The Life Of Karl Gotch

Known to many all over the world as "The God Of Professional Wrestling", Karl Gotch passed away yesterday just a few days short of turning 83 years-old. Born Karl Istaz, the legendary shooter first gained international acclaim as an amateur wrestler where he represented his native Belgium in the 1948 Olympics.

After gaining notoriety as one of the toughest amateur wrestlers in the world, Gotch made his way into the world of professional wrestling beginning his career in 1955 in Ohio with the AWA. Gotch would go on to defeat Canadian Don Leo Jonathon for the AWA Heavyweight Title, the first of Gotch's career.

Though a legend in professional wrestling, there are few who can claim to have had such a major impact on the world of mixed martial arts as Gotch did. His style and training techniques led to the foundation for companies such as Pride, K-1, and even UFC.

When Karl Gotch made his way to Japan he brought with him a style of wrestling that was not commonly practiced throughout the world at the time. Gotch was stiff, scientific, and made a professional wrestling match look like an actual shoot fight. Karl Gotch wrestled his first match in Japan as a main event star against legendary Antonio Inoki. Inspired by this encounter, Inoki would take Gotch's technique and develop the Japanese hard-style of working that became synonymous with New Japan Pro Wrestling.

Gotch became a trainer for New Japan Pro Wrestling where he would have a major hand in developing the careers of Tatsumi Fujinami, Hiro Matsuda, and Satoru Sayama (better known as the most famous rival of The Dynamite Kid, Tiger Mask). Gotch's vision of professional wrestling resembled what a modern mixed martial arts match would look like today. Matches were long, athletic struggles that were centred around suplexes, submissions, and kicks.

It was around the early 1980s when many American wrestling fans learned about New Japan Pro Wrestling. Comparing NJPW to WWF at the time was night and day as the two forms of professional wrestling did not resemble each other in any way. It was also this style of professional wrestling that would inspire Stampede Wrestling in Calgary as they were one of only a few North American territories at the time to adopt this modern hard-style of wrestling.

With success comes competition and soon many NJPW stars decided to take what they learned from Gotch and applied it to a new promotion called UWF. Many of New Japan Pro Wrestling's top stars including Satoru Sayama and Akira Maeda were the original stars of this company that began in 1984. UWF was a shoot-style form of professional wrestling that emphasized believability. UWF pioneered modern mixed martial arts as many trace the lineage of Pride and K-1 to the legacy of this promotion. Karl Gotch moved from NJPW to become the head trainer for UWF.

Karl Gotch not only forever changed professional wrestling and mixed martial arts, but would also have a major impact in the world of physical fitness. When Gotch trained in the Indian martial art of Pehlwani, he learned a great deal about body weight exercises, also known as calisthenics. Gotch learned the training techniques from many Indian wrestlers and brought them to the United States. Exercises such as Hindu Squats, Hindu Push-ups, and bridging were all used by Gotch to sculpt his physique.

Gotch was never a proponent of lifting weights and also spoke to about how true power comes from doing calisthenics. Today, many martial arts clubs have adopted these exercises and several others have created DVD's and workout books dedicated to the training regimen of Karl Gotch.

Karl Gotch lived a long and decorated life. A true athlete, Gotch's vision of combat sport is still alive today and can be seen when watching Samoa Joe to Randy Couture. Incredibly, Gotch's legacy grows stronger with the sports he influenced.

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