The 2018 Unified Catch-As-Catch-Can World Championships – My Take
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: