Danny Hodge, Thesz, Gotch and Robinson were all monsters but the fact that Hodge had the stand up as well as the wrestling and knew how to hook people with that grip strength set him apart from everyone else back.
wow, great conversation. would love to hear more of the old timer talks about the individuals who have passed on now: johnny valentine, karl kox, pat o'connor, hodge, all who had significant runs in florida i think
Karl Gotch trained a lot of shooters. Including Dean & Joe Malenko(in fact Dean Malenko introduced Ken to japanese shoot style pro wrestling), Debbie Malenko(the ONLY FEMALE STUDENT of Gotch. Plus she is trying to return to pro wrestling at NWA Empower), Norman Smiley(now a trainer at WWE Performance Center), etc. Stu Hart also gave us a lot of shooters. Including Chris Benoit, Chris Jericho, Bret & Owen Hart, etc.
@@tichtran8792 You really think Judo Gene Lebell & Gotch didn't train together? You really think Billy Robinson was straight LYING when he states in interviews that he was there training with Gotch when he personally showed Kimora the hold that would later make him famous. I would re-evaluate what you think you know.
As Adrian street said goch stepped into the gym he trained at and couldn’t beat one guy and started again from scratch under their tutelage even though he was a Greek Greco and Olympic champion
Interesting that Ken Shamrock has positive memories about Karl Gotch. When Karl was asked whether he knew Ken Shamrock, he said "Oh, yeah. He's an asshole. He doesn't know his elbow from his asshole."
Have to disagree with Gerald on this one, as much as I respect Billy and Carl and Danny. I don’t believe there’s any way in hell any of those guys could’ve taken Lou in his prime or even past his prime. Lou was a different breed of cat way too many people talked about him and said so and people who know what they’re talking about. And he wouldn’t of been as respected in Japan, if he wasn’t the real deal.
Hard to say. Danny Hodge was the best collegiate wrestler of all of them and Thesz was probably the toughest. You have to remember Hodge was undefeated all through college and won a silver medal at the Helsinki Olympics and only lost when a Bulgarian judge from another mat came over and interfered. It was the height of the cold war. Danny was the smallest of them all though. Nicest guy in the world. Besides Danny Hodge, Jack Brisco was a better wrestler than all of them, however. Jerry was no slouch either. Gotch was just physically strong and would pick you up and drop you on your head. And a little sadistic. Robinson was the best hooker, though. He could submit you from just about any position. Unfortunately it was the Buddy Rogers and Dusty Rhodes types that sold tickets.
@Water Gun I'm all for Gotch as the best, but when Gotch himself in that 1968 interview said Thesz was a sly fox who knew all the tricks, I'll take Gotch at his word.
@@Gotchism4Life he later said that so called interview was made up by the magazine. For one thing the interview claimed Karl was from Germany and he wasn’t
@@jorndoff2002 As far as claiming where Gotch was from...1968 still had kayfabe entrenched. Do you have a source where he disavowed that magazine? When Matt Furey was claiming he was claimed by Gotch, Gotch wrote a letter bashing Furey and even recorded himself reading the letter.
Are you just comparing them to each-other or everyone else? According to Robinson and several others at the Snake Pit, Billy Joyce was the best shooter there and toyed with everyone including Gotch
@@chuckgreen3629 Gotch praised Thesz as being the best, that's all I said. Now, being a 1960s interview, was Gotch kayfabing for a magazine? That is a whole other issue.
@@marrakechsportracer4170 Gotch suplexed Thesz and broke one of his ribs, he went for it again which made Thesz think he double crossed him so he quickly finished him with the double wrist lock for real. Gotch doesn't speak highly of Thesz and I'm sure that has a lot to do with it.
@@kevthegoat8774 You have alot of details ah-miss,.Thesz spoke about this in a small documentary,Where Thesz side suplex'd gotch,But Gotch blocked it and rolled into thesz while he was going backwards.Also wrestling alminacs show Thesz and Gotch wrestled afew singles matches years before tag teaming in Japan.Another detail of dispute between Gotch and Thesz is the claim that Thesz was partly trained by Ad Santel.Which Gotch refused to belive after meeting Santel in L.A. before going to Japan in 61''.
@@kevthegoat8774 ruclips.net/video/D6mwOcDRorE/видео.html,.that's the Documentary where Thesz states the facts on the injury caused.And also mentioning being trained by Santel.
Billy Robinson: "The only rest you get in wrestling is in the word." Conditioning is everything.
''Conditioning is your best hold'' Karl Gotch..From the book 'Conditioning for combat sports'
What a guy. :D Loved him
Danny Hodge, Thesz, Gotch and Robinson were all monsters but the fact that Hodge had the stand up as well as the wrestling and knew how to hook people with that grip strength set him apart from everyone else back.
wow, great conversation. would love to hear more of the old timer talks about the individuals who have passed on now: johnny valentine, karl kox, pat o'connor, hodge, all who had significant runs in florida i think
As always, keep up the great work!
great convo. I like kens mellowed out attitude.
bradshaw, any chance you can show us some of your art and antiques?
