Karl Istaz

Karl Istaz (born Karel Alfons Ceclie Istaz; August 3, 1924 – July 28, 2007), best known by the ring name , was a competitor and trainer in professional, amateur, and catch wrestling, born in Antwerp, Belgium. Considered one of the most influential wrestlers of his time period, he is best known for training several acclaimed and influential professional wrestlers in Japan, and for becoming a catalyst in the faculty development of ''Strong style'', alongside New Japan Pro-Wrestling founder Antonio Inoki and fellow trainer Billy Robinson.

Born in 1924, he was raised into a Hungarian- Dutch family in Flanders, and was a victim of Holocaust persecutions due to his father's atheism. After 1945, he became involved in Olympic-level wrestling training, culminating in him representing Belgium at the 1948 Summer Olympics in both freestyle and Greco-Roman wrestling. He learned catch wrestling, and later professional wrestling, at the Wigan Snake Pit by Billy Riley and Billy Joyce. He was given the ring name "Gotch" by Ohio promoter Al Haft in honor of American wrestler Frank Gotch. In Japan, he became known as a "God of Wrestling" (プロレスの神様, ''Puroresu no kami-sama'') alongside Billy Robinson and Lou Thesz, due to their collective influence on Japanese professional wrestling and ''Strong style''.

Gotch had significantly influenced the development of modern mixed martial arts (MMA), especially in Japan. Several of Gotch's students, which included Satoru Sayama, Masakatsu Funaki, Minoru Suzuki Akira Maeda, and Nobuhiko Takada, established pioneering MMA promotions and training schools to transmit Gotch's training. These include Sayama's Shooto, regarded as the first modern MMA promotion, and Funaki and Suzuki's Pancrase Hybrid Wrestling, which also predates the UFC, along with Maeda's Fighting Network RINGS, and Takada's Pride Fighting Championships (PRIDE), one of the most popular promotions of all time.

Early life

Karl Gotch was born Karel Alfons Ceclie Istaz in Antwerp, Belgium on August 3, 1924. His father, Edward, a member of the Belgian merchant navy, was of Hungarian ancestry; his mother, Johanna ( ''née'' van Heisteren), was a German citizen who had Dutch ancestry. As he was born in Flemish territory, he spoke the Dutch language. When he was 8, he started learning a form of wrestling by the request of his father. Around this time in his youth, his left pinky finger got torn off at a Navy dockyard; in spite of the amputation of the finger, he still excelled in wrestling before 1943. He cited his favorite wrestler as Finnish wrestler Waino Ketonen, referring to him as "the greatest amateur wrestler that Europe ever produced". His father was a fan of boxing, and requested that Istaz take up boxing, which he later retired from. According to Yoshiaki Fujiwara, his father became associates with several Royal Navy personnel, who gave Gotch the inspiration to take up the English language.

Sometime in 1943, during the German occupation of Belgium in the Second World War, Istaz, along with his family, were placed in a Nazi concentration camp in Walpersberg during the Holocaust. Istaz's father had been suspected of being a member of an openly-atheist societal order, which defied and opposed Nazi rule in Belgium. After they were let go, they went back to the same camp for his father participating in anti-Nazi activism. In those times, he had to work on specific railways, and was given little food or drink during working hours. Between the Axis powers surrendering and the liberation of Belgium, the family were once again let go. Other parts of Gotch's life prior to the Olympics are unclear, and have been subject to embellishment by pro wrestling magazines.

When he and his family were freed from the camp, he went back into training in wrestling, and later represented Belgium at the 1948 Summer Olympics in London in both freestyle and Greco-Roman wrestling in the under-87 kilogram category, although he did not make it onto any podium. Notable people who attended those Olympics included Verne Gagne, Dick Hutton, and Maurice "Mad Dog" Vachon.

Professional wrestling career

Europe and the United States

Istaz's professional wrestling career began after training at renowned catch wrestler Billy Riley's gym, which was later dubbed by Gotch as " The Snake Pit". According to legend, it was Bert Assirati, who had defeated Gotch in a match, that told him that he could contact Riley and the Snake Pit in Wigan, although he did not take up the offer initially. Gotch met Alf Robinson, Billy Robinson's uncle and a fellow wrestler, around this time, and told Gotch to come to Wigan. From 1951 to 1959, Karl lived in Wigan near the gym. He debuted before 1951, wrestling throughout Europe under his real name and under the ring name Karl Krauser, and winning titles including the German Heavyweight Championship and the European Championship. It is said that a young Billy Robinson and Karl Gotch wrestled in a spot in the Wigan gym, which resulted in Gotch dominating him on the mat. Robinson was 14, and Gotch was 29. They had a brotherly relationship in the gym, especially considering both were tainted as greater prodigies of Riley and Joyce. In 1959, Istaz moved to Montreal, Quebec, Canada, in order to migrate over to the United States. He had expressed admiration to move to the United States after the Second World War, after the Allied Forces defeated the Nazi regime.

