Catch Wrestling

Catch wrestling is a style of wrestling. Catch wrestling is arguably the ancestor of modern grappling, professional wrestling, mixed martial arts and no-holds-barred competition. Catch wrestling's origins lie in a variety of styles, Asia (e.g. Pahlavi). 'Collar-and-elbow' refers to the initial hold of the wrestlers.

The term is sometimes used in a restricted sense to refer only to the style of professional wrestling as practiced in United States carnivals just before and after 1900. Under this stricter definition, "catch wrestling" is one of many styles of professional wrestling, specifically as practiced in carnivals and at public exhibitions from after the American Civil War until the Great Depression.

There are a number of modern submission wrestling enthusiasts whose foundation lies in catch wrestling as well as no small number whose training "lineage" traces back to catch-wrestling.Rough and tumble fighting was the original American no holds barred (real no rules) underground hybrid "sport" that had but one rule - you win by knocking the man out or making him say "enough."

The art began with Mitsuyo Maeda (aka Conde Koma, or Count Combat in English), an expert Japanese judoka and member of the Kodokan. Maeda was one of five of the Kodokan's top groundwork experts that Judo's founder Kano Jigoro sent overseas to spread his art to the world.

All techniques were allowed (eye gouging, groin clawing, hair pulling, biting, scratching and pressuring). Later when the Lancashire wrestling style made it to the US and was blended with the "rough and tumble" mentality, and the gambling involved, the very aggressive American catch-as-catch-can style of wrestling emerged and created some of the most outstanding grapplers in the world.