Matt Furey Special Report

Matt Furey Special Report April 2010 Insider Secrets on Training With Karl Gotch – Part 1 [Note: In this special report you’ll be reading a series of articles about Karl Gotch and the training I received from him that you have never seen before. They previously appeared in Japanese Karate magazine. I have added some additional details that have never been read by anyone before. I sincerely hope you enjoy these. If so, let me know and I’ll write more about my training with Karl in the future.]

When I was training with Karl Gotch, he didn’t just teach me Hindu squats, Hindu pushups and bridging. He taught me how to swing the Indian clubs, the smaller 2-lb’ers as well as the much bigger and heavier 40-lb’ers – which were filled with lead shot. In addition to this, he taught me how to swing the gada – a sort of bowling stick, also used by Indian wrestlers. Karl also preached rope climbing, gymnastic rings, handstand pushups, as well as a number of pushups and pull-ups done from various apparatus, most of which he had built for his own use. In a nutshell, although Karl made it sound like he was against the use of weights, this is not really true. He was mostly opposed to body building as well as weight training that did not give you the functional strength and endurance for combat that his exercises gave. This meant that modern day weight machines were definitely out. “That shit serves only one purpose,” said Karl. “For rehabilitation on people who’ve been injured. Other than that you’re better off without them.” The Indian clubs that Karl used were heavy. You could, in a sense, say that they WERE “weights.” But not in the context that Karl was using them. They were simply highly specific functional strength training tools. And the use of them did not cause “muscle binding” or tightness. They didn’t give you what Karl called “counterfeit muscle.” An Olympic bar was also a prized Gotch possession. At one time Karl did heavy bench presses, dead lifts and squats – but eventually found them to detract from his performance. He had strength, but no gas in the tank so that he could use his strength repeatedly during a long match. Even though Karl stopped the bench press, squats and dead lifts, he did NOT conclude that the barbell itself was of no use. On many occasions he told me that you could get an incredible workout doing split snatches as well as the clean-and-jerk – but not for maximum poundage. Instead, you were to use the 45-pound bar for high repetitions, just as if you were doing Hindu squats, jumper squats or pushups. “If you use an Olympic bar this way, you can get all the workout you need,” said Karl. “But the truth is you can also get a great workout with these same exercises using nothing more than a broom stick.” In my training with Karl I fell in love with the Royal Court as well as many of the other calisthenics and training methods he taught. At the same time, I did NOT fall “head over heels” for the Indian clubs, the bowling stick or some of the other devices,

Copyright, 2010, Gold Medal Publications, Inc. • www.fureyfaithful.com 1 Furey Faithful although I do own variations of all of these hard-to-get products. And I have never made any attempt to create, package, market, sell or promote any type of Indian clubs or bowling stick, although many people over the years have told me I should. Like Karl, I never stop learning and I never stop looking for additional “kick-ass” ways to train. Most of the time my training involves bodyweight exercises ONLY – and I wholeheartedly believe that bodyweight exercise training – in all its forms and guises, is the BEST way to train. At the same time, objects like Lifeline USA’s Power Wheel and PowRWalk Pro are absolutely awesome. So are Swiss balls, medicine balls, chest expanders, jump ropes, stone locks (I had several made for me in China). Yes, it’s true. When the day is over and all is said and done, I may be tempted to check out other training methods. I may even try one for a spell, but there’s no getting around my central “core belief” – which I formed in 1999 after training with Karl Gotch for the first time.

Matt demonstrating how to use the Indian clubs.

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2 Copyright, 2010, Gold Medal Publications, Inc. • www.fureyfaithful.com Furey Faithful My First 5 Minutes With Karl Gotch

I knocked on the door. A pit bull began to bark. In German, a voice commanded the dog to calm down. The door opened. Karl Gotch stood before me with his shirt off. He looked me over for a few seconds then invited me inside. I took a seat and the pit bull put my entire forearm inside its mouth. By now I should be scared. Very, very scared. I’m in the living room of the toughest man in the world, he’s not wearing a shirt and his dog is going to eat me alive. But I’m calm and relaxed, taking it in. Glad to be in Gotch’s midst. I’d heard about Karl Gotch for years. The God of Pro Wrestling. The quiet man. The man who demanded his wrestlers get in condition before he taught them a single hold. The man whom many will tell you beat a good many tough guys bloody. Karl tells me to stand as he has something to show me. When he talks he’s no less than a few inches from my face. He isn’t just talking to me – he’s looking right through me. His eye contact never wavers. He starts talking about the people he doesn’t like. The list is long. Ken Shamrock, Bart Vale, Lou Thesz and many more. He tells me they’re full of bullshit, that they don’t know anything, that they love the “lime light” – or the worst insult of them all, “he’s a business man.” The list of people Karl doesn’t like includes many famous people who once trained with Karl. He switches gears and begins critiquing my newsletter (I’d sent him the first two issues a couple months earlier.) “I like your newsletter. You’re a great writer. But I looked at your bridge and it’s lousy,” he says. “And the pictures of the techniques that Italian is doing in your newsletter. Aaah. They’re awful. That idiot doesn’t have the first idea of what a submission hold is. If he needed one move to travel around the world, he wouldn’t get across the street. Not only that, he wouldn’t even get off the sidewalk.” I stood at attention, listening, not saying a word. Karl is still a few inches from my face. “When I wrote you I told you about that shoulder lock,” says Karl. “That’s what you want to do. Not that worthless top wrist lock in your newsletter. No good guy will ever submit to that hold.” I ask to see the difference. Karl looks away for a second. He smirks. Then he smiles with a tinge of evil. “Sure, I’ll show it to you,” he says. He grabs my left wrist with his right hand, pulls it up to my shoulder. Then he puts his left arm behind my neck. Now he has my right hand with both of his hands but his left arm is pushing my head forward. He applies a tiny bit of pressure and I feel my shoulder ready to snap. “Okay, okay,” I say. Karl releases the hold. I am grateful. “You can do this hold from standing?” I ask. “I just did, didn’t I?” says Karl. “What about on the ground?” I ask. Now I’m really inviting trouble, but I can’t resist. I must learn what this man knows. “Lie down,” says Karl. I get on the floor with my chest facing the ceiling. Karl’s hips are bad so he asks me to help him lower himself slowly. He grimaces in pain as his knees touch the carpet. Then he relaxes, puts me in the same hold he did from standing. Only this time he traps my right arm in between his thighs. Both my arms are restrained. “You see,” college boy, says Karl. “Back where I come from, the Old Country, I learned to use my mind. I only went to school through sixth grade, so I had to figure all this out for myself. I had no one to teach me. But I took the time to think about these holds and that’s how I came up with them. That’s why I always say, ‘Think. Don’t Stink.’” This was the first five minutes of my meeting with Karl Gotch, a man I trained with and learned from for more than two years.

Matt Furey using pushup bar to train in a variety of angles.

Before I first met Karl Gotch in April of 1999, I had read about the tremendous fitness, strength and health benefits of Hindu Pushups and Hindu Squats. But I had never met anyone who did them regularly – or who knew exactly how to do them. All that changed when I met Karl. He knew these exercises like the back of his hand and made sure I learned them correctly. He would stand over me and as I struggled, make comments like, “What’s a matter, college boy? Didn’t you get strong enough from your weights to do these simple exercises?” Karl Gotch traveled all over the world as a professional wrestler and spent many years in Japan where he was known as kamisama – “The God of Wrestling.” He was one of the few of his time who truly knew how to wrestle the way the old-time catch wrestlers did. But just as important to Karl was the conditioning routine he followed and believed in. And so, no matter where he traveled he looked for and added new exercises that he liked. One of Karl’s favorite workouts was called The Karl Gotch Bible. It was performed with a deck of poker cards (Karl’s Bible). You'll find this workout in my book, Combat Conditioning. Those who skip over this workout would be making a grave mistake. Many of my students have written to tell me that this workout alone got them into the best shape of their life. How do you perform the Karl Gotch Bible? Good question. You grab your deck of 52 poker cards. Then you get on the floor, shuffle the cards and deal one to yourself.

