Ad Santel
Ad Santel | |
---|---|
Birth name | Adolph Ernst |
Born | Dresden, Kingdom of Saxony, German Empire | April 7, 1887
Died | November 10, 1966 Alameda, California, U.S. | (aged 79)
Professional wrestling career | |
Ring name(s) | Al Santel Otto Carpenter Mysterious Carpenter Adolph Ernst |
Billed height | 5 ft 9 in (1.75 m) |
Billed weight | 185 lb (84 kg) |
Debut | 1907 |
Retired | 1933 |
Adolph Ernst (April 7, 1887 – November 10, 1966), better known for his
Career
Ad Santel's professional wrestling career took him all throughout the world, wrestling some of the top wrestlers of the 1910s, 1920s and 1930s including
Rivalry with the Kodokan
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. Fighting under judo rules, which he knew thanks to a previous match against jujutsu specialist Senryuken Noguchi, Santel defeated Ito when a slamming takedown rendered the judoka unable to continue, and then proclaimed himself the World Judo Champion.[7][8] Tokugoro Ito went on to avenge the loss a few months later on June 10, 1916, by defeating Santel with a choke hold, becoming the first and last judoka to ever defeat Santel.[7][9]
In October 1914, Santel came to
As the Kodokan school did not send more challengers, Santel decided to travel to Japan to challenge them in their own ground. He assembled a team with fellow wrestlers Henry Weber and
The impact of these performances on Japan was immense. The Japanese were fascinated by the submissions taught in catch wrestling, and Japanese fighters traveled to Europe in order to either participate in various tournaments or to learn catch wrestling at European schools such as Billy Riley's school in Wigan, UK.[13] Okabe and the judo challengers were effectively expelled from Kodokan, but some of them followed Santel to the United States to train with him, among them Hikoo Shoji, who became a freestyle wrestling pioneer in Japan.[7]
In 1925, Santel faced a new judoka, this time Tsutao Higami, a 165-pound lighter but highly renowned groundwork expert who had trained under Ito and Miyake.
Late career
Years after the famous 1911 match between
Santel, along with George Tragos, Ray Steele and Ed Lewis, trained Lou Thesz in the art of catch wrestling. Thesz studied under Santel for six intensive months and, throughout his career, continued to train under him whenever he was in the California area. Thesz considered his training with the German to be an "incredible gift".[20][21]
Career highlights
- Won over Senryuken Noguchi in San Francisco, California, on November 30, 1915
- Won over Tokugoro Ito in San Francisco, California, on February 5, 1916 (KO from takedown)
- Lost to Tokugoro Ito in San Francisco, California, on June 10, 1916 (submission from choke)
- Lost to Joe Stecher in San Francisco, California, on February 22, 1917
- Won over Taro Miyake in Seattle, Washington, on October 20, 1917 (KO from half nelson slam)
- Won over Daisuke Sakai in Seattle, Washington, on September 2, 1917 (submission from biceps slicer)
- Won over Reijiro Nagata in Tokyo, Japan on March 5, 1921 (TKO from headlock)
- Drew with Hikoo Shoji in Tokyo, Japan on March 6, 1921
- Won over Hitoshi Shimizu in Nagoya, Japan on March 1921
- Lost to Gobar Gohoin San Francisco, California, on August 30, 1921
- Drew with Tsutao Higami in Big Island, Virginia, on July 4, 1925
- Drew with Setsuzo Oza in Los Angeles, California, on January 27, 1926
- Lost to Ed "The Strangler" Lewis in Oakland, California, on April 28, 1933
- Drew with Oki Shikina in Los Angeles, California, on May 17, 1933
- Won over Kinata Kitahata in Los Angeles, California, on September 11, 1933
Championships and accomplishments
- World Light Heavyweight Championship
- World Judo Champion
References
- ^ "Stecher Wins in Straight Falls". Classic Wrestling Articles. 29 April 2014. Retrieved 30 August 2015.
- ^ "Ad Santel Meets Sonnenberg Tues". Classic Wrestling Articles. 11 April 2014. Retrieved 30 August 2015.
- ^ "Santel v. Pesek". Classic Wrestling Articles. 6 August 2013. Retrieved 30 August 2015.
- ^ "Santel Takes Deciding Fall in Hot Match". Classic Wrestling Articles. 5 August 2013. Retrieved 30 August 2015.
- ^ "Ad Santel Wrestling History". legacyofwrestling.com. Retrieved 2023-07-01.
- ^ "Wrestler Gobor Goho defeated world champions but British refused him 'John Bull Belt'". Get Bengal. Retrieved 2023-07-01.
- ^ a b c d e f Jordan Breen, Ad-Santel and Catching Our History, Sherdog.com
- ^ a b c d e Nate Wilcox, Really Old School: Catch Wrestling vs Judo 1921, Bloodyelbow.com
- ^ "Ito threw Santell (sic) around the ring like a bag of sawdust… When Ad gasped for air, the Japanese pounced upon him like a leopard and applied the strangle hold. Santell gave a couple of gurgles, turned black in the face and thumped the floor, signifying he had enough." -- Howard Angus, Los Angeles Times, 1 February 1917
- ^ Hayward Nishioka, Judo's Forgotten Pioneer, Black belt magazine, May 1971
- ^ a b John S. Nash, The Forgotten Golden Age of MMA – Part IV: Ultimate Fighting of the Belle Époque
- ^ Raul Sanchez Garcia, The Historical Sociology of Japanese Martial Arts
- ^ "The Japanese Pro-Wrestling/Reality Based Martial Art Connection, by Sam Chan". Archived from the original on 2010-06-13. Retrieved 2010-07-25.
- ^ a b c Thomas H. Makiyama, Rubberman meets a giant: Hawaiian Recalls Gattle between Giant Grappler and Tiny Judoman, Black Belt magazine, September 1967
- ^ Tsutao “Rubberman” Higami
- ^ On the Defeat of Tokugoro Ito in North America
- ^ Thesz, Lou, & Kit Bauman, Mike Chapman, Editor, Hooker, The Authentic Wrestler's Adventures Inside the Bizarre World of Professional Wrestling (Wrestling Channel Press, 1995-2000), p. 67
- ^ Fleischer, Nat, From Milo to Londos (The Ring, Inc., 1936), p. 122-24.
- ^ 1911-1-17 Washington Times 1911-1-18 Yakima Herald times 1911-2-6 RI Argus 1911-8-23 Bridgeport Evening Farmer 1911-9-3 The Richmond Times-Dispatch 1912-1-6 Topeka State Journal
- ^ "Lou Thesz". National Wrestling Hall of Fame. Retrieved 17 June 2020.
- ISBN 978-0-9844090-4-4.
External links
- A copy of the original "The Japanese Pro-Wrestling / Reality Based Martial Art Connection" article by Sam Chan Archived 2006-11-19 at the Wayback Machine
- 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
- The Japanese Pro-Wrestling/Reality Based Martial Arts Connection by Sam Chan
- Ad Santel's profile at Cagematch.net