7 Ways Pro Wrestling Shaped Modern MMA

In the early days of professional wrestling, wrestlers would participate in legitimate contests against a variety of challengers. Events were typically held at carnivals and circuses. Showmen would present wrestlers and open challenges would be held.

The "catch-as-catch-can" style was developed by wrestlers of the day, combining various folk and traditional grappling styles, with a submission based offence. This could be considered as one of the first fighting styles to combine many different martial arts, into one complete system.

However, most traditional martial arts held a completely different philosophy. Each different style would pride itself on being the most effective of all the other disciplines. Combining techniques was essentially forbidden and seen as disrespectful to the art. Anyone who tried to combine different styles, such as Bruce Lee, was shunned by the martial arts community.

The idea behind the UFC's creation was to see which martial art was the most effective. It also served as the vehicle for the Gracie Family to prove the superiority of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. Pure strikers were pitted against pure grapplers. That was MMA for the next four years, with little to no exception.

Fast forward to 1997 and Frank Shamrock (catch wrestling) would team up with Maurice Smith (kickboxing) to create the blueprint fighting style for MMA today.