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Then, depending upon what color of card you get, and what is on the card, you do a prescribed number of Hindu pushups or Hindu squats. And you keep going until you've gone through the entire deck. Once you're able to go through the entire deck, you change the speed of the exercises. You either go through the deck as fast as you can – or you focus on your breathing and go slowly, emphasizing the isometric portion of each position. To say this workout is challenging would be an understatement. It turns average and ordinary men and women into Super Humans. I’ll never forget the day Karl told me about putting one of my training partners through the deck. He waited until it was very hot and humid outside. Then he took the man to the swimming pool area and told him to get started. After a few minutes the man was dripping sweat from every pore on his body. After 10 minutes he looked like he would never make it. But Karl pushed him until he went through the entire deck. And to reward him for a job well done, he tossed him into the pool. The man was relieved and thought his workout was over. But no. “Get out of the pool,” Karl yelled. “Who said you could take a rest?” “But you threw me into the pool,” the man replied. This was the wrong thing to say to Karl. He took a deep breath, puffed his chest with pride and said, “I think it’s time we work on your rope climbing.” Well, rope climbing is another Gotch workout that I’ll cover in a future column – along with Karl’s unique method to help another young man overcome his fear of heights.

Up the Rope

Last month I promised to tell you about the day Karl Gotch helped a young man overcome his fear of heights via rope climbing. I’m going to fulfill that promise in this issue, but first you must know that Karl was a big believer in rope climbing as a conditioning tool. Even so, he didn’t start people out with rope climbing. First you had to master Hindu squats, Hindu pushups, bridging and other exercises that required no equipment. But once you got pretty good at these exercises, the ropes came out. For many people rope climbing is incredibly difficult. Karl loved it because it builds strength throughout your entire body. It works your back, arms, shoulders and abdominals at the same time. It gives you ape-like strength, in part because it works your grip like nothing else. The first time I spoke to Karl about rope climbing, he told me that he wanted his students to be able to climb the rope several different ways. First, you had to be able to climb to the top using your hands and feet for leverage. Second, you had to be able to let go with your feet and climb with nothing more than your hands. Third, you needed to be able to climb two ropes at the same time. This meant you had one rope in each hand. And fourth, Karl wanted you to climb the rope upside down. I thought he was joking when he told me about climbing the rope upside down, but he wasn’t. Anyway, on the day that Karl figured to be the perfect time to help cure a young man of his fear of high places, he got out his 20-foot rope and told him to climb a tree in the back yard to hang it for him. Karl promised him that after he climbed the tree and hung the rope, he would teach him how to train like an “animal in the wild” without fear. Well, it turns out that the boy was a bit like a cat. He had no trouble going up the tree, but once there, his fear of heights increased dramatically. Karl knew this was likely to happen when he told the boy to climb the tree. He climbed the tree pretty fast, and when he was straddling high up on a branch, Karl looked at him with a confused expression and said, “Oh darn, I forgot to get a hammer, nail and a bolt. I’ll be right back.” Karl walked away from the tree, went into his apartment and took a nap. 45 minutes later Karl came outdoors with the tools to secure the rope. Now in an uncontrollable rage, the young man began to yell at Karl. “Where the hell have you been? I’ve been up this tree for almost an hour waiting for you? What did you do, go take a nap?”

Karl laughed out loud. “Well, it looks like you still haven’t learned how to shut your mouth,” he said. “What you need is discipline. Self-discipline. I’m trying my best to break you of your fear of heights but you don’t seem to want my help. Fear of heights is nothing but mind over matter. You’re scared because you don’t know how to use your mind. Now get your ass down here and quit acting like a baby. My god, you’re crying like an infant. You talk like you’re a tough guy but as the saying goes, ‘You can’t make whipped cream from shit.’” When the young man talked back to Karl, he instantly knew his training days with Karl were numbered. It’s not wise to talk back to your teacher – especially when he can break every bone in your body; especially when he can mercilessly torture you. The next time Karl met with him to train, the attack went into another realm. It turns out the guy was very punctual when he used the toilet. Each day, after eating, he went to the bathroom like “clockwork.” Well, I don’t want to spoil this one for you. So I’ll cover this story in the next column.

