The Wigan Snake Pit

The world famous Wigan Snake Pit is the spiritual home of Catch as Catch Can Wrestling. Founded by the legendary Billy Riley in 1948, the gym has honed the skills of Catch wrestling trail blazers, Bob Robinson AKA Billy Joyce, Karl Gotch and Billy Robinson. The gym is currently run by head coach Roy Wood who continues to uphold and maintain Billy Riley’s legacy, imparting knowledge on to a new generation.
This clip features WWE superstar Gentleman Jack Gallagher and is taken from his documentary, ‘An Extraordinary Gentleman’ - Available via Vimeo On Demand: vimeo.com/ondemand/anextraord...

[@simonemorris3550]

Praise Roy wood keeping the proud mighty tradition alive and strong praise catch as you can

[@kenwood2682]

Pro wrestling ruined British mma! If catch wrestling was as mainstream as bjj, UK fighters would be a threat in mma, mixing their boxing with top notch submission wrestling

[@ballshippin3809]

It also didn't help how the early UFC favoured BJJ grappling rules leaving out leg locks and neck cranks

[@graciederangementsyndrome3669]

@@ballshippin3809 What? Ken Shamrock won with a heel hook against Pat Smith and even tried to ankle lock Royce Gracie from standing. Eye gouging and biting were the only 2 rules that existed altho they weren't really enforced with DQs. EXCUSES!

[@ballshippin3809]

@@graciederangementsyndrome3669 Gracies were always on the juice during their fights. Plus Shamrock wasn't allowed to wear his wrestling shoes against Gracie during their fight and Gracie even used his belt to choke shamrock out. At least the Gracie clan later got humiliated by Kazushi Sakuraba.

[@johnjohnbingbong]

​@@ballshippin3809Are we pretending everyone wasn't juiced to the gills then, definitely including Shamrock?

[@unusedsub3003]

Glad to hear it. I am fascinated by pro wrestling. I couldn't care less about mma.

[@dannyhipolito817]

Imagine if MMA or commission approved mixed style fights existed during the Billy Riley era of wrestling. Imo Catch Wrestlers wouldn’t have turned to Professional Wrestling for more money and CACC would still thrive today. Nowadays Gracie/Machado JiuJitsu rule the world.

[@kenwood2682]

Judo is more effective than bjj! Look how Khabib and Rousey smashed their bjj competition on the ground

[@graciederangementsyndrome3669]

@@kenwood2682 You're a joke. Rousey is irrelevant and Khabib is a hybrid grappler who uses more wrestling than Judo. You have to be delusional to think that Judo is more effective when nearly all positional ground fighting and submissions are BJJ, not Judo. For stand up grappling, wrestling is the most dominant. You can find BJJ based fighters in the UFC but almost no Judokas using Judo as their main style

[@trashbasementproductions223]

In future Wrestling (specially Catch) will be number 1 in MMA and grappling competitions !

[@EnterStarplanet]

This is beautiful. Thank you for this.

[@grimgoreironhide9985]

MMA legend Sakuraba trained here.

[@monsantofungaro5704]

Good thing for the Gracie's that one of these guys weren't invited to UFC 1.

[@graciederangementsyndrome3669]

I guess you've never heard of Ken Shamrock

[@liamgreen447]

The subtitles for this video are killing me

[@unitetheright9554]

ahahhaahahhaahhaa Lancashire enigma

[@devriestown]

Excellent

[@Gotchism4Life]

Wonderful video.

[@partymarty5207]

Love catch thanks for this!

[@kallepikku4991]

Thank you so much

[@thefightcoachuk]

great video, great work

[@michaelohare3157]

Awesome.. where’s the rest of the video?

[@rippersubmissionwrestling2704]

Jack "not the gentleman" Gallagher 😂

[@maxstrengthholistics]

I didn't know it was still there

[@BrixyBrixhamite]

Billy Riley was my dad's uncle (he married my grans sister) - very interesting life and proud to be related.

[@rippersubmissionwrestling2704]

Is that Frank Riley? Your dad as that's the only nephew I know of Billy Riley's!

[@devriestown]

Very cool

[@rippersubmissionwrestling2704]

Where can I watch this, as the link doesn't seem to work or is broken?

[@patrickhockey245]

Great

[@henrykberonio9008]

This is also the training Ground of the Great late British wrestler my idolized foothood hero Tommy Billington The Dynamite Kid

[@superlyger]

So Antonio Inoki is considered pretty good?He was tapping out A young Brock lesnar and Other MMA, BJJ exponents.

[@jimmynich4791]

I'm going to go there one day, my dad lives not far from there.

[@devriestown]

Jimmy Nich did you go???

[@jimmynich4791]

@@devriestown Not yet, I dont think they do regular lessons just seminars but I have checked for a while.

[@JivecattheMagnificent]

@@jimmynich4791 Hey bro, they do regular classes there too. I think it's Thursdays and Fridays, for like a fiver, or just over.

[@jimmynich4791]

@@JivecattheMagnificent I'll check it out. Thanks.

[@JivecattheMagnificent]

@@jimmynich4791 No problem mate, let us know what you reckon of it.

[@danielriley6111]

Pretty sure I’m related too billy Riley

[@rippersubmissionwrestling2704]

You got one of the points wrong there, Marty Jones was taught by Billy Robinson not Billy Riley! Please try and keep the history correct, I know that maybe a genuine error and if that's the case then I apologise, but history are facts

[@figurefourfilms5995]

Ripper Catch Wrestling Thank you for your comment. Marty Jones was indeed trained by Billy Robinson. For this clip however, Marty was asked about his memory of Billy Riley. I can assure you every effort was taken in ensuring this documentary is as accurate as possible. Thanks again for watching.

[@rippersubmissionwrestling2704]

@@figurefourfilms5995 I didn't want to cause any offence being honestly as I respect anyone who helps promote Catch Wrestling 🙏

[@figurefourfilms5995]

Ripper Catch Wrestling No offence taken! Always good to have feedback.

[@rippersubmissionwrestling2704]

@@figurefourfilms5995 A lot of things written on social media or online can be misinterpreted and sometimes because of how direct I am and the way I come across people think I'm trying to be purposely negative.

[@EnglishMartialArts]

Billy used to take his best students to Riley's gym to wrestle there as well as at his own gym in Manchester. He took Marty several times.