the American Heavyweight Championship and the World Greco-Roman Heavyweight Championship, with the latter's title history encompassing both world and European championship designations. In 1905, the World Heavyweight Wrestling Championship was estabilished recognize the world's leading catch-as-catch-can wrestler and unified the latter two titles; its early champions included George Hackenschmidt and Frank Gotch, whose championship contests were treated as major legitimate wrestling competitions.
Catch wrestling contests also became immensely popular in Europe involving the likes of the Indian heavyweight champion Great Gama, Imam Baksh Pahalwan, Gulam, Bulgarian heavyweight champion Dan Kolov, Swiss champion John Lemm, Americans Frank Gotch, Tom Jenkins, Ralph Parcaut, Ad Santel, Ed Lewis, Lou Thesz and Benjamin Roller, Mitsuyo Maeda from Japan (who is credited to having introduced Judo to the Gracie family), and Georg Hackenschmidt from the Russian Empire (modern-day Estonia).
In Brazil, Catch wrestling was introduced in the early 20th century and became known locally as Luta Livre Americana, contributing to the development of Luta Livre, a Brazilian submission grappling style developed by Euclydes "Tatu" Hatem in Rio de Janeiro. It also directly influenced the creation of Brazilian jiu-jitsu: Japanese judoka Mitsuyo Maeda competed in Western professional wrestling, where he learned catch wrestling, before teaching Carlos Gracie in Judo. In addition Carlos, George and Hélio Gracie cross-trained in catch wrestling under Orlando "Dudu" da Silva, a prominent Brazilian catch wrestler. Hélio subsequently incorporated elements from catch wrestling into the development of the Gracie family's jiu-jitsu. Catch wrestling also influenced the development of Sambo in the Soviet Union, where catch wrestling was known as "free wrestling" (; volnaya borba). During the formation of sambo in the 1920s and 1930s, its founders incorporated techniques from free wrestling alongside judo, traditional Soviet and Central Asian wrestling styles, and other grappling systems. This contributed to sambo's emphasis on takedowns, pins, and submission holds, including leg locks.
Wrestling made a return at the 1904 Summer Olympics in St. Louis, US, but different from previous editions, wrestling was disputed under catch-as-catch-can rules due to the popularity of this particular style in the United States. The competition doubled as the United States Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) wrestling championships, which introduced new rules: it was single elimination tournament, with bouts being six minutes in duration plus an extra three minutes for overtime; in the case that no pinfall was registered, a judge would render the final decision. Six weight classes were introduced and all submission holds were banned. The International Amateur Wrestling Federation (IAWF)—current United World Wrestling—was founded in 1921 in order to better organize Olympic wrestling. The IAWF set the "rules of the game" which regulated and codified a new ruleset derived from catch; the new name chosen was "freestyle wrestling", which appears to have been a translation of the French lutte libre, which itself is the French translation of catch-as-catch-can. The name was chosen to distance itself from catch wrestling, which had lost reputation due to the rise of professional wrestling. In 1922 the AAU followed suit and adopted the new freestyle rule-set, ending its official catch-as-catch-can championship era, which its own records date from 1888 through 1921.
Decline and transformation into professional wrestling
By the 1920s, professional wrestling had increasingly diverged from legitimate catch wrestling competition. As interest in professional matches started to wane, wrestlers began match fixing, initially manipulating the outcomes of ostensibly competitive contests and later choreographing some of their matches to make them less physically taxing, shorter in duration, with better flow, more entertaining—giving emphasis on readable and more impressive moves—and with bigger focus on the personal charisma of the wrestlers, with the introduction of "gimmicks" (in-ring personas) and dramatic storylines surrounding the matches, while maintaining "kayfabe", presenting the matches as legitimate contests. Meanwhile, most, most amateur competition adopted the Freestyle rules (or Folkstyle in some parts of the U.S., in particular on the school and collegiate systems), which were increasingly standardized and focused on points and positional control rather than submission holds.