Ad Santel
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Ad Santel, born Adolph Ernst, was a practitioner of catch wrestling.
Ad Santel fought one of the early clash-of-the-styles matches in modern martial arts history against Tokugoro Ito, a 5th degree black belt in Judo from Japan, who claimed to be the world Judo champion. Santel defeated Ito and proclaimed himself the world Judo champion.
Ad Santel fought Judokas from the Kodokan from 1914-1921. The judokas he fought included 4th degree black belt Daisuke Sakai and 5th degree black belt Reijiro Nagata, all of whom Santel defeated. Ad Santel also drew with 5th degree black belt Hikoo Shoji. The challenge matches stopped after Santel, yet to be defeated at the hands of any Kodokan representative, gave up on the claim of being the world Judo champion in 1921 in order to pursue a career in full time professional wrestling.
The impact of these performances on Japan was immense. The Japanese were fascinated by the submissions taught in catch wrestling. Japanese fighters travelled to Europe in order to either participate in various tournaments or to learn catch wrestling at European schools such as Billy Riley's Snake Pit in Wigan, UK.
Santel lost his world heavyweight championship to Gobar Goho in 1922 in San Francisco.
[edit] External links
- A copy of the original "The Japanese Pro-Wrestling / Reality Based Martial Art Connection" article by Sam Chan
- History of Puroresu : The Pre-J.W.A. Period
- A New Dawn for an Old Style by Drew Price
- Japanese women learning real Fast by Tatsuo Shimoda. Ring Wrestling, April, 1965
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