I always enjoy these videos. Thank you
Karl Gotch trained a lot of shooters. Including Dean & Joe Malenko(in fact Dean Malenko introduced Ken to japanese shoot style pro wrestling), Debbie Malenko(the ONLY FEMALE STUDENT of Gotch. Plus she is trying to return to pro wrestling at NWA Empower), Norman Smiley(now a trainer at WWE Performance Center), etc. Stu Hart also gave us a lot of shooters. Including Chris Benoit, Chris Jericho, Bret & Owen Hart, etc.
He taught Kimora the Gotch lock....which is now known simply as the MMA hold- kimora
@@yoholmes273 False. It was already known as ude garama in judo. When came from jujutsu.
@@tichtran8792 You really think Judo Gene Lebell & Gotch didn't train together? You really think Billy Robinson was straight LYING when he states in interviews that he was there training with Gotch when he personally showed Kimora the hold that would later make him famous.
I would re-evaluate what you think you know.
@@yoholmes273 And you believed everything a catch wrestler would say?!
Jericho, Benoit and Bret weren’t shooters. Tough guys but not at the level of the top Japanese or European shooters.
Thanks for your posting; a good video!!
Excellent vid as always
As Adrian street said goch stepped into the gym he trained at and couldn’t beat one guy and started again from scratch under their tutelage even though he was a Greek Greco and Olympic champion
Jerry’s brother Jack was the first Native American collegiate national champion
Jack was a better wrestler than all of them.
Using a deck of cards sounds both brutal and brilliant.
Imagine if pro wrestling schools trained them like gotch and other catch wrestlers were trained.
Interesting that Ken Shamrock has positive memories about Karl Gotch. When Karl was asked whether he knew Ken Shamrock, he said "Oh, yeah. He's an asshole. He doesn't know his elbow from his asshole."
Have to disagree with Gerald on this one, as much as I respect Billy and Carl and Danny. I don’t believe there’s any way in hell any of those guys could’ve taken Lou in his prime or even past his prime. Lou was a different breed of cat way too many people talked about him and said so and people who know what they’re talking about. And he wouldn’t of been as respected in Japan, if he wasn’t the real deal.
Hard to say. Danny Hodge was the best collegiate wrestler of all of them and Thesz was probably the toughest. You have to remember Hodge was undefeated all through college and won a silver medal at the Helsinki Olympics and only lost when a Bulgarian judge from another mat came over and interfered. It was the height of the cold war. Danny was the smallest of them all though. Nicest guy in the world.
Besides Danny Hodge, Jack Brisco was a better wrestler than all of them, however. Jerry was no slouch either.
Gotch was just physically strong and would pick you up and drop you on your head. And a little sadistic.
Robinson was the best hooker, though. He could submit you from just about any position.
Unfortunately it was the Buddy Rogers and Dusty Rhodes types that sold tickets.
Ken Shamrock aka: Vince Torelli.
Best shooter...Thesz then a toss up between Gotch and Robinson. Gotch himself praised Thesz as the best in an old interview.
@Water Gun I'm all for Gotch as the best, but when Gotch himself in that 1968 interview said Thesz was a sly fox who knew all the tricks, I'll take Gotch at his word.
@@Gotchism4Life he later said that so called interview was made up by the magazine. For one thing the interview claimed Karl was from Germany and he wasn’t
@@jorndoff2002 As far as claiming where Gotch was from...1968 still had kayfabe entrenched. Do you have a source where he disavowed that magazine?
When Matt Furey was claiming he was claimed by Gotch, Gotch wrote a letter bashing Furey and even recorded himself reading the letter.
Are you just comparing them to each-other or everyone else? According to Robinson and several others at the Snake Pit, Billy Joyce was the best shooter there and toyed with everyone including Gotch
@@chuckgreen3629 Gotch praised Thesz as being the best, that's all I said. Now, being a 1960s interview, was Gotch kayfabing for a magazine? That is a whole other issue.
Karl Gotch didn't seem to want to confront Thesz after Thesz double wrist locked him and made him submit for real.
Whooooooooaaaaaa't?.
@@marrakechsportracer4170 Gotch suplexed Thesz and broke one of his ribs, he went for it again which made Thesz think he double crossed him so he quickly finished him with the double wrist lock for real. Gotch doesn't speak highly of Thesz and I'm sure that has a lot to do with it.
@@kevthegoat8774 You have alot of details ah-miss,.Thesz spoke about this in a small documentary,Where Thesz side suplex'd gotch,But Gotch blocked it and rolled into thesz while he was going backwards.Also wrestling alminacs show Thesz and Gotch wrestled afew singles matches years before tag teaming in Japan.Another detail of dispute between Gotch and Thesz is the claim that Thesz was partly trained by Ad Santel.Which Gotch refused to belive after meeting Santel in L.A. before going to Japan in 61''.
@@kevthegoat8774 ruclips.net/video/D6mwOcDRorE/видео.html,.that's the Documentary where Thesz states the facts on the injury caused.And also mentioning being trained by Santel.
@@marrakechsportracer4170 What Thesz documentary is that?
Billy Robinson beat the hell out of Verne gagne
Is Ken on coke.... He Is jawing out of his mind rofl