Remembering Billy Robinson

Click To Visit Our Billy Robinson Memorial Page The passing of Billy Robinson has really hit me like a ton of bricks. Since I shared the news about his passing with this post on Facebook a week ago: "I am unbelievably sad to report that my very good friend Billy Robinson has passed away. I hadn't heard from him in days so I contacted his apartment complex to check in on him. When I called back for a progress report the apartment manager put the police on the phone, it seems he passed peacefully in his sleep. He was a lion of a man, bigger than life in so many ways, my wife and I named our youngest son, Lliam, in his honor. You will be sorely missed, my friend. Thank you so much for living the life you did." …the outpouring of respect for Billy Robinson has been truly amazing. Within 24 hours of starting a memorial page on Facebook for Billy (see above), we had over 1,500 people following the page. There have been numerous articles in the mainstream media too, I will list them below. In some of those articles they referred to me as his biographer, as his right hand, and most accurately as his friend. However, I will always be honored by the way Billy put it in his autobiography, Physical Chess (completed a couple years before his passing): "Jake Shannon, you and Sondra and the kids are like my own family."
Full Circle: Billy Robinson's family inspired in Karl Gotch a love of bully breeds.
Karl insisted that I adopt a pitbull so I adopted this staffie, Lulu.
She was rescued by the woman whom I would eventually marry.
Our youngest son, Lliam, was named after Billy. Lliam turned 2 years old today. I was an absolute wreck the first few days after his passing. I cried so much my face hurt. It is still hard for me to talk about the man without my voice breaking or warbling at points. This is what I wrote to the members of ScientificWrestling.com, in particular those that are a part of the Certified Catch Wrestler training camp program: "This has hit me pretty hard and I am still trying to get my head straight. The most important things is that we keep doing what we did when he was alive, and keep doing it as he would've liked it. He lived and breathed wrestling, it will be impossible to live up to but I want to try. It was his legacy and it is ours to keep going now, the right way. The Billy Robinson way. You guys have been crucial, he is still with us. Haunting us to do it f****** right. Let's make a commitment to do that, who knows maybe we will get to haunt people too someday. If we don't do it right, you know he will find a way to whack you with his cane. It has taken me a week to put this together and just yesterday a young man named Mike sent this personal message to me the other day and I wanted to share: "Hey I just wanted to share a video of a friend i train with and I. He asked me last week if I would do a catch rules grappling match with him last week as to kind of honor Billy Robinson. He came up with the idea because the first MMA gym he ever trained in was in Japan so he knew how revered Coach Billy was there. And I guess I have a tie from when I trained with Brandon Kiser and Brian Yamasaki with CSW. We are both fans of japanese pro wrestling and were pretty sad to hear of coach Billy's passing. we don't proclaim to know even a lick of catch wrestling but we both just tried to do our best Sakuraba impersonation lol." I can't think of a better way to honor Billy's memory than to have some catch rules (pin or sub for the win only) matches at your dojo tonight (or this week), post the videos to YouTube and then send me the link at [email protected] to share Please share this brilliant idea and participate, I can't think of a better way to honor Billy's memory! In closing, I think this promo Billy cut says it all: Best always,
Jake Shannon Ps. Here are some media tributes about Billy's life: Hail to the King of Catch: Godspeed Billy Robinson


WRESTLING GREATS REMEMBER BILLY ROBINSON


My appearance last Saturday on Ultimate Combat Radio (starts at the 30 minute mark or so)


SUBMISSION WRESTLING LEGEND BILLY ROBINSON PASSES AT 74.


Billy Robinson's legacy: A Godfather of the Japanese MMA/pro-wrestling connection


Goodbye, Billy Robinson by Eddie Goldman


Billy Robinson dies at 74


Remembering Wrestling Legend Billy Robinson


WWE.com: Billy Robinson passes away


Legendary tough man Billy Robinson's passing marks the end of an era in pro wrestling


British Pro Wrestling Legend Billy Robinson Dead at the Age of 74


Farewell to Billy Robinson


Wrestler grappled joyously until end
by
LINDA S. HAYMES
ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE "Wrestling is my life. When I was a little boy, all I did was wrestle," an impassioned Billy Robinson declared during a taping of a Continental Wrestling Association match in Memphis in 1979. "When I get 90 years old, if I live that long, I will be teaching wrestling." That's exactly how the former professional heavyweight wrestler spent his twilight years; after two decades of coaching wrestlers in Japan, Robinson spent the last four coaching at a Little Rock gym. After missing his usual classes Thursday and Friday at Westside Mixed Martial Arts gym, Robinson, 75, was found dead in his nearby apartment Monday. In recent years, the retired British wrestling champion had suffered several health ailments. A specific cause of death was unavailable Tuesday. "He had just returned from a training camp in San Diego," said Robinson's son, Spencer, a lieutenant colonel in the National Guard in Little Rock. "And he was on his way to do some more coaching in Japan in April, so he was still very active for someone who'd had one hip and two knees replaced." Billy Robinson, who moved to Little Rock a few years ago to be closer to his son, soon began coaching several days a week and holding private classes at the Westside gym. There, he shared the secrets to his success in catch or catch-as-catch-can wrestling, a classical hybrid grappling style developed in Britain in the late 1800s. "I am very thankful I got to hang out with him, learn his philosophy on things and get to know a living legend," recalled Matt Hamilton, the gym's co-owner. Robinson's life was peppered with accomplishments. He was one of the key influences on the shoot-style movement and one of the few wrestlers who was successful on several continents. He was inducted into the International Wrestling Hall of Fame in 2003 and won the International Wrestling Alliance's World Championship belt in Japan in 1969. He met royalty, movie stars and even appeared in films including The Wrestler with Ed Asner in 1974 and several Japanese films. And in Japan, he served as the inspiration for a Japanese superhero, Robin Mask. Born in 1938 in Manchester into a family of boxers, Robinson began the sport when he was 4 or 5. When he was 12, an eye injury he got while working in his family's green-grocery business hospitalized him for five months. He began amateur wrestling at 14 and a year later, his father introduced him to Billy Riley, who coached Lancashire catch-ascatch-can wrestling in the nearby mining town of Wigan. The gym Riley founded there in the 1950s, dubbed the Snake Pit, is renowned for producing some of the most skilled catch wrestlers in the world, including Karl Gotch, Bert Assirati, Jack Dempsey and Billy Joyce. As a professional wrestler, Robinson won numerous championship titles through the years. He wrestled in Great Britain, Japan, Australia, Canada and the United States, which he made his home in the 1970s. He was listed as Pro Wrestling Illustrated's Most Popular Wrestler of the Year in 1974 and was inducted into the Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame and Museum in 2011. Robinson has recounted his experiences in the ring in three books; one written in German, another in Japanese and his most recent one published in 2012 in English -- Physical Chess: My Life in Catch-as Catch-Can Wrestling, co-written with Jake Shannon. "He and Karl Gotch were responsible for launching the whole Mixed Martial Arts movement in Japan; he was seminal in training this whole fad that is today the UFC [Ultimate Fighting Championship]," said Shannon, who lives in Salt Lake City. "He was larger than life." http://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2014/mar/05/wrestler-grappled-joyously-until-end-20140305/