It’s Mind over Matter

Last month I wrote about the young man who was afraid of heights, yet wanted to practice the art of rope climbing, as taught by Karl Gotch. I told you how Karl had him climb a tree to hang the rope, then went inside and left him alone for about 45 minutes. When Karl returned the guy wasn’t too happy, and he made the mistake of arguing with the very teacher who could break every bone in his body. As you can imagine, Karl didn’t take too kindly to someone arguing with him. This dates back to when he lived in Europe and it may go back before his birth, if you believe in such a thing as genetic personality traits. Being that Karl was ¼ German and ¾ Hungarian, he didn’t always take great pride in his red-hot temper – but he ALWAYS felt good about restraining himself as he created a plan to “get even.” “I don’t care who it is,” Karl once told me. “If someone does me wrong I must return the favor. And if that means I have to crawl around the world on my belly to pay him back, I’ll do so.” Personally, I think Karl exaggerated on this one just a bit. Yes, he did like to get even, but he didn’t crawl on his belly to do so. He was much too sly to stoop that low. Based on what I observed about Karl via training with him and from listening to his endless array of stories, he had three chief ways of paying someone back: 1. He got the person on the mat and beat him bloody. 2. He got the person on the mat and had someone else beat him bloody. 3. He cut the person out of his life entirely – but usually not before teaching him one final lesson. Well, let it be known that the same young man who was afraid of heights also liked to move his bowels at the same time each day. And it just so happened that, for two straight weeks he came to Karl’s apartment when he needed to use the toilet for his daily bowel movement. This wouldn’t be such a bad thing, but the guy didn’t just use the toilet. He stunk up the whole house. From the bathroom to the kitchen to the living room, you could smell an odor that Karl said would “kill cock roaches.” The night before the boy returned for his next lesson, Karl joked with me by phone: “I have a plan for Chanel #9,” he said. “Oh peppy la pew is going to wish he never met me.” The next morning Karl looked at his watch at five minutes to nine. He knew ‘Chanel #9’ would be right on time – and once he arrived he would head straight to the toilet. To prevent this from happening, instead of waiting for the boy inside his home, Karl stepped outside and waited. At 9:00 a.m. he pulled up and began running down the sidewalk toward Karl’s door. Karl made eye contact with him as he inserted the key into his door and locked it.

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“Let’s go,” said Karl. “I have a different idea for today. Instead of training here at my place let’s go to the gym where there’s a wrestling mat.” “But I have to use the toilet,” he said. “Not right now. There’s not enough time,” said Karl. “We must hurry.” Reluctantly he agreed and jumped into his car with Karl. He drove down the streets as fast as he could, breaking the speed limit most of the way. Karl could see the boy grimacing, trying to maintain his composure, and the more discomfort he felt the happier Karl was. Once they arrived at the gym, without saying a word the boy sprinted to the toilet inside. “Where you going?” said Karl. “I have to use the toilet.” “Get back here. This is a show of weakness. You’ve got to get control of yourself.” Naturally, he didn’t listen. He sprinted all the way to the toilet to relieve himself. When he came back to meet with Karl, he was met with a disapproving Gotch sneer. “Listen boy, I told you that you’ve got to get control of yourself. You need to program your mind to go to the bathroom at a different time. This is all mental toughness. It’s mind over matter. If you can’t do this then we’re finished training together because I’m never going to let you shit in my house again. You stunk it up once too many times.” “Well, that’s when I go to the toilet each day. I can’t change that,” the boy said. “Okay, so I guess we’re finished. Take me back to my apartment.” That was the last training session this boy had with Karl Gotch.

The Ultimate Set-up Part I

After I’d been training with Karl Gotch for a couple months, one of his students from way back, Tom, supposedly challenged me to a sparring session. Karl helped arrange the session, acting as the go-between. I use the word ‘supposedly’ because I never heard the challenge from Tom directly. I only heard it from Karl, who regularly spoke to Tom by phone. “I was talking to Tom yesterday,” said Karl. “And he said you can’t be as tough as I’m telling him you are. He kept calling you ‘fat- ass.’ He said you can’t even do 100-straight Hindu pushups yet. I told him, ‘Come to Florida and workout with him then. I think that so-called fat Irishman is going to give you a wake-up call.” After Tom supposedly agreed to our match, it took another month before he came to town for a visit. Meanwhile Karl had just undergone a double-hip replacement surgery. I would go to visit him in recovery almost every day – and talk to him by phone every day without fail. One afternoon, while on the phone with Karl, he said the following to me: “When Tom comes to town to workout with you, you must make sure that I am there to watch. I don’t care if you have to come to the hospital and wheel me away to bring me to practice, I want to be there. And let me tell you, if you workout with him and I’m NOT there, I will NEVER speak to you again for the rest of my life.” I wasn’t about to assume that Karl was speaking in jest. I knew that he meant it because he had taken a similar oath with his own daughter. She upset him one day some five years earlier, and despite the fact that she bore all five of his grandchildren, Karl never spoke to her again. He even went so far as to send back her Christmas cards unopened. He would simply write “Refused” on the envelope and give it back to the postman. And so, what Karl said to me was no laughing matter. It may be funny to you –

