To watch video of all the bouts, scroll down.

I’ve dedicated the last twenty years of my life deliberately studying and reviving the sport of catch-as-catch-can wrestling and last weekend was a spiritual experience for me. I am so unbelievably grateful to have witnessed what I did in New Jersey on July 14th, 2018. The sheer amount of heart shown by every wrestler on the card last night was unearthly. If you love CACC like me I sincerely wish you could have been there to witness it in person. It was truly special.

Big congratulations to Curran Jacobs. He’s normally a handsome actor but this is what he looked like after winning. His tenacity and grit won although many felt he stalled and escaped under the ropes excessively (something we will be addressing in future shows with some rule changes). As Karl Gotch always said, “conditioning is your greatest hold”. In this case that doesn’t just mean just conditioning the heart and lungs, but inoculating the body against a lot of pain too. Jacobs endured a long hazing by several larger, more experienced grapplers for a hellish 19, 5-minute rounds by waiting for his opponents to tire after tossing him about, then he’d slither behind them for a sleeper hold (somewhat reminiscent of a young Royce Gracie).

Congratulations to every man and woman that wrestled at both the open and the invitational. Everyone was on the edge of their seat all night. I know Billy Robinson, Karl Gotch, and all the old timers that loved this sport would have been tickled to see this. Everyone had enormous heart. Beefs were squashed through the love of this sport tonight. Hats off to Joel M Bane (and his incredible wife) Anastasia for pouring their hearts into the show. I hope everyone gets to see a show like this sometime in their life. Honestly, you had to have been there. Can’t wait for everyone to see it. A sincere thank you to everyone who was there in NJ in person to support the most prestigious event in CACC in nearly a century; The 2018 Unified Catch-As-Catch-Can World Championships.  

The stars of the show shined bright; Brandon Ruiz, Kenny Faafetai Lester, Erik Arevalo, Johnny Buck, Patrick Stano, Jon Zang, & Nick Caggia really gave their all. People came from all over the world (as far as Japan) to witness the complete rebirth of this sport, plus to have MMA legend Josh Barnett in attendance supporting was incredible! Also thank you Jim McCann for being a gracious host.

After this show, I would put the sport of catch-as-catch-can wrestling (and our no-holds-barred ruleset in particular) up against UFC or WWE anytime (we are looking for investors/producers that share our passion and vision for the sport so please email any leads my way)! There is absolutely no reason CACC couldn’t be bigger than both MMA and “Sports Entertainment” combined. I mean this with all my heart. I have a renewed vigor to continue growing this sport and I am truly optimistic, maybe for the first time in 20 years, for CACC unity and the future of catch-as-catch-can wrestling.

As Billy used to say, “Do it again!”

Quarterfinals: 

NICHOLAS CAGGIA v. KENNY LESTER

JON ZANG v. BRANDON RUIZ

PAT STANO vs. ERIK HAMMER

JOHNNY BUCK v. CURRAN JACOBS

Semi-finals: 

KENNY LESTER v. BRANDON RUIZ

ERIK HAMMER v. CURRAN JACOBS

Finals:

BRANDON RUIZ vs. CURRAN JACOBS

Ps. Another epic tale from this event that should not go unnoticed were the efforts of Mary Almario from California (UWFxUSA). This game-as-hell athlete was the ONLY woman to enter the Billy Robinson Classic open tournament and she did an amazing job fighting all male opponents! Hope we get more tough female talent like her at the next event!

Pps. For me personally, the most amazing aspect of the evening was how our brutal sport of CACC lead to respect and love afterward (note: there was real bad blood and acrimony prior, largely due to Jacob’s well-documented four years of slander and harassment of MMA legend and CACC ambassador Josh Barnett).

Please read these great blog posts by Brandon “The Strangler” Ruiz after the event (not only can he strangle you silly but he can write like a freakin’ poet too:

Jake Shannon: A Praise to the Man

Here are my most recent interviews (2018), got great feedback from both! I was most recently on Ryan Ford’s Grappling Central Podcast:

“Jake Shannon is a highly respected figure in the world of Catch Wrestling. He talks about the history of the style, his time spent with the legends of the sport and Professional Wrestling. He also talks about the future of Catch Wrestling! Click “Read More” for show notes! http://grapplingcentral.com/episode-295-jake-shannon/

-Origins
-Finding Jiu-Jitsu in the early 90’s
-His experience in Professional Wrestling
-Transitioning into Catch Wrestling
-Befriending Karl Gotch and Billy Robinson
-Catch Wrestling’s close ties to Professional Wrestling
-The history of Catch Wrestling
-The Japanese approach to Pro Wrestling
-Karl Gotch’s impact on Japan
-80’s Pro Wrestling
-A stylistic breakdown of Catch Wrestling
-The value of pinning
-Mark Schultz
-Catch Wrestling’s slow growth in America
-Intensity levels in training and student retention
-Jiu-Jitsu’s success in the US
-Can Catch Wrestling implement a ranking system?
-What Catch Wrestling can do for BJJ athletes
-The grappling community
-The Pummel
-Surviving cancer
-Yoga for grapplers
-His training camps
-Sharknado 4
-The future of Catch Wrestling”

And just prior to that I was interviewed by Coach Rich Thurman for Live with Coach_RT3: to discuss the Macebell and MaceYoga:

“Jake is the creator of the first Macebell. He’s an entrepreneur, author and founder of Scientific Wrestling. This live interview took place on January 9, 2018 on Facebook.

View Original video here: https://www.facebook.com/rich.thurman…
Subscribe to Jake’s YouTube Channel:
https://www.youtube.com/user/scientif…

Follow Jake on Instagram:
http://www.instagram.com/maceyoga1

Jake’s Website:
http://www.scientificwrestling.com“

Our YouTube channel has over 4,000 subscribers now! Please click the link and subscribe, I am uploading tons of new content over the coming months. Here are some recent uploads:

 

As Scientific Wrestling has continued to grow I’ve gained a lot of appreciation for the way Karl Gotch told me that he approached professional coaching; he would never charge an individual athlete money to teach them wrestling. If he liked the person he would only ask that they pay him in squats, push-ups, bridges, and guts. However, despite his passion for catch-as-catch-can, he too still had a family to support so he had to make a living but he did it by only charging organizations, not individual athletes.

As such, and effective immediately, I’ve switched our PIN and SUBMIT training camp’s business model from business-to-consumer (B2C) to business-to-business (B2B). This means I will no longer allow individual enrollments for upcoming PIN and SUBMIT training camps. Instead we will make offerings exclusively to fight gyms, wrestling promotions, safety and security agencies, and martial arts schools from now on.

By making this shift, it will cutting train camp costs significantly for both for athletes (flights, hotels, car rentals, etc.) and us at Scientific Wrestling (gym rental, flights, hotels, car rentals, insurances), effectively passing the savings back to athletes via lower registration fees and better camp schwag.

I will continue to personally train select athletes, as Karl did, in exchange for nothing more than sincere effort, loyalty, and heart (of course I will not take a financial loss either, and of course gifts and donations are deeply appreciated).

NOTE: The sole program that will still remain open to individual enrollments will be the newly revised, massively updated Scientific Wrestler Coaching Program: Coaching Catch-As-Catch-Can (our first major revision to the Certified Catch Wrestler program since it’s inception back in 2007). We believe this will be the most rigorous, thorough, and comprehensive program of its kind.

Thank you so much for your continued support as we continue to grow. ❤

Ps. Fill out the form at the bottom of PINandSUBMIT.com completely to bring our team to your facility. Serious inquiries only please.