Step Ups In The Most Unexpected Place

 Yesterday I ordered a series of videos from a pro wrestling website called RF Video where you can buy digital videos of classic matches, interviews, training sessions and events with more wrestlers than you can name. The series I got was from ECW Legend Taz showing various things from his Wrestling School. In this series, he doesn't show how to take bumps and running through the ropes and all that, believe it or not, he shows how to do takedowns like in the old school style that's also used in Amateur Wrestling, Judo, Greco-Roman and the Japanese Style; the next video is on Submissions which I found really interesting and shows both real and show holds ranging from Ankle Locks, Figure Fours, Arm Bars and a lot more. The last video is on Stretching, Mobility & Conditioning which was mostly very basic stuff.

Now for those who've lived under a rock, Taz in his prime was a backbone of ECW's heyday where Hardcore matches were in practically every match and was the underbelly of the Attitude Era that Paul Heyman ran for a number of years. Taz was one of the few wrestlers in that organization that actually had legit wrestling and judo under his belt and was the king of suplexes and various submissions. The closest to him in that time with technical knowledge was probably Chris Benoit, Chris Jericho, Eddie Guerrero and maybe Dean Malenko. If you ever watch highlights, you'll see that his character was a tough son of a bitch that could throw you as well as make you work using wrestling. 

I've seen training videos of various pro wrestling schools and almost all of them show some of the same stuff from working a match to some segments of conditioning; this however was closer to MMA and pure wrestling that can be used in real life, yes there are show holds in Taz's highlights throughout the series but his style is about as real as it gets down to what is right and wrong with a move especially on the takedowns. Taz was also one of those guys that wasn't a big dude in comparison to guys like the Dudley Boys, Stone Cold, The Rock or Undertaker; he was roughly 5'8 and no more than 235-240. What he lacked in size, he made up for intensity and using wrestling as a means to make matches look just badass. 

In the Conditioning series, he takes you and his students through various stretches and mobility drills. Some are a little fast for most to keep up with and is really vague on most of them but it still holds true regardless. The "drills" he puts them through most these days can figure out especially if you're an MMA fighter or an upcoming pro wrestler but the one exercise I didn't expect to see him put his students through was the Step Ups. Granted these are done on a high bench but it's interesting how he uses Step Ups to condition his guys. He talks about putting them through up to 45 min of Step Ups which at a decent clip in a row (depending on the height you use) is roughly around 1000 reps but he takes things a step further so do speak as the guys work the exercise, he'll blow a whistle while one guy goes in the ring and does other hard drills for a minute or more while the rest do Step Ups. Whistle blows for the next guy to come in and so on and so forth to really make them blow up. If a student starts to get lazy or is acting like a chump, Taz will have them hold a folded chair on their arms while their arms are straight out and have them do step ups with that chair until the exercise is done or have to go in the ring. 

That is some nasty training and if you're doing drills, squats, bumps, falls and running the ropes on top of that; it makes you think twice about training at that school. I don't think the school is around anymore and Taz had a podcast for a while and did commentary for AEW for a period. I didn't know much about him when he came to WWE at the Royal Rumble in 2001, I saw some matches he did for ECW but I wasn't into that stuff as much back then. Once I studied him and his matches, it changed my perspective and he was legitimately one of the toughest guys in the business in his time. Trained by Hall Of Famer Johnny Rodz in New York, he made an impact on the business from more of an underground stand point because he wasn't flashy and had some weird gimmick that made him millions, he was primitive, old school, tough, look like he can snap your bones in half and had some crazy strength for a guy his size. 

My respect for him amped up a bit more when I saw that he used Step Ups because if you pay attention to some of the stuff they do with Pro Wrestlers, Step Ups isn't one of those exercises that they use; you're talking more of the Japanese Style Karl Gotch perfected with the Hindu Squats, Push-ups, Bridges, Lunges, Ring Sprints and others. This was unique to see. So if someone like Taz uses that exercise to make students bust their ass, you know for sure this isn't some "Lazy's Man Leg Training" that some "Bodyweight Exercise Guru" likes to push on.  

Thought I'd share this little review and keep being amazingly awesome. 

What A Looker....No, A Hooker

That line makes me laugh, think it was either in Castle, Psych or Supernatural; it's got to be one of those three right? Anyway, despite the meaning behind it, there's another term for Hooker most people don't know and that's to describe a wrestler. It's a term used back in the days of Lou Thesz, Ed "Strangler" Lewis, Ad Santel and Karl Gotch. By definition, this means a wrestler was at the top of the food chain when it came to such serious submissions to the extent that these holds were not only dangerous, but could cripple a person in the blink of an eye. In other words these guys were the nastiest bastards in the sport. 

Today in some circles, hookers are also called Rippers meaning the submissions they would use would tear most people to shreds by crippling an opponent by ripping their tendons and bones. There was a story in Lou Thesz's Bio about one of his mentors George Tragos teaching a boy not only a lesson but by today's standards would be thrown in jail. This kid was cocky and thought he can take on the old man and Tragos proceeded to not only tear this kid apart but finished him off by tearing his shoulder in a Double Wrist Lock. The guy just put enough pressure on to break him and the kid ended up having that arm amputated because there was no anti-biotics back then and that arm developed a hideous infection of Gangrene. That's just pure cruelty man.

