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 , most notably the regional wrestling styles of Europe , particularly the British Isles ( e . g . Collar - and - elbow , Lancashire catch - as - catch - can wrestling etc . ) and Asia ( e . g . pehlwani ) . ' 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 . Competitions . The Lancashire phrase " Catch - As - Catch - Can " is generally understood to translate to " catch ( a hold ) anywhere you can " . As this implies , the rules of Catch Wrestling were more open than its Greco - Roman wrestling counterpart which did not allow holds below the waist . Catch players can win a match by either submission or pin , and most matches are contested as the best two of three falls . Often , but not always , the chokehold was barred . Just as today " tapping out " signifies a concession , back in the heyday of Catch Wrestling rolling to one ' s back could also signify defeat . Frank Gotch won many matches by forcing his opponent to roll over onto their back with the threat of his feared " famous " toe - hold . The rules of Catch Wrestling would change from venue to venue in the same way that the rules of mixed martial arts can change from promotion to promotion ( e . g . , Pride and UFC have different rules but are both referred to as " MMA " ) . Matches contested with side - bets at the coal mines or logging camps favored submission wins ( where there was absolutely no doubt as to who the winner was ) while professionally booked matches and amateur contests favored pins ( catering to the broader and more genteel paying fan - base ) . Origins and popularity . Folk wrestling has a long pedigree in the United States , famous practitioners of such folk wrestling have included US Presidents George Washington ( collar and elbow ) , Abraham Lincoln ( catch - as - catch - can ) , and Teddy Roosevelt ( who appointed catch wrestling champion Tom Jenkins to the position of Head Wrestling coach at the United States Military Academy ) . Catch wrestling became immensely popular across both sides of the Atlantic , especially in the carnivals in the United States of America during the late 19th and early 20th century . The carnival ' s 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 . This eventually led to the carnival ' s wrestlers preparing for the worst kind of unarmed assault and aiming to end the wrestling match with any tough local quickly and decisively ( i . e . via submission ) . A hook was a technical submission which could end a match within seconds . As carnival wrestlers traveled , they met with a variety of people , learning and using techniques from various folk wrestling disciplines , many of which were accessible due to a huge influx of immigrants in the United States during this era . Catch wrestling contests also became immensely popular in Europe involving the likes of the national wrestling champion Great Gama , Imam Baksh Pahalwan , Gulam from India , Bulgarian world heavyweight champion Dan Kolov , Swiss champion John Lemm , Americans Frank Gotch , Ralph Parcaut , Ad Santel , Ed Lewis and Benjamin Roller , Mitsuyo Maeda from Japan and Estonian Georg Hackenschmidt . Travelling wrestlers and European tournaments brought together a variety of folk wrestling disciplines including the Indian variety of Pehlwani , Judo and Jiu - Jitsu from Japan , et cetera . Each of these disciplines contributed to the development of catch wrestling in their own way . A colleague of Frank Gotch , Martin ' Farmer ' Burns offered a particularly popular correspondence course in catch wrestling called " Wrestling and Physical Culture " . Catch wrestling and judo . Although catch wrestling did not normally include kicks and blows , it is credited as one of the two disciplines involved in one of the 20th century ' s first major cross - cultural clash of styles in Martial Arts , occurring between the American catch wrestler Ad Santel and the Japanese Tokugoro Ito , a 5th degree black belt in Judo . The match in 1914 was one between two prime representatives of their respective crafts , Ad Santel was the World Light Heavyweight Champion in catch wrestling while Tokugoro Ito claimed to be the World Judo Champion . Santel defeated Ito and proclaimed himself World Judo Champion . The response from Jigoro Kano ' s Kodokan was swift and came in the form of another challenger , 4th degree black belt Daisuke Sakai . Santel , however , still defeated the Kodokan Judo representative . The Kodokan tried to stop the hooker by sending men like 5th degree black belt Reijiro Nagata ( who Santel defeated by TKO ) . Santel also drew with 5th degree black belt Hikoo Shoji . The challenge matches stopped after Santel gave up on the claim of being the World Judo Champion in 1921 in order to pursue a career in full - time professional wrestling . Although Tokugoro Ito avenged his loss to Santel with a choke , thus setting the record between them at 1 - 1 , official Kodokan representatives proved unable to imitate Ito ' s success . Just as Ito was the only Japanese judoka to overcome Santel , Santel was ironically the only Western catch - wrestler on record as having a win over Ito , who also regularly challenged other grappling styles . The impact of these performances on Japan was immense . The Japanese were fascinated by the European form of catch wrestling and a steady stream of Japanese fighters traveled to Europe in order to either participate in various tournaments or to learn catch wrestling at European schools such as Billy Riley ' s Snake Pit in Wigan , England . Catch wrestling and mixed martial arts . Karl Gotch was a catch wrestler and a student of Billy Riley ' s Snake Pit . Gotch taught catch wrestling to Japanese professional wrestlers in 1970 ' s to students including Antonio Inoki , Tatsumi Fujinami , Hiro Matsuda , Osamu Kido , Satoru Sayama ( Tiger Mask ) and Yoshiaki Fujiwara . Starting from 1976 , one of these professional wrestlers , Antonio Inoki , hosted a series of mixed martial arts bouts against the champions of other disciplines . This resulted in unprecedented popularity of the clash - of - styles bouts in Japan . His matches showcased catch wrestling moves like the Sleeper hold , Cross arm breaker , Seated armbar , Indian deathlock and Keylock . Karl Gotch ' s students formed the original Universal Wrestling Federation ( Japan ) in 1984 which gave rise to shoot - style matches . The UWF movement was led by catch wrestlers and gave rise to the mixed martial arts boom in Japan . Catch wrestling forms the base of Japan ' s martial art of shoot wrestling . Japanese professional wrestling and a majority of the Japanese fighters from Pancrase , Shooto and the now defunct RINGS bear links to catch wrestling . Notable mixed martial artists with traceable catch - wrestling links are numerous ; among them are Kazushi Sakuraba , who trained in the UWF Snake Pit — a gym founded by catch wrestler Billy Robinson — as well as Masa Funaki and Ken Shamrock , both of whom trained under Karl Gotch and Yoshiaki Fujiwara . Some other important mixed martial artists with significant ties to catch include Josh Barnett , Frank Shamrock , Kiyoshi Tamura , Ikuhisa Minowa , Karo Parisyan , and Erik Paulson . Ultimately , however , there are far too many mixed martial artists with ties to catch wrestling to compile anything resembling an exhaustive list of all such fighters . It may also be worth noting that the term " no holds barred " was used originally 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 . The term was applied to mixed martial arts matches , especially at the advent of the Ultimate Fighting Championship .