When Istaz arrived in the United States, he began wrestling as Karl Gotch, named for Frank Gotch, by premier Ohio promoter-wrestler Al Haft. A friend of Frank Gotch, Haft was given the ring-name Young Gotch in some of his days as a wrestler, and Haft thought that Karl had intense similarities with Frank; thus, Karl was given the ring-name as tribute. In the United States, Gotch's wrestling style and lack of showmanship held him back, and he did not experience any great popularity at the time. In 1961, he won the American Wrestling Alliance (Ohio) World Heavyweight Championship. Gotch held the belt for two years before dropping the title in a title unification match to NWA World's Heavyweight Champion Lou Thesz, one of the few American wrestlers he respected because of the similarities of their styles (the two also share a Hungarian heritage). In 1962, Gotch was involved in a backstage altercation with the then-NWA World Champion "Nature Boy" Buddy Rogers, in which Rogers was injured. The incident alienated Gotch from American promoters, and he began looking for work in Japan. Afterwards, he had continued to travel. He wrestled in Australia under the Karl Krauser persona, and in 1965 he defeated Spiros Arion to win the International Wrestling Alliance's Heavyweight Championship.

He returned to the United States for a stint in the 1970s, with a brief run in the World Wide Wrestling Federation from August 1971 to February 1972. On December 6, 1971, he teamed with Rene Goulet to win the WWWF World Tag Team Championship from the inaugural champions, Luke Graham and Tarzan Tyler, in two straight falls of a best-two-out-of-three-falls match in Madison Square Garden. They lost the championship on February 1, 1972, to Baron Mikel Scicluna and King Curtis Iaukea.

Japan

He had begun working in Japan by 1961, travelling with Don Leo Jonathan, where he became very popular due to his sport wrestling style. He represented Germany in the 1961 JWA World Big League; although he did speak German, he still retained his Belgian citizenship. While Rikidozan was still alive, Antonio Inoki had met Gotch, and took an interest to his methods. Gotch gave Inoki a specialized maneuver that he'd be able to use in his matches, which would later cataclyze into what became known as the ''Cobra twist'' or Manji-gatame (卍固め, '' Suastika hold''). Inoki began to use the move in 1968; the next year, Inoki took Gotch's , the bridging version of the traditional ''German suplex''. He moved to Japan temporarily in two stints between 1967 and 1969, and headed the JWA Dojo, which had been given the name the "Gotch Clinic". He specialized in training active professionals. Many of the people Gotch worked with in the "clinic" included Seiji Sakaguchi, Kim Duk, Katsuji Adachi, and Hishakaku Otsubo.

Gotch had begun to be exhausted and frustrated with wrestling industry politicking and had a disdain for promoters' salary rates and rejection of talent opportunities. He had begun to teach more about the style and philosophy of his version of professional wrestling, without the use of politicking in the workers. He became politically neutral in all matters. Inoki had tried to clean up specific economic situations in JWA, which was said to be a contribution to its collapse. Yoshino Sato and Kokichi Endo, the heads of JWA, fired Inoki for alleging that he'd "betray" JWA and claim JWA for himself. In January 1972, Inoki went to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, whilst Karl Gotch was travelling with the WWWF. Inoki went to Gotch for help, to assist him in starting a wrestling promotion. Gotch accepted to assist him on the condition he be a trainer and coach to the wrestlers, and left the tour and WWWF afterward. The negotiations in January 1972 resulted in the creation of New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW). He wrestled in the main event of the very first show held by NJPW on March 6, 1972, defeating Inoki. Karl was able to bring in stars like Lou Thesz, André The Giant, and Billy Robinson for the promotion of the new brand. By 1973, JWA at shut down entirely.

Karl temporarily lived near the NJPW dojo, akin to his time in the JWA dojo. His first students included Yoshiaki Fujiwara and Tatsumi Fujinami. Fujiwara wanted to become a pro wrestler after a failed career in restauranteering and assistance; by that period, Fujinami had been accepted as a main understudy of Antonio Inoki. Satoru Sayama, the original Tiger Mask, ', ', Kuniaki Kobayashi, and Osamu Kido were later brought in as disciples of Gotch's methods as ''Young Lions'', and the class became his primary focus while in NJPW. Others that also took to Gotch's methods included Gran Hamada and Mr. Pogo, despite their eventual influence on separate wrestling styles (Hamada for '' lucharesu'', Pogo for hardcore wrestling).

Yoshiaki Fujiwara eventually became close friends with Gotch, as seen and depicted in the ''Karl Gotch: Kamisama'' film by Fumi Saito; Fujiwara would become the producer of the Karl Gotch Training Book, which detailed the training methods used by Gotch on him and his dojo-mates. He also developed a close relationship with Joe Malenko, who was touted as being a junior to Gotch in generational senses. Malenko paid tribute to Gotch after his death by appearing at numerous ceremonies honoring him over the years since 2007.

