Jack , you are absolutely correctomundo about that .
In fact , the man who is / was thought of as "Kamisama" (god of wrestling) in japanese wrestling , Karl Gotch , learnt the Shoot / Hooking / Ripper _style_ , right in Wigans very own Snake Pit , between 1950 and 1958 .
Didnt exactly impede his career did it ???

For anybody who doesnt know , the _style_ Gotch studied , and the _style_ we are talking aboot , was generally called , catch as catch can .
C.C.C is not the _style_ that Bad Ole J.R , calls sports entertainment , or the _style_ that he kept assuring us that Ken Shamrock was displaying in the WWF .
Catch as Catch Can , is what we the english were the best in the world at , and we could be the best at again .

I could go on at great length about it , but instead here is a _link_ for a site with great detail on it . Just in case you are wondering , the guy Matt Furey , he has studied for the past 3 years , with Karl Gotch , in tampa , florida . The guys credentials are solid as a rock .

www.combatwrestling.com/catchwrestling.html

i apologise if a shameless plug for a seminar , on catch as catch can wrestling is frowned upon , but here it is anyway !!!

www.mattfurey.com/ukseminar.html

I had to get that in , im going to it myself , its on september the 8th .... and im counting the days , hours , seconds and minutes .
Trust me , this stuff AINT JUDO ... and It aint the UFC .

hope to speak to you soon

Wow... and that is still respected. Manabu Nakanishi went over to study from Gotch earlier in the year and not only did it turn him into a hell of a lot better than anyone who's seen his 2000 work would have deemed possible then (me, for example) but it shows how respected that is.

Since the Snakepit got referred to I just thought I'd mention again that it's still very much active. You can visit their website at:
http://www.aspullolympicwrestlingclub.co.uk

I posted about this some time ago, although my post has been moved to the Trainees section.

Btw I was actually in Wigan briefly yesterday (I ended up there due to an info-board error by Railtrack!) and very nearly got to have a look at the original Riley's building - it's not far from the two train stations - but there wasn't quite enough time to go for a proper search and get back in time to catch my train.

Stop Copying other companys.

Something original.

And put the wrestling back into British Wrestling.