Title says it all. I’m a big fan of the martial art of catch wrestling & genuinely like strong style pro wrestling. I know Inoki was trained by Gotch who also trained Fujiwara (who would train Masakatsu Funaki & Minoru Suzuki among others).
It seems even in the 80s, 90s & early 2000s the NJPW dojo training did have catch wrestling involved (since many MMA promotions besides early Pancrase, like Pride & Rings actually had a bunch of pro wrestlers competing in fights). Shinsuke Nakamura competed in MMA as well in the early 2000s.
I searched the subreddit & didn’t find this question (or anything similar) asked before. I recall on a podcast (JRE I think?) Josh Barnett said in Japan, the pro wrestlers are actually taught legit grappling & know how to fight. I recall in his promo from his first Pride fight (against Cro Cop) he was training at the NJPW dojo.
by gentnscholar