Copyright, 2010, Gold Medal Publications, Inc. • www.fureyfaithful.com 7 Furey Faithful as an observer – but it’s not funny to the person he gives the ultimatum. Anyway, Tom came to visit Karl after he’d recovered enough to leave the hospital and take care of himself at home. As soon as he arrived Karl was on the phone with me, arranging the workout. “Matt, I have Tom over here and he’d like to workout with you tomorrow,” said Karl. “Is 10 o’clock okay with you?” “Sure, that will work,” I said. The next day Tom and I met for a workout. Tom got on the mat and began doing Hindu pushups. I stood in another area of the room and warmed up with bridging. “What the HELL is that?” barked Karl at Tom. “You call those Hindu pushups? You’re stiff as an iron dog – just not as strong. I can see you’ve been hitting the weights again. Look at you. You’re muscles have no flexibility and no power.” As I bridged Karl encouraged me, “That’s it, Irish. Good. Stretch further. Get your chest over your face. Alright, that’s it. Now kick over from that position. Good. Good.” After several minutes of stretching Karl told me to go get a drink of water – something he normally didn’t allow. When I walked out of the room Karl followed me, “Now remember what I told you on the phone,” said Karl. “I want you to bring this boy down from Cloud 9. I want you to give him a dose of reality.” I nodded. “Now one more thing,” said Karl. “When you get a toe hold on him or a double wrist lock or any of the other holds I taught you, I don’t want you to stop when he taps out. I want you to take the hold ALL the WAY until he gets hurt.” I nodded – even though I didn’t agree. Tom and I shook hands and squared off a minute later. Within seconds he shot in on my leg. I countered and took him down. He scrambled off the mat to avoid the submission. We started again. He attacked once again and I countered. As soon as I had him down I slapped his head between my legs in a vice-like grip and applied Karl’s patented crooked-head scissors. Tom tapped out and I let him back up. I could sense that Karl wasn’t happy about this – but he kept quiet. Over the next half- hour I beat Tom badly. Blood trickled down his face at one point. I didn’t hospitalize him or hurt him as Karl wanted – but I’d proved my point. Or so I thought. At the end of the session Tom shook my hand and said, “I’ll come back again in a few weeks so we can train again.” “No he won’t,” said Karl as Tom walked off. “Believe me, he doesn’t want anymore of you after today. Especially when he knows I’m just getting started in teaching you.” I thought Karl was proud of how I did that day – especially when he called a day later to tell me so. Two days later, however, a different Karl Gotch called me to talk about the workout. I’ll give you the details in my next column.

The Ultimate Set-up Part II

In my last column I told you about the day Karl Gotch had me workout with Tom, a student of his who needed help coming down from Cloud 9. During the training session with Tom, Karl watched me beat him badly. Afterward, despite Tom saying he wanted to come to Tampa again for more training with me, Karl whispered, “No, he won’t. Believe me, he doesn’t want anymore of you after today. Especially when he knows I’m just getting started in teaching you.” The next day Karl called me to rave about the sparring session. He told me how he bragged about me to his long-time friend. “I was laughing when I saw you slap the crooked-head scissors on him,” said Karl. “Man, did he squeal.” “Thanks,” I said.

