Barnett wins big for Catch, Metamoris, and himself

They say that Western Civilization hung on through the dark ages by the slenderest of threads – Charlemagne. While the Japanese tradition of wrestling to submission is now a worldwide phenomenon, the western tradition of submission, or catch as catch can wrestling, too survived by a slender thread.

Without Billy Riley’s Snakepit in Wigan, England, it might have passed into antiquity.

Wrestling is the world’s oldest sport; the origin myth of many cultures centers on it. And history shows that the transmission across continents is good for wrestling. Judo went to Brazil and resulted, eventually, in mixed martial arts. In a reversal, Catch wrestling went to Japan in the form of Wigan standouts Billy Riley and Karl Gotch, and thrived there far beyond anything in the West.

Antonio Inoki, Satoru Sayama, Yoshiaki Fujiwara, and later Kazushi Sakuraba and Josh Barnett learned Catch Wrestling in Japan, using it to tremendous effect.

However, Sakuraba is a shell of his old Gracie-killing self, and has been since before the sport took off. Josh Barnett has for the past several years been the leading proponent for the idea that there is a western tradition of submissions that is every bit the equal of the Japanese tradition, as refined in Brazil.

Saturday night at Metamoris 4, there was a brilliant match up between Barnett, and the highly-decorated, three-time ADCC World champion, BJJ black belt Dean Lister. Barnett shut down Lister’s game completely, finishing him with a pin from hell with just 10 seconds left.

Catch wrestling is so little understood that the only context the fans, media, and commentators had was MMA and BJJ. The crank that Barnett ended it with was called a Scarf Hold, from the Japanese Kesa Gatame. And when Barnett walked out in black shorts and shoes (vs. a leg lock specialist), everyone thought he was trying to be Dan Severn.

This is someone trying to be Dan Severn. Heh.

Barnett’s inspiration for the shorts came from pro wrestling. For example, here is Karl Gotch.

Barnett and Gotch.

This is Billy Robinson.

Here is Antonio Inoki vs. Ali.

This is Josh Barnett at Metamoris 4.

Barnett won for himself Saturday night, by making Lister tap for the first time in 16 years. Barnett discussed the victory, via Facebook.

Last Saturday at Metamoris was a very proud moment for me for a lot of reasons.

Firstly, I am so proud in being able to win the Heavyweight title in the name of all my coaches and for all of Catch Wrestling. I chose to walk out there in the classic attire of the old school pro wrestlers from which I trace my lineage to respect and honor those whom I dedicate this match: the late Billy Robinson and Karl Gotch.

The plain black trunks I wore, the robe, and the black boots are in homage to another one of my mentors: Antonio Inoki. Even the towel I had (Which had Inoki’s poem “The Road” on it in Kanji) is in respect to Inoki-san.

I couldn’t have performed to the best of my abilities without the help of my coach Erik Paulson and the grueling practices and coaching from Jacob Harmon; My training partners (Especially Erik Hammer and Babalu) who pushed me throughout camp and made me fight every day; and Dan Panosian for being willing to get up early and lift me all those days.

Dean Lister is a man I was proud to get the chance to just wrestle with let alone claim a victory over. He is a great wrestler and great guy. I have known and respected Dean for many years and with as much admiration as I have for him, it was a necessity that I got out there and wrestled him at some point in my life. He made me work for anything I got and was always working to set me up for something on the mat out there. I had to wrestle smart and at my best to not end up tapping the mat against such a dangerous grappler.

Lastly, thank you for the persistence and desire to have me wrestle on your show Ralek. Thank you to Metamoris all the people who worked the show. Thank you to James Law and Scott Hirano for their amazing photos. And thank you to all who came to support, watched, and cheered us on out there. It makes us as wrestlers happy to leave all out on the mat for you all.

Barnett won for Metamoris, putting on an exciting contest in the co-main. And most of all, Josh Barnett won for catch wrestling, demonstrating that it can be every bit the equivalent to BJJ.

It has long been understood that wrestling, and not BJJ, is the best base for mixed martial arts. Now Barnett has shown that wrestling can be a base on equal footing with BJJ in the realm of submission as well.

There are at present few gyms with individuals legitimately qualified to teach catch wrestling. The fight community went through the same thing in the early and mid 90s with BJJ, and now BJJ is taught in every city in the US of any size.

Anyone interested in Catch should check out the work by Jake Shannon, Founder Scientific Wrestling.

And the great news is, Catch is not some super secret technique that will leave you able to rupture tendons in just 10 lessons. It the daddy of folkstyle wrestling. So if you don’t wrestle, start. And if you do wrestle, understand and appreciate the great tradition you are a part of.