Billy Robinson - The catch-as-catch-can legend and coach of MMA legends like Kazushi Sakuraba and Josh Barnett
Early days in Europe
Robinson began his amateur wrestling career in England. He was the British National Wrestling Champion in 1957, and in 1958 he was the European Open Wrestling Champion in the light heavyweight class, beating an Olympic bronze medal winner in the finals.
Billy Robinson also attended the fabled "Snake Pit" started by legendary trainer Billy Riley. The Snake Pit was one of the most respected catch wrestling training schools in all of the world. Legends such as Karl Gotch had trained in catch wrestling in the Snake Pit with Riley.
Robinson had to survive bare minimum amenities (luxuries such as a toilet were not provided at the Snake Pit), a very rough training environment (Riley was very impatient with those who showed even the slightest bit of weakness on the mat) and rigorous conditioning. Robinson stayed at the Snake Pit for eight years.
No heavyweight could execute a suplex like Billy Robinson. In fact, no heavyweight could execute just about any move like Billy Robinson.
Ask any Mountevans wrestling fan to name Britain’s top heavyweight and Robinson would definitely be in the top three, if not number one. We are not talking show wrestlers, we are talking real wrestlers, shooters. The other two contenders would be Bert Assirati and Billy Joyce. All three were graduates from The Snakepit. Joyce was arguably technically the best of the three, but Robinson had more of a killer instinct.
In 1957 Robinson won the British Amateur Light Heavyweight title, and in the same year was runner-up in the heavyweight division. A professional for a decade in Britain, making the British and European championship his own, Robinson went to North America in 1970, where he gained huge success with the AWA.
Ask any number of young professionals in the 1970s which wrestler they admired the most and the name Billy Robinson was the one that was most frequently answered. It was an immense shock to British fans when their heavyweight champion moved across the Atlantic and their sense of loss was to remain unequalled.
In the United States he worked mainly for the American Wrestling Association and held world champions Verne Gagne and Dory Funk Jr to drawn verdicts. Whilst reconised as a legitimate wrestler in North America he failed to receive the full extent of recognition he deserved. Whether this was due to the politics of wrestling, or to the rumours he was a hard man to work with, remains to be seen. We can be certain, though, that Billy Robinson was, and probably always will be, Britain's greatest wrestling ambassador.
The remainder of his career was spent developing young wrestlers in the USA and Japan.
In North America
Robinson travelled to North America in 1970 and began wrestling for Verne Gagne's American Wrestling Association. He was one of the successful wrestlers of the American promotion known for hiring the "Real Deals" in wrestling. Billy Robinson was also the AWA British Empire Heavyweight Champion; he defended the title in both the United States and Canada, but was the only champion.October 12,1974 Robinson's image as a legitimate wrestler landed him a role in the movie "The Wrestler" alongside Verne Gagne and Ed Asner.
He wrestled in Montreal in 1982 and 1983 becoming the International Champion beating Dino Bravo and was also International Tag TEam champions with Pierre MAd Dog Lefebvre. He had a 60 minutes broadway with then WWWF champion Bob Backlund in 1982 as well in Montreal.
Kazushi Sakuraba's Coach, a first generation student under Billy Riley, Billy Robinson shares a rare glimpse at two variations of the Shin Lock, including a Butterfly Guard Counter.
See the entire video at: damagecontrolmma.com
Japan
Robinson travelled to Japan where he became immensely popular as a legitimate wrestler versed in submission holds. He participated in a professional wrestling match against legendary Antonio Inoki in 1975. The match was billed as "The Match Between the World's Top Two Technicians" by the Japanese press.
Robinson continued an active professional wrestling career, travelling throughout the world to participate in various events.
Japanese professional wrestlers learned the art of "hooking" and "shooting" from another of catch wrestling's greatest icons, Karl Gotch. The new movement led to the formation of the Universal Wrestling Federation.
The UWF had wrestlers like Yoshiaki Fujiwara who had personally been to the Snake Pit in Wigan. Billy Robinson became a part of the shoot style movement when he wrestled in an exhibition match for the UWFi against fellow AWA legend Nick Bockwinkel on May 8, 1992.
After wrestling
As well as being one of the key influences on the shoot style movement, Robinson began training youngsters in catch wrestling at the UWF Snake Pit in Japan. Robinson has contributed immensely in training several mixed martial arts legends including Kazushi Sakuraba, Josh Barnett, Randy Couture, and others.
Currently, he trains up and coming UFC fighter Rolando Delgado.
Robinson was inducted into the International Wrestling Hall of Fame in 2003.
Sources:
http://www.wrestlingheritage.co.uk/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billy_Robinson
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