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“And when you put him in the step-over toe hold, I was loving it. You helped bring the bastard down from Cloud 9,” he said. Karl and I talked awhile longer and when I hung up I thought he was proud of me. The next day, however, Karl called with a surprise. “So, how do you think you did in your workout with Tom the other day?” Karl asked. I instantly knew I was in for a verbal beating, so whatever delight I had previously taken in the match was stifled as I said, “Well, I think there is room for improvement.” “You can say that again,” barked Karl. “Let me tell you something Irish (the name he used to call me), you may have beaten Tom with the holds you put on him, but Tom ain’t worth a shit. If he needed one hold to get around the world he couldn’t even cross the street. As a matter of fact he wouldn’t even get off the curb.” “Uh-huh,” I mumbled. At this point I realized the best thing I could say was nothing. Just let the master talk. “And that toe hold you did on him,” Karl continued. “Sure, he howled and screamed. But he’s a wimp. Nobody who is any good is ever going to give up the way you put that hold on. You’ve got to improve. You’ve got to get better. You need to practice more.” “I know. I know,” I said. “And another thing: I don’t know what it is with you and that double-wrist lock. I have showed you and showed you how to do it. But you still do it like shit. You’re still doing it wrong. There are so many mistakes I wonder if you’re retarded.” The truth is, at that time, Karl had only showed me how to do the double-wrist lock a couple times. Most of the time he’d spent with me up til then was on toe holds, neck cranks and throws. But I knew better than to argue with him. If he said that he’d shown me how to do the double-wrist lock over and over, then that was good enough for me. The alternative was to argue with him and say he’d only worked on it with me a couple times. But that would end the training with him very fast. Karl had no tolerance for a student who argued – even if he was wrong. “I’m not always right,” Karl loved to say. “But I’m never wrong. It’s my way or the highway.” So I nodded when Karl said he’d showed me the double-wrist lock over and over. And I said, “Okay, I’ll work on it even harder. I’ll do whatever it takes to learn it.” “GOOD,” said Karl. Later that day I picked Karl up and we went to the gym. He spent a long time showing me the double-wrist lock along with many variations. I paid closer attention to him than any other time he had ever spoken to me. “Next time you place this hold on someone, I want to hear him fighting for his life,” said Karl. “I want to see the fear of God in his eyes.” “I understand.” I especially want to see how you do this on A.J. – the lawyer. It’s time we teach him a lesson, too. I don’t like the way he moves. He’s as flexible as an iron dog – just not as strong. Let’s help him out with his flexibility in our next workout.”

Break His Neck

Although Karl Gotch was promoted as a German, he was born in Antwerp, Belgium – where he grew up on the water front and had to fight everyday, verbally as well as physically, to survive. He was ¼ German, ¾ Hungarian – and 100 percent human pit bull. Because he was European and “old school” – Karl loved to call people by their nationalities most of all. After this came a nick- name – usually one that was slightly demeaning – and after that it was either your profession, a racial slur – or some other put down. It didn’t matter who you were or how much you had accomplished, either. Nor did it matter whether or not Karl liked

Copyright, 2010, Gold Medal Publications, Inc. • www.fureyfaithful.com 9 Furey Faithful you. If you were around him, you had at least two nicknames. On a good day Karl called me “Irish” – paying tribute to my blood-line On a so-so day I was “Charlie McCarthy” – the name of a puppet used by Edgar John Bergen, a ventriloquist. On a bad day I was simply “fat ass.” Some of the other nicknames I heard Karl use, for current as well as previous students, were “Chanel #9”, “Shovel Face,” “Greek,” “Italian,” “Stone Head,” “Pharmacist” and “Lawyer.” In this column, it’s the lawyer, a 38-year old man named A.J. that I will tell you about. Karl hated A.J. because he was “as flexible as an Iron Dog, but not as strong.” Even though A.J. really tried to stretch his muscles and get limber, it didn’t work at all. His muscles were like the bottom of an iceberg. Frozen beyond recognition. Even so, A.J. really wanted to learn as much catch wrestling as he could – and he would take time off work in the office to train – no matter the day or the time. This didn’t matter to Karl. He hated it when a student didn’t have a great bridge. To him the wrestler’s bridge was the most important thing he taught, and when someone couldn’t do it exceptionally well, he had trouble accepting it. To my knowledge, the only person Karl ever gave leeway to on the bridge, was the legendary Yoshiaki Fujiwara. Karl frequently told me that Fujiwara couldn’t bridge very well – but because he made up for it with “heart” and “hard work” – Karl overlooked it. But A.J. was no Fujiwara. He had two strikes against him. The first was that he couldn’t bridge. The second was that he was a lawyer. And Karl hated lawyers. At the same time Karl wanted to keep him around for help getting his final WILL & Testament ready. “As soon as I get that WILL done by the lawyer, I’ll cut him off,” said Karl. “But for now we can use him – so it’s good to keep him close. Besides, he’s someone good for you to beat on with all the things I’m teaching you. It’s good to have people around that you can clobber.” I nodded. As I did Karl’s eyes lit up. He got an idea. “I have an idea for that lawyer,” he said. “Next time you work out with him, tell him that he doesn’t need to bridge anymore, that it’s a waste of time. Instead, tell him you’re going to teach him how to throw. Tell him you’re going to show him how to do the suplex.” “But he has to fall into a bridge to do the suplex,” I said. “You know that and I know that but believe me, that stupid lawyer thinks he can throw without learning to bridge. So let’s make a plan to teach him that way.” “But he’ll crash into the mat with his head when he falls backward,” I said. “Right. And that’s exactly what I want. I want that lawyer to figure out how to sue people when he can’t move anymore because he’s paralyzed. Have him do the suplex on someone else. And don’t help him into it. Just tell him what to do and let him fall.” I thought about saying, “Karl, I can’t do that.” But it would only result in Karl cutting me off, too. So I nodded and pretended to go along with the plan. The next time I got together to train with A.J. I worked with him on his bridge some more. It was no use. Later, when Karl asked me how the session went, I said, “That damn lawyer was smarter than either of us thought. Or dumber. Depending on how you look at it.” “How is that?” Karl asked. “He said he didn’t want to learn the suplex because he needed to learn how to bridge first.” Karl listened – but said nothing. It was a long and painful silence. He didn’t talk to me for a week after that. Next issue, Karl gives me the details on his rivalry with the great Lou Thesz.

