The Martial Culture Podcast
I was recently honored to be a guest on The Martial Culture Podcast. Coach Rene Driefuss and Matt Peters were excellent hosts. I truly enjoyed my time on their podcast.
We spoke about one of my books, Gotch vs. Hackenschmidt: The Matches That Made and Destroyed Legitimate American Professional Wrestling in particular. However, we spoke in general about the history of catch-as-catch-can or catch wrestling in the United States.
Catch wrestling originated in the carnivals as a way to keep from losing to a local, skilled amateur wrestler, who wouldn’t normally be familiar with submission holds.
I did make one error in the podcast, when I opined about the development of catch in England. Catch wrestling in England may predate the emergence of the style in the United States. Catch existed in the Lancashire area as early as 1856. It definitely wasn’t brought back to England by the English wrestlers, who came to the United States in the 1880s. I don’t know what I was thinking but did want to correct this error.
Martin “Farmer” Burns and his greatest trainee, Frank Gotch (Public Domain)
I hope you enjoy the podcast. Feel free to reach out and share your thoughts and comments.
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Gotch vs. Hackenschmidt is available at Amazon in paperback and on e-book.