Retirement

His final match occurred on January 1, 1982, when he pinned Yoshiaki Fujiwara with the German suplex. Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, Gotch kept his role as both the head booker and sole trainer for NJPW. Whilst he still maintained a great relationship with NJPW, he also had major collaborative efforts with some of his students projects. He was present for numerous of Nobuhiko Takada's matches whilst he wrestled in the Universal Wrestling Federation and UWF-I, including numerous Pro-Wrestling World Heavyweight Championship matches (many of which also were spearheaded by Lou Thesz). He became a driving spiritual force for the creation of Newborn UWF, Akira Maeda's Fighting Network RINGS, Fujiwara's Pro Wrestling Fujiwara Gumi, and Satoru Sayama's Shooto; the latter of which has been called the first mixed martial arts organization ever created.

Minoru Suzuki and Masakatsu Funaki, two students of Gotch, approached Gotch in his Odessa home about them starting a new hybrid wrestling-martial arts promotion; and whilst Gotch liked the idea, he could not travel to Japan on a likeable basis. However, he did coin them the name Pancrase. As a tribute, Minoru Suzuki started to use the cradle piledriver, which he coined as the as it was a move that Gotch himself created, when he returned to pro wrestling in 2003.

Personal life & death

Besides his native German, Istaz spoke fluent English, and understood Japanese. He bought a home in the mid-1980s in Odessa, Florida, nearing Tampa, and lived there until 1998. Many wrestlers stayed with Karl in the house, including Yoshiaki Fujiwara and Tatsumi Fujinami.

Istaz was married to Ella, and had a daughter, Janine Gustave Istaz. They resided in Florida until his death. Janine married ' (空中 正三, ''Soranaka Masami''), also known as Mr. Soranaka or Sammy, a protégé of her father's, pro wrestler and referee. Janine gave birth to four children with Soranaka: Eddy (September 28, 1971 – September 29, 2019), who was a 13-year Army veteran, Michele (born 1972), Joseph Yoshiaki (born September 7, 1986) who was named after Yoshiaki Fujiwara, and Maria Theresia Koharu (born 1989). Masami Soranaka died in 1992 of a brain tumor aged 48, whilst Eddy Soranaka was murdered in Corpus Christi, Texas a day after his 48th birthday.

Istaz was a pescetarian: he abstained from eating meat for a large part of his life, citing that it was too fattening, and only ditched his no-meat diet in Japan, when he could eat fish. He enjoyed the writings of Musashi Miyamoto, and was an avid lover of pit bulls, which were introduced to him via Billy Robinson. In his will, it was made that with whatever spare money he had left that it'd be used to go to pit bull charities in Florida.

Living in semi-seclusion in stints with his wife and alone, Istaz died on July 28, 2007, in his home in Tampa, Florida, six days before his 83rd birthday. Two-and-a-half years before he died, he gave an interview with Jake Shannon of Scientific Wrestling, which was his last time featured on tape. It was released after his death. His ashes were mostly spread in Keystone, Florida; however, in 2017, ten years after his death, some of his ashes were interred at a grave in the Honjo Ekō-in Buddhist temple in Ryōgoku, Tokyo.

Legacy

Strength conditioning

Whilst he was known for his professional and catch wrestling skills, Gotch also trained in pehlwani, an Indian style of wrestling. This training led to Istaz's regime of calisthenic bodyweight exercise, which were used by wrestlers to build leg endurance and strength, such as the bridge, Hindu squats, and Hindu press ups. Many of these practices became more widespread as Gotch continued to exercise his legacy, and the Hindu squats and bridge later became routine for several catch and professional wrestling schools. His ''Gotch Bible'', which was used for calisthenic and strength conditioning training in the form of playing cards, is still used today. According to Gene LeBell, it was suggested that Gotch also travelled to China in his early wrestling years for further conditioning and martial arts training.

Professional wrestling

Karl Gotch became known as a "God" (神様, ''Kami-sama'') in Japan. Gotch's wrestling style, alongside fellow hooker Lou Thesz, had a big impact on Inoki, who adopted and popularized his submission-based style. Some of Istaz's trainees founded the Universal Wrestling Federation in Japan in 1984, which showcased the shoot-style of professional wrestling. The success of UWF and similar promotions influenced Japanese wrestling in subsequent decades, and changed the style of matches in NJPW and All Japan Pro Wrestling. Several other professional wrestlers who had been, at some point, taught by Gotch include El Canek, Riki Choshu, Masanobu Fuchi, Bob Backlund, and brothers Joe and Dean Malenko.