10 Copyright, 2010, Gold Medal Publications, Inc. • www.fureyfaithful.com Furey Faithful Karl Gotch v. Lou Thesz The Inside Story – Part I

Last month I promised to give you the inside details on the rivalry between Karl Gotch and the great Lou Thesz. This is no small task, for many reasons. First and foremost, both Karl and Lou are no longer alive on this physical plane, so neither can either support or argue with portions of what I am about to write. Second, even if both were still alive today, it is unlikely you could get some of what I am about to write confirmed because pro wrestlers say one thing publicly and another thing behind closed doors. Such was the case with both of these superstars. How do I know? I know because I had the great honor of training with both men. I first met Lou in the summer of 1998 when he accepted an invitation to attend a catch wrestling seminar I was holding. We spoke at length before this event – as well as afterward. And over the next year he not only appeared with me at several other functions, but the two of us also spent time on the mat going over various submission holds, including his double-wrist lock, step-over toe hold, neck crank and so on. I learned several superb wrestling holds from Lou Thesz. I also learned much from his inward and outward demeanor. He was kind-hearted, broad-minded, courteous and polite to everyone he met. At the same time he had his opinions of who was real, who wasn’t, and what real pro wrestling looked like. To Lou’s credit, whenever Karl Gotch’s name came up, he had nothing but good things to say about him – with a few exceptions; one being the night Karl broke four of Lou’s ribs; the other being Karl’s stubborn refusal to become financially successful as a pro wrestler. As far as I can say, Lou never exaggerated or lied about any of his dealings or feelings about Karl. He respected Karl’s wrestling and conditioning skills immensely. The same cannot be said about Karl in regard to Lou Thesz. In a December, 1968, article written by Bob Leonard for The Ring Wrestling, Karl was quoted as saying the following about Thesz: ”There can be many princes but only one king. To me, the king always will be Thesz, so long as there is wrestling on this earth. That old fox knows every trick, every move, and he keeps himself in the best of shape all the time.” Privately, when I asked Karl about these statements, he rolled his eyes in contempt, then said, “Ah, you know how those reporters are. They interview you and then they dress up the story however they want.” Karl completely denied ever saying such a thing about Thesz. In fact, other than the piece quoted above, the kindest thing I ever heard Karl ever saying about Thesz was when he said, “We send each other Christmas cards each year.” This, in my opinion, was pro wrestler speak. It was the same as when Thesz was asked about another wrestler from Canada whom many thought was in the same league as himself, Gotch and Billy Robinson. “He’s a good demonstrator of holds,” said Lou. To the crowd this sounded like he was complimenting the man, yet it was, at bare minimum a very hard back-handed slap. Based on what I observed about Karl, he was not fond of Lou Thesz. He criticized him brutally – and often – but ALWAYS privately. Karl left no rock unturned, either, probing every inch of Thesz’ story, who he trained with, who his friends were, and how much he really knew about the sport of wrestling – especially submission holds. Although I didn’t cover this in my book, Karl Gotch, The God of Pro Wrestling – the first time I met Karl he laughed as he told me how he broke Lou’s ribs in a match. To Karl, 35 years after the fact, he was still proud of this fact. “Normally I wouldn’t do something like that,” said Karl. “But Thesz had it coming to him. He’d get behind people and do that Greco-Roman suplex, which he called a back-drop. But his technique was awful and a lot of the time he deliberately threw people on their heads to hurt them. He did this to my good friend, Bill Miller, and put him out of work for awhile. There’s no way I could afford to be out of work as I was barely making enough anyway. And so when it came time for us to wrestle, I let Thesz go behind me to do the back-drop. But instead of going along for the ride, I reached forward and grabbed my ankles to block the throw. Thesz didn’t realize what I was doing. He tried to force the throw. He ended up breaking four freaking ribs.” To be continued…

