Antonio Inoki dies

A well known legend, why I called it a legend? Because with all honesty I do not believe it at all. Karel Istaz was an Olympian. Competed in both styles as we see from his official Olympic record (1948). How good he was, hard to tell. He was best light-heavy man in his Country in the late 40s. That is all we know. He didn't stay long enough in Britain to "learn" anything and "his style" did not show any similarity to British style of pro wrestling (I mean Mount Evans and that is exactly what was taught in all gyms around the country, not mythical non existing "catch" as many claim nowadays). The legend or myth was created way way after all this, it happened in Japan. Karel learned from Japanese pro wrestlers their own style of pro wrestling and kind of became an ambassador of that style. And they praised him for doing that. So to speak, it was a very mutual love...affair.

Karl Istaz did indeed train at Riley's Gym. On his first day he was thoroughly mauled by John Foley of the Black Diamonds (later manager JR Foley in Stampede) which later became a big part of Foley's later friendship with Dynamite Kid who did not get along with Istaz/Gotch. (This was normal treatment for Riley's students who were already highly proficient in another grappling style, to break them down and open them up to learn more. Billy Robinson did the same with Peter Thornley years later and I would strongly suspect it happened to Assirati too - mostly likely in his case by Billy Riley personally.)

I suggest you write to Aspull Wrestling Club (as the Snakepit is known) if you want evidence of Karl Gotch's credentials. In the meantime here is an archive from an older version of their website: http://web.archive.org/web/20040404072041fw_/http://www.aspullolympicwrestlingclub.co.uk/history.htm It starts out by stating that "We have decided to put a more detailed summary of the history of Aspull Wrestling Club , aka Rileys gym on the web site as recently, we have noticed web pages, articles in magazines, etc.. all claiming to have trained or to have knowledge of the club when in fact the information which has been printed has been totally inaccurate." So clearly not in the mood to hype up imposter alumni.

It then goes on to say "many great wrestlers were produced. Some of these great wrestlers include Karl Gotch (Istaz) and Bert Azzerattie who visited the gym in the 1950's . By the 1960's other champions included Billy Rileys son Ernie Riley, Melvin Riss ( Harold Winstanley), John Foley, Jack Dempsey (Tommy Moore) and Billy Joyce (Bob Robinson)." So clearly the Snakepit in their least accomodating mood for wrestling industry hype, were more than happy to validate Gotch's status as an alumnus of theirs.