Several wrestling maneuvers are attributed to Gotch, with him either innovating them or popularizing them, including:

* The ''German suplex''. Named after Gotch, the '' bridging'' variant (which was named the in Japan), was attributed to Gotch for its innovation. The actual ''German suplex'' itself was not innovated by Gotch, but by unspecified Finnish wrestlers (according to Gotch).
* The cradle piledriver, which also shares the name the . It is the tributed signature maneuver of Gotch student Minoru Suzuki.
* The kneeling reverse piledriver, which is mostly known as the '' Tombstone Piledriver'' after the popularization of the move by The Undertaker. It was also used by the likes of Kazuchika Okada, André The Giant, and Drew McIntyre.
* The ''Dragon Sleeper'' (ドラゴン スリーパー, ''Doragon surīpā''): a inverted north-south neck crank. It became the signature submission maneuver of Tatsumi Fujinami, and later the likes of The Undertaker (as the "Taking Care of Business") and Sanada (as the "Skull End").
* The . It was also a signature move attributed to Fujinami, as well as Keiji Mutoh and Hiroshi Tanahashi.
* The ''Sasori-gatame'' (蠍固め): a figure-four variant of the traditional single-leg Boston crab (''Medio Cangrejo''), it was passed down to Riki Choshu, a student of Gotch. It became anglicized as the ''Scorpion deathlock'' in the case of Ron Garvin and Sting, or the ''Sharpshooter'' in the case of Bret Hart.

Gotch was inducted into the Wrestling Observer Hall of Fame as part of the inaugural class in 1996. In 2007, he was inducted into the Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame. He became a 2009 posthumous inductee into the George Tragos/Lou Thesz Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame, and was included as a member of the International Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame in 2022.

Mixed martial arts

Gotch also influenced the development of mixed martial arts (MMA) through his students including Antonio Inoki, Satoru Sayama, Minoru Suzuki, Masakatsu Funaki, Akira Maeda, and Nobuhiko Takada. Inoki wrestled in a series of matches called ''ishu kakutōgi sen'', where he faced martial artists representing different styles and a legitimate fight against Muhammad Ali in 1976. Inoki hired legitimate martial artists such as Gotch to train his roster and later promoted MMA. Sayama founded Shooto, a hybrid martial art system and promotion. Shooto held its first amateur events in 1985 and its first professional event in 1989, several years prior to the UFC in 1993. Suzuki and Funaki founded Pancrase, which held its first event a month before UFC 1. Maeda founded RINGS, a shoot-style wrestling promotion that became an MMA promotion. And Takada co-founded PRIDE, one of the most popular MMA promotions in history. These students and promotions shaped MMA by producing and featuring many of the top fighters of their time.

Gotch was friends and training partners with judo exponents Masahiko Kimura and Kiyotaka Otsubo, who also had tenures as professional wrestlers. He also had some skills in sambo and shin-kicking, the latter of which he took up thanks to Billy Riley. Gotch was vocal in his opposition to the growing Brazilian jiu-jitsu, decrying its practitioners as "old whores waiting for a consumer" due to their usage of the guard position. He also referred to BJJ gyms as "whorehouses".

Championships and accomplishments

*American Wrestling Alliance (Ohio)
**AWA World Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
* George Tragos/Lou Thesz Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame
** Class of 2009
* International Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame
** Class of 2022
*National Wrestling Alliance
**NWA Eastern Heavyweight Championship (2 times)
*New Japan Pro-Wrestling
** Real World Championship (2 times)
** Greatest 18 Club inductee
* Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame and Museum
** Class of 2007
*''Tokyo Sports''
** Service Award (2007)
*World Championship Wrestling (Australia)
** IWA World Heavyweight Championship ( 1 time)
* World Wide Wrestling Federation
** WWWF World Tag Team Championship ( 1 time) – with Rene Goulet
* Worldwide Wrestling Associates
** WWA World Tag Team Championship ( 2 times) – with Mike DiBiase
*''Wrestling Observer Newsletter''
**Wrestling Observer Newsletter Hall of Fame ( Class of 1996)
*Other titles
** German Heavyweight Championship ( 1 time)
** European Championship (1 time)

Footnotes

References

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External links

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Gotch, Karl
1924 births
2007 deaths
Sportspeople from Antwerp
Olympic wrestlers for Belgium
Wrestlers at the 1948 Summer Olympics
Belgian catch wrestlers
Belgian professional wrestlers
German male professional wrestlers
Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame and Museum
Professional wrestling trainers
Stampede Wrestling alumni
Expatriate professional wrestlers in Japan
Belgian people of Hungarian descent
Belgian emigrants to Germany
German emigrants to the United States
Entertainers from Hamburg
Belgian expatriate sportspeople in Japan
20th-century male professional wrestlers
NWA Americas Tag Team Champions
IWA World Heavyweight Champions (Australia)
World Tag Team Champions (WWE, 1971–2010)