Copyright, 2010, Gold Medal Publications, Inc. • www.fureyfaithful.com 11 Furey Faithful Karl Gotch v. Lou Thesz The Inside Story – Part II

Last month I wrote about the infamous Karl Gotch versus Lou Thesz match in which Karl blocked a throw and broke four of Lou’s ribs. Thirty some years later and Karl was still proud of this fact. Lou, however, was not too pleased. As I’ve previously mentioned, I had the good fortune of training with both Lou and Karl. During the times we got together Lou was, for the most part, kind about the things he said about Karl. The same was not true of Karl. I cannot recall him ever saying anything positive about Lou. One day, Karl told me that because he bad-mouthed Lou so much, I may think that he was jealous of him. “Let me tell you something,” Karl said. “I’m an honest man. I just tell the truth. I don’t say the things I say about Thesz because I’m jealous. I do so because it’s the truth. Thesz was a lousy wrestler. If he needed two holds to travel the world he wouldn’t be able to cross the street. As a matter of fact, he wouldn’t even be able to get off the sidewalk. He was a businessman, nothing more, who loved the limelight.” Although Karl had far more knowledge about wrestling and physical conditioning than Thesz, he resented anyone who made a lot of money in the business, and Thesz was on the top of his resentment list. Lou believed that being a wrestler and not being paid was an insult. He believed there was no point in going through all the pain involved in training unless you were paid for it. Karl, on the other hand, only took the money because he felt he had to in order to survive. Yet, beyond day-to-day survival, Karl had no interest in money. Fact is, in terms of his knowledge of catch wrestling and conditioning for combat sports, Gotch was sitting on a gold mine. He could have made millions – but because he believed that money was evil and businessmen were dishonest, he wouldn’t allow himself to succeed. It was a sad fate to observe. Gotch trained many who went on to claim both fame and fortune, yet he would have none of it himself. “I wrestled in Japan, trained the other wrestlers and even scouted the talent,” Karl told me. “And the most I ever made was thirty thousand dollars. “Thesz would come to Japan and go home with a suitcase filled with cash. But I never cared about money. All I wanted to do was train.” I am often asked who was more knowledgeable in the art of catch wrestling – especially the lost art of hooking. After working with both Gotch and Thesz, there is no doubt in my mind that Gotch was Thesz’ superior many times over. Gotch knew it. Thesz knew it. And that’s why the resentment cut so deep. Karl knew that if he opened his mind a bit he could also enjoy the wealth that Thesz enjoyed, but because of his upbringing (his father was a socialist), he couldn’t bring himself to do it. Another common question is, “Who would win in a real match between Gotch and Thesz?” Once again, based on my experience in training with both men, I cannot even conceive of Gotch losing in a real shoot. I don’t even think the match would be close. It would be a total blow-out. Karl was that good. He was absolutely amazing with an incredibly vast array of devastating hooks, throws and counters. He was good at so many aspects of the sport that it was perfectly fitting that he was given the name, kamisama – God of Wrestling. Don’t get me wrong. Thesz was a great athlete who also knew several great hooks and throws that were crippling when applied. But could he ever get one of his double-wrist locks or step-over toe holds on Gotch? Not unless Gotch let him. Their skills were that far apart.

12 Copyright, 2010, Gold Medal Publications, Inc. • www.fureyfaithful.com