The closest I ever came to understanding even a few of these holds was when Tom Puckett put them on me while we were working out at this gym down the street from me. Cross Face, Double Wrist Lock, A Couple Neck Cranks and another one that slips my mind but I felt them all. Neck and Back were cracking and he didn't let up on me because he wanted me to understand what these holds can do to a person. Thank god I didn't end up like that kid. I'll never forget how those things felt and he hardly put any strength into them, it was incredible. 

Hooking in retrospect is a lost art in wrestling and very few in comparison to the old timers know them with such intensity. Guys like Joel Bane, Harry Smith (son of the British Bulldog), Josh Barnett, Sakuraba and some others are the last remnants of an earlier age and are incredibly skilled at these submissions it's almost baffling that these holds still exist in this time. If you haven't been put in these holds, you can't understand the magnitude of what they feel like and that near fear of them tearing you apart if you pissed these guys off. Catch Wrestling is rising from the ashes but unless you've been around someone who even remotely has small knowledge of the sport or even one of the holds, most don't even know what Catch is. Catch is more than just hooking, it's the violent art of wrestling that even some of the best freestyle wrestlers would be afraid of. Say if you took Ad Santel in his prime against Dan Gable in his Olympic days, it would be a decent match but no disrepect to Gable, Santel would most likely end up putting him in a hold that would have him begging for his life. That's just my opinion, other than that by today's standards, most wrestlers in Gable's weight class would have a hard time with him. 

  Catch and Hooking are fascinating aspects of wrestling and it's important to understand the History and the men that defined the term Superhuman when it came to the sport. Think only a few women on the entire planet have definitive knowledge of Catch and the current famous one is WWE's Shayna Baszler who learned some stuff from Barnett & Fujiwara (Fujiwara was Karl Gotch's best student according to the man himself). It might be inappropriate to call her a Hooker since some would take it completely the wrong way but in terms of wrestling and the knowledge of dangerous submissions, think it might be safe to say she's the only woman right now who can claim that title. 

If you like the shirt above, grab one for yourself here and support Catch Wrestling. I've got books, dvds and have been in the company of a man trained by Gotch himself, I fully support these guys and have a great deal of respect for them. Keep being amazingly awesome.  

Rippers & Hookers

Sounds like a bad serial killer novel involving the world's oldest profession doesn't it? The funny thing is, it's far from what you might actually think. Back in the day, wrestlers who were known to literally break and tear people apart were called Hookers where they would hook or put an opponent in a dangerous hold where they could if given the chance cripple the guy and be one feared motherfucker. You would not want to get on the bad side of these guys.

These days, nobody would use the term hooker to describe a wrestler, now the word ripper is another story. Like the Hookers of yesteryear, a ripper can be used to describe a wrestler or grappler who could handle himself and tear limbs, tendons or ligaments. Some of the most feared wrestlers of the day were guys like Farmer Burns, George Tragos, Ad Santel, Tom Jenkins and even the legendary Robert Fredrick aka Ed "Strangler" Lewis. These days, the last of the Hookers or Rippers of the old school were men like Karl Gotch & Billy Robinson. 

The men I mentioned above were specialists in knowing the dark side to physical anatomy and could make you tap before you really had a chance to take a breath. These were WRESTLERS and had levels of stamina and mind that they were considered inexhaustible geniuses of their time. Catch Wrestling has it's roots mainly in England for the last 150 years but long before that, you had other cultures that would showcase styles of wrestling that were brought to other countries and became a molded sculpture in today's world. The old timers are long gone and quite a bit of their style of Catch has been left in the dust. 

Now in today's world, Catch Wrestling isn't as big as it used to be and other arts such as Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, Kickboxing and Amateur Wrestling dominated the landscape in how we see today's MMA. If BJJ is considered the "gentle" art, Catch is considered the violent aspect according to Former MMA champ and current Catch Teacher Josh Barnett. There are competitions purely on Catch and has taken extremely small steps to becoming a larger form of fighting since the early 1900's. You can arguably say the last known competitor in the art was Billy Robinson. The man would be considered the Einstein or Steven Hawking of Catch Wrestling. 

Although the hookers and the rippers don't have that fear factor today, you can still learn some form of that old school style with a small group of fighters, teachers and students of the old art. It's used more of a competition but can it be used in the streets? Afterall, street fights are very unpredictable and sometimes what you may think you know could get you killed or be sent to the hospital but if you were able to not necessarily make a shmuck tap but to save your life using techniques that won't kill the man but put a damper on the limbs he uses would it be worth it? Would it be worth it to save a loved one, defend yourself against attackers or send a message telling them not to fuck with you (in the sense of not upping up somebody like a douchebag but making sure you're not some weak punk). 

Now if you're in law enforcement, would certain techniques help restraining a suspect or defending a fellow officer? Catch can be used in many ways and possibly lifesaving if it came down to it. There are people out there who may understand Catch but wouldn't know how to use it, others have incredible knowledge and have great success, it just depends on whom you learn it from. There isn't a one-way of learning this art and everybody who teaches it especially today can be a gamble as opposed to back in the day where you could go just about anywhere and learn from the masters. All in all, whether a competitor or someone going down on the wrong side of town, Catch can be beneficial.